VD'S PHOTODAWG BLOG



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Let me introduce myself.
Vernon Deck
Kiwi/import Swiss
Photographer
Cynic.

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VD'S PHOTODAWG BLOG

18/03/2010

Day 3 was again sunny and for was the day Spring truly arrived. As the snow had settled overnight we decided on a area pretty high up on the mountain. The face we chose is a really popular ski-tour route and for the whole morning they just streamed by, hundreds of them. Some were friendly and interested in what we were doing, others were just wankers, saying we shouldn't be out there building jumps etc. Nice to hear different opinions I guess. Cheryl Maas had called the day before from Biarritz asking how the snow was. When I told here it was all-time she jumped straight on a plane and arrived that evening. So everyone picked something out and Pirmin, our filmer that day and I picked out our shooting angles. It all turned out pretty good, not everyone got shots but Keller got a real good one. Cheryl had built a jump but by the time we got around to shoot it there was this misty haze around the sun. So her and I decided to come back alone the next day to shoot it. After an hour of reshaping it was ready to go. She yelled "dropping" and nailed a bs720 first try! She could hardly believe it and neither could I. She's had another difficult season, filled with injuries that stopped her showing whats she's really capable of. Hopefully this will go some way to restoring her confidence.. We got off the mountain by midday and after a quick stop at the team house to pack our stuff we rallied to Innsbruck. Nitro had planned a night shoot at NordPark which is located right above the city. I'd been there 8 years ago and always wanted to go back. It was a cool little session, the kicker they'd had built didnt really work how it was supposed to but I was happy, I got some good shots really fast. At about 9pm we were done and as soon as I got into the gondola the tiredness hit hard. 7 weeks on the road with very few "off-days". At the car I nailed a couple of redbulls and 3 hours later I was home again. Awesome 4 days of powder, friends and good pic's, now 4 days of sleep and chill. Next mission is planned already. 4 days with Terje and Gigi!




View of ski resort Rendel in the distance.


Mad amount of people making the hike this morning. Some cool, stoked to be in the mountains, others, small minded idiots trying to control others. Same all around the world right????


This snowball is looking left then right before crossing the road.


360 degree rainbow round the sun


Cheryl in the gondola up to Nordpark.


Innsbruck in the background. Hi Mum!


As soon as I got out of the Gondola I saw this guys jumping in the distance so I started shooting. Got some good shots without the guys evening knowing I was there. I walked up after and they were like" ok we are gonna start now" and I replied " no worries I already got the shots i wanted".


Cheryl, layback.

17/03/2010

Non stop action the last 4 days! After getting home from the X-Games in France I had planned 4-5 days of relaxing and recharging. Didnt happen though. I got a call from Blacky in Arlberg that it was dumping and I should come immediately. I rang Markus Keller and he was feeling the same as me, worn out and needing a break. We both thought it would be worth it though and didn't want to let this chance pass by. After making a plan to meet the next morning at the lift station I set to getting my backcountry gear in order and charging all my batteries. As soon as I got over the boarder and into Austria it started dumping and continued all the way to Arlberg. Chaos on the roads, trucks stuck, German tourists with summer tires and no chains. I got by it all and arrived at the lift only about 15mins late. It was grins all round as I met my crew, and we quickly decided to do 3-4 runs without bags to warm up. 2nd week of march and those were my first powder runs without a heavy backpack. IThe snow was so deep I even jumped the biggest cliff of my life and surprised myself by stomping it!. It was hard to call the fun off and pull on the heavy camera bag again but we needed to try and get some shots. We ended up getting some bangers and only rode off the hill at 18.30. Next day was bluebird and we decided to go to this zone close by the road. We had the feeling it would be a crazy day in the ski area's with tourists getting too excited by the good snow and setting off avalanches. Good decision, we had a great day by ourselves and everyone got some shots. A group of Swedish skiers crossed the slope above us and set of a slide that just missed our jump. I had to grab all my camera gear and run for it. They came down and said sorry but we swore at them anyway and told them to go home.


Blacky bangs out a donkeykick. He swears he rode away from it but all of us watching only saw a big ball of spray.


Holzi got hung up on a branch when he jumped off a cliff. He landed like this and was lucky a avalanche didn't follow him down.


On the way home after a long but fun day.


