Heres to my Iphone and Random Snap Shots

Bevan Hall. Skate Park. Rad.

Its a horse mixed with a cow. Cardrona Valley. Rad.

I spotted this perfect poo, whilst Liam was having a spew. Rad.

Crown Range and Old vinyl that needs to come off my car. Rad

Liam and Bevan pointing at something. Rad

Lester Perry. Quiet Chaos. Rad.

NewsWeek Episode 1

So. Its finally happened! Episode 1 of NewsWeek is live at Nzsnowboard.com

Its been a journey getting to this stage, but stoked to make it a reality. I've never scripted news before, so its a learning curve all round.The whole 80's/star wars theme was prompted when I found the Intro Muisc on the net. I want to keep the programme fun! First ep is a bit rough, but I'll sort all the teething problems shortly. Hyners Presenting will be on lock soon too! We'll be rolling out the next episode next week at Coronet Peak.

Big thanks to Jason Morrice for the motion graphics, and Lester Perry for the Logo. More on Newsweek shortly.

Terrrraarrrrrrssss

As I start to indulge in retarded file sizes of hi definition, and my ever growing multi media extravaganza, the hard drives keep stacking up. I've got two terra's set aside for Newsweek & MDTV which I've just started using... this brings my Hard drive collection to 7 in total..

Upside down Hard drives and the best shoes in the world

Some Jeans from Lester Perry at Quiet Chaos turned up just yesterday. I got the Driver Jean, and I'm pretty impressed with the quality. The fits nice, the stretch denim is super comfy, and they mold to my loins very nicely.

In other news, I've been frantic dealing with editing programmes, New Cameras, and Harddrives. My favorite Muesli got the worst rating on Target last night which left me rather gutted. And I swallowed the plastic top of a pen... Not sure how thats gonna come out.

Holler Blog - 24/05/08

Robett threw down some words on what we did on the weekend... nzsnowboard.com

On Saturday myself, Nick Hyne, Tim Pierce and Mad Dawg - the main man behind Snow Park's Terrain Park Posse all made the mission to Snow Park for Day 1 of filming for 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek'. We even got to go RIDE a foot of fresh powder and get some snowmobile tows!!! Seriously...... Check the pics!!

With a big load of fresh falling at the end of last week we had to get up the hill. And with Nick Hyne rolling into town for a day of filming for 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' we knew we may even be able to get a few sneaky turns in 3 weeks before the hill had even opened..... It was on!!!

We left Wanaka at about midday with a quick stop at the Doughbin for the mandatory coffee and it felt like old times walking into the place with snowboard pants on just like you would on a normal day in the season. The drive up was sweet with snow nearly reaching the bottom of the valley and a cold wet drizzle meaning it was probably snowing up the hill.

Fresh snow in the Snow Park Carpark

To stop any public accessing Snow Park the boys had locked the gate near the top, but lucky for us we were rolling with the infamous Mad Dawg so all was well. We broke through the foot of ungroomed fresh in the mighty Hilux and boosted through to the top car park.
Top To Bottom Coverage at Snow Park NZ

Winter is definately here

Snow Park looked majestic...... covered from top to bottom with a foot of fresh even on the picnic tables outside the Woolshed.. So we got out Tim's new camera that was worth an arm and a leg and got down to business. I held the cue cards for a bit and Nick Hyne worked his magic in front of the lens. We cranked out the 1st Ep so then it was time for a shred......
'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' Presenter Nick Hyne all smiles!!

Having not ridden in a while me and Nick were both amping and after a quick skidoo tow up to the top we were strapped in and enjoyed an epic 1st run down Snow Parks box run slashing and boosting off any roller we could find. Tim got a few slow-mo shots of a some jumps and pow turns and we finished off hitting this sewage tank jib thing.. Nick killed it .....

Holler ready for his first turns

The footage for all this can be seen THIS FRIDAY at 9am for the Premier Episode of 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek'.

Rollerboards

The one and only Nick Hyne just linked me this, skateboard sillyness. Nice one.

Wow.

This weekend has seen a few of the snow stragglers roll in to town. They bought the snow with them, and the hills have been hit with more than a foot in places. LEGIT base for the season. We've already been out and about and got a few shots. Getting back on the grind! How ever all I have to show in photo form, is Friday night.

Robett Hollis & Groupie Love

Its a fury trout.

Getting the Shot.

Its quite nice getting used to the courier turning up every day with something new. The knocking on the door is becoming a sound that I'm getting used to.

