Lee Ponzio's Blog

Photog-on-Photog night action Japan

2010-07-28T20:01:00.001+10:00

Hello internet people.
I haven't snagged a copy yet, but in Issue 3 of Australian Snowboarder magazine there are a few photos from back in January when Liam Kaska and I were riding the best snow of our lives. Liam was kind enough to hike around for me while I tried out this lighting idea. Colour gels aren't anything new in snowboard photography, but they're not often used in freeriding scenarios, and I don't recall having seen them used shooting powder turns. Some might say that the colour is just tricky shit used to make a weak photo more interesting. In response to this, check out the two shots that are now devoid of all colour and tell me you don't want to swap places with el Kaska 'cause it looks boring. Thanks for looking.

Oh, here it is.....

2010-07-21T18:41:00.000+10:00

After that last post it's been pretty hard to find anything worth posting. The sun doesn't seem as bright, coke tastes flat, my coco pops don't pop, music is monotonous. Only 6 months until Niseko powder season though.

Just kidding, I lost this piece of pooh in the midst of setting this up http://aliveaustralia.com. But, I finally got around to organising a few images from our Japan trip in April this year. The weather was way out of character for spring, super cold in the beginning, it snowed a foot on our wedding day - the first time it's snowed that late in Yamagata since 1969. Then, by the end of the trip the thermometer hit over 30 degrees, way warm for Golden Week. We had fun tripping around to some places we'd never seen before. Enough words, here are a few photos:

Mt Fuji from the shinkansen on the way to Osaka.

Kenmoto-san dancing on the coping of the TRIAL bowl, Osaka.

Trial bowl skate session crew. My legs went to jelly embarrassingly quickly.

All the skaters roll in these in Osaka.

It was my first time in Osaka, and luckily we had Aki to show us around. He took us to eat at his favourite kasu udon restaurant, KASUYA, a tiny place by the side of the road. By far the best udon I've ever eaten, with pieces of deep-fried beef leftover stomach-type parts. Cheap, huge and really good.

Get your pinchers up. With Aki in Osaka.

On the way back to Yamagata, we went via Matsumoto, to catch up with friends Mark and Mika. Matsumoto was a really nice place, not unlike Yamagata, and we enjoyed hanging out with those guys, who did a great job of showing us around their new home town.

Matsumoto Castle, Nagano.

A nice place to enjoy some sunshine. Sorry for cutting half your face off Marku.

Nice view of Hakuba's ranges. Still a lot of snow in May.

There are a few hundred more photos, so if I stay unemployed you might see some of them soon.

Hokkaido Shred Edit

2010-03-15T18:12:00.000+11:00

Liam Kaska & Lee Ponzio in Hokkaido from Liam Kaska on Vimeo.
Liam Kaska & Lee Ponzio shred Hokkaido 2010.

Alright y'all here's the edit of all the footage Liam and I compiled during our shred that Liam put together for your viewing pleasure. Peep the realness, no weak park bullshit pretending we struggled out of the slums in our XXXXL (well, Liam was repping a bit of MFM steez in the 2010 Atmosphere gear) just fun-as-hell shredding the best snow we've ever encountered.

Check out Liam's shots from the trip over here: liamkaska.blogspot.com

Yokohama - "InterStyle" Trade Show

2010-03-03T17:13:00.002+11:00

Aki checking out which goggles to demand from the kind Oakley dudes.

On my last day in Japan I went to my first snowboard tradeshow, Interstyle, in Yokohama. Aki registered me as one of his TRIAL staff and I was in like a kid in a candy store. The event was spread over 4 different halls, the main one huge, really surprising me. All of the usual suspect brands were there, along with a whole range of brands you've never even heard of. I love that about the Japanese snowboard industry; whilst the US brands are still there, there are so many domestic brands doing really well for themselves and making great gear. There are alternatives to American, and they are alive and well.

I took a roll past SURGE, Aki's snowboard brand, they make a great Fish.

Of course there was a wicked mini there.

I spent the whole day there and still didn't get around to all of the booths. The event ran for three days, but I was unable to change my flight and had to cram it all into one. There weren't any strippers or free booze, and certainly no free-flowing narcotics as there seems to be at the Vegas industry circus (allegedly), but it was a very interesting day none-the-less.

I was keeping my eye out for Jeremy Clarkson, but apparently this Murcielago was just a skateboard stand.

Get it? Very witty.

I happened to bump into my fellow YES team rider, the BOSS - Tadashi Fuse - and rapped with him a little about the boards (the 10/11 YES boards look dope by the way) and how he reckons that Hokkaido has the best snow in the world - it's official! It was a great time until he very politely requested that I remove my hand from his pants and then it wasn't a great time any more.

Yamagata

2010-02-25T22:04:00.003+11:00

Backcountry Steve took his Gore-Tex to ZAO and scored there too.

So, as it always is, the good things came to an end and I left Hokkaido. It had been such a mind-blowing time that it was hard to feel anything but elation, so it wasn't a sad departure.

I jumped a very quick flight down to Sendai and met up with Asami in Yamagata, where it was still really cold and had plenty of snow on the ground. But, before we get to snowboarding again, first things first; foods on sticks, large glasses of very nice beer and godawful singing. Got to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in a while, and as these things usually do, we ended up downstairs in a karaoke booth. The night ended well this time, without anyone throwing up in the bin, eating the karaoke book, or being unable to walk themselves out (that was a fun night Rob!!).

