Stagging Around : Ep1 : Cardrona Opening Day 2014

Cardrona Opening DAy 2014. Buckwild Bilzie takes us round Cardrona to meet the crew and get stoked for another season of snowboarding and skiing. Good snow coverage, nice little park. Heaps of fun to be back on snow, not on a board yet but skis were good fun non the less, well a little less.

DIE JOE BOO Ep3

Got out with Pete Novom and Joe Tyler for 5 laps out here in Niseko, Japan. 2 Laps out on Super Ridge and 2 out in Waterfall and one… well, you’ll just have to go exploring to find out where that lap was!

DIE JOE BOO Ep 2B

Biff is Trislideable. Skis, Teles and boards. Also sings a little too

The best job ever…

So I’m heading to Japan in 2 days. They have had over 2 meters of snow already this season. That is a lot! While I’m there I am going to be traveling and also teaching snowboarding. I love snowboarding for so many different reasons. The view alone is often enough to make you get up early, but the rush of dropping in to a big jump, the thrill of finding a new untracked line, secret pow stashes, funny chair lift rides with mates, the reward of landing a new trick or slaying mogul fields after working on down unweighted turns…. all of these things alone would make it worth it. But together, the whole package is just unreal. It makes me laugh when I’m asked if I am going to get a real job. In an office. working for 50 weeks a year to maybe do a week of riding… just not for me. I love every single run every single day out on the mountain.

So, how did I get here? Well I took a course with the Rookie Academy in Wanaka New Zealand. It gave me the skills to get where I am today. But dont just take my word for it, this is a video I made about the rookie courses, interviewing other ex students.

Jas Bruce Alpine Coach / Snowsports Instructor

Jas Bruce – Alpine Race Coach and Snowsports Instructor from John-Jo Ritson on Vimeo.

Best Day of the 2012 winter season? Its a big call.

So. Last Monday Treble Cone had 50 plus cms of heavy snow. We thought it was going to be the last dump. In fact I called the video from that day Late Season Dump. And you can see it here:

Late season DUMP! from Treble Cone on Vimeo.

However, during Saturday and into Saturday night, it was raining cats and dogs in town, and cold too…
The forecast was for cloud and rain and snow showers. All things that point to a day editing rather than filming. But I diligently got up early and sussed the situation out. It was clearing… and sunny.

Got up to TC ASAP to capture one epic run of flips and spins on the front side. Once I had had a taste of how LIGHT and DRY the snow was got to the bottom, put the camera way and went and got some! BOOM!

Here is the edit from that day…

Best Day of 2012? Riders and Sliders last day. from Treble Cone on Vimeo.

I ended up getting a couple of laps int he saddle basin before coming back to work in home basin filming the last day of riders and sliders. This is a 10 week program that runs on Sundays. School kids in lessons parents skiing.

Once I had enough footage of that, I once again put the camera away and rode for myself. I landed 2 tame dogs aka nollie front flips off the sides of easy rider which was the first time. I also was busting out my new Burton Ante Up jacket that I got cheap as chips for $99 on www.lastseason.co.nz – i have nothing to do with them other than buying a $269 USD jacket for $106 NZD delivered.

You can see all the videos I have made this 2012 winter here.
And you can see all the Treble Cone videos I have made here.

Snow Skool Instructor Courses: Wanaka New Zealand.

The winter snow season in New Zealand is from June 28th (ish) until September 30th (ish). 3 months. Even though this is about half the length of the northern winter, coming to New Zeland to train, get certified and keep skills sharp has been a common practice for many snow enthusiasts.

In all of New Zealand there is about 25+ ski feilds of varying sizes. Wanaka in the Southern Alps is the top location with 3 awesome and very different resorts just 35-45min drive away.

Snow Skool run a 10 week programme here and asked me to make weekly videos documenting the course.

Recipe for a week in Wanaka: Snow Skool in Wanaka, NZ. from SnowSkool on Vimeo.

is the latest edit I made on behalf of Snow Skool. I filmed on Monday the 3rd September in overcast skies with 50+cms of new snow! It was heavier and wetter towards the bottom and quite challenging. This made for some funny shots of everyone flailing around in the snow. The next day was sunny and the saddle opened. I just had to get shots for Treble Cone this day and went straight to the bottom of the summit slopes to film, cheer and cry as I got people ripping untracked light pow. Got some good shots that made it on to U Live TV! My first big slot on national television. 40 second clip showcasing TC epic terrain. You can see that video here:

Late season DUMP! from Treble Cone on Vimeo.

