Playboard Cover

Playboard Magazine Photo Issue 2008/Eric Greene/Grouse Mountain


Cover shots are my favorite part of the snowboarding industry. Back since 1999, I used to pick up issues of Snowboard Canada and Transworld solely to ponder and awe the workings behind the cover. I used to wonder what the rider felt during this shot. How did the photographer come up with the angle? Was either of them stoned or drunk at the time? Should I be stone drunk when I'm snowboarding?

I came to realize that this was their job. But back then it was fun; you ride around with your pals, see something and shoot it. Recently, and arguably since the dawn of the professional digital SLR, the caliber and quality of snowboarding images have improved dramatically. It may not be recent to some (I think the magazine's started to run digital shots in 2005) but it is recent to my snowboarding history.

I have been snowboarding for 12 years this coming season. I started in 1997 when I was 10 years old, and have never looked back. My walls were decorated in shred-wallpaper from torn up issues with shots by Dano Pendygrasse, Danny Zapalac, Colin Adair, Rob Mathis, and many many more.

There was one cover in particular that stood out in my mind, and really began my technical questioning of photography. It was a cover of Snowboard Canada shot by Geoff Andruik. The rider, Jeff Keetley, was boardsliding one of snowboarding's first double kink handrails in Vancouver. The night time shot was streaky and really got me thinking Geoff he made his camera produce that result.

Jeff Keetley - Geoff Anruik Photo

And that's when it dawned on me. Geoff produced the result; it wasn't the Canon camera that did it. And from that point on I challenged myself to produce something, to produce anything that could call my own. I constantly think about if that cover was one of main maturing points of my life. It was an epiphany of sorts. It was a realization that I wanted to create the visions that were in my head.

Are you crazy
Gonzo