Sendai station, enjoying BOSS Coffee in a can.

Karaoke is a great way to enhance your English skills.

Whilst it was great to be back, it was a whirlwind trip, apparently planning a wedding takes some considerable time and effort, and planning a wedding from another country adds some further excitement to the mix. It was a super busy 5 days, and we didn't manage to do half the things we wanted to do, or spend anywhere near the time we wanted with old friends.

Trial costumes.

I did, however, manage to sneak 4 hours up at Zao with my private tour-guide Nate on Saturday morning. We were up early, and made it onto the first tram for the day. Now at Zao I'm usually treated with whiteouts and blizzards and never really have a great time, but for some reason that day I was excited. Low and behold, on the tram ride up the clouds parted and the sun shone through. What a sight, the 'snow monsters' were out in full force and the surrounding peaks were actually visible for a change. Nate took me to his favourite stashes, as he always does, and of course we rode fresh lines all morning. For the first time, I had an absolute ball at Zao, there is some great terrain hidden in there. Backcountry Steve had carried the luck with him in his flash Gore-Tex overalls from Hokkaido and scored it again. Cheers Nate!

Nate pointing to where the goodness is.

There's lots of goodness over there. Got heli?

These trees are pretty.

That ended the snowboarding part of my trip, 17 days straight riding fresh blower pow in Hokkaido, and the funnest sunny day ever at Zao to top it off. Amazing trip. I had one more stop to make, but you'll have to come back to check that out soon.

Little Hokkaido/Tohoku Clip

2010-02-19T12:30:00.000+11:00

Getting some in Hokkaido 2010 from lee ponzio on Vimeo.

If you like swizzle stick manouvres on park boxes, this shit is not for you. This is getting some dry Hokkaido and Tohoku powder with a little help from my friends, after the great photog soul sessions.

I know the video's shit, I'm a photographer, sue me. I am also aware that the track was way better in MFM's part.

Bigger and better business dropping soon.

Hokkaido 2010 Pt. II

2010-02-16T10:56:00.000+11:00

Nothing like a little secrecy to keep the tourists away from the goods.

So, obviously I never got that down time I mentioned in my last post, had much better things to do than type more rubbish to brighten your day. The few days after that last post were fairly predictable, we rode the best snow ever (each day the snow seemed to get progressively lighter) until we couldn't any more, then soaked weary bodies and refueled with cold beer and convenience store fried chicken.

Japanese beer is awful, just ask the boys. Serious faces for serious businesses.

Backcountry Steve, (aka me) after a satisfying lap of box swizzle sticks in the park.

On our second last night we hooked up with Jake McCarthy for a couple of hours night shredding and Liam fired off a few rounds. We were really stoked to see Jake absolutely ripping, and charged up like we've never seen. Keep that shit up cuzzy! Big day on the hill, rode 10:00-20:30, stoking hard.

Aki and I coordinated our outfits. Aren't we cute.

Japanese woods are extremely considerate with their spacing, very inviting.

On LK's last night we went out for a slide and hooked up with my buddy Aki and his girl Naomi and thrashed it some more. We rode the very last chair for the night, of course scoring faceshots until the end. The trip was by far the best quality, and most consistent snow we'd ever scored in Hokkaido, the trip of our lives so far. No stress and no pressure (aside from Liam having us up at the crack of dawn every day, amping to get up the hill), just sending it every day and loving it.

There's a human photographer in there busting through whiteroom #659, LK very happy.

LK had all the bitches after him ey!

Liam and Mike bailed on the morning of the 4th, so Aki came to get me and we rolled over to Higashine for the day (which was epic, as expected) before heading back to Teine. The next couple of days riding there with Aki tour guiding were super fun. We scored good snow and got to hit some fun drops and natural hits.

The view from the top of Teine over Sapporo and the Japan Sea.

From the chair at Teine you can check the surf, only a 40 min drive away. Bit chilly though.

On my last day there, the wind was off the hook so the main quad lift was closed. Aki proposed a small hike, which turned into a 1 1/2 hour slog to the top of the hill followed by a run of untouched blower. Needless to say, those turns were the best I had there. They were a great couple of days riding with the local crew, and a really fun mountain! That's all for now, I'll be back at you really soon.

The crew after reaching the top of Tenei on foot. Amping for those turns (after a brief coma).

I got to check out the Sapporo Snow Festival again. It was really cold, really crowded and there were very impressive things made out of lots of snow.

Hokkaido Shredfest 2010

2010-01-31T19:08:00.000+11:00

Of course we went to Susukino to take night photos.....again.

Welcome back to the fully sickest crap you'll waste your time on today. Rather than send you into a coma with the boring shit I've been doing since you last dropped by, I've been waiting for something vaguely interesting to happen. It's happening.

At the moment I'm surrounded by the biggest base of snow I've ever seen here in Niseko (or Ne-say-co for the linguistically challenged). I'm here with arch-nemesis, rival and general lazy asshole Mr Liam Kaska, and his mate Mike aka Brain Smasher. We started shredfest oh-ten by dropping into Teine to hang out with my Japanese friends and ride their local hill. It had rained a day or two before we got in, but by the time we got off the quad chair at the top, faceshot mania was on. It was a great day riding to get the legs back on some really fun terrain up at Teine Highlands.

