http://espn.go.com/action/snowboarding/blog/_/post/7926591/superpark-16-gets-weird
Reel Theory made a stop by SuperPark 16 this past week and checked out what GNU was working with… turns out it was all about getting weird. Check it!
The Story within a Story continues from Los Angeles CA, on the third of four stops on the beginning of this documentary filming mission. Standing outside the Memorial Coliseum, I thought it was appropriate to update everyone from an Olympic”perspective. On this update we talk about the trip from OR to CA. Stop by the general assembly in Venice to view the TTR general assembly, and also catch up with friends Nate Bozung, and Dingo. Still have So Cal to go… Stay tuned. Document this!
A stop off at Super Park, a chat with a couple legends and the opportunity to Get Weird with GNU. Check out this quick update of the second half of my “Story within a Story”, episode 2. Document This!
When I started out on my own passion project, I said “why not fill everyone in on the process”… where I am… what I have done, and whats next. Hopefully this will continue in a way that helps make sense and gives a little story behind the story. Friends and family are always asking “what are you doing”, and this is my chance to keep everyone updated. Its nothing special, but something special for those who give a rats ass. Document THIS!
http://www.getontheshelf.com/product/2544/Fort-Friend
Check out the latest and greatest from Reel Theory.
The Main Event’s Hip Hop Rail Jam Scores A Knock-Out Punch
“Sunshine, Progression, Lofty Airs and a Phenom Dominate Stop One of The Main Event 2012”
WARREN, VT, February 7th, 2012 – On a gorgeous sunny day at Sugarbush Resort, stop one of The Main Event 2012 kicked off with a jam formatted Hip Hop Rail Jam, which pushed the progression of east coast snowboarding. With the start area built to look like a boxing ring, the riders began practice at 9:30am from inside the ring to feel out the course, which was designed and built by Josh Lempert of Snow Grind.
The course layout ran in the following order, “The Ring” start area into “The Gym” 50 foot spine to “The Haymaker” 80 foot hip and finished in the “Low Blow” a rail garden featuring a 20 foot down rail, 20 foot knob rail and 15 foot box. Riders began to get their flow on with the spine and hip the first part of the morning and then stacked up in the “Low Blow” to see what could be done in the rail garden. Needless to say numerous angles and tricks began to take place on the challenging knob rail.
Practice ended at noon to allow the riders to grab lunch and enjoy the tunes of DJ Evaready on the turn tables at the “Wunderbar” deck. Keeping with the Hip Hop Rail Jam theme, Evaready spun a full range of original rap classics to today’s latest lyrical artists in hip hop.
At 1:30pm a riders meeting was called to explain how the all new format for the Hip Hop Rail Jam’s contest would be judged. Titled the “Knock-Out Round” all 50 riders would ride in a jam format for one hour on the 80 foot hip, “The Haymaker” and then move down to the rail garden “Low Blow” for another hour. Awards were numerous for each section, but more specifically an overall Heavyweight (Men’s Pro), Women’s and Lites (Boys Am) Champion would be crowned at this stop for a wildcard into the US Open and the famed title belt.
As the sun hung directly overhead the jam session on “The Haymaker” kicked off with three immediate stand-outs throwing lofty airs in Ralph Kucharek, Ezra Racine and Ben Ross busting out eight feet over the deck. The vitaminwater height meter bottle stood on top of the deck at 12 feet measuring the airs of all competitors trying to earn the “year’s supply of vitaminwater” for highest male and female airs. When all was said and done Phoebe Novello crushed the competition on the women’s side by boosting a five foot mute grab, and Ralph soared three times in a row over eight feet out and then finally pulled out his own haymaker by pointing it straight into the hip and flew ten plus feet over the judges and announcers on the deck.
Next up was the “Low Blow” section where the riders took right to the set up throwing down hammers from the get go. Lily Calabrese led the ladies charge scoring numerous tricks, dubbed punches, racking in eight landed punches earning her the most progressive female rider of the day and a gold engraved Nixon watch. In the men’s heavyweight division Ben Ross, Matt Nardiello, Parker Szumowski, Ezra Racine and Ralph Kucharek worked the down and knob rails to a murderous display of innovative tricks. In the end, Szumowski took home the gold engraved Nixon watch for most progressive and Ross won best overall rail performance earning a trip to Boreal’s “Face-Off” contest courtesy of Arbor Snowboards.
Hands down the best rider the entire day was Chris DePaula from Derry, NH, although he competed in the Lites division no one touched his combination of progressive bag of tricks on “The Haymaker” and “Low Bow” sections. Nothing could stop this kid from showcasing his growth into one of the next major phenom threats coming out of the East!
Overall champions fell in line as follows – Women’s: Phoebe Novello, Lites: Chris DePaula, Heavyweights: 1st Ralph Kucharek, 2nd Ben Ross and 3rd Parker Szumowski. Now The Main Event moves on to Bretton Woods Resort in New Hampshire for “Bretton Woodstock” and our final stop of the 2012 season. Look for more innovative course layouts and progressive snowboarding this Saturday, February 11th.
Registration is now live on The Main Event website for Bretton Woodstock – so get on it as the contest will be limited to 100 riders total. Additionally, stay updated on all things The Main Event by visiting www.maineventseries.com and following @maineventseries on twitter, and Facebook.
Wow… ESPN just posted the newest edit from Reel Theory Productions. Check out the Rat Pack edit, we just completed.
http://espn.go.com/action/snowboarding/blog/_/post/7534864/the-rat-pack
The snowboarding world has changed a lot. The old days are long gone… but maybe not gone for good.
