A Chilean Volcano Venture

This summer I spent a week in Patagonia with the North Face team. We hiked and splitboarded up a volcano, camped and rode. Click here to watch the video and keep an eye out for the February issue of Transworld Snowboarding Magazine for the full story.

John Jackson Cover of TWS Photo Annual

After a long day of shooting in AK we flew back to our lodge and I went straight to my room and downloaded the days images. I knew I had a few bangers in there but it wasn't until I saw this shot on my screen that I realized how good it really was. After seeing this shot for the first time, I think John and I both knew deep down this shot was going on the cover.

New TWS Cover Shot of Devun Walsh

I've been shooting Devun Walsh for almost 20 years now. I've watched him go from the kid without a sponsor, to the kid everyone wanted to look like, to the legend he is today. It took him a lot of hard work, on and off the snow. Whether it meant hiking the jump just one more time, driving solo to Utah for a photo shoot or only spinning a switch backside 5 because a 12 will look like shit, Devun knows that being a professional snowboarder is more than chuckin' whatever the newest trick is. He does it all better than anyone else out there, and here is the proof.

Dana White Spends $5K at TWS.

This summer Dana White, president of the UFC, visited the Transworld offices in Carlsbad California to speak at a sales meeting. Apparently he saw this Mike O'Meally photo hanging on the wall in the skate department and needed to have it. Everything is for sale I guess, especially when your potential client walks around with a gangsters wad in his pocket 24/7.

For $5k Dana literally took the photo from the wall and back to his jet, which didn't fit into the Carlsbad airport. Bummer.

Dana removing his new piece from the wall.

Skin Phillips flippin' through 5K.

Outside the TWS office in Carlsbad.

Dana and Skate photo editor Skin Phillips, I hope O'Meally sees some of that cake.

Team Shoot Out 2010 - We Are The Defending Champions

Last year I teamed up with Rome Snowboards and Bear Mountain to compete in Transworld SNOWboarding's Team Shoot Out and took top honours. This year we defended our title against 3 new teams. The photos and video's have been submitted and we wait the announcement of the 2010 TWS Team Shoot Out winner.

Laurent Nicolas Paquin - elbow rail 50-50 to stairs.

Shoot Out Contest Breakdown

The contest goes down in a two-week window: seven days of build time and seven days of ride time.

Each team is provided with a maximum of 210 groomer labor hours and 240 hand crew labor hours by the host resort.

Each team consists of five riders (including one girl). If the team doesn’t include a female, they can only have four riders.

Rider substitutions can only be made if a team member is injured.

One photographer is assigned to shoot each team for the event.

Each team can use a maximum of two filmers to shoot video.

Each team must create a four-minute final video and submit a gallery of six photos for judging.

Judging is broken into the event’s three main components: video, photos, and overall creativity.

The winning team is awarded the September cover.

The Team Shoot Out winner is determined by adding the judging scores of all the contest criteria for the highest possible points total.

Submitted Photo #1 - Eiki Helgason

Submitted Photo #2 - Johnnie Paxson

Submitted Photo #3 - Will Lavigne

Submitted Photo #4 - Johnnie Paxson

Submitted Photo #5 - Johnnie Paxson

Submitted Photo #6 - Laurent Nicolas Paquin

2010 Transworld SNOWboarding Team Shootout

Its spring time and the busiest time of year for me. You wont be getting a lot of updates here since I barely have time to sleep. Its been a great season for me, I've spent the majority of it in Whistler but it's not even close to done. Right now I am at Bear Mountain in sunny California working with the Rome team on the second round of the Team Shootout. Last year we won and have a lot to live up to. Check out the video of what we've been up to.

Top secret day 1 from www.helgasons.com on Vimeo.

My Early Snowboard Photography Career 1992-1997

Every week I get at least one email from a guy who wants to become a snowboard photographer. They want to know what I did to get where I am now. The answer is simple. Shoot and submit. I used to take photos of my friends on weekends and then send them to the mags. I shot with an old manual camera on cheap print film and processed it in 24 hours at the drug store. Then I would send a self addressed stamped envelope to Jon Foster, TWS photo editor back then, with all my "jems". I had no clue what I was doing, and I'm sure it showed. Here is a photo I took of Devun Walsh on Blackcomb in '92 that I submitted to TWS. It would have been one of my first submissions. Devun and I were just weekend warriors back then.

In 1993 I had been shooting skate and snow photos for about a year and had a few shots published in a local zine that you could pick up at the local skate/snow shop. At this time I had saved up enough extra cash to buy a used fisheye lens. Excited to try it out I took it to Whistler on one of my weekend trips. I remember telling this girl I knew that the closer you hold the lens to something, the bigger it would look. She thought that was great, lifted her shirt and said "make these look bigger then". From that moment I fell in love with the fisheye. The following day I shot this photo of Nova Scotian transplant Scott Doucette at the Camp of Champions. "Douce" is now back in Nova Scotia where he runs a record label with his boy Trevor Andrew and doing quite well.