Liam and the Brain Smasher searching for used underwear at Teine.

After sampling Teine we tripped out to Hirafu village and straight into a night shred. The conditions were on from the first run, with faceshots and little drops stoking us out right away. Every day for the following week has followed the same formula: score fresh snow overnight, smash whiterooms all day long, have a quick rest (some days), smash whiterooms at night, soak in the onsen with a frosty beer until close, sleep too little, up early(ish) and do it all over. Doing the same thing every day sometimes gets old, but riding the driest snow in the universe is pretty easy to take.

Stormtrooper Kaska hating night riding.

CP stopped by with her tough new knee for some technicolour night turns.

Today, Sunday 31st Jan, we were greeted with another load of freshness on the ground, probably the biggest we've had thus far, and to top it off the sun came out. After noticing the top single chair turning, we decided to hang out by the gate and wait for patrol to open the peak. Liam and I got a cracking start ahead of the hundred-strong group that had gathered, and were in the first 5 people to hit the top. It was a grueling hike, but knowing what was up there we went hard at it. We were third to drop over the edge, and the sight before us is what we live for (cheesy but true fool); an open face of untracked (apart from the two well-deserved lines of the guys who'd climbed harder than us) Siberian blower powder. Words are wasted trying to tell you what that run was like, either you've done it yourself and know, or you haven't.

One satisfied photographer. Wait, where's your camera bag?

Backcountry Steve repping GORE-TEX hard.

By the way, I sorted out some new boots before I got over here, and damn if they aren't the most comfortable snowboard boots in the galaxy. Yeah Deeluxe! Also, Amine at Rush Distribution sorted me out with a YES. board, and you'll probably notice how much I ride like Tadashi on this thing, it's hella uber dope. Keep your eyes peepin for a mind blowing video feature part from Backcountry Steve, it's going to melt your brain.

The snow is supposed to keep falling until we leave, so if I can stay awake for longer than 5 minutes after killing it all day, you might be lucky enough to see some more of this shit in a few days.

Liam and Mike on the way to a good day.

Hotham September 09

2009-10-07T13:53:00.000+11:00

Stuzo with a little pile of snow.

Hold onto your scrotums, or comparable woman's parts, 2nd update in a week!!!

A couple of weeks ago, young gun Timmy Laidlaw asked if I was keen to shoot something at Hotham with him, so I assembled a mean posse and off we rolled. Along for the ride were blog frequenter Stu Macqueen and photography arch enemy Liam Kaska (we only hang out to sabotage each others' sessions). Already on the hill were a gang of Third Chapter heavies, including founder, the big Will Kendall, under the radar stunt extraordinaire Chris Eacott and kiwi transplant Ian Wallace. Look out Hotham, impromptu industry circus is in effect.

I found this while I was there, my first lightbox. Cheers Robbie.

No, that's not Christian Siriani , that's Timmy Laidlaw, teaching Stu some shit.

We had a good few days, hot spring weather and soft, fun snow in a deserted resort. After a bit of fun lapping Road Runner for two days straight, Stu and Timmy did a solid bit of labour to set up a feature they were keen to hit. I was pretty skeptical of whether it was on, but they showed me that I don't know shit and I should just shut up and make the pictures. They were definitely the first 2 to ever hit this feature, so hopefully you'll be seeing those in some pages next year. Nice work boys. Thanks for hitting it first Timmy. Kid's got some cojones!

A couple of specimens.

The finished product. Stay tuned for the outcome.

Liam, very unimpressed with my focusing efforts.

Media frenzy at Hotham, Liam making some (in-focus) pictures.

All that digging made the girls hungry.

09 Leftovers

2009-10-02T03:30:00.000+10:00

Jake McCarthy

There are only so many magazine pages available each year, so a lot of worthy shots never see the light of day. Whilst this is frustrating for the photographers, it really sucks for the riders who have put themselves on the line to get their shot. But that's how it goes, so here are a collection of shots from summer/winter 09 that never made print, but are worth having a look at. I've managed to shoot a few shots at home this winter, but you'll have to wait 'til next year to peep those.

Hope you dig the shots, let the riders know if you do. Thanks for checking in.

Andy Lloyd nosepicking in Tahoe.

Mikey Williams doesn't mind dropping bombs.

Stu Macqueen building inspection.

Kieran McLaughlin, one of the steeziest riders I've had the pleasure of shooting.

Jake McCarthy, been around. Still around and killing it.

The Russian stopped eating babies to get creative on this pretty fountain.

CP gettin one up her..... I mean getting up on one.

2nd Place at the US Nationals, Jason Maxfield goes high. Pipe Jock.

Jake McCarthy falling out of the night.

Stu warming up for a BLT, wishing he could ride a snowboard.

Miguel Willams pretending he's at home riding Cattlemans.

The Russian locks presses like he snorts vodka.

For a pipe jock, he slides rails pretty good too, Jason Maxfield.

Stuzo wishing it would snow so he could ride something other than walls.

CP planting one for the boys.

Mikey Williams does shit nobody else thinks of, or wants to do.

Kieran McLaughlin smooth as always and ready for contact.

The Russian executed a cross country ski team to hit this rail.

Mikey throwing another one to the kink..

