A Mended Wing
This summer on June 25th I underwent my first surgery to heal my dislocating left shoulder. Needless to say having your arm pop out of it’s socket is not the most comfortable feeling in the world and the more you do it the easier it comes out. After doing my research and seeing my local doctor for a referance I decided it was time to mend my wing. Two weeks after meeting with the surgeon I travelled south to Squamish BC where Dr. Brooks-Hill performed a Bankart repair to reattach my damaged ligaments.
The reality of surgery and all that goes with it was something I couldn’t have fully anticipated. Everything from how the medication and pain killers affected me to understanding I couldn’t participate in my summer activities was hard to deal with at first. Summer was here and I’d have to “sit this one out.” I made the best of it by changing my focus from athletic activities to other satisfying ways to stay busy. My best bud/ski partner Geoff Bate had the same surgery a week before I did on the same shoulder with the same surgeon. Our idea was that together we created one useful set of arms. We’d go to the ropeswing, but instead of hurling our meat out of the trees and into the glaciel runoff water we tended to a garden and played music on the beach. The down time was especially key in learning more about the mental aspect of my sport. Visualizing, setting goals, preparing my mind for competition and learning to understand how my body works were all valuable lessons I hadn’t focused on as seriously before hurting myelf.
During the fall months I spent a great deal of time hiking around the Pemberton/Whistler area which craved my need for exploration. I also started working closely with my physioterapists to bounce back from my surgery. My goal for post op was to get in the best shape of my life. Lifting at the new gym facility at the Pemberton Community centre, along with some grueling cross country bike rides and trail runs have kept me wanting more. Now 6 months later as Whistler/Blackcomb resorts opens I’m finishing up work as a painter to get back on my sticks and charge this season!
Special shout out and thanks to Cathy Ivany at Local Motion Physiotherapy for keeping me motivated and making my stretching/workouts fun and Lisa Kudla for developing my program and teaching me how stay conditioned for my sport.
See you on the slopes!
Baldface Lodge, Nelson BC
Baldface Lodge is a magical catskiing operation nestled in the heart of British Columbia’s Kootenay mountain range. After a ten minute heli ride from Nelson, BC and an elevation gain of 6700 feet, I arrived at the lodge. The energy level was high as our crew aticipated the next week’s powder extravaganza (we had heard you can shred lines all day and never hit another set of tracks). On hand shooting some epic stills was the one and only Bryn Hughes. Check out the “Photographers” links to visit his website. I can remember barely sleeping the first night as I imagined floating through the old growth trees in a cloud of the cold white stuff.
With the January snow light and fluffy and the weather on our side all week long, Mike Hopkins and I took full advantage of what Baldface had to offer.
Our hoots and hollers could be heard echoeing through the forest all afternoon as we played games of cat and mouse in front of the lens.
Soul riding amongst the trees gives me unrivalled feelings of peace. No matter what may be going on in the world, a seemingly endless maze of BC foilage keeps me smiling inside and out. However, there are some times I crave a boost of adrenaline that can only be satisfied by hurling my bones off the side of a cliff. Luckily Baldface has the best of both worlds.
When it comes to catching some good ol’ fashioned air time sometimes it’s fun to step out a take off for maximum pop. These jumps are perfect for doing the “grab” and “tweak.”
One of my many valuable lessons learned on this trip. If it gets tight, you better have your hand up front. No one likes a branch in the mouth!
One afternoon Rossignol Team Manager and all around Guru Paddy Kaye decided we should build a jump. Luckily for us our buddy from the Lodge used his cat skills to push a pile of snow on top of the heli pad. From there we continued to park a Suzuki with tracks on it under the jump. Hey, may as well make things a little more interesting right? The result was a good vibe session with some fun tricks.