With all the fancy corporate housing, cushy salaries, and catered dinners today’s pros enjoy you might think the days of “The Hard, The Hungry and The Homeless” are long gone in snowboarding. But you would be wrong. There is a group of snowboarders on the competition circuit who do it just like our early 90s forefathers did: counting pennies, fighting over food, and sleeping wherever they land.
Call them underdogs or call them by the name this crew is most commonly known as: “The Rat Pack.” No, it’s not a tribute to Bogart and early 60s cinema stars. The crew name comes purely from them living like a bunch of ratty snowboarders — because you can’t put nine guys in one house without things getting a little dirty. These guys are driven by a love of snowboarding, and they are all, by far, the most hungry in the sport.
Chas Guldemond is the leader of the pack. The youngest is Nick Julius. The older and more veteran siblings include Sam Hulbert, Ian Thorley, Tim Humphreys, and Jeremy Thompson. The two middle children are Spencer Link and Alex Rodway. None of these guys chose this hierarchy, but they live comfortably within them.
These guys put snowboarding first, camaraderie second, and everything else is up for grabs. Win or lose, you will see them at almost every event with a smile on their faces. Meet the underdogs of the pro shred tour, The Rat Pack.
Check out this cool lil commercial I completed this week for Fort Friends. Reel Theory, Filmed, Directed, Edited and Narrated the whole thing. This is a really cool product. I think everyone has made a fort at some age. This product is safe, easy, and fun for all ages. Wish I would have thought of this idea.
http://espn.go.com/action/snowboarding/story/_/id/7336657/snowboarding-roots-movement-exhibit-opens-colorado-ski-snowboard-museum
Vail Colorado, December 9, 2011
Ski and Snowboard History Museum
Colorado Snowboard Archive ‘Roots of a Movement’ Gallery Exhibit Opening Night
Vail is deep rooted in ski and snowboard history. They pride themselves on the culture and the lifestyle. Since the early 1930’s people have been fascinated with how to move forward and have fun sliding on snow. Some people took advantage of the straightforward approach while others simply had to stand sideways.
Tonight the museum launched their most extensive collection of snowboard history ever to be displayed in one location, with the Opening of Roots of a Movement. Trent Bush, founding partner of Brandbase, and curator of the exhibit says it best, “for the people who really changed snowboarding, this exhibit is for them.”
The exhibit holds an extensive collection of material from the early snurfer, all the way through the mid 90’s collection of freestyle equipment. If you get a chance to roll through Vail, this is a stop you must make. Snowboarding is changing every day right in from of our eyes. Its important to understand where it has been to know where it is going. Colorado Snowboard Archive gives you this opportunity to learn about the sport and see first hand the amazing progression the equipment and culture has made over the past 80 years.
Wow… what a roller coaster. These last few weeks have been mayhem. I had this great idea to launch RT in the North East at the Ski and Snowboard show this past weekend. The idea was, as usual for me, a bigger then imagined idea. How do they say it…”My eyes were bigger than my stomach.”, “Biting off a bigger nut then I can chew.”, or a “kid in a candy shop”… whatever you want to call it… I call it was a test of endurance with tons of rewards.
I started planning for this show just about 4 weeks prior when I decided to be the production Filmer and editor for BEWI productions. I approached the group about doing social media, creating hype, and also possibly bringing in a new account,… Nike and having Scotty Lago sign autographs. All things worked out as planned and I now needed a booth.
My business partner and I made a trip to a shaky run down furniture liquidator for some tables. Sure enough the floors felt like they would cave in this place. To my surprise we found a perfect trio table set, high top, desk and mini table. Grabed a rug at Home Depot, some chairs from the basement, and poof… a booth was born.
I called upon my good friend Shaun Ready, who I had done some previous work for with Ready Customs. His talent as a master welder was exactly what I needed. I had some canvas left over from college that was being unused and figure it would make a perfect back drop. Shaun helped me build a custom stand for the support. Stopped in for a chat, and within a couple hours we had a plan. Grabbed some scrape and stock metal and off to work we went. This project we pretty quick and dirty in comparison to some of the motorcycle builds Shaun is used to fabricating. Check out his stuff at www.readycustoms.com 
With the backdrop finished, I immediately went into set up mode. How big would my space be, where could I fit all my stuff. After a couple days of discovery, I had my outline in place. My sneakers from Nike rolled in a couple days before the show, I set up may Facebook contest that day, and finalized the last couple details. Digital business cards, and business cards were my hang up. Wrong designs, and bad cutting stalled the delivery until the day of the show, but they arrived in time.
Wednesday was load in. Thursday was a hectic busy show day, because tons of people come for the full stick of merchandise. Friday lagged on as the longest show day 10am – 10 pm… and The Main Event, “Menage Onze” (Party 11/11/11), kind of like “Menage s trois”, but better. 
Being particularly more fun because it was on a boat, this years Kick off party was a hit! With tons of people looking to get back on the boat already for next year. Check out the video link.
Overall things went really well. Set up was a breeze. My girlfriend, and best friend Chris were there to help me set up. My friend Kayli and Graham helped me manage the booth, and my buddy Johnny helped capture material from the show. We captured about 400 emails, talked to tons of action sports fans and made a bunch of connections for future work. All in all a pretty good experience.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. Till next time… Happy Shredding.