New day, new zone. The kicker was finished up when this slide nearly took it away. Sketchy conditions and Swede's don't mix too well.


Me and my mate Blacky. After a day in the sun its easy to see who has the Mexican blood.


Session over and time to break down the jump.


Road built into the cliffs.


Blacky scores a nice spot to slash it up.


Gadge looking up for the next line.


Markus riding off into the sunset. It was a day of taking it easy and then at sunset 30min of crazy action.

16/03/2010

The big final to the X-Games week was the Mens Halfpipe finals. Officially over 20,000 spectators turned out but I'm not sure how they come up with these numbers as it was free entry. But anyway, the crowd was very vocal and stoked on the show they got. There were 2 Frenchy's in the final, Mathieu Crepel and Aluan Ricciardi and the commentator was going crazy before each of them dropped in. Crepel had a sick run and ended up with the Silver, Aluan got 5th place. Markus Malin was in the no.1 spot after the 1st run after Ipod put down a safe but unspectacular run. For his next run he changed things up and added his newly learned trick, the Mctwist 1260. The judges gave him 98 points and that was pretty much it. He stomped the run so clean it was as if he'd been doing it all season but in reality he'd only learned the trick the week before.


20,000 strong crowd all screaming for Mathieu Crepel.


Warm up run's are often when you get nice shots because the riders aren't doing there contest runs, instead they do straight airs, ally-oops and things that actually look nice.


Ipod just about to loop into the second cork of his first hit Fs1080.


Anne Flore Marxer was working for ESPN during the event. Here asking Ipod about when he learned the Mctwist 1260.


Run-away ape


Travis Rice was pretty amped for Ipod.


Mat Crepel and his coach. All the hard work paid off.


Louie Vito chatting to his team manager while waiting for the prize giving. He was pretty disappointed with the points he got for his second run. The first time anyone had landed 3 double corks in a row. If he had boosted a meter higher on each hit he might have won.


ipod with coach Bruni.

15/03/2010

Much Better weather today. First up was Mens Slope Style. The course was better today but still far from allowing the riders to show their best riding. Eric Willet won the gold. Ipod looked good every time he went by where I was shooting but it turned out he crashed on the last jump 3 times in a row and ended up in 8th. Next up was the Girls Halfpipe Finals. The pipe looked really good and a huge crowd turned out to cheer the riders on. Torah Bright, recently crowned Olyimpic champion was the favorite but Kaitlyn Farrington came up with a nice run that got her the gold medal. Torah still rode really well and is stoked to now go and sit on a beach for a few days. Mens Halfpipe Semi Finals followed, by then it was 6.30pm and my body temperature was about 10degrees lower than it should have been. The guys were boosting and the crowd was loving it. Ipod put down a solid first run which had him in 1st place. Luke Mitrani and Arther Longo both crashed and were under pressure to land the second run. IN the end Luke made it through to the finals and Arther didnt. His run was amazing, super high and stylish but he bailed on his last hit. Last comp of the season for him and he was looking very relived. When it was all done I headed back to the Press office to pick up my 2nd backpack and then went out to catch the free bus back to my appartment. With the thousands of spectators on the roads the buses got cancelled and I was stuck 2km from home with 2 very heavy backpacks. Lucky for me a nice ski instructor saw me thumbing a lift and took me all the way home.


Here, Eric Willet mid-way through his final and winning run.


Christian Haller looked comfortable on the course all day. Speed was the key and he had plenty


X-Games gold winner Kaitlyn Farrington. She was doing some tricks that no other girls are trying. Good style, solid grabs and plenty of hight = winner.


Kjersti Buaas from Norway didnt get a medal but rode pretty well, good to watch anyway.


Arther Longo, waiting for his turn to drop. His season has been one competition after another and he is pretty amped now to go and ride some powder.


Arther again. Fs1080 on the 1st hit. He looks the most relaxed in the air out of all the riders but hasn't quite got the consistency yet.


It started to snow during the last run which didnt make it easier for the riders but it did make it look nice.

