80's Retro Photo Shoot on Whistler!

Jesus, time fucking flies! It sure doesn't seem like five years ago that I recruited a bunch of my friends to dress up in 80s gear – complete with original snowboards! – to donate a day of their time to help me with my crazy idea for Snowboard Canada's 24/36 photo-contest. This was my second year competing in SBC's 24/36, where photographers get 24 hours and one roll of film to capture an original series of images. My idea was inspired by my personal collection of vintage boards (the two Kempers are still hung up above my desk as I type this) and on my team for riders were my buddies Lenny Rubenovitch and Kevin Sansalone – who even brought along one of his own first boards, the black Sims, to ride in the shoot! The rest of the crew, our lovely retro ladies, were Sarah Desrosier, Sami Bedard, Genvieve Faubert, Lydia Hamel and Claudia LB.

On a whim, I had tossed out the idea of a 80s-style "ditch" half-pipe to my friend Brian Finestone, who just so happens to be the head of Whistler-Blackcomb's Park department, and to my surprise and horror he actually agreed to build it! Long story short, from what I remember at least, the shoot actually worked out pretty much perfectly and I walked away one happy boy. It was an honor to compete in the 24/36 for three years after seeing it in the mag for so long and looking up to those photographers. Just looking at these photos really makes me feel lucky to have such great friends as well. I'm sure I was stressing out and yelling at everyone all day but everyone involved came together and even years later, this group of photos is one of those that I am most proud of.