NZ August 2009 - 4 Dudes and Ya Mum remix

2009-08-16T16:47:00.000+10:00

Wanaka, a nice place to spend the rest of your life.

Doomed
Before I get to further deteriorating your senses, let me ask you this: If you were planning a shred trip to NZ with 4 scumbag mates, would you invite your mum along? Perhaps the ice you're smoking is particularly strong and you answered 'yes', would you then let her plan the whole trip? Another tricky one for you: If you have 6 people, how many beds should your mum be booking in each place? 5? 4? This trip was doomed from the start, but we only found this out the night before we left.

Yes mum, we'll be warm enough. No thanks, we don't need our own beds.

Things at the airport didn't really improve our outlook when traces of some kind of explosive were detected in my camera bag (I wish I were joking), and at the NZ end, the cute little beagle sniffer-dog took a seat next to Stu's backpack. Luckily, customs let me and my bomb making gear fly, and the beagle was only interested in Stu's apple and missed his collection of prohibited German scheizer porn.

Boonga pondering: "WHO DOES THAT?!?"

NZ
As always, the approach to Christchurch airport had everyone frothing, everyone being myself, Stu Macqueen, Dougie Speed (not his porn name), Boonga Hallett and dude with his mum (they shall remain nameless, until you get a beer into me at least). It quickly became apparent that the one Tarago organised by our chaperone would not cater to all of us for the drive to Wanaka, so it was off to Europcar where the friendly coke-fiend behind the counter gave us a mega deal on a new Mitsub Delica - or Mini Hummer as he referred to it. 125 beers and a bottle of vodka later we rolled into Wanaka not in the mood for an early night.

The Mini-Hummer inspired some weird behaviour. It's all love baby.

The next day we were reminded why we love Wanaka so much. In what other 'snow town' in the world could you drop your money-clip, chock-full of freshly exchanged kiwi paper in a bar and have it handed in - completely intact!!! - to the local constabulary, along with your 'stolen' jacket??? Good karma in this place!

Wanaka is a seriously good place

Beers at the Cardrona Hotel, always a good afternoon. I'm not sure why Stu has his period.

QT
After getting our shred legs back at Treble Cone on a varied snow cover we had to make the move to Queenstown. The contrast between the two towns is amazing, and we were instantly caught up in the plastic, sin city feel of the place, getting right into the mix with all the other idiots on holiday.

Stuzo was buzzing for some action, and our first day at Coronet Peak provided the goods with a fresh snow cover over its naturally rolly terrain. We got our froth on straight away, hitting lip after lip on the first run down. Unfortunately Stu's new skis performed about as badly as they looked and we flagged any shooting for the day. We spent the afternoon following Boonga's massive lead and smashing the shit out of any fresh snow left untouched. The same day, Downunder Diaries episode 3 was being filmed up there, with Hyner, Browner, Heat and Mr Koia throwing down, check it out here .

Stuzo getting down to business on his favourite set of shit skis.

Next on our sliding agenda was The Remarks where, under sunny skies, I actually broke the camera out to capture some of the fresh snow being spread around by the boys after a short hike up the Shadow chair. Nice turns considering the snow was a couple of days old! Bad luck followed us however, and Stu came up slightly short on the 2nd kicker in the park, tweaking his knee a little, ending any real hammer throwing for his trip. Nevertheless, we scored a fun couple of days riding around QT, with a slightly disproportionate amount of boozing with the other dingos thrown in for good measure.

Boonga appreciating a good view.

Boonga annihilating a good view. Sick turn boss.

Wanaka.....again
Thankfully we escaped the buzz of QT and headed back for one last short stint in Wanaka. Our last day riding at Cardrona was really fun as they had a long, very unintimidating jib line set up that us old dogs could get our stoke on. After a couple of runs it became evident that Dougie's spent some time in the park, as he threw down smooth combos on all the features with style befitting a young jib dawg. Boonga however claimed my trick of the day when on the last run he locked himself into a frontboard through the kinked box like he'd been doing it all day, styles for miles. Yeah old boys.

Dougie preparing to school us on the jib line.

Highlights
* The turning cirlcle on the Mini-Hummer, blew me away every time. Actually, the Mini-Hummer in general was a highlight, cutting sick laps of QT was high class.
*Stuzo being the funniest mthrtrucker on earth, but occasionally losing his hearing and having to lipread.
*Dougie and Boonga surfing the shit out of mountains like men posessed and then throwing mad steez down the jib line.
*Post-shred beers at the Cardrona Hotel, definitely one of the best spots to sink a cold one.
*Hearing non-stop about Freddie the gayest staffy in Aus.
*Learning the lesson that no matter how annoying someone is, you can still have a great time by character assasinating them behind their back ad nauseam.

Getting my skate on at Will and Abby's to prove (to myself) I'm not too old!

The lads helping out with the drive back to CHCH

2009 Aussie Winter #1

2009-07-10T16:59:00.000+10:00

Great place to sit and enjoy the sunset with your manfriend

It's been 2 months and 25 days since the last time I posted a load of crap on here for you all. You'd thank me if you knew the kind of shit I considered writing during that interval.

Anyway, winter's doing it's thing on and off, and I took myself off to Mt Buller on Monday after a late night phone call from Mr Williams absolutely fizzing his pants about how good it was up there. Right after that call it stopped snowing, warmed up and pissed rain. Sick.

