I had a really good weekend in Whistler including a great first day of the season with some of my favourite people, followed by another memorable dinner at Sushi Village.

At dinner I had a good catch up with my old friend JF Pelchat. I met JF when I was working with Rev Snowboards back in its heyday and we went on to shoot a bunch of photos over the years and spent a bunch of time in and around Whistler. One of the best JF stories I ever heard though, took place in a sugar shack outside of Quebec City as JF told us all about growing up near the sugar shacks and his family history. The man certainly can hold your attention over a bowl of pea soup.

In any case, we got to talking about the first day we shot together, how we just went up Whistler Mountain and banged off a bunch of shots all day long, including a massive road gap. I still have no idea how we got away with this in bounds. Luckily most of my archives are in my parents basement in Whistler, so I went down and dug out a couple shots from that first day in 1995.

JF's new venture is NOW bindings. He's been working on the idea for YEARS and finally brought it to market recently. The bindings are the first real evolution of snowboard bindings in a long time and my friends who are riding them have said that once you ride them, you never want to go back. We'll see, I hope to give them a try soon.

Without further delay; JF Pelchat on Whistler Mountain in 1995.

Dano.


The road gap.

Slasher.

Tags: Snowboard , Photo of the day, Photography, JF Pelchat, Rev snowboards, Whistler, now bindings

Hi Friends,

Back again for part 13 (!) of The Lost Shots series. Today I’m bringing you a lucky 13 double shot of Devun Walsh from 2002. This was a nice little milkbird day we spent on Rainbow. In the early days of sledding in the mid 90’s Rainbow was one of our go to spots. There are a lot of features packed into a relatively small area and we had it all to ourselves for the most part. Later on as more crews discovered it, the small size of the area started to be a problem as there was too much competition for the same jumps.

On this day I managed to snag a good shot of Dev rooping with Blackcomb in the background. I used to always love that feeling of having a mountain to ourselves right across from the crowds. Dev was always known to have a super solid cab 5, but on this day he was mixing it up and working really hard on making it a switch fs 5, with perfect switch style. This sequence ran somewhere; Transworld I think.

I’m taking a little break from the Lost Shots for a bit. There is plenty left to scan but I’m going through some life transitions and I’m not going to have time for scanning for a bit. Off to Lake Louise tomorrow for an event called Ruckus in the Rockies. If you’re out there, say hi.

D.

Tags: the lost shots, Devun Walsh, Whistler, Snowboard , Photography, forum

Hi friends,

While I’m waiting for the next video from The Show, I thought I’d bring you another gem from The Lost Shots series. This one is from 2002 and it features Eddie Wall. I didn’t get to shoot with Eddie very much at all, but we did have a couple productive days in Whistler. There was a pretty good frontside boardslide that ran and then there is this. We went to a zone that used to get a lot of traffic and Eddie found a line that I’ve never seen done before or since. The light was kinda milky which is probably why this never ran, but it’s a pretty sweet backside one on a gap that didn’t give up any easy angles.

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: the lost shots, Eddie Wall, forum, Whistler, Snowboard , Photography

Hi friends,

Just arrived in Whistler where it is still very much winter. The mountain looks beautiful, as if it were mid-february.

Today I’m bringing you another great JP walker shot from Calgary, Alberta in 2002. Early season we got the jump on things and went out with Calgary native TJ Schneider who took us around to some of his favourite street terrain. This sucker is known as “Old rusty” and JP took it apart with frontboards while TJ was all about the 50/50. My favourite angle of it ran in Snowboarder mag as a full spread. It was shot from behind with the sick sunset in full effect and JP’s style was perfect. I have no idea where that slide is either. Huggy?

More soon. See you at The Show.

-dano

Tags: the lost shots, forum, Snowboard , Photography, JP Walker, Calgary

Hi friends,

Well The Show is just days away and I’m busy as hell. I like being busy, keeps my mind off the bad things.

Here is another shot from the Lost Shots series. If you’re just tuning in, you can read about that here. Today I’m bringing you one of the best snowboarders I ever saw. I met Mikko Sjoblom when he was just a lil pipsqueak from Talma. Never ridden much more than a couple hundred vertical meters in his life. Next thing you know, he’s thrown in with the best riders in the world, dragged up into the backcountry on a sled, landing in POWDER for the first time. It was a whirlwind. He was so talented. I don’t speak any Finnish so our communication at first was a little slow, but I ended up spending a bunch of time with him and came to look froward to his goofy little smile.

Mikko had a big crash that shook a bunch of us and for awhile it wasn’t looking so good. I’m glad that he’s doing well now. With stories like Kevin Pearce’s getting so much media attention these days it’s shining a lot of light on the dangers of head injuries, but Kevin and Mikko are both great examples of overcoming them.