All the footage shown on U Live TV was also in this clip above.

Once I had the TC shots I cought up with the Snow Skool group as they rode the Saddle looking fro drops to work on vertical movement relating to pressure. ON the way abck to the home basin I cought up with the skier group and got some shots of those guys working on vaious aspects of paralelle turns, demos and teaching and increased performance.

After that I boosted home to begin off loading CF cards.
On Sunday we headed back to Amigos Mexican place 7 weeks to the day (see that video here) that the Snow Skoolers arrived in town. I had once been nearly knocked over by the “death wings” so got some for the guys to try, to my disappointment I had one to find out it was about 25% as hot as when I had last had it. The boys were still impressed with the heat, but they got it easy let me tell you!

You can see all of my Snow Skool Videos here and all my videos from Treble Cone here. Or just ALL of my edits from 2012 NZ winter here.

You can visit my web site here: www.RideClass.com

Thanks!

John-Jo

Head Honcho @ RideClass Productions

Wanaka Workers Wace from Outside Sports, Wanaka NZ.

Outside Sports Wanaka Workers Wace from Treble Cone on Vimeo.

http://www.rideclass.com

Ski & Snowboard Video for Treble Cone, Wanaka NZ: Bithday Cake and Backflips.

Skiing and snowboarding in the southern hemisphere can be a surreal experience after Canada. I was riding and filming yesterday am, and came home, sat outside and drank a beer, in the sun, in my t shirt. And snowboard pants, I was not naked.

We still have not had any more snow but good conditions on trails makes it still awesome fun t o shred up at Treble Cone. Only 2 days ago did we brake the inversion layer of doom and gloom here in town, but TC has been sunning it up every day above the lake of cloud below.

I wanted to get this across in this weeks edit, so I got up nice and early to do a time lapse of the stars, sunrise, and inversion layer all in one. The moon was unexpectedly out which really killed some of the astro aspect to the time lapse, but still, I was quite happy with how it turned out. A disproportionate amount of time and effort went into making what is essentially a 5 second shot.

I also wanted to cover one of the Race programs that was going on, and include some killer shots of Richie spinning off Easy Rider AKA Steezy Rider, and  Campbell sent it of Main St and threw a backkie. Perfect for some Super Slow Mo, replicating 1000fps.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/45631904″>TC Cat’s birthday and more.</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/treblecone”>Treble Cone</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Thanks to all those who jumped in front of the camera this week!

My website is www.rideclass.com go check it out.  😉

Wanaka Winter 2012: Snowboarding Filming Living.

So back into another winter we go, but after -35*c… I have to say it its pretty mild here in Wanaka. Not that it is not cold here, just that I can go out in a T-shirt during the day, which you can’t really in Banff.

It has been cold enough up the hill, with snowmaking going more often than not…in fact it is pretty much constant the days I’ve been up there. I went up o the Thursday we were due to open, but due to very strong winds (120kpm gusts) they delayed opening till Friday. Went up early and got a time lapse of the sun rise and early morning journey from Wanaka. Did some follow cam laps and slider shots, bailed just after midday and got the edit out by about 6pm. Was a good day and people were stoked, including me, it was good to ride again.

After that there were a few things I needed to cover in the next week to make the 2nd edit for Treble Cone. Ice carving and conditions in the saddle. The ice carving take a long time and a large change occurs so chose to time lapse this while getting a few cheeky laps in. Then came back the next day to see the finished project. As they are stationary, I chose to use slider shots to bring something that would add depth. The objects moving at different speeds past the camera help us gauge distance. The guys n gals carving did an amazing job.

I caught up with one of the ski instructors Campbell Smith, and hsi freeski group over in Shooter to finish off the video. I shot them at 60fps as I knew I wanted to do some superslomo and the more frames the better! Also a higher shutter sppeed than the 180 rule, help out in post. Got some nice shots down to about 1000fps.

Check out some slomo here, in Week One 2012:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/45192854″>Week One 2012</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/treblecone”>Treble Cone</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Check out the video of opening day:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/44913313″>2012 Opening Day!</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/treblecone”>Treble Cone</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

So, I’m all set up for the season. Have good housemates, good set up, double glazing and a big kick ass desk. A beautiful work place, which makes my day job pretty easy.

Thanks to snowboarding, the support of my friends, family. Peace.