Gnarcade from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYC98iM5iE

Check out Manuel Diaz, Jonah Owen, Austin Sweetin, Austin Hironaka, and Megan Ginter as they let loose on one amazing mountain: Stevens Pass.

I hung out on the bunny hill most of the day with a great group of ladies from Seattle who were all learning how to snowboard. It was fun to see people so excited about learning a new sport.

The entire time though I was scoping out the scene over at the beginner park right next to the bunny hill. One of my season goals was to ride a box and they had a pretty non-intimidating set-up. There was a box, a rail, and a couple of small kickers.

The snow was super soft and slushy so falling wouldn’t hurt. If I was going to do it, now was the time.

After lunch, I decided it was now or never, so I grabbed a friend to help me out and do some video work. Using the what I learned on Snow Professor‘s website, I had my friend help me out by sliding me across the box so I could get a feel for the box. (Gone are the days of throwing myself off of stuff in the hopes it will work.) After, we did the first run-through, I hiked up the hill and hit it myself.

Super slow at first.

Then I realized I needed more speed so I started hiking up farther and tried to keep myself from doing too many speed checks (one of my main problems). It was so easy! Like, why was I so freaked out, easy. I hit it about ten times and landed every single time. Yeah! I was stoked!

[vimeo vimeo.com/9108454]

Goal: Check.

Next goal: Style it.

I was leaving Snoqualmie stoked. It got better. At the end of the day we met up at had a raffle with a bunch of sweet gear from sponsors. And, I ended up winning a cute Sessions jacket from Sno Con. My day couldn’t have been better.

A few things:

• If you’re female and snowboard and want to have fun with other like-minded chickas check out next year’s shred day. It’s fun!
• If you’re a dude…volunteer as an instructor.
• Thanks to Sandra for putting on an awesome day.
• Check out Snow Professor for lots of great video tutorials and snowboarding techniques.

I’m glad I pushed past my nerves and tried out the box. Have you tried anything this season you were freaked about, but when you tried it wasn’t that bad?

• “Anne-Flore Marxer: Pro-Spotlight,” TW Snow, Nov. 09
• “A Girl’s Take: Missing-Females on the Silver Screen,” Powder, Nov. 09

In September I was wondering where all of the ladies parts were in the latest snowboard videos. I’m not alone. Both articles talk about the challenge women have faced both getting in front of a camera and not getting left on the cutting room floor.

In the TW Snow article, Anne-Flore recounts that she was finally allowed to go on a magazine trip after a lot of persistence and paying for the trip out of her own pocket, while everyone else had the trip covered. And its not like AFM doesn’t know how to kill it. She can destroy the backcountry. According to the article, the editor didn’t want her along because it would “break-up the guys’ atmosphere.” How does she push through this kind of attitude? Anne-Flore noted,

The only thing I can do is shred the best I can and hope that my riding will outshine my gender. I also try to work with people who don’t blame me for being a woman.

Women skiers are also MIA. According to Powder, much of the women who can rock it have been left out of the biggest films of the season. Skier Sarah Burke stated,

It seems like they are dying to throw the big name guys on trips. But I really have to keep after them and make sure they aren’t forgetting me.

Film producers explain that the lack of women in big-scale productions is lack of content. If women don’t have enough good shots to include in the film they will get cut, just like their male counterpart would. The only problem, the author points out, is that when one guy gets cut there is another to take his place. When a woman gets cut, there aren’t many females standing in the wings.

Grete Eliassen, who won the 2007 Best Female Performance award at Powder Video Awards, is considered the “most versatile female skier” and her last appearance on the big screen was in a 30-second shot in the 2008 all-women film “Uniquely.”

How is Grete planning on getting more face time in 2010? Creating her own film. A film featuring both genders. She commented,

Most ski movies take the male formula and put it on women. . . We started by asking the best female athletes in the world what they want in terms of being part of a film and, ultimately, what they’d be interested in seeing on the big screen.

Grete didn’t ask me, but what I’d like to see next year is girls and guys in films together . . . None of that separate but equal BS. I love to see the guys shred, but I’d love to see more ladies in the mix too. Here’s a breakdown of a few films that came out in 2009:

• The B- 2 women out of 28 total riders
• Neverland- 2 women out of about 20 total riders
• Cool Story-0 women out of 17 total riders
• Black Winter-1 woman out of 12 total riders
• Forever-0 women out of 11 total riders (yeah, I know its a team film and they only have guys on their team)

Granted, there are some all-women films out there. Two in fact:

• Stance-features 7 women
• Peep Show-features 16 women

As good as some of these films are, I’d love to see everyone working together. Can’t we all just hang out and have fun?

What do you think? What would you like to see in shred flicks? Or is it OK the way it is?

Mike Benson and the Knife Show crew do it again with Volume 2, the first video of the 2009 season. They don’t have helicopters, crazy gear, and big budgets, but by the end of the video you wont be able to load your car fast enough for a road trip with your friends to the closest open resort.

What do they have? Love. (OK, sounds cheesy I know, but so true.) They love to ride and love to film. They love it enough that Benson will painstakingly edit frame by frame for fantastic results. His creativity and vision surpass anything being pushed out the door today by big production companies. This is where snow and skate films are going.

I love the newest member of the crew, the mysterious Fingerprintt. Stabby, the knife wielding dino also makes a cameo appearance. And Scruffy channels Lassie with what I believe is his first barking role.

Now all I need to do is get the music for my iPod.

So while you are doing crunches and squats to get powered up for the first day of shred, pop in a video and start dreaming of powder. Or if your local shop is hosting a premier head down with your friends and have a drink with other boarders and maybe the pros.

There’s a lot out there, but here are a few titles to get you started:

Neverland // by Absinthe Films

This is my idea of Never-Neverland. With an amazing group of riders this film is just dreamy.

[vimeo vimeo.com/5792262]

How the Northwest Was One // Wild Card

Gunslinging bounty filmers capture footage of the elusive outlaw boarders in the wild west. Fresh.

[vimeo vimeo.com/5860803]

Cool Story // by Think Thank

More Northwest shred.

[vimeo vimeo.com/5791958]

They Came From // by Factor Films

[vimeo vimeo.com/5496845]

Black Winter // by Standard Films

[vimeo vimeo.com/5556797]

Videograss // by Videograss

So punk. And it has Mikey LeBlanc

[vimeo vimeo.com/5650833]

What are your picks for the 2009 season? What’s not on this list that everyone shouldn’t miss?

One example:

I was reading an article on the new Stance film in Transworld Snow Business and was getting more and more irritated.

First off I want to give the filmmakers credit for creating a film in such a tough media environment. The whole media distribution model has completely flipped due to the ease and ubiquity of duplicating electronic media. So the only way they figure they can make money is by selling ad spots for sponsors. That’s fair. Especially when they have to compete with great (free) videos like those that the guys from The Knife Show create.

However, both Jeremy Miller and Stan Evans, the filmmakers, reported that in informal surveys men responded that they wouldn’t pay to watch a film of women snowboarders and women say that they would only see it if it was good. Evans continues, “Guys will shell out to see what new maneuver Travis Rice invented but not women.”

Also, they commented that most of the riders were inexperienced in the backcountry. Why were they shooting a film of riders in a terrain that they weren’t that comfortable in? There has got to be fantastic backcountry riders out there. Who’s the next Barrett Christy or Victoria Jealouse?

So come on ladies. Where you at?