One of the latest arrivals, is my Video tripod. I've decided to go with the Manfrotto 503 HDV head, on Manfrotto 055MVF Mag fibre legs. The boys at photo.co.nz did me a really good deal. I thoroughly recommend purchasing equipment from there.

While we're talking Frotto tripods, i throughly recommend the 725B for shooting stills, and mounting flashes. Its really light weight, sturdy and compact.

Boxes, I've equired soooo many boxes.

I like Legs & Head

Close up Head.

Jossi Wells - NZ Skier

Following a previous post about NZskiers first issue, and there new website, heres a sneak peak at one of the stills that I shot of Jossi From Last year, that got run in the new issue. October VIP booter session. Video footage will be dropping later this year.

GO BUY A COPY - www.nzskier.com

Isenseven - Teenage Love Graffiti Trailer.

Like Whoa. Robett H0llis linked me up to this. Isensevens trailer for 'Teenage Love Graffiti'

Pretty inspiring. Go watch it over here!

www.isenseven.de

Ken Block Crash at SnowPark

More youtube goodness, from the DC/Snowpark Rally Car/Snowboarding extravaganza.

Snow Park NZ Gangsters.

Stumbled accross this a while ago, but just found it on youtube again, its gold. I might try get hold of these thugs and interview them if there around this season.

Snowboarder Chris Blinkhorne to ride QuietChaos - Winter 2008.

Whilst hung over last year.. We shot this. Chris Drops bombs. Cardrona.

Quietchaos Clothing is amped to welcome snowboarder Chris Blinkhorne to the team!

After a successful northern hemisphere season in Tahoe bagging banger after banger with various photographers, Blinkhorne returns to NZ to “pay off the credit card” and prepare for the NZ winter.

Haling from Wellington, Chris will once again relocate to Wanaka for the winter season, to shred the slopes and work part-time at SnowparkNZ.

Chris will be repping QuietChaos through the season, rocking QuietChaos Jeans when he’s not strapped to a board.

Keep tabs on what Chris is up to over the season on www.quietchaos.co.nz

QuietChaos offers a range of Denim and tees for Girls and Guys who are looking for something, are stoked on having fun and are a little different and unique without straying too left field.

QuietChaos is available nationwide, dealer enquires are always welcome.

Chris has got pop.. and can make ANY tranny work. Jesse Wilkinsons backyard mini a perfect example.

Australian New Zealand Snowboarding # 1 2008

Issue # 1 of Australian New Zealand Snowboarding Magazine for 2008, is starting to hit the shelves. It is an absolute banger of an issue, with heaps of amazing content. Johnny Mac gets it done! Rad to see heaps of post going down on images.

I managed to get a little shot in there of the Dark Horse Andrew Kennerly, on a pretty ridiculous kink in Japan... It was retardidly cold this day.

http://www.trubmx.blogspot.com/

The one and only James Keane is flowing a blog, 'tru bmx' check it out - http://www.trubmx.blogspot.com/

When not looking after the kids James is flowing trails, park, or digging like no other. True passion.

Spent

The season hasn't even started and I'm spent, but trolling through images from January/February in Japan made me remember what all the stupid work is for!

Snowboarding = fun

NZskier.com

2007/2008 has seen a massive turnaround in the New Zealand Skiing Industry. Last year, Hamish Ackland took over NZskier Magazine, and put out a bangin first issue for 2008. Not only that, but Hamish has launched NZskier.com, and is working with Jas Hancox, in producing NZskierTV, something very similar to what Robett and I are doing at NZsnowboard.com

Its awesome to see, and can only mean good things, Jas is producing some good work, and his 2nd DVD 2Meke, will be plastered on the cover of the 2nd Issue.

Go check it out ! - www.nzskier.com

HD time!

Well, one of the investment of my life turned up this morning. After what seemed like a ridiculously slow courier, I now have my brand new work horse, in my hands.

As previously stated I'm moving to the true HD world, and the camera of choice, was the Panasonic HVX, operating on the P2 System.

I've got a hell of alot of learning to do, but am psyched at what I'll be able to shoot with this camera... Got a bunch of audio gear, glass, and a new tripod coming soon, so updates on that soon!

1 x hang over, 1 x espresso coffee, 1 x instant coffee, 1 x water, 1 x HVX

Newsweek Press Release

The crew at NZsnowboard.com are proud to announce the launch of 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek'.

What it NZsnowboard.com Newsweek?