14/03/2010

Today's snowboarding pretty much sucked so I've decided not to show anything from it. It was the women's Slopestyle quali's but it should have been called Boardercross. 6 jumps and 2 rails, most of the girls did a 360 on the top jump then straight-aired the rest or even rode around most of the jumps. Jenny Jones won with 2 spins and a crash on the last jump. She looked embarrassed at the bottom and it was embarrassing for snowboarding in general. 3 days now the organizers have played around with the course and it is still pretty unrideable, even the guys are just making it down with out being able to do tricks they would normally do. The weather didn't help though so maybe with some more tweaking and good weather it will work out ok. So instead here are some shots from the Volcom team signing posters at the Black Cats shop. lots of people turned up to get a personally signed action shot, a free beer and some stickers.

13/03/2010

I met up with Ipod for some breakfast in the riders lounge. He's in good spirits and looking forward to the pipe comp.


Also saw Arthur Longo.


The pipe was getting its final touches early on. Looking a lot better than yesterday. With the lighting system they've got set up it will be possible to run the event even in horrible weather. Not the same for the Slopestyle.


The Slopestyle training was postponed this morning as the wind was out of control. By 12 it had died down and they let everyone practice to 2 hours. Men, Women, Skiers and Boarders all together. None of the boarders seemed to like the set-up and there were a few injuries, among them Cheryl Maas.


Girls pipe quali's were on in the afternoon. Cheryl dropped in as she'd been invited and felt like she had too. Her heels were so bruised from her crash in the morning that she could hardly walk. Tough girl who having another season filled with bad luck.


A bunch of local school kids came up to watch the pipe quali's. They were super loud and were backing Sophie Rodriguez.


Not sure what this hound was thinking but he stared at me for a while.


Press conference with all the top riders. Over 300 media fruitloops have turned up to cover this event. Pretty hectic in the press office.


We went to a party put on by Rockstar. We got a little VIP corner and Gordon the EU manager supplied us with drinks all night.


The Methodmag crew are in town, documenting everything in thier own chaotic way.


Pacome from Electric was there and organized the band. They were 3 young chicks from Grenoble that played pretty well. Lots of energy and high pitched vocals.

12/03/2010

This week its the first ever European X-Games, held in Tignes, France. I drove down from Switzerland with Cheryl and Sarka, mellow drive with good music.


Here we are moving into our appartment. Sarka was getting a bit cocky so Cheryl showed her who's boss.


Sarka the gypsy. Life as a snowboard pro is not all 5* hotels and VIP treatment. Sometimes you still gotta wash your knickers in the bathtub.


Cheryl contemplating a new sticker job


Speed is your friend, Sarka gets the wax on.


Riders meeting. Gunny explains the format and gets feedback from the riders on the jumps. Really good organization so far but the course needs a lot of work.


They were still building stuff yesterday but in general it all looks pretty sweet here.


The riders have skidoo's to get them up the course. It means they get a heap of runs in during their hour of practice.


First Halfpipe training, most of the riders think the pipe is ok but could be bigger. Here Sarka feeling things out.


Luke Mitrani chats with Frank Wells, pipe shaper extraordinaire. Luke was so jet-lagged that he had trouble riding the pipe. Cali-Japan-Hawaii- Cali-France will do that to you.

11/03/2010

2 days at home, paying bills, getting equipment repaired, chilling with my girl and doing lots of washing and then I was packing my car for the next mission. The Volcom girls team shoot in Arlberg! Riders: Bryn Valaika, Cheryl Maas, Sharka Pancochova, Elena Hight, Jess Kimura, Kari Opsal. Guide: Blacky Team Manager: Ebonee Spence Media: Anke Eberhart, Chris Garside, VD Mission: Have fun, shoot some wicked photo's and hopefully end up with a feature for Snowboarder Mag and Pleasure Girls mag.


The crew having a pre-dinner gluh-wein.


The weather was dismal so we spent the first day doing a few urban spots. We lost Kari to one of these, broken shoulder blade! Home to Oslo, under the knife and hopefully back riding in 6 weeks.


The best orange juice in the world!


Anke and Ebonee checking thier steez before entering the hiking zone.


Bryn in the middle of the playground. Arlberg is having a pretty lame winter so far and it's not easy to find shootable zones.


Overnight things changed dramatically! 50cm fresh and everything looks sweet. Stuben was drowning, the traffic was hectic.


Happy family, this is how winter should be.


Good team work makes light work of this build.


America, fuck yeah! Really he was a german dude, big fan of the US and A though.


Blacky, our guide does some avalanche tests. The open wind-blown zones were all sliding but not in a scary way.