It's a very different drive after the fire.

Hopefully in a few months Stu can tear the ass out of this.

Tuesday greeted me with brilliant weather, perfect bluebird and not a breath of wind. I was pretty stoked with this as Steve from Ballistyx had just sorted me out with a Lib Tech Skate Banana and Mt Buller was looking after my lift passes for the 2 days. I hadn't been up there for a while, so I needed to do a bit of scouting around to reacquaint myself with the mountain and do some spot checking. So what if I had to do so on the funnest board in the world. Well, it turned out that all that rain had turned the whole hill bulletproof, and the weak winter sun wasn't doing much to help out. Stu Macqueen and I searched high and low for something to stoke the camera out, but to no avail, so we ate hotdogs. We figured that maybe the sun would ramp it up a little in the afternoon. Not the case, but Stu got to end the day with some backflips and spins over a hip that was getting sessioned.

Stu Macqueen finishing off a less-than-eventful day with some crowd-pleasers.

On Wednesday I hooked up with the TSC crew, and I don't think I've ever hung out with a group of kids so stoked to be strapped into snowboards. We got a little session going under the direction of coach Luke Skywalker and there was style thrown around in buckets as the kids went after it like they have a photo shoot every other day. There is some definite talent among that group, keep your eyes open for more of their work. The afternoon went how an afternoon spent with Tom Pelley does: getting shit done. If you want a set-up built to work, Tom's your man, and Nick Woods and Chris deCampo were along to learn a thing or two. It was a productive afternoon that we milked 'til the last light.

Mikey Williams can poke for days, front 3.

Chris deCampo not the TRZA front 7 tail.

It's cool to be shooting good shots here in Australia, and I'm hoping to do a lot more before the last snow melts. It would be nice to see a solid collection of local shots in next year's mags, rather than rely on crews' overseas shots for the majority of content.

What's Tom up to over there? You know it's going to be good though right?!

Shooting Animals ............. and snowboarding

2009-04-16T12:29:00.000+10:00

Abby Lockhart having a way better time than you are reading this.

Afternoon all, how's the global economic crisis treating you today? For all of you tax payers in Aus, I hope Mr K-Rudd has been forthcoming with your 900 squids.

Anyway, you know what the hardest snowboarding shot to nail is? Not the switch back 12, 'cause you know where he's going to be (I'll amend this to he/she as soon as I see a girl spin one), and certainly not your tech-dawg jib shit, again you know exactly where the rider should be. For me, the hardest shot to nail is a really good powder turn. Go figure. Perhaps I'm just pow shot retarded, other photogs shoot me down at will over this. It always seems way harder than it should be to get rider and shooter talking about the same ideal turn spot, and the timing when the turn should be really arced. That highlights one of the necessities of developing a solid working relationship between shred and shooter, after a while you're both picturing the same shot and don't have to labour over the how/when/where details. Here are a few pow shots from the vault, just because I want to go snowboarding right now.

Abby Lockhart digging that tail deeeeep, and loving it.

Abby Lockhart respectfully appreciating Hirafu's trees.

Q Robbins flew 3 hours and drove another 4 for this sick turn.

This wasn't a just a spontaneous rant on the horrors of shooting pow, I was just earlier thinking about the saying that working with animals and children is one of the harder jobs in photography. Making it harder still is having a lab pup blacker than night, so black that a Canon L series lens can't focus on her face because it can't find it. But, she is damn cute and doesn't give a toss about your economic struggles. She's too busy scarfing cat pooh, shitting all over the place, chewing me and generally having an awesome puppy time all day every day.

Puppy chillaxing.

Only a real asshole could not like puppies.

Making friends.

I'm going to eat your face.

The Last Hurrah

2009-03-19T13:56:00.000+11:00

Gusto with the ultimate bruised heel remedy.

Hey all, thanks for stopping by, despite your better senses telling you not to.

Sorry this last trip update has taken its sweet time getting up, but there was jetlag, a niece's birthday, a puppy, and whatnot to contend with. Plus, it's taken this long to convince myself that the end of the trip actually happened how I remember it. See, after the last writings of super spring times and animal observations, it started snowing. And I mean serious snow, the kind of snow I hadn't seen since leaving Hokkaido two months earlier. By this time I'd lost all faith in winter proper, so I expected it to stop any minute.

Much to my (and everyone else in the house's) surprise, it kept up for two days - a real snow storm! Towards the end of the first day we shovelled the driveway of at least 12-14 inches of snow, only to wake up and have at least the same amount to move all over again. It really was a pleasure to be shoveling so much snow, because the whole time we were imagining how much had dropped up in the hills.

Once the snow stopped, the sun came out in real Tahoe fashion, so we bolted (at a civilised hour) up to Sugarbowl. Surprisingly the I-80 wasn't death-on-a-highway, so we were up there in pretty good time, the whole way frothing out at all the sights before us.

Have to love the storm-sun cycle in Tahoe. Tahoe pines pretending they're in B.C.

We were losing our shit at this point, clawing at the windows. Couldn't get there fast enough.

Thankfully for me, Tahoe remembered how to storm this winter.....well, spring.