After the sun sets and we fill up on a hearty meal it’s hard not to throw the sticks back on and get busy with some jibbing. With the help of some keen lodge workers, Mike and I set up a jump over the Lodge’s sauna. We got the session started with some 180s and 360s over the roof. The landing on the back was deep and things started to heat up. After a few hand drags it was time to call it quits for the night, after all we had to wake the next day early and do it all again. Tough stuff…
I’d like to send a huuuge shout out to everyone at Baldface Lodge! Thanks for making my stay so memorable. Also a big thanks to Paddy Kaye and Jason Newell at Rossignol, Bryn Hughes for his artistic endeavours and Mike Hopkins for being a bro brah. To those of you who haven’t been yet I suggest you get on it. Check out www.baldface.net to book your stay. Hopefully I’ll see you there for some turns this winter!
Austin Ross
Check out this video clip from a US TV Network that did a profile on Austin for their show. The host is none other than the “original hot dog,” Bob Legasa. Hope you like it! Thanks to Peak Video.
Dark Horse park edit
Hey shredders!
So I’m learning how to manage my new website and I just figured out how to link videos from youtube.com! I wanted to share an edit with you that I made last spring in a couple days at Whistler/Blackcomb with the help of my buddy Blair Richmond. There’s some shakey helmet cam footy (from Baldface) at the beginning that may make you a bit dizzy but hang in there. The edit is mostly rails and boxes in the park. This is just an example of the kind of videos you can expect to be updated on this site all season long. Keep checking back for more jumps, pow slashing, cliff drops, pillows and trees and some cool urban set ups. Hope you enjoy! Cheers!
Mt. Baker, Washington
This past January I had the opportunity to join Dana Flahr on a road trip down to Mt. Baker, Washington which is about a three and a half hour drive from my house in Pemberton. Dana, myself and TGR filmer Rick Johnson piled into Dana’s F150 and headed for the US border. We stayed with our good friends from Whistler, Sheldon and Taylor. Sheldon has an awesome trailer half an hour from the mountain and was gracious enough to introduce us to his home away from home and an amazing powder resource known as Mt. Baker. The first day we linked up with the one and only Grant Gunderson who’s shot just about every picture you’ve seen published at Baker. Armed with a grin on his face and his camera around his neck he proceeded to show us to his favourite spots to get face shots.
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After a quick boot pack off the main road at the resort we made our way to a great pillow run in the trees. I decided to stop for a minute and slip out a take off so I could try some tricks into the powder. A couple cork 540s and some soft switch landings made for an awesome session.
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After we finished up that run we ski’d back down to the road where our buddies van was parked and drove up to do it again! NOFX’s “Punk In Drublic” pumped from the stereo system as we bounced around the inside of the van awaiting the next drop off. Skiing is fun!
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Kamloops, BC
So you’ve got every issue of Powder memorized from cover to cover, you’ve worn out your copies of the latest ski flicks and you’ve been bouncing off the walls as you count down the days until the snow flies and your resort opens up? Sounds like a lot of people I know during the fall months, myself included.
In November 07 I got a call from Jeff Thomas at Theory 3 who said it had just snowed in the city of Kamloops. So I jump in with rail master Frank Raymond (who lived three houses down) and we head for the city. This was my first urban trip and I was anxious to try sliding some big rails and hopefully get comfortable doing some tricks I had worked on in the park. Our photographer Dan Carr was as excited as we were to get out the gear and make some magic happen.
We drove around to different buildings with our radar out for decent sized rails to get nasty on. When we found a long, smooth down bar to hit we got to work. First we had to salvage some scaffolding from a construction site up the street. We then set it up on a grassy field and there we had ourselves a starting ramp for speed. Frank made sure to stress that the building of our jump on to the rail should be little more than a couple shovel fulls of snow on the hard concrete step. This makes for a good ollie on style jib. I also learned that removing any snow from the stairs makes for a better picture (and makes the consequences a little higher for falling off, luckily that never happened).
One day we went to a local college and set up an interesting wooden hand rail that Jeffy had scoped earlier. I had never slid wood before but the others assured me it was mellow as long as you didn’t catch the edge of your ski. After a couple minutes of looking at it I gave it a go and things went smoothly. The rail was right next to a rock retaining wall and an old pick up truck with a flat tire that made for an interesting back drop.