10/03/2010

After nearly a month stuck in "The Hole" it was time to head home. It was for sure one of my most memorable trips ever and most likely one of the most productive. The riders I got to work with were amazing and the whole vibe in Jackson was a treat. I flew out of Jackson at 7am, as usual these days I got screwed by the lovely folks at United. In Denver they were lining up to fist me again but then along came this sweet old Japanese lady who let me off with all the charges and booked me into Economy Plus seats all the way home. There are nice people working there after all!




Farms and more farms.

09/03/2010

As our trip was planned by the Wyoming Tourist Board we were lined up to visit the other resort in Wyoming, Grand Targhee. Its just over the Teton Pass but we took the long way round and arrived a bit late. Our guide there was none other than Rob Kingwell! The resort turned out to be amazing! We got some great shots on the first day there, after riding we met the marketing boss and she ordered us a bunch of pitchers and pizza's. We stayed in the bar getting hammered till closing. Second day we had Rob again and he brought along Kevin Jones to shred with us. That guys is a legend and still really slaying it. Real fun times and good shots, Hopefully you'll see Whitelines next season and be able to check out the A-shots.


Isn't this just too obvious?


We got lost on the way to Targhee but because of that we found this section of road that had amazing frost. Silver linings.


Col testing out this feature for possible shot worthiness.


Kevin Jones looking healthy and fit. Rob Kingwell here gets a snap to remember the day.


I was sitting in the lodge after riding, sipping on a coldy when I saw this fellow walking towards the bar. It was amazing how he was dressed and that he had an original Snufer under his arm. I bolted outside and demanded that we go out and get a quick picture. He was stoked and we chatted about the shred for a few minutes.


Thanks, we did enjoy it. Hidden gem for sure.

08/03/2010

New Day, new crew. Gigi & Jake left for Alaska, Luke had already left after being knocked out, Wille dislocated his shoulder and went back to his Coffee shop. The same day, a happy band of Poms arrived. White Lines Magazine had asked me to stay on in Jackson and shoot a feature to go in next seasons mag. It fit in perfectly for me so I was stoked to hook up with them for a week. The Wyoming Tourism board had organized the trip from start to go so we had hotels, lift tickets, meal vouchers, all ready for us. Luxury! We had to milk it a bit as the snow was pretty beat in the resort but had a wicked time.


First day in the resort. The Jackson Tram takes you all the way to the top and is always filled with ski dudes with fat banana skis.


Sam Cullum is new to this backcountry game and had to figure out landing in powder. Nice crail and I'm pretty sure he stomped this one.


We rented sleds one days, They all started off as rookies but actually did really well. Tristan the scribe on the trip ran into the back of another sled and put a hole in his engine cover. Seeya later $1000


Here Col Mytton slashed one beside the road. Up on the Teton pass you can just walk 5 min up and get quality turns in.


World Famous in Jackson, scene of many wild nights all the way back to the days of Jesse James.

07/03/2010

Today was a day off. We were all completely toast after a fair few days on the trot of getting up early and getting back late. The plan was to sleep in then after lunch go and check out some horse drag racing. Things dragged on though and we got there a few minutes after it had finished for the day. Mostly my fault, I've been having problems with my flashes the whole trip and spent some time at radioshack trying to sort it all out. It was cool anyway to see the local culture at the races.



Jake, Lisa and Gigi snackin .


Legit Wyoming cowboy.


There were lots of tailgate parties going on after the races. How's this guy, just casually strolling around with his hunting rifle.


Jackson Treehouse is the place to go if you need anything snowboard related. Its up in the village and they are a friendly bunch. Here Brian fixes my board that had taken a pounding that day. Rock bonks to both edges and a core shot. Thanks for that mate!


Went for some pool at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Gigi and I teamed up and ruled the table.

06/03/2010

We had the huge pleasure of visiting my good mate Mike Parillo at his new place of work. And what an amazing place it is! Him and Travis Rice have decided to do the whole industry a huge favor. If anyone has ever wished they could get hold of Jamie Lynn, Scott Lenhardt, Nick Russian, or Trent Mitchell artwork then you now have the perfect place to visit. Extremely limited and hand signed by the artist these pieces will make any home or office a pleasure to be in. Check it out: http://www.asymbolgallery.com/



A whole box of transparencies from Mervin. Old artwork that has graced the Lib Tech boards over the past decade or two. Like opening up a treasure chest.


