THE COVER | THE MANBOYS ISSUE

FRONTSIDE 360, WHISTLER BACKCOUNTRY | PHOTO: DARCY BACHA

I spent January and February of last year shooting in the clouds. Sledding up into the alpine only to see any chance of blue skies on the distant mountains. I met up with the Manboys in early in March. There was a glimmer of hope that Revelstoke would get a small high pressure system, so we made the trip in hopes of some sunlight. The following days everything clicked: the snow was perfect, the sun finally revealed itself, and the boys put their feet down. Rasman, who hadn’t gotten a shot in about a month, landed just about everything he tried. (Read all about it on p. 66.) After Revelstoke, we decided to head back to Whistler where sun was predicted for a couple days. We were deep in the mountains, Rasman eyeballed this super gnarly gap and we went to work building the wedge. Rusty had his eye on another feature so this was Rasman’s day. He had the jump all to himself—first hit, Frontside 360 and just barely cased. Next hit went a little too big, but third time’s a charm and he road away and landed himself on the cover. —Darcy Bacha

“This day we went deep to an old spot that we haven’t been to in four or five years. It only gets light later in the year, but isn’t very high elevation so it’s fickle and hard to get great filming conditions there. Chris started with a big ol’ Frontside 3, then a real good Frontside 7 right afterwards. Then he went home to do push-ups and eat raw ginger in prepara- tion for the next day’s events.” —Rusty Ockenden

“I started calling Chris the Canadian Travis Rice. The kid’s an absolute boss.” —Jody Wachniak

“Chris will always pop harder than you, go bigger than you and stomp better than you. I’ve come to terms with this truth. You’re a beast, Rasman. Congrats on the cover. You deserve it, homie!” —Mark Sollors

“The best to ride with. He is always down to the best tricks on the biggest features.” —Craig McMorris

“When I saw footage of this jump, the very first thing I said was, ‘Whoa, that jump looks fucking awesome.’ The trajectory, the gap, the filming angle. This was a spot. The first shot I saw on it was Rasman’s Front 3. Such a killer flight path! He served up some great justice in that hit. Him stomping was a bit predictable though. He missed a neat opportunity to do something different, like just falling over in a feeble, pathetic way. Artistically that could have been an interesting statement. That short track though!” —Robjn Taylor