2017 Gear Guide Cover, Behind the Scenes

2017 GEAR GUIDE, THE COVER

It was pouring rain at 8 p.m. the evening before this photo was taken and I was in an empty Whistler parking lot spray painting a friend’s old snowboard gear. Laying it out in the back seat of a rental car with the heat cranked trying to hotbox it dry. My head hurt from inhaling chemicals or the, “What am I doing with my life?” moment.

Next day on the glacier things came together like puzzle pieces on the first guess. It was our only chance of seeing the sun in a long forecast and we just broke through clouds on our way up to the Blackcomb Glacier. We set up the gear, adjusted the gear, adjusted the gear again (and again). Jeff Patterson lifted the drone in position, and it hovered for 10 minutes while Jody Wachniak, Derek Molinski, and Kody Williams took turns hitting this kinked rail. We had to be wrapped by noon because of the public sessions and by 12:15 p.m. clouds consumed the entire glacier and we had our shot.

I’ve had this idea for a while. It didn’t look like nearly this good in my head, though, my vision lacked… vision. Massive thanks to Crispin Cannon for art direction, Jeff Patterson for piloting the drone, Tyler Quarles for making this photo come to life. Derek Molinski for going in heavy on this Front Board through the kink and Chris Mcleod at Whistler Blackcomb for facilitating the madness. Team effort is defined in this photo. —Jesse Fox, Editor

Jesse came up with this creative idea of shooting a rider from birds-eye view either hitting a jump or rail so you get a rad perspective of a trick with a cool visual of snowboard gear laid out around it. Sounds rad, right? Like Jesse said, it all came together, but it wasn’t that smooth. Tyler Quarles, our designer, and I talked the idea over as to how it would work design and layout wise. How do we make it look good and not just a mix-mash of random-coloured gear with a rider lost in the madness? We decided using all white gear laying on the snow and the rider blacked-out head-to-toe. With the gear in white, it’s easiest to change the colour of it in post to make it pop all as one colour, pattern, or whatever cool idea we come up with once we had the image.

We’ll just get some gear from the homies and spray paint it white, throw it down on the snow, get a drone pilot to fly up, and we’ll snap a well-composed photo of a rider doing the steeziest trick ever. On the day it really was that easy but there was a lot of anxiety going into it. Like, is what we see in our heads really going to work for a cover? The words “drone pilot” raises some red flags right there. Is getting that much gear up to the glacier going to be possible? Can we get our hands on enough gear to paint? Spray painting boots and bindings isn’t too bad but spray painting outerwear is dumb. By the time I was done my neighbours were complaining about the fumes, my whole house had the sweet smell of spray paint, and there was a stencil of the cardboard in the middle of my garage floor from all the over spray. Everything in my garage got a little dusting of white. That was my, “What the fuck am I doing?” moment. It’s not worth it, I just F’d up my garage and it’s probably not even going to work. But it did, and on the day it all felt too easy. Happy with the outcome thanks to Jeff, Tyler, Jesse, Chris and Whistler Blackcomb. — Crispin Cannon, Creative Director

When Crispin and Jesse first walked me through their idea for this cover, I was worried there would be too many factors against us to even come close to pulling it off. Then, when Jesse texted me the image of the first out-of-camera plate, it was clear that all the planning, lost brain cells, and late nights were worth it. Hats off who everyone helped make this cover a reality. —Tyler Quarles, Art Director