As I trudged up the hill through a foot of snow, bike over my left shoulder, crane tripod over my right, I couldn’t help but feel all the work from the last few months was paying off.
It had been months since “Cheekeye Thadog” popped up on facebook chat asking if I wanted to do some filming for his upcoming movie. Coincidentally it was right around the same time I started digging at an old zone called “Tim Hortons”. (A trail my friend Aaron Kempf had built years ago. Over time it had become grown over and forgotten.) We chatted back and forth, and while I had only finished the first hit, Taylor decided he should come check out the zone. After a quick look at the first section, and a hike through the undergrowth to show him the plans, he was pumped!
My plan for the trail was basically to have a mini-slopestyle course. It consists of a step-down, to boner-log, a few hip jumps, a satellite dish, a drop, and finally a trick step-up. The location was high enough up to have good drainage, and low enough to not be snowed in all Winter.
Being my first time building a real trail, it was also my first time using a chainsaw. Definitely not as easy as it looks! But the learning curve is pretty fast once you get the hang of it.
Over the next few months we kept in touch as I worked away on getting it finished before winter…but as luck would have it, that didn’t happen. The snow came and we decided to wait for the trail to rain out so we could shoot it. The usual days it would take in Squamish stretched into weeks, and weeks stretched into months. So you all know the saying about God giving you lemons…we just decided to shovel the damn thing!
With a little assistance from a few snow shovels, and my good friend the tiger torch, we had the trail cleared and ready to shoot!
Months of building and weeks and weeks of on-again-off-again shooting plans…but in the end, it simply feels like a few hours of shoveling, and a couple long days of shooting, and we had the segment wrapped up.
Shooting for this movie was a new experience for me, and one I’m very glad I got to participate in! Nothing feels better than to see your hard work pay off and watch the final cut come together!
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