Well, with all of the attention that documentary focused ski videos and Vimeo clips (TGR’s Deeper, and Jordan Manley’s “A Skier’s Journey”) have been getting recently (from me, at any rate), I wasn’t super enthused about The Way I See It, especially after Garage Sale Frank had been lukewarm about it. (This is the movie that WAS supposed to play at a sold out Park Theatre last month, but was pulled at the last minute because it didn’t have a censor rating!). In fact, it was all very ‘last minute’ – I found out about it around lunch time, scrambled to get review tix, and enlisted my son Cameron to attend the show with me (which, though he’s a snowboarder, he was more than agreeable about. He must have had homework to do).
We cut it pretty close and grabbed our seats as the opening credits came on, then were treated to THE most explosive big mountain/big air seggy ever, courtesy of Sean Pettit, who riffed on Shane McConkey – but who – hey, RIP, Shane – is clearly in ANOTHER LEAGUE. A whole new league, in fact. The steezy way Pettit butters those hugely rockered boards down a mountain side is a sight to behold. And the clip went on, and on, and on. How much better could it get? Well, not QUITE as great, though the deep pow seggy in Niseko was awesome, as was a James Heim/Hoji segment in Bralorne. Hoji scored two seggys in this pic, the second one was a very soulful touring based trip out of the Meadow Cabin operated by Golden Alpine Holidays in the Selkirks. Outstanding pow and some sweet pillow line action. The seggy with Ingrid Backstrom and her brother (deceased) Arne was truly heartbreaking, but they never really told the story of what happened to Arne. Still, the skiing was great and I felt really bad about his death afterward. My son LOVED the sickter Bobby Brown seggy from the XGames and at Alyeska. Sverre and Kai Zackrissson have some huge AK bails and wipeouts (I wonder if any big mountain guys have actually ever fallen into a bergschrund), and there was a truly killer AK finale.
The music was generally excellent, with Pettit – like Shane – channeling some classic 80s rock (I would tell you the songs, but the sountrack is not available through CDN ITunes), and the high def is really super crisp. Excellent helmet cam footage, and some of the very best and sketchiest heli work done yet. Loved the way the heli panned sideways across the jump at Alyeska. 4.5*/5.0. State of the art.
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