Surface tour – Fernie

Strain — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:35:08 +0000

We limped into Fernie in the wee hours of the morning following our ditch detour on the crowsnest pass, and woke around noon to a light drizzle at the base – not exactly a warm welcome for our return to BC. But, the hill at Fernie has a Grouse Grind worth of vert and the view across the valley suggested that it was snowing up top, so Eliel, Rob and I saddled up and rode through the rain towards the snow line. Conditions were mostly mashed pow-tatoes, but a short boot pack to the top of Knot Chutes rewarded us with fresh tracks and fun lines above the mank.

After a couple laps of sloppy pow we relocated over to the rail park – no jumps at Fernie – where El and I spent more time oogling lines beyond the ropes , wishing the weather was better, than actually riding. Our second day was more of the same – shot a couple photos, but the light was blah and the pow was sloppy. There be lines in them thar hills, though… a return trip when the snow is better is definitely on my to-do list.

Joel threw together another edit, starring Rob Heule killing the rail park and yours truly killing a bag of hot dogs:

Quick Cut – Surface Demo Tour Does Fernie from Jah Raven Creation on Vimeo.

The ski scene in Fernie was stoked on the demo tour – Grand Central, a local bar, even threw us a mustache party, complete with a schwag giveaway for the hombre rockin’ the best ‘stache. A pair of fancy, limited edition 10/11 Surface poles went to the gnarliest trucker ‘stache I’ve ever laid eyes on. Mad props. Apologies if my details on the night are sparse – Grand Central also hooked us up with a bar tab. Big thanks to Paul for a fun (and hazy) night.

On the road with Surface Skis

Strain — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:36:02 +0000

I’ve been living a fantastic ski-bum nomad lifestyle since I left my “traditional” job – a temp position as a carpenters helper – in early November. Luckily, as soon as I entered the world of unemployment, Whistler got hit with the snowiest month in their history, and I found myself caught up in a whirlwind of travel, shooting, and shredding that hasn’t shown any sign of letting up any time soon. Since the first week of November, I’ve been living out of 4 bags – camera, laptop, board and duffel, have slept in no less than 20 different beds/floors/couches/cars, and have traveled over 10000km – all by car – to ride 12 different resorts.

The majority of that travel can be accounted for in two trips – my journey to Vail with the Katal Innovations crew to help set up The Landing Pad (which I still need to write about… ), and my most recent gongshow loop through interior BC with Eliel Hindert and Shayne Metos of Surface Skis, demoing their sticks and shooting photos/filming with their team. Over the course of 14 days we hit Grouse, Apex, Big White, Silver Star, Revlestoke, Kicking Horse (sort of), COP, Fernie, Whitewater, Red and ended back ‘home’ in Whistler.

The first leg of the trip pushed through the Okanagan – Apex, Big White, and Silver Star. Eliel seems to be keen on writing in depth on each tour stop, so instead of repeating his stories – we were within an arms reach of eachother for most of the trip – I’ll direct you to his blog for his take on things. I’ll warn you though: he mumbles when he talks…

Some photos from the ski hills of the Okanagan:

The next segment of our tour was supposed to be Revelstoke, Kicking Horse, and Louise… but technical difficulties turned that into 2 great days at RMR, an urban session in Golden, and a park slayer at COP in Calgary. I’ll explain in the next post… I’m taking off to Colorado again in the morning, but with some website issues sorted (read: I suck at wordpress), updates should come more frequently. I think.

Andrew Strain Photography » winter

Surface tour – Fernie

On the road with Surface Skis