Now this was one day that taking photos wasn't on the cards, the snow was just too good. Cans of Monster were guzzled, camera bags were ditched in the back of the car and we were into it. This was being called the storm of the season, so even the less snow-starved of the crew were stoking hard. It lived up to our expectations with knee-to-waist deep runs of Tahoe's finest. This was my first time riding Sugarbowl after a storm, and that place has some awesome terrain right there inbounds. We lapped the shit out of it, popping and spinning off everything we could find into soft, forgiving landings. Awesome day of riding, and it was snowing again as we left, promising another epic day ahead.

Kaska, wondering what aperture I'm using.

The ride home unfortunately wasn't so epic, as we pulled into the I-80 onramp to see a graveyard of semi-trailers scattered here and there all along the highway. We soon found the reason for this in the form of a solid ice layer covering the entire road. It was mellow though, we snaked between the trucks and joined the line of cars up ahead and sat there for a cool three hours!!! Luckily Liam found a neat little helicopter game on his iPhone that kept us amused for 7 minutes. Good times.

The next day we woke again to sunny skies and it was just Liam Kaska and I heading up, with Gusto joining us later on. We decided to cary Liam's small bag with us, just in case we got tired of all the soul slashes for fun. I was also keen to take the camera because, although most of you probably know Kaska for his extremely sexy lighting and pretty compositions, when he drops the camera bag, he drops cliffs with more style and coolness than most of Aus's up and comers (ooooh, controversial).

Kaska laying one down for all the days he's spent shooting fools.

We had another really fun day up there, shooting a few mellow turns and one cliff that Kaska styled out a few hits over. The crowds were non-existant, so we lapped again until lifts closed and legs were done.

Kaska hoping I took the lens cap off as he styles out his Indy.

All-in-all, Tahoe ended my trip the way everyone hopes to, going out on a shitload of fresh snow. The morning of my flight we tripped out to Donner Pass to scope out some cliffs that the boys hoped to get at during the coming good weather window. There's some serious fun to be had out there, looking forward to seeing what they came up with.

Cohen, Gus and Liam - work conference.

Want to go snowboarding?

Thanks heaps to all the Engler house crew for dealing with me for the week!! Great time.

Kaska stoked to be outside for a spin in his photog wheels.

Tahoe Nature Observation

2009-03-01T07:51:00.000+11:00

You know there isn't much going on when I'm throwing another spectacular update at you within a week.

Innocent rock skimming fun, who needs crack?

After 5 days of half-strength beer, no fresh snow or blue skies, failed brakes and numerous trips to Victoria's Secret, it was well past time to check out of the SLC. Stu and CP delivered me right to the plane door and took off, making certain they got me out of their hair after a month of Monster-fuelled non-stop Ponzio draining the life out of them. Thanks guys, hope the drive home was productive.

Not as hot as a Stu Macqueen abs shot, but still worth a look.

So, after a 7 year hiatus, I'm now back in Tahoe and pretty stoked about it. Instantly I was reminded why I loved it here, the natural beauty and feel of the area are pretty special (sorry if that makes you vomit in your mouth a little bit). First day, Liam Kaska, Tom Pelley and I went for a quick slide at Northstar, which on the surface was almost unrecognisable from my days working there. Massive transformation has turned it from the quaint little family resort to a major ritzy destination. With no expansion of ridable terrain, I shudder to imagine the crowds after the incredible increase in on-mountain accomodation and parking. That kind of stuff doesn't worry Tom though, who jibbed the shit out of every natural hit in his path, making me feel very old in the process.

Kaska can't walk on water, yet.

Cohen, beholding the beauty.

But, enough of that trash, yesterday we saw a coyote. Cruising around in search of spots, we saw a large dog-like figure cross the road and casually cruise around peoples' houses hoping for a dinner invite. It always stokes me out getting a closeup of wildlife we don't have back home. It's been a good trip that way; on the way to SLC we saw a group of bighorn sheep beating the hell out of each other right by the I-70, then we almost killed that deer right in the middle of SLC, somewhere in Breckenridge a squirrel ran along my snowboard and sat my feet checking me out, old mate Foxy gave us the ice-smashing with his head display, and then the coyote. Good times, forget snowboarding, it's all about the animals.

Spot the sccavenger.

Hokkaido to SLC

2009-02-22T10:49:00.000+11:00

Got pop. This guy was cool.

Hello avid readers, and thanks for tuning in. Slow day at the office?

As it turns out, I lied the shit out of my last post, telling you I'd be writing soon. I'm supposed to say I've been so busy, shooting the bejebus out of everything, and that's pretty close to it. After a quick ride for myself at Teine and Niseko, it was down to business in Hakuba with Jake McCarthy, Mikey Williams, Alex the Russian and Kieran McLaughlin. Now, we'd just had tits-deep overnight snow in Niseko, so I wasn't all that thrilled on the timing of my departure, especially seeing as it was the first storm since I’d arrived. To add insult to that injury, Hakuba was in the midst of its worst winter in 27ish years. Stoked.

Two weeks with the boys, mid-Jan in Hakuba should have been a snow-fest, however with +10 degree temps, rain and lots of sun, there weren't a whole lot of freeriding options around. Luckily, nobody got all pissy and lost their shit and so we were able to come up with a collection of shots that I'm quietly stoked on for the conditions we were dealt. Keep your eyes on the shelves for Transfer magazine and mountainwatch.com for full coverage of the trip.

The boys keeping it together.

