Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

Here’s a photo from the week-end. I went to camp with some friends. We played with some guns, shot guned some beers, swam in deadly cold water….

me, Phil Jacques, Eve, Louif, Greg D, PNL, Alex Cantin.

Will

Here’s a quick video of Johnny from our trip to Japan. He and Paxson were sessioning this cool bridge transfer when things took a turn for the worse for Lazz. He slipped out and could have gone for a big fall off the bridge but managed to hold on and get pulled up by Will and Eiki. I’m not so sure why my first reaction was to start laughing at him, but for some reason it just seemed funny. Sorry about that one Lazz.

It seems like forever ago now, but a couple months ago I went on a pretty cool panic rail mission down to Philly in the midst of their now infamous “Snowmaggedon”. Originally the trip was supposed to be Lazz, Will, and Eiki, but airport drama kept Lazz in Poland for an extra day so he was out and then Eiki ended up spending the entire trip stranded in airports trying to get to Philly so he ended up being out as well. That left Will, photog Oli Croteau, marketing all around guy Ron, and myself to brave the weather.

We loaded up the film van and blasted south from Rome. The very first thing we ran into down there when we arrived was absolute mayhem at the famous Rocky steps at the Philly Art Museum. People were sledding, (or trying to sled) riding quads around doing donuts and ripping up the stairs. At one point a man drinking a 40 looked at me and yelled Cops are scared of us they’re scared of us no rules! Then he ran off to take another run on his sled, it was all time.

This was also the trip where we hung with the TUSC crew who won our backyard park contest, that was an entirely different story but you can check it out in this video:

After hanging with the TUSC crew and a mandatory stop to Geno’s Steak and Cheese, it was time for Will to get down to the business of filming. I’ve worked with Will now for four years, and over that time he’s gone from a rep rider who really wasn’t originally going to be in Any Means to one of our main riders. Will has done this by constantly working his ass off he’ll try a rail fifty times until he gets the shot perfect and I think his video shots and photos show this really well. He understands well the difference in “landing” a trick and filming a trick something that is one of the hardest thing for kids to get, when you film everything has to be perfect, and Will has learned this. It’s very rare that you film for a video without any other riders, but on this trip because Eiki was stuck, that is exactly what we did.

everyday we're shovelin shovelin

We filmed for basically two and a half days before Will and I left for Japan, in those days Will got some serious hammers that you’ll see in the new movie. It was pretty awesome because we were in an out in a really short matter of time and it was kind of funny that when we were leaving most of the other crews were just getting there, so I wonder how many stairs we shoveled for them. Anyways, that was one of our earlier rail trips that I thought I’d share with you.

Will got possession of the coveted hammer on this trip which wasn't hard to do seeing he was the only rider....I kid I kid he got hammers even by himself

Oli Croteau shoots a mean photo, he's a good dude

We ate at both Pat's Steak n Cheese and Geno's Steak n Cheese, We liked Geno's more but before you complain, we got t-shirts and photos with the owner himself so that may have had something to do with it...

Just finished Rome’s entry for this year’s Team Shoot Out. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot about it in the weeks to come but right now I’m just stoked that it’s over and it’s summer!

Last week has been super warm up here. I went fishing with some friends way far in the forest. The fishing spot was 2hours away from Quebec  on the boarder Canada/US. Pretty cool to be far from computers, phones, watches… for a little bit.

We had a fire going on the whole time. Here’s Louif and a marshmallow

We found this one while looking for worms.

a worm or a snake?

My first catch.

Our dinner

We went to Frogville

newt

Nick fought against a mouse.

The fire still going.

Haven’t checked in much on this blog since Big Bear, I’ve been back in Waterbury trying to hammer out the TWS Team Shoot Out edit. Although I can’t really show you any of that quite yet, I think everyone is going to be more than pleased, as it’s coming together quite sick.

this is what my desk currently looks like

Recently we had an afternoon of “spring cleaning” here at Rome. We basically took anything that wasn’t bolted down and evaluated it’s “importance” in the office. Here in marketing we found some serious gems; photo contact sheets of OG Rome rider Greg Wilson playing guitar in NYC, original art work from Seth Neefus, some cool photo experiments from Paddock, lots and lots of old magazines, and basically a ton of shit that any snowboard nerd would probably trip out on. We threw a ton of stuff out but most everyone did at least a little rearranging to their own personal offices. While cleaning it was decided that I was a hoarder as I tend to collect a lot of nick nacks and weird things from the team that have sentimental value to me and probably no one else. I think our marketing guy Ron is also a hoarder but his reasoning is more on the lines of everything has a home on ebay….. Anyways as I’ve been sitting in the edit cave a lot lately, and the fact that I just went through a lot of things in here, I figured I’d give you a quick look into the room where the movies are made as well as, team planning, Red Bull drinking, and a whole lot of web surfing

This is the door to my zone, I'm a Masshole, I like cobra Dogs, and Lago and the Frends crew are the shit

As you might guess there are cameras in here and a lot of cords, these are half of them

you think I don't have an unopened copy of Point Break in here?