One day in 1995 I was talking with Kevin Sansalone and told me that some backcountry hikers told him of a zone behind Mt. Seymour that we could hike to and build jumps. Only a few people would go back there each month so most days would be untracked. We woke up one sunny day and decided to check it out along with Devun Walsh. I remember post holing a trail up in knee deep powder for about 30 minutes before stopping to build a jump on a knuckle we found. I set up and starting shooting. Devun yelled for me to come up to where he was dropping in from and have a look. Wow, you can see the city from here! I spent the rest of the session shooting from behind showcasing Vancouver in the background. It was on this day that the "city-booter" was born and from that day on, countless pros and wannabes have hiked this popular zone, turning the Seymour Backcountry into a household name.

In 1997, a group of us built this jump for the first time in the Mt. Seymour Backcountry and had Ross Steffy there to film it for Mack Dawg. Our crew was Rob Dow, Devun Walsh, Graham Clements and visiting pro Joey McGuire. Devun and Joey killed it with all kinds of 3's and 5's while Dow launched picture perfect methods for my camera. He wasn't too concerned about the video shot since he didn't have a spot in the movie. This photo was published as a Vans ad and won the "best ad" award in a Visual Arts magazine. Later that year, a photo I shot of Joey ended up on the cover of Snowboarder Magazine, and ever since the jump has been known as the McGuire hit.

For a few years around 1998 Rob Dow and Devun Walsh shared a basement suite of a house. Upstairs lived Dave Cashen and Graham Clements. This house, on Chesterfield Avenue in North Vancouver was known in the local snowboard community as the Chesterfield House. These guys didn't hold parties at the Chesterfield house, parties found the Chesterfield house. Every night was a new adventure, you just never knew who was gonna show up and what was gonna be lit on fire, stolen, broken or flipped upside down. One night we were all hanging out drinking and cabbed it downtown for the last 2 hours of the hip hop night at the Red Lounge. When we returned to the house all the doors downstairs were broken off the hinges and laying in the front yard. The kitchen floor was covered in broken glass and no one had any idea what happened. Just another weird night at the Chesterfield house. The next morning we woke up to sunny skies and headed to Whistler to shoot photos. I remember riding up the peak chair with Dev and he told me that he was still pretty drunk and not down to shoot. Until he got off the chair that is, and saw this cliff waiting for him on the backside. This was a pretty big cliff to stomp when your cross eyed.

Lucas Debari Photo - TWS October Issue

This photo of Lucas Debari was shot in one of Whistler's best backcountry spots. It has almost every type of terrain all easily accessible by snowmoblie.

This particular day in March started from the Mohawk gas station in the Whistler Creekside at 5 am. After stocking up on the days gas and food we rode about 10 km into the backcountry. We were the first crew up and had our pick of all the best jumps and cliffs. We started off with a few easy pat-down cliffs that took only a few minutes to shoot before heading to a spot where the crew wanted to build a huge jump. That was also very successful. While sitting on the lake having lunch, I looked over and started thinking of how this line of spines could be ridden. The angle to shoot was right from where my sled was parked. I thought maybe someone could come in from the left and make a few turns down the main spine. I brought it up with the crew and they were down. Lucas got to the top and said fuck it, I'm just gonna point it from here! Music to any photographers ears. He dropped in, straight lined it and air'd out at the bottom. Wow. He was so pumped that he went back up and air'd into the pocket and then air'd back out. That's that shot you will see in the People Creative movie this year, however the first photo without any tracks happens to be much better and is the photo here that was published in the October issue of TWS.

Story Behind The Shoot Out Photos

This is a video that Joe Carlino made with me about some of my photos that won the TWS Team Shoot Out. You can view the feature on TWS.

Transworld Snowboarding Cover Shoot

This season the editors at Transworld Snowboarding Magazine have decided that a photo of the latest and greatest product will be showcased on the cover, instead of your typical action photo that you saw for the past 20 or so years. With weeks of debates on how the product was going to be shot, the photo was now past due and needed to be shot now. I assisted photo editor Nick Hamilton on the job along with TWS art director Dustin Koop and associate art dude John Antoski. The original idea was to shoot all the product together highlighting specific features of the product with antique magnifying glasses. After hours of "try this and try that, no move it here no move it there" we had to give up on the idea and move on. It just didn't feel right, and sometimes ideas work better on paper than in the studio. In the end we decided on a completely different look. The photos were shot and sent back to the art department for layout. Checkout this cover photo and all the latest in snowboard gear in the 2010 TWS buyers guide hitting newsstands August 18th.

Koop and Antoski.

It just doesn't feel right, does it?

Collecting ideas back on the computer.

I stand in as the extremely talented boot holder.

The old flying goggle technique. Is that a beer toque?