On the brink of self-destruction, we peaced the F out of Hakuba at the end of January for a night in Tokyo. The Russian had himself an all-nighter for fear that he'd never wake up to his alarm if he went to sleep and then miss his 7am ride to the airport. That left Mr McCarthy and myself in our hotel beds (plural) in the middle of Tokyo's seedy 'host district' when the earthquake rocked and rolled me awake some time on the morning of Feb 1st. Having experienced a few of these, I kept it cool, assessed the threat level and went back to snoring. Cool as a cucumber, Jake skipped the assessment and slept through the whole thing.

Next on the agenda was a trip to Breckenridge and Vail, Colorado. I had the great pleasure of flying American Airlines from Tokyo to LA, and they quickly surpassed Cathay as the shittest airline I've been crammed onto. Great way to start my first trip to the US in 7 years. On the upside, they let me into their Admiral's Club while I waited for the connection to Denver, so after a shower I landed in Denver feeling relatively fresh.

CP and Katie Wilton sussing.

It turned out that Colorado wasn't having the best winter either, so Erin Tanner, Courtney Phillipson, Jade McJannet and Callie Connaghan had their work cut out for them to pull a story together for Australian Snowboarder. Things soon got worse though when Erin's already tweaked knee gave out during our first session. She quickly lined up surgery number three and rebooked her ticket home. No stranger to rehab, I'm sure Ez will be ready to rip again by the time the snow's falling up in NSW.

Stu, building inspection.

Stu, mid-session entertainment.

Again, credit to the girls, we scraped through ten snow-free days and shot the shit out of everything we could find. Luckily for me, CP’s boyfriend (or do I have to call him her ‘partner’ these days???) came along and helped build, tow-in, drive, speed check and generally keep things sane during all of our shoots. Stu Macqueen, my hero.

Stuzo safely flipping the bitch.

After this trip was dusted, my next line had fallen through, so I moved with Stu and CP into a house in Frisco, just out of Breckenridge. The house was full of Mt Buller grommets, and a good couple of weeks ensued, hanging out and again shooting whatever we could scrounge together as the snow still refused to come anywhere near us. Stu contracted a bad case of super strength herpes in his throat and mouth that took him out of action for over a week, but still managed to throw down for a good selection of shots around Breck. On a couple of these shoots we were accompanied by Breck local, Duke a.k.a. Dukamon, the coolest black lab to set paws in the snow. This fella plowed through any depth of snow that stood between him and his frisbee, for hours on end.

The Frisco Crew - minus big Tyson Pollard who attacked a fence with his neck and had the day off.

Dukamon having fun. CP not so much.

He's so handsome.

Colorado, or more specifically the area around Breckenridge, is an awesome place to be. Great scenery and pretty much everything you need for a season in a resort town, plus the most ridiculous crepe I’ve ever eaten - white chocolate, Nutella and banana - scandalously good. Oh, and Breck’s park is insane! If you want to get good at flying through the air, get yourself to Breck. Robbie Walker was there throwing some casual front 10s down and generally looking smooth all over the park, so if it’s good enough for him to waste time there.... If you’re more into your stunt-ditch, Breck keeps an amazing pipe, as Jason Maxfield and (Postman) Pat Davis-Meehan demonstrated, spinning way up high. Rob Dog even threw a few runs my way, grabbing nose for hours up there. If park’s your thing, get to Breck.

Breck's perfect pipe, get some.

Get your protractor out Stu.

It became obvious that winter wasn’t coming to Breck, so CP, Stu and I moved on to Salt Lake. We drove in late last night, managing to miss all the wildlife crawling across the highway only to nearly smear a deer across our hood in the middle of the city this afternoon. Seriously close call. Turns out there’s not much snow here either this year, so maybe that global warming thing might not be a total myth??? I'll keep you posted.

A specimen and his beast.

I-70 towards Vail.

Colorado got rock.

Olympic plaza water dramatics.

The view driving around SLC, minus deer hood ornament.

On the road again

2009-01-09T19:37:00.000+11:00

After an extended period of laziness, it's back to updating this piece of crap. Lucky you. For the first time I was on the very last plane out of Melbourne airport, weird feeling hanging out in an almost deserted airport. In another first, I flew Cathay Pacific and got to ride in the most uncomfortable cattle class seat I'd been in for a while. My ass was asleep before we even got in the air, but by some miracle I didn't get diarhhea and even managed to sleep a few hours and woke up in not too bad a humour for my Hong Kong stopover. It was only to be under 2 hours until I took off again, so a bearable amount of time in a new airport. We loaded the second plane and waited. And waited. And waited. After 27 hours (at least) of sitting in the same spot with my ass asleep again, the replacement flux capacitator wouldn't mesh with the synchros and so we deboarded and went back to waiting inside the airport. After a couple more hours they threw us on another plane with flux jigga intact and we were airborne again.

As usual, all things airport were smooth as silk on the Japan side and it wasn't long before I was rolling on the rapid train towards Sapporo. Having spent a couple months going to and from Sapporo last winter, it was more a home-coming feeling than an arrival. A good feeling. My good buddy Aki met me at Teine station and is putting me up in his appartment, complete with snowboard shop on the ground floor. Aki is a shop rider and manager for Trial, a surf/skate/snow shop based in Osaka. In 2007 Aki convinced the boss that Hokkaido needed a store and that he was just the man to set it up and run it.

