Newschoolers.comEverything about the Sport of Skiing Recent Comments SnowBalls says: "You are totally right. Our bad. Nice attention to detail. Keep the call-outs coming. They are good for our ego." Links | Tanner Hall Retires from Contest Circuit Tanner Hall, one of the winningest freeskiers in history, has announced he is retiring from the competition circuit. Hall, who has won three back-to-back medals in both X Games slopestyle and superpipe, recently made the decision after breaking both of his tibial plateaus and tearing both of his ACL's after overshooting at jump at Stevens Pass in May while filming with TGR. "I'm kind of over and done with the contest scene," Hall recently told ESPN. "I came in and it was ten good years of having fun. Now I think it's time for the next chapter in what I want to do and where I want to take skiing, so I'm going to be focusing on making more film projects."  Tanner Hall mid-flatspin at the X Games. Photos by John Vandervalk. www.majestyphoto.com Channels: Snow Traveling Circus Chatter and Episode 9 Drop Traveling Circus Chatter and Episode 9 Drop Highlights from a conversation with the guys behind the popular freeski series "Traveling Circus", plus this year's Finale Drops By Rom Marcucci via Newschoolers.com Photos courtesy of Will Wesson, Josh Malczk & C.Nelson James (www.meatheadfilms.com) Nine episodes later and the Traveling Circus wraps up for the season. Newschoolers called up the main players this past week to discuss the conception, realities and future of the online video series. Line Ski's founder and head honcho Jason Levinthal, team manager Josh Malzcyk, silent Will Wesson and hippy killer andy Parry chatted with us for over an hour. Our chat covered all aspects of the Circus, from its inception to its future- Ron Marcucci (Ed Note: For the full interview visit newschoolers.com by clicking HERE.)  The vibe of the whole intro is just goofy and fun and weird. Was that the type of skiing and atmosphere you wanted to showcase in the series right from day one? Andy: I think our style of skiing and our true selves are just weird, wacky, and goofy. From Erik Olson, to me, Will, Ahmet and Giray, we' (TM)re all pretty weird. I think we wanted Traveling Circus to convey our personalities and strange quirks. It' (TM)s just taking the reality of it and putting it into an intro. Let' (TM)s slide into what went down. What did you guys go through to find all the unique ski stuff that' (TM)s in the videos? Andy: The rail into the pond was pretty unique and cool. Everything else was pretty much just going around and filming features that people have already hit like the rail gardens but our advantage is we can do something completely new and different on the same old thing. We' (TM)re just adding our own flavor to it. Some skiing webisodes are very polished, like Nimbus, while some are as raw as it gets, like Cosco' (TM)s Chug Life series. You guys fall somewhere in the middle. Where do you find the balance of skiing versus non-skiing and reality versus picture perfect tricks? Will: I like watching perfectly filmed tricks and epic stuff but there are other times you want to see what really goes on. I just wanted to bring more of a feel that people could relate to. I' (TM)m not going up in helicopters and skiing somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I' (TM)m just driving down the road and hitting a rail or going to the local resort and hitting the park. I felt like having more of a raw feel would be appropriate. I' (TM)m not a film major and trained in filming or editing in any way, I' (TM)m just doing it for fun. I want to talk about highlights of this season. I' (TM)ve got a couple topics. What was your favorite skiing? Andy: Skiing in California was one of my highlights. There were two days at Squaw. A powder day where we skied all mountain, and a park day that I learned some new tricks I was really stoked on. California has it going on. I love California. What was your favorite shot, episode, or moment that happened while skiing? Will: My favorite episode was either episode 1 (Hood) or 3 (Road Trip). They were both big adventures. We had a lot of fun with them and they weren' (TM)t too stressful. It was kind of just go out and have fun and film it. Andy: My favorite is either episode 1, the Hood episode, or episode 7, which was filmed in California. In 7, Will did a really good job editing. Some of the shots from the GoPro really added to what we were doing. Hopefully we' (TM)ll be most stoked on episode 9. Will and I did some tricks that we learned and then got on film. That' (TM)s really exciting to go out, do a new trick, then you see it in the episode and you' (TM)re like ' Oh, snap. That wasn' (TM)t as good as I thought it was but it' (TM)s still sick.  There' (TM)s Line Traveling Circus Week at Windells. Give us all the info. Josh: I guess it was an excuse for me to get out of the office for a week. I needed some sacrificial lambs so I had Andy and Will design up some custom features. We' (TM)ll have a lot of Line guys at Windells for session 5, July 16th - 23rd. There are still spots available. We' (TM)re trying to bring the whole Line entity together. Jason: Traveling Circus is Line and Line is Traveling Circus. We are one big circus, one big family. Expect the unexpected. That is what Line has always been about. Whether it is product, marketing, graphics and that' (TM)s what these guys' (TM) riding and lifestyle is all about. Everyone from the office is going to be there: R&D, sales, graphics. It' (TM)s just a big rally. Who else will be there as far as Line athletes go? Josh: Pollard is going to be there. LJ is tentative, he' (TM)s got a camping trip planned in Vermont we' (TM)re trying to get him to change, but he' (TM)ll be there all summer. Ian Compton said, ' This would be like missing a concert with Biggie and Tupac featuring Elton John.' (laughs) You' (TM)ll be filming Season Two Episode One there? Will: Yup, that' (TM)s the plan. So that' (TM)s a wrap. Even after such an entertaining run this season, Traveling Circus will be better than ever next season, starting with Windells in just over a month. It is the feel good story of the season. Will and Andy have gone from rags to riches, zeros to heroes, or maybe, more realistically, two meals of ramen daily to just one, with plenty more entertainment to come. Without further ado... Here is the drop for the first season finale of "The Traveling Circus": Channels: Snow Down But Not Out. The Wiley Miller InterviewA few days back we notified you that both Tanner Hall and Wiley Miller had been badly injured on the same jump at Stevens Pass in Washington. Newschoolers Editor Jeff Schmuck got a chance to talk to Wiley about his season, his and Tanner's injuries at Steven's Pass, and how his recovery is coming along. Interview by Jeff Schmuck of Newschoolers.com
Better. Better each day. It's a slow recovery, but my vision is starting to come back and I'm thinking in another month I'll be on my feet and moving around.
