While the better half of Snowrev.com were down in Mammoth raising cain at the WCI, Ed and I had the good fortune of being invited to a photo shoot with one of the newer teams in snowboarding; Omatic. In case you do not know (If you do know about Omatic, then skip to the next paragraph please) Omatic was formed by Todd Richards, who is kind of the mad genius-do it all of snowboarding, Tara Dakides whose accomplishments in snowboarding and fiendish good looks have made her one of the hottest selling females in the sport and Jason Kaynes who is responsible for a lot of good snowboards throughout history, including 5150, Forum, Jeenyus and more. In fact Jason was responsible for one of my favorite boards - the Forum Bjorn Leines. These three, with the help of Tanya (who has a lot of experience too) are the main brains behind Omatic. With a ton of snowboard companies out there they wanted to have something different, their hook, they provide quality boards at a more affordable price. Enough of the business and on to the action.
Omatic went all out and got Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson to build them a huge kicker at Northstar near Lake Tahoe. Northstar was closed but there is a ton of snow left so it was no problem to build the unique kicker. The jump was so good that Todd Richards said “That is the best jump I ever hit, pleasure wise”. If the riders landed in the sweet spot you could barely tell they were just dozens of feet above the ground cuz it was so smooth in the lz. Despite being a new company Omatic has acquired a strong team. Showing up in Tahoe was; Hampus Mosseson, Louie Vito, Todd Richards, Tim Nelson, JJ Johnson, Max Loos, Thomas Schwarz, Robert Wallner, Murray and Jakob Wilhelmson who was riding a Lib Tech so I am not sure why he was there but he shredded so f-it. Pierre, the filmer from DC was there and other media types. Chanelle Sladics and Tara Dakides were MIA. Saturday was pretty much the day of maximum action. The whole crew was up there. Todd was spinning 7’s making big jumps and taking some big falls at almost 40. Hampus Mosseson has amazing style kind of like Daniel Frank and Danny Kass. Hampus was spinning 9’s all over the place. Tim Nelson, from Canada, was the first to man up and hit the big booter. Jacob did some sick 9’s then got busy doing some smaller tech street skateboarding style manuevers (photos later). Snowboard Revolution’s adopted son, Louie Vito was, I believe the only person to spin some 1080’s. Louie was saying he wanted to learn 12’s. I said forget it, 12’s are wack and we talked about all the people that currently do 12’s and came to the conclusions, 12’s are just a huckfest. Unless someone can do 12’s with style - don’t do them, then again I guess that’s progress, who knows? On Sunday a lot of the crew left, Todd went home to Encinitas for a day before going the east coast, then to Mammoth becasue “6 hours is good for a hurt back”, Hampus and Jakob - back to LAX and europe, Louie - down to Mammoth, which left Tim Nelson and Robert Wallner to step it up for Sunday and they did. With riders from Sweden, Germany, Canada, Austria and the USA it was a great weekend. I learned one thing talking to Hampus about shipping a tricked Tundra, a snowmobile and a custom single speed bicycle back home to Sweden, that is if you can become a pro snowboarder, do it!
Sacramento airport, 11 pm Friday night on the rental car shuttle, after a long day at work - almost hell
The base of Northstar while waiting for a ride up to the jump on Saturday morning at the early hour of 10 am
Louie Vito warming up
Hampus Mosseson has mad style! I had never seen him ride and trust me, he is smooth
Louie Vito and Todd Richards catch a ride up
Todd Richards with a stylee front 7, how many company owners can do this?
Tim Nelson is a rider from Canada, home of the long sleeve. Canadians are super nice but when it comes to sports they can be pretty much nutcases. To prove my point, Tim was the first of the group to sac up and hit the bigger jump. After Tim hit the big jump, it was on!
Todd Richards again and here is a pretty good overview of the jump. You could land either side like a hip too!
Jakob Wilhelmson is another rider I have never seen ride till this weekend. He was riding a Lib Tech so I am not sure why he was there but it was great to watch him. Jacob rides for Quiksilver, Todd rides for Quiksilver, maybe that was the connection. This is a 900
Tim Nelson was the first to jump the big jump as a hip but Hampus Mosseson was the first to clear the whole kit - very sick switch 7
Murray, lives in Canada too, near Tim. Murray had pretty much a broken foot but still managed to hit the jump - death or glory, especially with his boss and teammates watching
Louie, Louie Vito spins a 9. I was pretty much expecting to head out to a strip bar in Reno or something but everyone was pretty chill, not too much partying. Just hanging out at night with friends, riding - the things that matter
Looking from the pit into the light at Vito doing a 1080
Louie Vito and his boss Todd Richards. Todd is pretty much funny all the time - very smart dude, unless he is putting up a front
From l-r, Hampus, Vito, Ollie (photog from Squamish), Todd, Pierre (DC filmer) and Ashley (another Canadian photog)
The boss again - Todd Richards. Todd is pretty much the Omatic team manager and owner. You think when he gives advice on riding he knows what he hell he is talking about?
Robert Wallner came from Austria and did not waste his plane ticket by sitting around
On Saturday night The owner of snowrev.com Ed and Hampus had everyone, lauging so hard they where crying or in shock. Here they are in the middle of the dreaded game “would you rather” with questions brutal in nature
Louie Vito calling Stevie Bell to ask about the eiffel tower. Funny, I saw Stevie, two days later
Sunday morning was pretty cloudy with a lot of the crew gone. Tim Nelson again stepped it up, hitting the hip frontside
Tim Nelson spinning
JJ Johnson with a huge method
Tim Nelson with a big Method too
Tim, spins under threatening skies
Robert Wallner - tweaked chicken wing – so high
Robert Wallner – back 180
Tim Nelson over the hip again, this time alley oop 3
Tim Nelson Alley oop over the hip. About 5 minutes later it started to snow – then rain hard which ended the session. Sucked cuz JJ Johnson was getting ready to kill it
We got more from this shoot coming up soon, including interviews with Hampus Mosseson and Jakob Wilhemson
Entries (RSS)
May 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Wow, George what great photies. We will definitely link you and the snowrev.com site to our website.
Keep up the great work, and if there is anything we can do for you please don’t hesitate to contact us (Michael - michael@eternalsnow.com - is the man) or else look us up when you hit Tahoe.
Steve R.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:29 am
gunny didnt build that jump. mikee and landon did.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
that jump is sick. killin it tim, keep it up.