'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' will be a weekly news show that will include all the latest industry news, snow conditions, events, reports, comps and goss. A internet TV show that encapsulates the entire NZ snowboard scene EVERY WEEK throughout the season.

When will it air?

Every Friday from May 30th - Oct 10th 2008.

Who is presenting NZsnowboard.com Newsweek?

Pro snowboarder Nick Hyne

Who is producing NZsnowboard.com Newsweek?

Newsweek will be all filmed in High Definition by Tim Pierce - the man behind NZsnowboard.com's MDTV series and Trick Tips DVD.

"I'm extremely excited to be producing Newsweek for 2008 with NZsnowboard.com. We're able to use NZsnowboard.coms Video Platform to broadcast the latest news weekly, worldwide! This programme will be News with a twist, driven through youth culture, and snowboarding. Produced by riders - for riders. You'll be hooked!" said Tim Pierce, Producer of NZsnowboard.com Newsweek.

'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' will be presented by Byrning Spears and is aiming to become the leading snowboard news source in the country.

Holler from NZsnowboard.com was also very excited about the launch. "The biggest thing about NZsnowboard.com Newsweek is it will be able to keep the world up to date with everything that's happening in the NZ scene all in one show! Last year we led the industry with MDTV and this year we expect 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' to open up a totally new section of the market. This type of show has never been done before in NZ so we are pumped to keep leading the charge of new initiatives and projects."

You can view the first episode of 'NZsnowboard.com Newsweek' on MAY 30th only on NZsnowboard.com.

Lismore Forrest Park Update 3.

The progress is continuing at the Lismore Forrest Mountainbike park at a rapid rate. The Four Four Three lads are doing an amazing job, turning what was a waist land, into an amazing facility for the public. Rumour is they may also be constructing a pump track at Hawea, and Luggate. Central Otago is definitely the epi-centre of Mountainbiking in NZ!

The Park will not be open for a while yet, but there will be an official opening day when it is completed.

I've taken a few snap shots on my Iphone, wont give away too much yet, but will go take some proper photos when its all finished. Props!

Looking up the main basin of the park, where small, medium, and large rythms will be. Berms, trails and jumps, flow in and out of this main area. Allowing the full trail style set up, into a decent set of rythms, then back out again to trails styles. An amazing set up, that you don't see anywhere else.

Andrew putting in work.

This is one of the jumps on the outside line, and the only jump you can see from Plantation Road. There is a line that completely misses the main basin, which has the largest jumps, and has full trail flow. Massive Berms, Deep Trannies, and wayyy to much fun. It will be interesting to see what goes down.

Jaimie Thompson, Getting it Done.

Snow Park/Farm Gondola Approved.

This is such amazing news. The Application for a Gondola up the Snow Park/Farm/New ski area that will be developed was approved. This is going to take NZ to the next level, both in snowboarding and mountainbiking. Read the P.R!

Press release – 14/05/2008

Cardrona Valley Gondola Approved

LAKE WANAKA, New Zealand (14 May 2008) The Lee family in the Cardrona Valley received approval today to build the first gondola in New Zealand to access a ski resort.

The $16.6million gondola project will service Snow Park NZ, Waiorau Snow Farm and a third planned ski area, Roaring Meg Resort.

The 3.8km-long gondola will ascend 975 vertical metres from the Cardrona Valley floor to the ski facilities on the Pisa Range. It will transport up to 1000 people per hour in gondola cars each holding eight passengers.

This is a landmark decision for the future of snow holidays in New Zealand said Sam Lee Snow Park NZ manager. “We have world class facilities available and can now deliver the whole package to ensure safety, ease of passage and an enjoyable mountain experience to our visitors. It is immensely important we can develop not only the ski fields but the means of access to them. There are so many benefits, we are thrilled,” he said.

The proposed 300 acre Roaring Meg Resort will offer downhill skiing and an expansive beginners’ area. With five chairlifts and the longest run covering 1800m the resort will exponentially add to the freestyle and cross country sports already on offer.

The approved proposal, submitted in July 2007, carries very few amendments relating to the engineering, design and environmental aspects. The consent’s key conditions focus on the development of public walking tracks around the top gondola station and across the valley. All of which have been agreed to.

The plans will now include the creation of an ecological walk around the top gondola station and to link with the Thouy's Gully DOC track, information cards in each of the gondola cars educating passengers about the history and important ecological sites along the gondola path and to allow the Cardrona Valley trail connecting Cardrona township to Wanaka crossing the Lee family property.