Combine that with a decent sunset and there you have all the ingredients for a cool rail slide photo.
This trip definately raised my interests in rail sliding and gave me ideas for new tricks I wanted to work on once I got home and the mountains opened. This year I hope to continue the tradition of making my way to the first city in BC that gets snow in their town to seek out some interesting set ups and get a few photos along the way. Keep checking in at my blog to see where this years rail mission will be.
Here’s a couple great candid shots of our crew on the last night as we made our way home. Thanks for the good times boys!
Check out this clip of “B Reel” shot’s. Some of the rails from Kamloops are in there as well as a couple pow pow shots from a day of sledding in the Tricouni area of Whistler, BC. Special thanks to Blair Richmond for the editing.
Dubai, UAE
In May of 2007, I flew to the opposite side of the world to visit Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski area. The city was unlike anything I had ever laid eyes on. Thirteen percent of the world’s construction cranes stood tall against the horizon as we made our way from the airport to the Kempinski Mall of the Emirates on our first day.
The hotel is a whopping 1.3 million square feet. Inside you can find everything from designer clothing outlets to 5 star restaraunts to cars for sale. The project took 10, 000 immigrant workers 3 years to complete. The interior was an amazing example of the pride they take in keeping their 6 star hotel looking good around the clock.
The pool deck was a great way to unwind before heading down to the dome for a few turns. Eating burgers at the swim up bar was a luxury I had never experienced.
One day as we scouted locations by car I snapped some pictures of some of the many projects in the works in downtown Dubai. The architecture was very unique; I caught myself staring at some buildings trying to understand how they would have been built.
This buiding reminded me of the Emerald City that Dorothy and friends visit at the end of their mission through Oz.
This is Burj Al Arab, the only 7 star hotel in the world. We entered the front doors with camera equipment and were immediately told that if we weren’t guests, we couldn’t stay. Needless to say security was tight.
Here’s a shot of me and my partner in crime, Andreas Hatveit (08 X Games Gold Medalist). The large slanted building in the back? You guessed it, the ski dome. At night, the ring that circles the hill lights up in a series of colors. It’s a wild site.
One afternoon we made our way to the water. I like to make a point of swimming when I’m visiting a new country or body of water. This time around I checked the Persian Gulf off my list.
Some locals were surprised to see the cameras but warmed up when we let them take a peek at what we were shooting.
At one point during the trip we took an elevator to the top of a building to see what the scenery was looking like. We were lucky enough to be observing on a day that had little wind because wind storms in the desert make it impossible to see very far.
You can see the world’s tallest tower in the reflection of this shot. Luckily enough Collin was there to capture it all on film. Atta boy.
The hottest afternoon of the trip was when we visited the desert. We drove for about an hour and a half before we arrived at a small shack hidden in the rolling dunes. The temperature inside the van read 44 degrees celcius, the hottest I’ve ever experienced. A kind local lent us his toys and before I knew it Andreas and I were chasing eachother around on atvs under the blaring sun.
After a good rip around the dunes we cut the motors. Before heading back to the city we made two very special new friends, Mr. Jones and Mr. Sheelah.
Thanks to everyone at Warren Miller Entertainment. Especially Tom Day, Josh Haskins and my man Collin. Thanks to the Ski Dubai locals for being so welcoming and Andreas Hatveit for being an awesome room mate and one cool cat!
Welcome
As the colors change from the glowing green of summer here in Pemberton BC, to more rustic shades of yellow and brown I begin to imagine just how epic this winter season is going to be. I invite you to check in to my new website throughout the season to get a glimpse into some backcountry ski adventures, styled out park sessions and stories from one skiers mission around the globe. Keep an eye out for video edits to some kick ass music, still shots that’ll make you weep, and journal entries that’ll keep a stitch in your side. So as I head to the forest for another trek in the rain, I’d like to say thanks for stopping by.
ARoss