Here’s Mikko in 2000 at Mt. Hood with a huge truck driver Mctwist.

-dano

Tags: work, Snowboard , Photography, forum, Mikko Sjoblom, the lost shots

Hi friends.

Back from tour and digging back into the big box of lost slides. Watching Tiger charge the last 9 of the Masters right now so I’ll keep it short. (edit: wow, what a crazy back 9!)

Here is a nice portrait of Mike Page. Such a handsome young man. When he had his big accident I went to see him in the hospital and I wanted to bring him a really good gift. I knew he’d be spending a bunch of time in there and most of it lying in bed, so I wanted something he could do with his hands. I got in touch with all the team guys and asked if everyone would pitch in on a nice gift if I bought it and they all agreed, so I went and bought him an Epiphone Les Paul with a little practice amp that he could plug headphones into and not bug the whole hospital.

To this day not one of the guys on the team kicked in for the guitar. Jerks.

-dano

Tags: Mike Page, Snowboard , Photography, Portraits, forum, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Today I thought I was bringing you another long lost cover shot but when I looked more closely I noticed that it’s slightly different than the cover of Bjorn Leines that ran on Snowboarder Magazine. It’s most likely the frame before.

This shot was at Mammoth Mountain and Bjorn was doing a tow-in behind a snowmobile, 50-50 up the far rail and air over to frontboard the down rail. It was pretty sick business. Now if I could only find the slide that was the cover image...

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: forum, the lost shots, Bjorn Leines, Snowboard , Photography

Hi friends.

Slept on the bus from Toronto to Quebec City last night. Getting used to road sleeping but I have sea legs today.

Part 8 in the Lost Shots series and if you’ve been paying attention there is really only one person left; Jeremy Jones. What can you say about a career like Jeremy has had? I met him when I worked with Rev snowboards so far back in the day, and he was good then. It’s like, a hundred years later and he’s still charging. he’s known for his rail charging aptitude, but he has always had it in the backcountry too.

In the year 2000 it seemed like everyone was pushing the frontside cork and Jeremy was at the front of the line. Here he is coming straight outta the sun in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, the lost shots, Jeremy Jones

Hi friends,

Just a quick one today. Tour is hectic.

Peter Line is the force behind Forum and during those years became a friend. I used to wake up some mornings and find him curled up on the couch having driven up to Whistler on a whim. Despite the credit he gets in snowboarding, I still think his impact is grossly underrated. He innovated more freestyle moves than anyone before or since. Always conscious of style, he could even make a fuck up look amazing. He got pitched on this alley oop back 5 and assumed the superman position. I call it the ooperman.

Pete is still riding and when he feels like it, he can bust out and school almost anyone.

Hi Pedro.

-dano

Tags: forum, Photography, Snowboard , peter line, the lost shots

Hi friends,

I’m on tour for the next week or so but I’ll try to keep putting more shots from The Lost Shots series every day. Our bus has internet so it should be ok. If you want to follow the tour blog you can find it here.

Today I’m bringing you a shot of good ‘ol Mike Page from Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. This jump had so much pop on it, it was sending people so high. Still, with all the trees it was hard to separate the riders from the background. I think that this shot worked out well but I don’t think it ever ran anywhere.

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, Mike Page, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Today I’m bringing you the first of many great shots of Bjorn Leines. Always the unsung hero of the Forum days, while many people on the crew spent as much time crafting their image as they did their riding, Bjorn never really bought into all that hype. He just kept doing the riding that challenged him, even when everyone around him thought he was crazy and out of step. (Ya, of course that was a Minor Threat reference.)

This is a belated birthday card to an old friend that I don’t see anymore, despite the fact that he is filming 2 hours away with my brother right now. Keep on bringing it BJ, you never stopped inspiring.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, Bjorn Leines, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Part four in the Lost Shots series. Today I’m stoked to bring you this shot of Joni Malmi from 2000. I didn’t do a ton of work with Malmi over the years, but when I did I knew he to be one of the most tenacious riders in the game. He literally would try a trick 50 times until he either nailed, got broken off, or ran out of time in the day. Most of the time we shot together was in the backcountry around Whistler, but this day found him in the pipe at Windell’s summer camp in Mount Hood.

Now matter how you slice it, this is a big assed air to fakie. I’ve been loving the crazy velvia colours going through these shots, but in the altitude at hood, the sky goes almost black with the rich saturation.

More to come.

-dano

Tags: Snowboard , the lost shots, Photography, Mt. Hood, Joni Malmi, forum

Hi friends,

Part three of the lost shots is from Grouse Mountain here in Vancouver. This was from the Wildcat Challenge in the spring of 2001. On this day Duff shot his ender shot for True Life and we shot a bunch of other stuff as well. I always liked this sequence of his gap to frontboard but compared to the 450 on/off, it was a little overshadowed.

