george crosland photo blog

Mack Dawg from a Workingman’s Point of View

Yes kids ASR is in town. The surf, skate bikini and related products tradeshow rolls into San Diego this week. That also means pretty much all the snowboard videos will be un-veiled for all to see in and around the San Diego area. Yesterday the Mack Dawg Powerhouse premiered two movies at the exceptional Oakley HQ in Orange County, CA. Yes, it is not San Diego but only 75 miles north so it gets lumped into the “ASR event category”

Last season’s vids were not too metal for the most part. Of course there were sick parts and the vids did not suck, just mot insane. This season all the film makers and riders had to deal with bad snow conditions all season. As Jeremy Jones put it “You could not just go out and get bangers, you had to get creative” That statement by Jeremy is key; the two Dawger films were both creative. In fact it could almost be said that bad snow made for better videos. Many pros came in to attend the event. Aaron Bitner just got in from Chile and said he felt he was not as productive last year as he could have been but this year it is on.

First up was We’re People Too

Pierre Minhondo and Just Eeles put out their second release under the Mack Dawg name. I gots to tell you this flick was freakin rad. It may have been a shitty snow year but every part was super creative. The video had its share of powder riding and some park but what stood out was the street riding. It was so sick to what these guys did with the same terrain you and I can ride. Of course they rode it WAY beyond what any of us could nearly achieve. Austin Smith, John Kooley and Bryan Fox had great parts but Nima Jalali had the homerun part, totally creative use of real world obstacles. Already this year is looking good for snowboard vids. Mikey LeBlanc said this video “made him want to go snowboarding”

Stars – Austin Smith, Bode Merrill, Bryan Fox, Filippo Kratter, Jon Kooley, Jordan Mendenhall, Josh Mills, JP Tomich, Justin Hebbel, Nima Jalali, Pat McCarthy, Ryan Thompson, Shaun McCkay, Stephen Duke, Zac Marben

Top 3 moments
1) Nima Jalali’s creative hammers on the city streets
2) Insane moves on city streets
3) Sound track was super good including the closer song Suffragette City by David Bowie

Followed by Picture This

Macker has been in the film industry for a long time and it shows in this flick. The Cinematography was absolutely amazing. Those cats must have studying with George Lucas over the summer. Ad in the zip cams, dolly cams, heli cams and whatever they think of and you have a true masterpiece. The riding is not shabby either. A mix of street, pow and park with an emphasis on street. Darrell Mathes and Eero Ettala had the best parts but everyone else had banging parts too. Seth Huot opened the film and JP Walker closed the film. That’s right JP Walker closed the film with a two trick part. JP did a corner transfer rodeo thing on a building that has to be seen to be believed. JP’s part came after the film ended so perhaps Jeremy Jones closed it with lots of street and some sick pow. Oh yea, the night scene with Shaun White and Kevin Pearce ridin’ doubles in the pipe was sick. Doubles run’s are always fun to watch.

Stars- Aaron Bitner, Andreas Wiig, Darrell Mathes, DCP, Eero Ettala, Etienne Gilbert, Hampus Mosesson, Heikki Sorsa, Jakob Wilhelmson, Jeremy Jones, Josh Dirksen, Jusssi Oksanen, Louie Fountain, Shaun White, Kevin Pearce, Willie Yli-Luoma and JP Walker

Both sick films, buy both. Better yet, buy one, have your friend buy the other and just make your own copies and give copies to your friends. Just get em and go ride!

Top 3
1) JP Walkers two tricks
2) Beautiful Imagery
3) Eero Ettala

Oakley has a huge and amazing facility and you can see the ocean from the parking lot. Go buy some shades and support the cause

The party had a DJ, free food and drinks

Excuse me Jussi

The Dingo and Boz Wreck

Everyone is having fun, thanks to Oakley

Robbie Sell

Mikey LeBlanc and Louie Vito

Mack Dawg and a happy crowd of hundreds

An outtake from Andreas Wiig’s part - his first trip to AK

Darrell Mathes – how did he get up there?

One footers are back!

Jeremy Jones

Viewed from Filis Mexi food

The first ever Mystery video, Black and White, was un-veiled Friday June 15, 2007. Yea, the first Mystery video, you know this thing is no joke as it is yet another project from Black Box, the brain child of Jamie Thomas. The Chief is no fool; there were two premiers, one at 7 for friends and family and one at 9 for the public. Tickets for the 9pm showing were given away at local shops and stuff and were highly coveted. Actually, little Mystery bracelets were given out in lieu of tickets. I had the good fortune of going to the early show which was attended by The whole crew at Black Box, most or all of the stars of the video, I directly saw with my own eyes Ryan Smith, Ryan Bobier, Danny Way, Colin McKay, Jamie Thomas, Mike Blabac, Nate Sherwood, Eddie Wall, Slash and so on. The vibe was hot and everyone was hyped. Everyone behaved no riots like in Huntington Beach. I did not stick around for the 9 pm show so I can not speak on that one.

