Relic Reviews, Revisiting the Early 2000's

Snowboarding videos just aren’t what they used to be. Shit, when you think about it, nothing is what it used to be—but that’s OK. That’s what makes older things that much more valuable. Unless, of course, they’re total shit and you forget about them immediately. In this installment, I’ll be looking at some classics from the early 2000s—a time when snowboarding was just becom- ing huge again and people were trying new things. Were they all good things? No, they never are, but that’s why we watch them again—to remember that these are the days of our lives.

REPRESENT (2001)

The boys from Utah enter the fray with a bang. A gangbang? No, but they sure wanted to be gangbangers. (Note: not gangbangers as in porn, but gangbangers as in gangsters.) This is where the whole “urban lifestyle shot” was born: Kneeling in alleyways, standing in front of trains, headbands, etc. Snowboarding will never be the same.

Despite the soundtrack being full of hip-hop, rap, and “underground remixes,” it’s also home of “Mr. Roboto” by Styx. Because when you think of Finger on the Trigger, you think of “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.”

With lots of early parts from guys like Seth Huot, Chris Coulter, Nico Droz and MFM, it seems like a lot of it is B-roll and filmed shitty, but that’s what makes it amazing. Plus, everyone loves some ultimate chongo footage with Ali Goulet. Lots of Sims boards.

Because dressing like a rapper or inner-city drug dealer is cool, Technine bindings became huge with privileged white kids wanting to be thugs. It started with Represent, but it went much, much further. Just ask Travis Kennedy (or his parole officer).


HAPPY HOUR (2002)

Their penultimate offering, this is probably the best video Kingpin ever made. The music is fucking great, the editing is fun, and the snowboarding is first-rate. It was also a double VHS/DVD that included After Hours, which showed partying, shenanigans, and vomit. This was a very worthy alternative to whatever Standard Films/MackDawg/whoever was doing at the time.

Some really memorable parts in this film are from Jeff Anderson (RIP), Scotty Wittlake (this is the one where he destroys his face), Lukas Huffman (biggest backcountry shit yet), and others. It also needs to be stated that Marc Frank Montoya was one of the most amazing and simultaneously ridiculous dudes of all time. Anytime your video part is half you snowboarding and half you lip-syncing to a rap song while driving and dancing around (while being totally serious), you’re winning. Mikey Leblanc does a good job of making fun of Triple Backflips. Who knew it would become such a bizarre reality in the future? Jesus Christ knew, that’s who.


AFTERBANG (2002)

If you weren’t a snowboarder in 2002, you really owe it to yourself to go back and watch this one. Enough has been said about the Robot Food trilogy, so just watch. Trust. With this being their first movie, they basically just stuck out because they were more creative than everyone else. Shot on mostly film and edited to a great soundtrack, everyone involved is instantly likeable and seemingly carefree because they’re fucking around the entire time. Jess Gibson and Pierre Wikberg were onto something.

Jussi Oksanen establishes that he can butter into fucking anything, Travis Parker becomes your favourite snowboarder, and David Benedek does the whole “first regular, then switch” thing to end his part and the video. Just go ahead and watch LAME (2003) right after this. Do it.

Still hungry? Watch Afterlame

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