Some older mags in here, that's my buddy Alexie Garrick on that cover of Eastern Edge he's the shit. That cover of Larry is one of my favorites, and I hear that Terje guy is pretty good too...

Yup Willie sent me a signed poster.....and it's on my wall

Anyone that has been to a world quarters knows why I would be stoked to have this on my wall. My friend Joel Brinson made it too....

When Marius went to Iran we all thought he was gonna die, he brought back this flag with all our quotes to him on it. Those are the OG plates tot he Fugnar van too

kind of blurry but that's a baby cobra from China and a lighter from Vietnam. My friend George brings me back sketchy things from over there.

So that’s a look at office life in the edit cave. I hope everyone is making the transition to summer nicely and those of you that still have some snow are enjoying it for all the rest of us.

Our trip to Europe was a bit like National Lampoons European Vacation but on snow. Here is a quick edit of 1 day with Lucas in Austria.

This winter we took a crew over to France to film for our upcoming movie. With the help of Danny from Onboard Mag, he hooked us up with Senior photographer Matt George to cover the trip. I had never met Matt, actually nobody on the trip had. I was well aware of his photo skills though and had become a fan over the last couple years. His unique style and insane approach to light, angle and depth is what makes his photos so insane from my perspective. I took a quick minute to ask Matt a bit about photography and his recent trip with us.

The man himself - Matt George

So you are considered the one of the top snowboard photographers in Europe but still somewhat unknown in US. Why do you think that is?

Well thanks for that! Didn’t know you consider me as one of the top in Europe. Stoked!
I guess it’s not that easy for a European photog (and rider either) to be known in US. I mean it takes time and you probably need to meet the right people over there and shoot mostly with American riders.
From my side I’m Senior for 2 mags in Europe so I kind of focus more on the whole scene around here, as I want to support it as much as I can.
Except big names, US mags don’t really care much about European riders so I never got too much coverage except in Frequency and Snowboard-Mag (Thanks a lot Colin Wiseman and Mike Basher!!), but only since a year or two. Also I have never been to the US except to NYC, so It doesn’t really help I imagine… But for sure my goal is to be more known over there as most of the brand in Europe depends on US marketing decisions. As an example, global ad campaigns directions are built in US most of the time, so to get the job it’s way easier if you are from there.

How did you get into shooting? School, Self taught?

From what I remember I know I like taking pictures since I was about 10 years old (I’m 26 right now), but I never wanted to be a photographer…
When I was 17 I was interested in printing my black and white photos on my own, so my mom brought to a PhotoClub meeting once, in my small village. I was the only kid in the middle of retired men, but they were pretty happy to have a little boy in the club and to share their stories! So thanks to them they showed me how to work and developp in a dark room, how to shoot better photos etc. So many things to learn from people who had been shooting for 50 years !!!
At this time I was travelling a lot around Europe with my friends to skate and do graffiti, so to keep good memories I borrowed an old Nikon FE from my parents.
Later, after I had graduated, I had studied Graphic Design for few years and started working as an Art Director for a French skateboard and snowboard mag, while I was still studying in a National Art School. Pretty tough time, working on the mag super early in the morning at 5am, then school from 9am to 6pm, then mag again till late in the night. Then I don’t really know how, but I started to get some pictures published (from our skate and snowboard sessions with my friends). But I was still shooting for my pleasure without even thinking about doing that for a job, as I was already working as a graphic designer.
One day I heard Method Mag was looking for a new Photo Editor. Without expecting much I had prepared a CV and a small photo book to show, and lucky enough I got the job. I left my town, my school, my job, my family, my friends and packed my car to live and work in Innsbruck in Austria. I was not speaking any English, was a total rookie in photography, and my only skill was to have worked in a mag as a graphic designer, so I was pretty stressed and scared to be honest! I guess that was the time when I became photographer. It was in 2004 and I was 21. The good point is I got a lot of money compared to my previous designer job so I spent everything by buying good photo gear and a nice computer.

