Hot chicks. Yes please!


Whistler consistently gets ranked the #1 Resort in North America by the various ski and snowboard magazines. Without a long hoo-ha about why that's so, suffice to say it's the combination of all things: amazing mountain, top parks, nightlife, village infrastructure and a mix of people from around the world. For whatever reason, Canada tends to attract more internationals than the States. Maybe it's because you don't have to get your fingerprints scanned when you arrive at the airport.

That didn't stop Canadian immigration from pulling me over at Vancouver International and making me wait in a 3-hour line with terrorists, drug dealers and child prostitution importers. All because my US Passport was set to expire in a couple weeks, despite the fact that I'm only planning to be in the North Country for 5 days. Word to the wise... make sure your passport has at least six months remaining before it expires before entering Canada. Reason being the standard entry is a six month tourist visa, so if you're passport is set to expire in that time frame you need a special form, which requires waiting three hours in line with terrorists, drug dealers and child prostitution importers. Fun, eh?

Sorry, felt I had to share that with you... back to Whistler....



Actual words on bottom of pool seen from my hotel room at the Westin. I thought this was appropriate b/c it's precisciely what I was thinking my arrival in Canada should feel vs. being shaken down by the
authorities... oh well - better late than never.


Despite my delay I made it in time to be an honorary judge at the inaugural ThreePointOh show at this year's Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival. Telus is famous for digital media competitions such as the Pro Photographer Showdown and the Filmmaker Showdown. Each is designed to encourage the best in their respective arts. However, due to the strict nature of the formats, the applicant pool tends to be a bit small, made up mostly of top pro photogs and videographers. In an effort to open up the Festival experience to a larger swath and encourage the use of alternate media forms, organizers conceptualized ThreePointOh...an open format of multimedia presentation to which anyone could create something and apply. Simple rules include: 1. the piece must be projectable, 2. must be a collaboration of two or more individuals, 3. must utilize at least two mediums (film, photo, etc), 4. be three to five minutes in length.





This girl won a job to host the ThreePointOh competition by submitting a demo via YouTube. She left out the part about getting blasted while drinking Kokanee on stage. She was hot though and that's all that really counts.

So ten entrants made the cut. Some were arty numbers filmed in the streets of Manhattan and Venice Beach. Another was a home movie of surfing footage from a summer of travels. Then there were a few entertaining diddies that resembled college film projects.  One contender called "Seasons" chronicled Brandywine sledneck action and a summer of salmon fishing and bear watching. Some of the most incredible wildlife footage I've ever seen. That dude who got chomped by the bears in AK would've been proud.

The top three narrowed down to offerings submitted by various members of the extended Rocky Mountain Sherpas crew. An amazingly clever stop animation film, titled "5,000 Million Years" - essentially it chronicled the evolution of man and technology, which eventually led to the highest form of existence - heli boarding. Next was a ski and snowboarding action film named "Paper Shredders" glued together with outstanding pencil line drawing on the level of the early 80s video "Take on Me" by the Norwegian new wave pop band, A-Ha. Lastly was a beautifully conceived collage of time-lapse footage from a winter making ski and snow films, called "Fluid Circles."

The people's choice ended up being Fluid Circles, but we judges, after thoughtful deliberation opted to go with Paper Shredders because it seemed to better stick to the contest's multi media format (film + drawing).

The winner received $1,500 in cash and a couple days cat boarding... not bad for some after work doodling!!



The lovely drunken host and the competition winner.


Moving on through my first night at Telus, I ran into the legendary Whistler photographer Dano Pendygrasse at Long Horn. Dano, now onboard with Monster Energy, is also working on a book project for Westbeach - a 30-year timeline of the brand's epic Canadian history. A gallery of the work was shown at "Skate of the Art" a collection of dozens of artists in the Whistler conference center. Great pieces from all mediums. Artists like Aaron Chang, Scott Serfas, Phresha, Norman Reedus, MELK, Andrew Pommier and many more. I'll let the pics do the talking.

The night ended at Garfinkels where famed LA-based DJ Steve Aoki held it down. All the pro shreds in town for the Grenade Games were there and it was pretty well jumping for a Monday night. As such it was only a warm-up for the week to come, so check back each day for a recaps on all the trouble I get into at the 2009 Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival.



This Devun Walsh pic pretty much summed up the killer Westbeach display from Dano. So sick.


Sitka Surfboards is to British Columbia what Channel Islands is to Santa Barbara. Homegrown and perfectly authentic.



This was part of a cool cooncept of self-portraits while riding your skateboard. Getting the boobies in there is worth noting.


Dano Pendygrasse is on the right...his homeboy, Dez Price, is pointing at him.





Whistler locals and all-aroud good people: photog and former Future Snowboarding Magazine photo editor, Crispin Cannon, pro rider Priscilla Levac, and Snowboard Canada associate editor, Gerhard Gross.


Steve Aoki kills it.


His performance was part of the the DJ series happening all week at Telus.


Grenade Games veterens, Kevin Casillo, Louie Vito and the Dingo.


Oh snap and somebody got a DUI on my walk home... a felony in Canada...ouch. Mountain Town cops  are a bitch.