What do you look for in a ski movie?

What are your favorite elements and what would you like to see more of? Sammy Carlson pondered these questions and decided he needed to set out and make his own movie in order to capture all the things he wanted in the perfect ski movie. On Top of the Hood is Sammy Carlson's own production and was recently released on Newschoolers for all to see.

Words: Newschoolers

On Top of the Hood is the brainchild of skier Sammy Carlson. Sammy C skied, directed and produced his first motion picture with the help of Nimbus Indpendent and Tom Yaps. Sammy has a unique approach to skiing, and the style he captures on film. On Top of the Hood documents a spring season skiing with Sammy C and friends.

To read all about the film, check out this interview Newschoolers did with Sammy earlier this season.

Also, head here to watch On Top of The Hood in its entirety and to see photos from the flick.

By Mike Rogge

Translating passion projects into the corporate world is like gently pushing a kitten into a wood chipper. I'd be lying if I said getting the show back on the air has been hassle free. Not that there is any one entity to blame but when there are so many moving parts, it's hard to get things back to "the good old days." Rest assured faithful Ski Show listeners, things are in motion and a podcast that you can enjoy and we can be proud of is in development. But ski culture doesn't start and stop at the convenience of an Excel sheet. It "snowballs" if you will and that is why I present to you another episode of The Ski Show. I won't say Sammy Carlson had a big year because every other ski media outlet already has. Instead, I'll say Sammy is a passionate person with his eye on skiing. "There's a lot of prima donnas out there," says Carlson. Sammy and I got on the old telephone to chat about these prima donnas, his new film 'On Top of the Hood', and what it means when the industry mixes business with skiing. As always enjoy and as for an official date of when a Ski Show Podcast will officially launch, all I can say is, "Here kitty, kitty..."

Want some of this podcast? We thought so...head HERE.

Sammy Carlson is a well-known beast. I mean this in the best way possible. Seemingly lacking the ability to feel fear, possessing a natural athletic ability on skis, and the drive to continuously try new things and push the sport of skiing are all components that make up this beast of a guy.

This summer Sammy will be sending it at the peak of Mt. Hood for his new video project, "On Top of the Hood." Powder Magazine sat down with him to get the details behind this unique idea.

By Will Eginton

Sammy Carlson is spending his summer at Mt. Hood, but you won't be seeing him spinning laps at Windells Summer Ski Camp. Instead, he will be above the Palmer Snowfield sessioning unique jump zones in undisclosed locations with a few close friends filming for his upcoming film, On Top of The Hood.

Powder.com: What's this film project all about?

Sammy Carlson: We are focusing on features all above the Palmer chairlift. We are hiking for everything and building all our own features. We are just trying to explore different parts of the mountain that we all haven't been to before. We have been finding a lot of new zones and locations, and we have a sick crew. It's really cool for me to grow up in Oregon and ski all my life on Mt. Hood and never really go out and explore it.

Who else is involved? We have three filmers: Brandon Kelly, Justin Weigand (from Nimbus) and Brian Dalrymple. Darcy Bacha is on board as our photographer, and Alex O'Brien has come out with us as well.

Full interview...

Skiing sensation Sammy Carlson strutted his stuff at Snowboarder Mag's Superpark 15 which was held at Mt. Bachelor last week. Newschoolers' Jeff Schmuck caught up with Sammy to hear all about the experience and what it was like to slay along side the snowboarders.

Interview by Jeff Schmuck
Photos by Brian Dalrymple

So tell us about the edit you just dropped Sammy.

It's all from last week at Snowboarder Superpark. I got invited again by Pat Bridges from Snowboarder Magazine, which was truly an honor and I'd like to take the time to thank him so much for having me there. I've been riding at Superpark for the past few years by kind of sneaking in the back door after I told Pat three years ago that I loved the features and would be stoked on the opportunity to hit a few of them. So he ended up letting me ride there a few years back, and it went really well so I got to come back last year, and then this year I got an official invite. So I came out and brought a whole film crew with me in full force and just slayed it.

And how did it go being one of the only skiers to ever hit Snowboarder Superpark?

It went real well compared to years past. I definitely felt some vibes being the only skier waiting at the top of the in-run and hitting the features, because it's just me and like 30 other snowboarders hitting them. So there was definitely some tension, because I could tell there were some snowboarders who didn't want me there, but it wasn't serious animosity or anything. There was one issue where I had to wait to hit the hip for a while until the snowboarders had made a good rut in the take-off, and then when I started hitting they got kind of pissed, saying I was screwing up the jump and all that, but I ended up talking to Pat and one of the guys who builds the features and the X Games course, and they said it was all good, and I ended up getting to do a private shoot on it, which was sick.

Check out the rest of the Newschoolers interview here.

Russ Henshaw P: courtesy of Alli Sports

Men's ski slopestyle prelims went off this morning at Breck - the Winter Dew Tour crowd has been growing and the sun has stayed out, contrary to what weather reports predicted. The top nine finishers from today's Prelims advance onto the Men's Freeski Slopestyle Finals on Sunday, December 19^th joining 2009-10 Dew Cup Champion Andreas Håtveit along with Bobby Brown and Tom Wallisch who finished second and third respectively on the 2009-10 Tour.

Results are as follows:

1 Russ Henshaw 90.33