I had a beer or two with Duff a week or two ago. He’s finishing up his training to be a firefighter. Still as awesome as ever. Big grins for the win.

-dano

Tags: true life, forum, Snowboard , Photography, the lost shots, Chris Dufficy

Hi friends,

Tough times over here in Danoland today. I’m raising my head for a second just to keep this series going. If you aren’t sure what series I’m talking about you can read about it here.

This shot of Devun Walsh was a cover of Snowboarder Magazine in September of 2002. At this point the Hurley gap has only been hit once before, by Devun and Chris Dufficy (more Duff stuff coming soon...), and only in the spring with less than ideal snowpack. The first time was just a guinea pig session, each one of the did a straight air and called it a day, but this time Devun came ready to charge. His Backside 3 took the size level up yet again. The next trip he did a cab 5.

I never thought I’d see this photo again.

Tags: forum, Photography, snowboarding, Cover photo, Devun Walsh

Hi Friends,

Just a photo and a short story for you today. I had a bunch of simultaneous archive requests this week so I ended up digging in. As usual I pulled out about twice as much as was asked for because every time I start to open up the archive I get lost in it. I still can’t get over how much there is in there. Thousands of photos that I may spend the rest of my life slowly digitizing.

Since KY ran off to live in the tropics people seem to have forgotten how heavy a character he was in the snowboard world. Style for miles and power to spare. One of my all time favourites.

On this day in 1997 we were lucky enough to be doing some heli laps. I liked all the texture on the slope over there and asked him to just go as fast as possible and draw a big line across it. He was going about a million miles an hour at this point.

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Kevin Young, Whistler, Photography

Here is a shot from a few years ago of Kevin Pearce. Kevin was hurt riding halfpipe the other day and is in a Utah hospital as we speak. Head injuries are always scary but the best thing about them is that they can end up with no long term effects. Everyone is crossing their fingers for Kevin.

I only met him this day. He was quiet, shy, new to the media circus. Now, in the run-up to the 2010 Olympics, his crash makes the US national news.

Send him good vibes here or drop by the frends site. Snowboarding is a massive brotherhood and we're all thinking of this little brother today.

-Dano.

Tags: Portraits, Photography, Kevin Pearce, halfpipe, injury

I like this photo. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, nikon, Black And White, shin campos

Tags: Mark Landvik, Photography, sequence

Brian Savard was one of the hardest working shredders in the game for awhile and despite never having ridden for one of the big "star maker" brands in snowboarding, he still managed to become one of the biggest names in the late 90's.

This photo ran on the cover of Snowboarder Magazine in 1999 and is an all-time favourite of mine. I've shot this cliff a few times with Brian and also with Shin Campos. It's in bounds on Whistler Mountain and rarely sees much action because it's really hard to get on top of. We called it "tree cliff" because there is a tree in the landing that both Brian and Shin have hit.

In an era where we are seeing more and more weak riding in the media (tail blocks, tiny "urban cliffs", and weak backcountry booters), I miss the power of riders like Brian. Of course there are still lots of them out there, but increasingly they are pushed aside in favour of over-strobed "filler" shots. The rise of this kind of photography corresponds with the strobist culture that is prevalent with young shooters. They tend to prioritize their technical (pocket) wizardry in front of the skill of their riders. With the increase in blogs and websites as the culture-defining media outlets and their lack of buyout budget, we see lots of b and c grade photography being paraded around as legitimate. Unfortunately this trend has trickled upwards and traditional paper mags have been persuaded to believe that if a photo has enough gelled strobes lighting it, the riding can be just about anything.

I disagree. I think we are on the verge of a point where people will stop picking up magazines that continue to pass off this cheesy faux snowboarding and see it for what it is. A charade.

Tags: Brian Savard, snowboarding, Photography, Whistler, nikon

I've been following the VBS.tv series "Powder and Rails" since it started earlier this year and although the episodes are short and they come out erratically, it's fun to watch my youth being given the documentary treatment.

This week there have been a couple of episodes on one of my favourite riders ever, Jeff Brushie. When Jeff was still a teenager he came out to Whistler and lived at the end of a dead end hallway in our house. He was super stoked on riding and was content to make himself a little bed in the corner, live on next to nothing and ride every day, all summer long. When I started shooting pictures in 1991 he was one of the first guys I shot and over the years I got to shoot with him quite a few times.

Brush was the kind of rider who set the bar for style. If he changed how he did a trick, the very next day half a dozen pros would do the trick his new way. I guess some would call that a compliment. Jeff had pop back when hardly anybody did and he was always crowding the top of my frame.