Mike is so damn stoked to be doing this, its fucking amazing and I'm so happy for him. He is one of the most talented and passionate guys out there.


Mikey getting ready to sign this print. It was the 2nd of 3 graphic's used on Travis Rice's pro-model. This one has been brought by a enthusiast in the UK


Guch and Johann came and hung out. They talked about old times and told us some background info about some of the pictures. Amazing hearing the stories straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.


Luke Mitrani was pretty impressed with the setup. In the foreground a classic Zapalac shot.

05/03/2010

This morning we had a distraction while unloading the sleds. This mother Moose was showing her kiddy the dirty humans and their stinky noisy machines. Junior seemed pretty stoked though and came closer to check us out. Mighty nice moment in the wild.


We burned a new route to the zone today. The old one was getting so bumpy that our teeth were coming loose. The forest had all burnt here and we ended up finding some interesting things to shoot.


Jake hauled the 16mm up today, his weapon of choice.


Stump Jump!


The snow was sooo deep that Jake nearly needed a snorkel

04/03/2010

The daily "saddle up". First we meet at the gas station for fuel, drinks and maybe a burrito. Then it out to the trailhead, unload the sleds, strap on boards, tripods etc. Then its a quick transiever test and we're off.


The daily "saddle up".The above program applies to us with new or rented sleds. Poor Gigi on the old Volcom skidoo has to clean the sparkplugs most mornings and we all have turns pulling the starter till she fires up.


The daily "saddle up"Guch on the way back from a scouting mission.


Gigi takes a quick slash on his way into the kicker for the first hit.


Luke's nose and his knee had some contact, his nose came out 2nd best.

03/03/2010

Another sunrise at the Trailhead. Most amazing light here, loving it! Much easier to get to the zone now as we put in the trail yesterday.


Luke Mitrani was along for his first real Backcountry trip. He didnt have an Avalanche Transceiver so Guch took him and made him buy the best one on the market. Here Guch teaches him the basic's.


Ready to roll. The first 8km is just a bitch! The craziest whoops all the way.


Our zone. Such unbelievable terrain here, shooting spots for weeks..


View over the valley with Jackson away on the far left, 25km's away.

The Volcom RV rolled out of Jackson Hole with Will Jackways, Dylan Alito, Filmer Neil Goos and TM Ryan Boyes still aboard. Gigi, Jake Price, Luke Mitrani and I stayed. Wille Luoma drove a truck and trailer full of sleds 15 hours down from Portland to join us. Our plan is to stay in Jackson to shoot and film for about 10 days. Bryan Iguchi is our guide, guru and protector on this mission.


first morning at the trailhead. -22 degrees, unloading sleds and getting sorted for a long day.


It took us about 4 hours to get into this zone. Wille and Guch had a knarly job breaking trail for the rest of us but we got there eventually. Here we are looking at our first kicker spot. It worked out!


Everyone working hard to get the in-run sorted out. Guch digging a pit to see how the snow layers stacked up.


Guch is extremely experienced and really focused on safety. We're lucky to have him looking out for us. By digging a pit he can check out how each layer of new snow has connected with the layer beneath, that way determining what the likelihood of an avalanche is


5.30pm, loaded up and on the way home to warm up, dry out camera's, eat, sleep and do it all again.

01/03/2010

Another early wake-up. Today we're on the road again, destination Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Luke Mitrani flew in this morning and met us downtown. There was 9 of us in the RV all day and it was a little cramped. Jake had this film called "Funny Games" that we all watched, damn that is one creepy film. We rolled into Jackson mid afternoon and Gigi, Jake, Luke and I checked into a pimping hotel right by the gondola. Bryan Iguchi and Mike Parillo came by and we caught up on what they'd been up too. After a few hours of chilling, facebooking and talking shit we walked over to the Mangy Moose where ASG and Kandi Coded were playing. It was packed and both bands killed it! The place was going wild, Luke and Dylan were ruling the mosh-pit.


Will Jackways enjoys some breakfast and filmer Neil Goss regrets the last set of shots the night before.


We stopped for fuel soon after getting into Wyoming. There were some big rigs parked outside and a couple inside as well.


Kandi Coded live on stage!


Gigi admiring the wildlife


Travis Rice and his huge eyes were also there.


Guch, his wife Lilly and Gigi, enjoying the party.