Benji Ritchie Photo - TWS September Issue

This photo of Benji was published in the first issue of Transworld Snowboarding this season in the framed section. Its one of my favorites from this season.

Whistler had a lot less snow this year and a lot more sun. It made for a pretty good season since I was able to shoot more (more sun = more photos) and due to the lack of snow we ended up shooting new features, creating more variety from years past.

This new jump was surprisingly a quick build and the riders (Rencz, Ritchie, Lyall and White) were amped to hit it. I spent at least an hour searching for a spot to shoot from (there was no obvious angle for it) before I decided to hike down the steep face on the side for a look. It was a little sketchy going down since the face was in full sun and starting to bake, and with me stomping around there was a chance of it sliding. It didn't.

Mikey Rencz hit it first and tried a cab 9. Holy shit he went big, I thought he was aiming for a landing spot a bit higher. I guess it rolls over so much that landing higher is almost impossible. With a bit of a hand drag, the crew agreed to let him hit it one more time before the others would start in. Again, huge and no land. Benji was up next and threw this cab 9 (the mag says 7 but its a misprint) and stomped it! I think Mikey stomped his next try.

In reality, you spend 10 days in less than ideal light, snow and location in order to get a day like this. The thing is, it's always worth it.

Appearance on Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit"

Check out The Daily Habit on August 11th starring Bjorn Leines, LNP, Nick Hamilton, Clayton Shoemaker and myself. We went on the show to promote winning the Team Shoot Out, the new issue of TWS and LNP's cover.

The Daily Habit is scheduled to air on Tuesday, August 11th at 6pm PST/9pm EST on Fuel TV and later again that evening at 9pm PST/12am EST. The show will rebroadcast the following day at 11:30am PST/2:30pm EST and again later at 2:30pm PST/5:30 EST. Check your local listings as it could vary from location to location. I will try and post a copy of the show once I get it.

Clayton, Bjorn, LNP, myself, Nick

LNP, Bjorn and the host Pat Parnell

LNP and his first TWS cover

Transworld Team Shootout Winner

Last week at the Transworld Snowboarding Magazine (click for more) head office in Carlsbad CA, photo editor Nick Hamilton and editor-in-chief Annie Fast finally announced the winners of the 1st Annual Team Shoot Out. Since this was all done in secret, neither of the teams knew what the others had built, what the photos looked like or how the video was edited until that night. The 4 teams gathered in the TWS gallery for first time photo and video viewing before the winner was announced. I must say, I was more than surprised when Nick unveiled my photo of LNP on the cover of the September issue and us (Rome Snowboards and Bear Mountain) as the winning team. I would like to thank everyone at Rome and Bear for making this all possible. You all kicked ass and helped make this event a success.

the day before I helped cut and mount the gallery photos

myself, Holly and Christian with TWS arts and crafts

my 10 photos submitted for judging

Frode Sandbech and his 10 photos

Andy Wright and his 10 photos

Video I shot of the awards

TWS Video of the awards

Rome Shootout Teaser

Here is the teaser to our Transworld Team Shootout video. Our team included LNP, Marie France Roy, Bjorn Leines, Will Lavigne and Eiki Helgason. I shot the photos, while John Cavan filmed and edited the video. Art Direction by Mike Paddock. We shot all this during 7 cold nights in April at Bear Mountain in California. A normal day during this shoot consisted of...

• 1pm wake up.
• 4pm drive to the hill and shuttle our camera gear up on snowcats.
• 5pm riders test out the feature for that night and the park crew dials in the changes needed.
• 10pm riders start hitting the features and I am almost set up.
• 12am start shooting.
• 4am we have the shots in the bag.
• 5am cook frozen pizza back at the house and mac off. (the act of emailing, facebooking and ichating on a mac book)
• 6am bed time.

The full video will be available on iTunes exclusively on July 27th. (not in available in Canada or Europe)

Transworld Team Shootout

There's a reason why you never saw this coming, why you never heard a word about it. Because it was all done in secret. TransWorld's Team Shoot Out had four of the best teams in snowboarding-Forum, DC, Burton and Rome-competing simultaneously at four separate resorts across the west.

Unlike any event in snowboarding, the all new Shoot Out focuses on creativity itself. As media leaders, TransWorld challenged the invited teams to produce the ultimate terrain park shoot and document it in video and photos to showcase the visual power of snowboarding. Let 'em build whatever they wanted to ride, shred it however they wanted and shoot it all in any way they saw fit. -TWS

• The contest goes down in a two week window, with seven days of build time and seven days of ride time.
• Each team consists of five riders, including one girl.
• A TWS photographer is assigned to each team. Burton (Frode Sandbech) DC (Andy Wright) Forum (Ian Ruhter) Rome (Scott Serfas)
• Each team must create a five minute final video (available on iTunes) and submit a gallery of ten photos for judging.
• Judging is broken into the event's three main components: video, photos, and overall creativity.
• The winning team is awarded the September cover of TWS.