Best place you travel to shoot during winter?

My two favorites places are Japan and Canada for their amazing terrain! But I have to say it’s pretty sick all around in the Alps, and you don’t have to go far to get deep powder and steep landings! I guess you know what I’m talking about Runke…

Photographers you look up to?

Woah! That’s a hard one! My Snowboard Photog Top 10 would be Daniel Blom, Oli Gagnon, Jeff Curtes, Cole Barash, Blotto, Frode Sandbech, Vincent Skoglund, Carlos Blanchard, Embry Rucker, and Danny Zapalac.
But yeah that’s not easy cause I really like the work of Andy Wright, Mark Welsh, Nick Hamilton, Espen Lystad, Dominic Zimmerman, Ian Ruther, Eric Bergeri, Jerome Tanon and Pat Vermeulen.
Skateboarding has some really talented photogs as well, such as French Fred (Fred Mortagne), Mike O’Meally, Oli Barton, Seu Thrin, Sam Ashley, Eric Antoine, Hlge Tscharn…
I’m also pretty stoked to see the photos of Mickeal Kenna, Boogie, Platon, Terry Richardson, David Lachapelle and Jim Goldberg.

Sorry, that really looks like a big list of names, but it’s just impossible to talk about only few guys. There are so many sick photogs around the world!

First time shooting with Rome team. We obviously had a rough go with snow and weather but you made the best of it and got some amazing shots. What was your hi and low point of trip?

That was for sure rough but we managed to get some stuff done! Not as much as I was expected, but should be enough for a full editorial story and few pages for galleries or Photo Annual.
My low point of the trip was to always find rocks in the landings and get frustrated to not get the photos I had in mind, but I guess everyone at one point was also pretty frustrated to ride on that shitty snow. So I kind of ended up shooting digi all the time at least to save the trip and never got many opportunities to play around with my analog cameras.
My high points were to meet you guys and be a part of the ROME team. Thanks a lot for coming over. I was super stoked to shoot with Bjorn Leines, he was such a big rider for me and my friends when we started to shred! The other good thing is that now you have seen the terrain and possibilities, so I bet you’re gonna come back pretty soon!

You have never been to US to shoot snowboarding, are you looking forward to coming over next winter and hanging with us?

I have been only once in NYC to shoot a snowboard jump in Manhattan, but that doesn’t really count, right? So yeah I’m really looking forward to coming over there and get to know the US terrain with you guys. Thanks for the invitation!

What are you thoughts on the guys on the trip? Lucas, Bjorn, Will?

It was really nice to shoot with them. Even if the conditions were close to horrible, they worked hard to get shots and I thank them a lot for that!
Bjorn has so much experience, you can see it, and you feel pretty safe with him around. And for sure he is one of the sickest riders!
Lucas looks pretty mellow and quiet but he is charging it in the backcountry. I didn’t know him before and I think he is gonna be big in snowboarding! Amazing style and stomping a lot!
Will looks like more a urban rider but that’s wrong cause he is killing it as well in powder! That was his first powder days in France so he was not so confident yet on his board, but he got some skills for sure and he is not scared.

Matt George Self Portrait

If you could put together a dream trip to shoot who would be on it and where would you go?

Again that’s a hard one!
I would say Gigi, Nico Muller, Jake Blauvelt and Bjorn Leines. We would get a big RV with sleds on a trailer and would start in Canada Alberta. We would go in all lodges around to do Heli and Catrack, lost in the middle of nowhere. Then we would drive all the way down to Whistler to do some Skidoo with RDM, DCP and Devun Walsh.
Then we would drive up to AK to do some camping and fishing for a month.
And of course no kickers, ONLY NATURAL HITS.

Here’s some fun mini shred from Eiki Helgason, Johnny Lazz, Johnnie Paxson and Will Lavigne while on a recent filming trip to Japan for Rome’s upcoming video release due out September of 2011

Johnnie Paxson broke his arm back in early February in Poland. He quickly got a proper cast put on and jumped around the globe to Japan to meet us for a film trip for The Shred Remains. His arm was not doing so well so he did the responsible thing and headed home for surgery. After 6 weeks in a full arm cast he decided he could not handle it anymore and decided to make his own medical decisions that would allow him a bit more freedom to shred. We don’t recommend this at home but when Johnnie “Big Dog” Pasxon makes up his mind about something there is not much you can do to change his mind.