Timeline

Grouse Mountain - Showdown Over the City

7 months
Really? 7 months already? No way. It can't be. The season is over too? There's no more snow on the mountain. What happened? I was just starting my snowmobile and prepping for winter. Why is it 30 degrees already?

It's coming back now, slowly -- another season's lucid dream. Monotonous feelings, blurry characters, they are all coming back. The memories trickle in. The season IS over.

But where was I?

Park Royal - LG Mountain Festival

This last seasons marked what could be one of the biggest steps in my life. It wasn't about getting a cover on an international magazine. It wasn't about watching one of your favorite photographers finally get the recognition he deserves. It was a season where I opened new doors to light another path. I enrolled in University to see if now was the time to get a degree.

And it really was optimal timing. The recessionary worries thundered through the snowboarding industry like it was sent by Zeus himself. But that is a topic in and itself.

Are you crazy
Gonzo

Today was fun. I met Joe McNally from National Geographic. I learned a few quick things from him, and reinvigorated my photography a little bit. Damn that guy rocks.

Oh ya, I also had a little bit of fun in an elevator shaft. Check it out.

Are you crazy
Gonzo

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

The Amazon Part 4 (The final chapter)

After an amazing night in a black blanket of abyss, I found an ease and a rest in a bed filled with a lavender scent. Not the lavender scent of a cheap Febreeze spray, but moreso the scent of fresh flowers under the pillows. It probably wasn't lavender but my tired mind imagined it so.

The next few days were calm and amazing. They were filled with: ant eaters that could climb trees; wild boars that smelt bad; massive anaconda paths in trenches; a beastmaster snake that scurried off so quickly I barely saw it; piranhas which I hand fed crackers to; crazy monkeys that didn't make a sound, but constantly watched over me like a Hollywood stalker; tree cutter ants that cut trees down, go figure; fire ants in my pants; and amazing fruits. I didn't have the time to snap off pictures of everything, but I'll leave a few snaps here. I hope you enjoy.

Are you crazy
Gonzo

Sunset Birds, in black and white of course

Capivara on the side of the river

The butterfly that looks like an owl

Piglet biting my foot

Another butterfly

Amazon River

The Amazon Part 3

That night, after a wonderful dinner filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, we headed out on our a canoe to go searching for caymans. The process began with a slender, knife shaped boat roughly 3 inches above the water, a drunk tour guide, and no lights/verbal communication allowed.

Fun in my eyes, not in the eyes of some.
It is quite amazing that people are actually scared of the dark. I thought, usually, that once you've grown out of those bad Friday the 13th horror films from the 80s, you would pretty much be happy and content with living in a dark scenario. But perhaps I haven't quite explained the darkness of this specific scenario.

Dark isn't when you turn off the lights and you're room goes black and still, as thoughts pour in to your mind about the unknown and unseen. Dark is when you are outside, in the middle of the jungle, on a weak ass, sketchy canoe rolling up the amazon river in search of monsters, listening to living animals being ripped to shreds on the shoreline as the same monsters get their dinner. That is what I mean by dark. I guess I shouldn't judge. I won't judge them, but I will say it was an oxymoron of feelings, terrifying enjoyment.

The first 5 minutes of the dark adventure began with silence, and admiration for the stars as we drifted downriver narrowly escaping the clutches of fallen trees and
piranhas. When you look up at the stars on a clear night in the jungle, it's not like looking up at the stars when you're camping. It is like looking at spilled salt on a black table, but with sections of red, blue, green and other cosmo gases and nebula in space. There is some serious shit up there. I have never seen colour in the sky, nor have I seen galaxy formations. You can see it all! There is no light pollution around (how are you going to get electricity and power into the middle of the fucking jungle?

Are you crazy
Gonzo

The Amazon Part 2

Promptly after arriving at my new home in the jungle, I drained whatever amount of chicken broth that my body would allow and fell asleep. I awoke to my cousin shaking me saying that it was time for our first hike. We were about to embark on a 2 hour hike through a non-distant trail at roughly 9pm when I realized that I was not going to survive carrying my bag. Regrettably, I decided to leave my camera behind and we set off on foot.

Did you know that tarantulas in this part of the jungle are nocturnal. They, like you're average Whistler party hound, don't like the light very much. We were fortunate to run into a few along the trip and much to my delight, my cousin was a bit squeamish. One thing that was extremely notable about this hike was the sounds the jungle made at night. It was reminiscent of those rain forest cds my parents used to play, but with an insane quality boost like that of a good live concert or of a vinyl record. It is a sound that soothes my dreams today.

If you are unlucky enough to be caught in the sun during the day, you'll know what it is like to be in the heat of a conflagration (word of the day). Therefore, we were told by our guide that we should wake up at 5am to begin our day. So, the next day we were up early to canoe up river and hike to an oxbow lake.
On the way there, our tour guide, Hugo, began teaching us about the jungle. Amongst the many fascinating things there are, he told us of this strangler tree that grows from the top down. It spreads in the bird's poo on leaves, and starts growing when the sun hits it. It slowly grows downwards from the tops of trees until it hits the ground. It envelopes the tree beneath it and robs it from nitrogen and solar light, killing it.

It really is a "only the strong survive" mentality in the jungle. Even the trees eat each other.

Are you crazy
Gonzo

The Amazon Part 1

Imagine a place, where there is no electricity, no internet, no phone, and no contact with the outside world. Now imagine a place with almost constant activity. Not the typical human activity like big cities, because even those get quite quiet at night. I am talking about a place that is so vivid and alive, 24 hour a day year round. This place has ants that work around the clock, that are able to cut down an entire 20ft tree in just over a week. There are birds that fly hundreds of kilometers for breakfast. The bugs and insects that have so many different names and responsibilities ring through the night as if it were a concert hall. My short 4 day trip into the Amazon was one of the best experiences I have had in my life.

Day 1 didn't kick off with the best of starts. About 5 hours after I wrote my last blog (a few hours before I had to catch a flight), I was hit with a nasty case of food poisoning. I threw up for 11hours straight, and then passed out when I got to my cabin.


The journey to the Amazon, though spent hugging many different airplane bags, is a beautiful one. It began with a plane ride to Cusco, the highest city in the world, also home to the well known Machu Pichu. Then, another flight to Puerto Madonablo. On the 1.5 hour bus ride from the airport to the port, the scene was almost historic native Canada. It wasn't like any Hollywood movie had ever depicted it to be. A 2 hour motor canoe ride up the river with sights of capivara and exotic birds and I arrived at base camp, a spot I would now call home for the next few days.

Are you crazy
Gonzo