Are you ready for the best urban ski film to date? Stept Productions thinks you are.

Words by Nick Martini & Cam Riley

We are excited to release the trailer for our new movie, Weight. We want to thank all the riders who dedicated so much time to helping make this film happen. A special thanks goes out to Clayton Vila, Sean Jordan, Shea Flynn, Nick Martini, Cam Riley and Alex Martini.

Last year when we created NetWork, the response was amazing. The support we got from last year's project drove us to put our heart and soul into our new film. Starting as a small company that was born from Newschoolers, it's awesome to finally be making the movies we have always wanted to. Our presenting sponsors, The North Face and K2 Skis, helped make this dream a reality.

Weight brings the viewer into a world far away from the mountains. The Stept crew heads into the heart of American cities, and shows people a sport they never imagined. Onlookers are in awe as the crew tackles some of their biggest features to date. When the cities dry out, the crew retreats to mountains to ski deep powder, and hit the world's finest jumps.

We decided to do an early release this year, and the movie is already shipping! You can find out more about the movie and Stept at www.steptproductions.com.

Head to Newschoolers for more info from the crew.



Weight Trailer - Stept Productions from Stept Productions on Vimeo.

Professional freeskier, Nick Martini, ripped his spleen into three pieces and bruised his heart while filming in Spokane, WA on Tuesday night. Martini was reportedly sessioning a down-flat-down rail with Poor Boyz Productions and caught his front edge and fell to the concrete, landing on his head and chest.

The film crew happened to be only three miles from the hospital where they immediately took Martini and after a short examination, doctors performed surgery and removed his spleen. Nick seems to have a positive outlook on the situation, not really mourning the loss of his organ; telling ESPN, "My heart is all good, though. It all happened pretty quickly, so it didn't seem too big a deal at the time. Now I have one less organ."

One he is released from the hospital, Martini plans to spend the rest of his recovery in his hometown of Breckenridge, CO. Even though he underwent surgery, doctors have told Nick that he should be okay to return to skiing in four weeks.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Martini!

Photo: ESPN, Erik Seo

Early this year, Pro Skier Nick Martini tore his ACL and underwent surgery to repair it. Since then, Martini has been keeping us posted on his recovery, and what he's been up to in the meantime. Here's the latest report, straight out of Martini's mouth:

Words, photos & video by Nick Martini

The past month has proved to be an interesting one. I was planning on flying to Sweden to help judge JOSS, but my plan failed when a volcano in Iceland shut down all trans-Atlantic air travel. I was stuck in NYC for one night, where I made some new friends, and then I flew back to Colorado.


Nick at the top of one of Boulder's finest peaks

Shortly after my sweet trip to the east coast, I headed down to Mammoth for the Salomon Jib Academy finals. I spent a week in the sun with Salomon team, and got to take my first runs since I was hurt!


Nick with some Salomon crew


Jacked + tan = mammoth

With about a month left until my recovery is complete, I took it easy and made some cruiser laps. I also got to do a lot of filming in the woods with B-Paul, Walker, Charlie Owens and Clayton Vila for the new Stept movie, Network. Epic...


Tree jibbing in the woods at mam


GTS

I am now chilling in boulder finishing up some school, and getting ready to shred this summer. Hope to see everyone out at Mt. Hood; I'm stoked to be coaching at Windells in July. Enjoy the show...

Martini Recovery 5 - 7 years of rails from Nick Martini on Vimeo.

Words: Nick Martini

My name is Nick Martini, and two weeks ago I tore my ACL. For some reason I always knew I would get injured skiing but never expected to hurt one of my knees. After having a sick summer at Mount Hood and practicing all fall in Colorado, I couldn't have been more excited going into the first Dew Tour. After taking three practice runs through the course, I tried a trick that I had been doing all day, landed backseat, and twisted my knee. I skied to the bottom of the course, took off my skis, and paced back and fourth for about 20 minutes trying to convince myself my knee was fine. I saw two doctors that day who both informed me that my ACL was fine, and my injury was only a bone bruise. It wasn't until the next day when I had an MRI that I learned my ACL was blown.




A whole winter of plans immediately vanished. I went from having everything, to nothing. I soon began to realize the gravity of my situation. Some of my immediate concerns included no skiing until summer, moving out of my house in the mountains, enrolling in school for the spring, contract changes, canceling flight reservations and trips, and surgery. At that point I realized the only way I could get through my situation was to keep a positive attitude and come back stronger than ever.






My first step was scheduling surgery. Most patients spend anywhere from two to four weeks doing pre-op physical therapy when they tear their ACL as bad as I did. This is to condition your knee and regain a range of motion, which will result in a faster post-op recovery. Luckily, after I tore my ACL, my knee was still healthy enough to operate on immediately. I had surgery three days after my accident at the world renowned Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado; a 30 minute drive from my house.

There are a few options when choosing where to get the replacement piece for your ACL, the most common being from your hamstring, or from your patella tendon, or from a cadaver. Due to my age, and how damaging skiing is on your knees, the doctors at Steadman decided that a patella tendon graft would be the strongest option for me. I got to the hospital at 9am and was able to leave around 6pm, with a knee the size of a football (American-style), and a pocket full of painkillers.




After a rough night of trying to sleep I found myself at physical therapy at 9am the next morning with a women cranking on my leg as I sat there in agony. From that moment on I have spent at least three to four hours a day rehabbing my knee.

I am currently in Boulder filming for the new Stept movie, and working on some new edits. Check out the first video of many to come below as I will be updating you monthly on my recovery.