Would you like to give your side of the story of what went down that day? Yeah. We were at Steven's Pass for a TGR park shoot, and on the Thursday it was cloudy and kind of crappy weather and the park builders had just finished the moto jump. So Tanner, Dylan Hood and I started sessioning it and were getting the speed dialed. We didn't use any salt or anything when we were first hitting it so it was all slushy and whatnot, but we knew it was supposed to be sunny on Friday so we just decided to step up and dial in the speed, and then the park builders made it all pretty for the next day. So then Friday came and Tanner was sessioning one of the other jumps, so Schlopy and I went up to the moto jump and started prepping it. We threw some salt down and got the whole thing ready to go. I was the first one to hit it because I'd hit it the previous day, and I was thinking 'whatever this is like a 30-foot table,' so I didn't even think twice about hitting it. So I dropped in, and I don't know if it was the salt or what it was, but when I went off the lip I felt fine, and I didn't realize I was going too fast until I was way past the landing in the air. I remember everything until I hit, but once I hit my memory is pretty much gone until I got to the hospital in Leavenworth. The whole thing was weird because Tanner and I had just had a few good conversations about how awkward it is skiing pow and backcountry all winter and not really landing switch that much save for the odd 180 and 540 here and there, and then then trying to come out in the spring and step to this level of park riding and doing switch 7's and switch 9's. It's crazy.
So obviously everyone knows the extent of your injuries, as that's been well documented, so as opposed to dwelling on that, looking ahead to the future, how long do you think it will be till you get back on skis? Well I'm hoping to try to head up to Whistler to ride for the last session or two of COC. I won't be able to ride hard so I'll just cruise around and maybe hit some rails and boxes. So that's the best-case scenario, otherwise I won't be skiing till November.
How was your season? It was great man. It was probably the best season I've ever had. I started filming a lot right off the bat and learned some new tricks and checked some things off the list that I've been looking at for years. Like the Rocker Gap here in Utah, we got that checked off the list, which was great because that was kind of the big elephant in the room for the last year or two. And then I got some really good stuff in Cooke City, Montana, and then I got to go to AK for my first time, which was unreal. Yeah how was that for an experience? It was really good. Like I know AK takes years of experience to really dial it in, at least to ride to terrain the way I want to ride it, I know it'll take a couple of years to get to that level. So it was good to get up there and get that started and we really lucked out. We had great weather, great conditions and the snow was fairly safe. So I think it went as good as a first AK trip could go.
Nice. And you go to go back to Europe this year as well. Yeah I went to Norway on a 4FRNT trip for Megapark and got some heli skiing in over there as well, which was a nice little warm-up to AK. And I got to do some filming with the Field Productions guys, which was a sick opportunity. And then I skied some park and did the Sweet Rumble big air in Trysil, which was cool but it isn't exactly my forte, but it was super fun being able to get involved and participate. What movies can everyone expect to see you in this fall? I'll have full segments in Level 1's movie Refresh and then TGR's movie RE:Session, and then I think I'll have some sort of cameo in Field's movie as well.
Obviously after this injury there's been a tremendous outpouring of support for you and Tanner. What would you like to say to everyone out there in response to that? For sure there has, and it's much, much appreciated. It's really cool to know that what we're doing is being recognized and it's great to hear that people are supportive and care, and I couldn't be more thankful for all the support. So super big thanks to everyone. I really appreciate it and I know Tanner does too.
Channels: Snow Mammoth Video Showdown: You Vote for the WinnerIt's pretty straight forward. Three up and coming freeski video crews: Clown School/4bi9, Montage Inc., and Traveling Circus had one week at Mammoth Mountain to film and edit a late season vid. (That was last week) Then you (the internet users) get one week to vote and determine who has the best edit.  Now that week has passed, and the edits are ready for you to vote on the best one. Without further ado... Here they are: Clown School/4bi9: "Trip" Montage Inc.: Montage May Traveling Circus (Better Late than Never) Now that you've seen the video's it's up to you to vote for the winner. Head on over to the home page of our favorite freeski website, Newschoolers.com, and go to the poll on the right side of the screen and vote for your favorite. (Click here) We'll announce the winner one week from today. (Winner TBA on Monday, June 1st)  Channels: Snow WTF Wednesday: Clips from the Vault. Simon Dumont redefines overshooting the jump.This one really hurts... Channels: Snow First | < Previous | 1 2 |
ambiennoprescription says:
"Hope that helps. Let me know if you run into any problems."
Read Full Post >