Style is harder to put your finger on these days and maybe as a result there is less emphasis put on it in snowboarding. I think that is a shame. Brush will always be the king of style.


Blackcomb, Summer 1991.

Blackcomb, Summer 1992.

Squaw Valley, 1993.

Snowmass, 1994

Westbeach Classic. Whistler, 1996.

Tags: Jeff Brushie, Photography, snowboarding

Hey folks,

Today I'm posting up one on my best-known and favourite photos. When I shot this photo of Lukas Huffman in 2003, this jump (known as 'perfect jump' because of its natural perfection for jumping) had become pretty blown out and was a one trick pony in terms of angles. I was completely sick of shooting it because there is such an obvious angle that has been shot to death, but not many others. This day I was determined to get something different.

I watched Luke's shadow pay across the snow in the foreground and set out to capture it. I had to beg the rest of the crew not to mess up the snow in the foreground zone with tracks, so someone threw the last bit of their sandwich in there just to mess with me. You can see it there on the left. My friends rule...

When I shot this I had never seen another snowboard shot that looked like it and I was really, really happy with the result. It has run in Magazines a bunch of times and I recently sold a print of it. I love this shot.

Ok, on a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to throw a shoutout to the good folks at Yobeat.com who have been making fun of snowboarding for over a decade.

Tags: Photography, lukas huffman, nikon, Whistler

Well folks, it looks like Whistler has pushed forward their opening day to tomorrow, so this will be the final episode of Snowboard Photo Blog: Version 2. It's been fun, I hope you guys have seen some stuff you liked. Now that it is shooting season again you'll start to see some fresh shots up in here!

Today we have Chris Wimbles from December last year. I had a shot of Wimbles in the Frequency photo book recently and in the caption I spoke a bit about how he is a real working professional. Never cracked the Shaun White status, but gets out there and works his ass off to get published all season long. I respect that. A Working Class hero is something to be.

Have good shredding folks.

-dano




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Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Chris Wimbles, Photography, winter, nikon

Hey Folks,

Welcome to a brand new week and more shred photos. Thursday is opening day on Whistler, so this will be the last week of Snowboard Photo Blog until I have new shots to share. It was my birthday yesterday and tons of people did cool things to make me happy, which is nice. I'm older, no wiser, and still doing what I do best. Taking pictures of snowboarders.

Here is Eric Jackson again. "But you just showed him on Friday" you say. Well yes I did, but so what. This is one of my favourite shots from last year so I'm showing Eric again.

Have a great day out there. I'm going to write a chapter for the book.

-d.

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Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, winter, snowboarding, Photography, nikon, Eric Jackson

Facebook tells me that it is my friend Eric Jackson's birthday today. My favourite kid and a great snowboarder, Ejack keeps me stoked and keeps me laughing when we shoot together. He is everything I like about snowboarding these days; he is a young progressive rider but he takes on the whole mountain instead of just getting stuck in the park. Luckily he has had some great mentors like Mark Landvik and Mads Jonsson, not to mention his brother John. I like taking pictures of Ejack.

Happy birthday buddy, can't wait to get out to the secret spot with you again. It's your year to slaughter.

Here is a double shot of Ejack.

Tags: Eric Jackson, Snowboard Photo Blog, winter, nikon, Photography

I spent a couple days shooting photos of Benji Ritchie, Gabe Taylor last winter while the were filming for the Grenade Films "the boned age". This is the kind of shot that makes me want to go riding, and winter is just around the corner so I hope it makes you want to as well. I hope you have been enjoying the Snowboard Photo Blog. I'll keep it up on weekdays right up till it's time to ride!


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Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Photography, nikon, winter, benji ritchie

Good morning shred dogs, Welcome to Part 3 of the Snowboard Photo Blog: Part 2.

I'd like to welcome all the portrait photographers out there today. Whaddup face shooters.

Today we have a shot of our friend Romain de Marchi from the Absinthe Films' movie "Ready". I spent some time with Paul Watt last year and we had some good days out in the backcountry and also up in Revelstoke.


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Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Photography, nikon, Romain de Marchi, Absinthe films, Black And White

I just found a box full of magazines. Some of my covers from over the years. Unfortunately they are mostly older and a bunch are missing, but still, it's cool to see some of my old snowboard photos. Chris Dufficy, Devun Walsh, Jf Pelchat, Bjorn Leines, Shaun Palmer, Dionne Delesalle, Brian Savard, Marc Morriset, Mark Landvik, Shin Campos and a bunch more. When I get the rest of my archives gathered together I'll try to make a comprehensive gallery.

d.

Tags: magazines, Photography, snowboarding, Published