The premier was to be at 7 pm but there was NO way it was going to be on time. In fact the video was not even done at 7:30, 8, 8:30; at 8:50 pm the video showed up via motorcade with Jamie himself and it went right up for its 26 minute showing. To keep us entertained for the time before the video showed up we were shown, Misled Youth, First Blood and some other things. It kind of became a Zero video anthology. No one seemed to mind, as it only delayed their going to the Saloon to party. Think about it, the video premier started at 7 pm and the video was still being worked on. That is about 4.8 out of 5 on the scale of metal. I had heard Jamie and Aleks Lewendowski were sleeping at work while finishing this thing. I don’t mean falling asleep at work. I mean working, then sleeping at work, waking up and going back to work – living at work.

The vid opens with Ryan Bobier and goes through the whole team; Jimmy Carlin, Gilbert Crockett, Adrian Lopez, Ryan Smith, Lindsey Robertson, and Dan Murphy, I think in that order. The music is mostly 60’s go-go music, I am sure they just started a new trend with the new old tunes revival style. If you like that style of music, listen to the Swami on Indie 94.9 fm from 10pm to 1 am P.S.T. Saturday nights. The Swami will blow your mind, but I digress….I am not going to babble on about the video. It’s sick, you will buy it, watch it over and over, play the sick parts over and over, hit pause and repeat all night or you do not really care and will never see it. You know what happened opening night now it’s up to you to un-lock the Mystery.

In line for the industry showing

Jamie Thomas showed up with the video straight from finishing it - gnarly

Ryan Bobier - on screen

Ryan Smith - on screen

Ryan Smith and Mario, on the side of La Paloma Theatre

Ryan Bobier - photo yanked from www.mysteryskateboards.com - go check it out

Before you go lurk the clubs in LA spending all your money looking for girls while you wear you new outfit looking like and idiot, go check out the Creature video. Or better yet, check out the Creature Video then go street skating, then go to the Chinease massage parlor (there are hundreds) handle the business first.

RIP Craig Kelly, 1966 – 2006. There are what 6 billion people on the earth but there will NEVER be another Craig Kelly

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the Newport Beach film festival to see Let It Ride, the story of Craig Kelly. Before Shaun White, before Terje, Craig Kelly was the first superstar of snowboarding. As far as I am concerned he was one of the greatest and most influential riders of all time. From his soulful approach to the sport to helping to modernize and develop the equipment to dominating competition to dropping out of the scene throwing away the money and creating freeriding, to …everything. There is so much Craig accomplished that you have got to go see this movie. There is not a snowboarder alive that is not touched by his influence some how, some way.

The film basically chronicles his life in order and highlights everything. You really get know the legend and what made him tick in this 90 minute flick. This movie is no joke either. Done in HD and much epic footage is shown and much footage never before seen. The movie is narrated by James Hettfied (yes from Metallica) with Metallica and other ripping tunes. The film has won several awards at the X Dance and Whistler film festivals. Oh, when can you see it? It will have a 150 theater release in October and be available on DVD in November. Check out letitridethemovie.com.

There is a FREE showing this Tuesday, April 24, 2 pm at the Lido Regency Theater in Newport Beach. If you are around, go see it for free!

Jacques Russo – the film maker

On your left you have Kevin Kinnear, the first ever editor of Transworld Snowboarding and the man that first brought me into the snowboard journalism biz and of course Jake Burton. Jake kind of started modern snowboarding or played a huge part in it

“Craig did so much for our sport, were all in debt to him for the rest of our lives” – Jake Burton

“Somebody once asked me if snowboarding is playing, I said snowboarding is living” – Craig Kelly

“You have the exploitation, the corporate sponsors and all that crap but it really comes down to you and the soul and joy of the sport” – Jon Foster

Waiting for the film

Don’t miss this night of movie premiers in the beautiful emerald city of Seattle! Lib Technologies, GNU, Mervin MFG and Summit at Snoqualmie proudly presents, Standard Films’ “Draw the Line” featuring Lib Tech Rippers Mark Landvik and Eric Jackson. Also from Mongo Pro, “Who Cares” featuring Gnu shred heads, Kyle Clancy, Doran Laybourn and Zach Leach.?