Not content with being at the base of a quality snowboarding hill and within a short drive from the surf, Aki smashed out the floor of the underground room and built (possibly) the world's smallest concrete bowl, complete with plaster vert trannies. It took almost a year to complete, almost all done after work hours, shovelling dirt and old floor out of the small window at the back and learning all the joys of working with concrete. Complete with in-wall-mounted cd player, the finished product is a sight to behold, pretty impressive for a (mostly) one man job with no prior experience in houeshold concrete bowl construction.

There's supposed to be a storm of mammoth proportions on its way here, ready to unload acres of fresh siberian pow all over the place, so I should be heading to Niseko - 'cause everyone knows there's nowhere else to ride in Japan - on the weekend to make the most of it come Monday. I'm supposed to be crashing with McCarthy and his cronies, but after seeing some photos of the hijinx going on at that place on FaceCrack, I am a little nervous. If those young fuckers don't kill me with booze, I'll try and put some more pretty colours and meaningful words on here in the not-too-distant future. Laters.

NZ Tour 08

2008-09-26T17:55:00.000+10:00

After an 8 year hiatus, and being brutally violated by the jetstar check-in staff, I landed in Christchurch. Word all over the globe was that NZ was having the best winter in the universe, hence I was pretty stoked to be there. I'd planned on a late trip to take advantage of the sunny weather usually happening around mid-September down south. The weather in Queenstown was so good that my connecting flight the following morning was canceled and I was shipped down to Invercargil then loaded onto a bus. All good though, made it to QT and was met pronto by September coverboy RMB and whisked off for beers and a feed.

I spent a few days in QT, checked out the Remarkables, rode in a banked slalom at Coronet Peak which was a really good time and got introduced to the Dero way of doing life. Good times all-around, megalitres of beer later it was time to get the proverbial out of Dodge. Kiwi hell shredder Shelly Gotlieb played chauffer and on the way to Wanaka we dropped in on the good folks at Cardrona who hooked me up a pass in the blink of an eye, and I was into my first shoot of the trip. Throughout the trip Cardrona looked after me on many occasions with not even the slightest hesitation (such a nice change to have a ski resort work WITH and not against). Anyway, a borrowed shovel and a fence sorted us out and we had the shot. Business concluded, we snuck in a few cheeky runs before checking out the Cardrona Hotel - highly recommended.

The next week was Stylewars NZ, so it was up to the Snow Park for some on-mountain accomodation, jacuzzi and duty-free liquor. The weather was on and off all week, so the comp didn't go strictly to schedule, but was a great time non-the-less with a couple of magic after-hours sessions for the media. Snow Park accommodated us all week, turning the lift on after hours and basically letting us call the shots with whatever we wanted to do. Just another example of an NZ ski resort looking after the people who matter to them.

After the comp, the weather pretty much turned to shit, so my shooting days were wrapped. We had a fun day on the shred at Cardrona again in some galeforce winds and even scored a few cheeky pow slashes up there. The Volcom wagon rolled into town so we moved out to El Rancho Relaxo on 3 acres, kicked soccer balls, smacked golf balls, played bocci and kept ourselves otherwise amused until the rain subsided. That night it was party time, being Will J's birthday, so we hopped on the party waggon and got it rolling. Good times and no vomit in my hair.

One more night of rukus in QT, checked out RJ MC mix his thing up to a packed crowd of 5 very appreciative humans, broke even at the casino and it was time to check out again. This time around the check-in lady kindly left my life savings alone and strangely enough it was smooth sailing for all 3 flights. Stoked on NZ, awesome crew of people in both Wanaka and QT, good mountains and some very tasty beers.

Stylewars 2008

2008-09-01T17:28:00.000+10:00

Last year was the first time I'd made it to Rich Heggarty's Stylewars event at Falls Creek, and let me tell you, it set quite the benchmark. Torstein Horgmo's flawless wizardry over the 120+ foot jump well and truly put Stylewars on the rest of the world's radar. With this in mind, I was wondering what Rich would whip out this year for the now 4 star TTR event.

I thought I'd missed out on a spot this year and was sitting around moping when I got the call from the boss himself. "You've got a spot, get up here!' was the call. "Cool, see you in the morning," was my reply. "Why wait til morning?" Well you can't argue with the boss, so I did the lightning pack, praying I'd gotten the essentials, dodged ice and hog-sized wombats and got into the resort sometime after 1am.

The first day gave us the same weather as last year, and it got everyone up to the comp site pretty keen. Blue skies and a slight tailwind blowing over a 90 foot step-down booter followed up by an 80 foot channel gap had the crew frothing. After a few mellow straight airs to get things started, it wasn't long before the crew started feeling out a few spins. The tailwind pushed a lot of people way down the landing, and only the strongest crew held out from getting squashed into the landing from way up there.

Torstein had a few free days on his hands again so showed up, tossed down his switch backside 1260 amongst a bag of other smooth-as tricks to take out the best trick of the event. As always it was a total pleasure to see this kid slay everything with killer smoothness. Oh shit, I'm turning into a Torstein groupie.

Not that it was only the Torstein show, crew from all over the world rolled into town to get their steez on and had a good time under the sun. It's definitely an event different to most, and was again well worth being there, good times all week. Next stop, Stylewars NZ at the Snowpark. Come on liver, back to work.