Snow Park from above.

Stef Zeestraten <<

I've Been trolling through some old photos, and making some sort of attempt to re organise the hundreds of gigs of history stored between several hard drives, when I came accross these photos.

Last year Stef Zeestraten and I were round for the epic October that unfolded ( Get the next issue of Manual Magazine to read about it ) . We got a bunch of shooting done, and heaps of hammers. Im just lining up an Interview with him for a Dutch magazine, which should be interesting.

Anyway, this particular night, November the 2nd. We'd been out back doing turns for the hell of it, which was amazingly fun. On the way back, the sun set, and we started being idiots on this funny pile of snow. Dutchy definately got the best wave.

Dutchy!

All sideways and shit!

Jimmy Sock.

This time last year, I was engulfed in the presence of the one and only Jimmy Sock. For those of you who do not know him, Jimmy Sock is one hell of a character. You have to meet him to get where I'm coming from. He came up to Wanaka last year, in some sort of crazy mindset, to tick off a whole tonne of rails pre season. It didnt matter what it took he was gonna get it done, and wanted me to shoot them.

After not doing a northern hemi, I too was on some sort of mission to get the first of the early snow. It all started off with a shoot up at the snowfarm, with the very first snow fall. ( May 11th 07 ) and the shot got run Contents page in NZsnowboarder. Heres a couple of left overs from that shoot.



After warming up at snowfarm, Jimmy continued on his task of taking down a whole lotta infamous rails around Wanaka. Shit, we even drove up to Christchurch to shoot some rails. The result of that trip being a Byrning Spears ad of Will Marshall. It was highly cropped, but this was the original image.


Sock wanted to pay his respect to the greatest bar in Wanaka. Out the back of shooters is one Gnarly Wall hugging kink. Mark Catsburg put his claim on this a few years back, the photo got run as an Alcoholic Ad. Its one hell of a gnarly kink, pressed right up against a wall. Jimmy got enough snow to put a patch at the top, and the bottom, and proceeded to get the job done. We were about 4 hits in, when we got kicked out. AND it was 8am!

Jimmy and the shooters kink.

All these missions were starting to get to Sock. Frustrations of no snow, no food, and sleeping in your car can get to any man. One of the last rails to tick off, was the Albert Town Rail. This thing is a behemoth. There was really no hope in hell from the start. But that didn't stop Sock. He still tryed it anyway. It brings me back to the chargers that ride for the hell of it. James has a pretty crazy attitude, and is certainly very entertaining. Rumour is he's coming back to Wanaka soon. LOOK OUT>>>>

NZsnowboard.com Trick Tips DVD Extras.

There are daily uploads going on over at NZsnowboard.com of extra footage that I shot for the Trick Tips 101 DVD. Go get your self a copy of the latest NZsnowboarder Magazine , and get the DVD FOR FREE! Extra footy dropping on nzsnowboard.com here.

New Look

Chris Arnison is responsible for the new look of this blog. Chris designed www.zerosandones.co.nz - Like it, Hate it? Let me know:

Chris, the man of many talents.

Developmentsnowparks.com

John Melville, the man the machine has just launched a website, - www.developmentsnowparks.com

Melville prides himself in building amazing pipes, and parks, and his work speaks for itself. John takes care of the Cardrona Terrain Park and Halfpipe in New Zealand, and gets flown around the globe to cut other pipes, spending a bunch of time in Korea. His driving support is keeping progressing New Zealand snowobarding, and its amazing to work with such a positive person. The last shoot we did at Cardrona last year, was on a monster table thats featured on his Website. An article ran on this in the latest NZ snow. Expect to see a bunch of shots elsewhere! This year we're planning for some unique features, so tune in to watch it go down!

Spoke # 28

Spoke Magazine # 28, is hitting shelves round the Country. Definitely one of the best issues with regards to Freeride Content. Issue Includes a whole lotta real interesting content, Mark Weir, Sam Blenkinsop, Summer of Shred Etc.... GO BUY A COPY! - www.spokemagazine.com

A still I shot of Ben Finney, ran on the contents page like so :

Kelly Mcgarry is CHARGING at the moment. Gravity Ad in Spoke, Invert Flatty on the frew Quarter at night.

P2

The first of my new HD equipment has arrived. I'm rolling with Panasonic, and my 32 GIG P2 Card just arrived. It is the largest card made for the HVX at the moment, although extremely over priced, I can't wait to use it!