I’ve worked with Mount Cook Airlines in the past and they were stoked on the product I delivered. I’m  always happy to take a step outside the action sport world to work on other projects and at the end of the day the corporate world does pay the bills.

This job was especially appealing as it meant flying around the country in the cockpit of one of Mt Cook ATR planes. These are the Air New Zealand propellered planes that fly between Queenstown, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Mt Cook Airlines was bought by Air New Zealand in 1985 but still keeps it’s former identity.

Here are a few snaps from the shoot.

A seat with a view

On the runway discussing the next shot

The pilots pre-flight inspection

Cabin crew training

This has to be the coolest computer game ever!

The shooting isn’t quite finished yet, I’ll be flying to Auckland in two weeks to shoot their very expensive and very new, state of the art cockpit flight simulator. I might even get to fly it…

I’ll post the vid here once its all done.

In April, Jossi Wells and Russ Henshaw invited me to be one of their filmers at the (JOSS) Jon Olsson Super Sessions competition in Sweden. Volkl Skis, Russ’s sponsor was kind enough to cover my airfares to get me to the event and the rest was all covered by JOSS.  In the event, as quoted by the JOSS website; 14 of the world’s best skiers and 14 of the world’s best ski film makers, along with 7 emerging skiers, all have 2 weeks to produce the best 5 minute edit possible.

The 7 teams represent their country -  Norway, Sweden, USA ,Canada, Europe, Downunder (us: NZ&Oz) and Team Newschoolers (based on website votes). Each team has 2 pro skiers, 2 filmers and 1 rookie skier.

It was an amazing event to be involved in and definitely one that I have aspired to over the past three years and I’m stoked that my skills are at the level to warrant an invite.

Check out our JOSS entry below, I have always stared at the pictures of the southern lights in Tekapo wanting to be able to capture this in a time laps.

I stumbled out of the pub one night to look up and see the northern lights in full flight, I promptly bolted home grabbed my camera and ran halfway across the frozen lake to capture the moment. Definitely stoked to witness that, it really is even more amazing live than what video can capture.

I have since been stuck in Europe for 2 weeks due to a certain volcano; I bailed to Norway to hang out with my buddy who is living there. I got the chance to go sea kayaking around the fiords whilst there… well worth the effort if you’re in the region. Hopefully you won’t be paddling against horizontal snow and rain like we were, still good fun though.

I also managed to break my collar bone back in December about 2 weeks before going to India, It was misdiagnosed twice… which meant I spent 5 months acting as if it wasn’t broken. It definitely didn’t feel like it was in one piece when skiing with my 17kg camera pack on…. I had it fixed 5 weeks ago by Dr Ed Newman who also did my ACL reconstruction in my knee about 7 years ago.

Thats all for now, I’ve done very little over the past 5 weeks due to this but winter is here I i have some exciting jobs in the pipeline for the winter ahead.

check back soon

I spent last weekend filming at the Frew Farm Jam for Unit clothing, Allan Hardy Unit Clothing’s full time filmer was over from Australia to hang out of the chopper to film the event. I wasn’t quite that lucky this time but the weekend was epic. Unit and Redbull Thew down the dollars to help make this event possible ,Dan and Brett Frew plus the team of moto,mountain bikers and BMX riders have spent god knows how many hours pimping out the frews farm to be one big play ground.
With and all star line up such as levi Sherwood and Nick Franklin there was no way there was going to be weak footage to enjoy. Unfortunately Nick Franklin broke his arm in three places on practice day but Levi charged on.

Check out Allans edit from our footage below…

The ever so arty Camilla Stoddart was there shooting photos for the weekend also check them out here

Whiteroom Pictures Blog

This is a still frame pulled my from one of my clips from sunset on practice day, I’ll hopefully get some time over the next few weeks to throw together my own edit from the weekend. But don’t hold your breath, the work just keeps coming….

Short and sweet this week, we went to the Catlins and went surfing for a couple of days after the Farm Jam, couple of pics of freinds who where surfing with us…

Take a good look at this shot below, how high has this little guy boosted!? i’m thinking at least 7ft?

The white batch you see in the background is where we stayed, wake up in the morning to check the surf and see the dolphins jump

The view from the batch we stayed at..

Because Hyundai is the main sponsor of the longboard tour they set a few guidelines for the event coverage. They are realistic about who is going to buy their vehicles, they know that the 15-35 year old surfers generally aren’t in the position to buy a brand new car, therefore the target demographic for these shows is 50+.
What this means is that the clip is no longer about the fast music, surfing action and the cut away shots of girls in bikinis.Its all about the good times with the family at the beach, of course the surfing also because that’s why we’re there. Little kids learning from mum and dad, brothers and sisters out there catching the waves and even some epic longboarding from the over 50′s age group.

anyway check out the clip below, Trinity had it edited and online by Monday morning!

Seb, Stallion productions, was happy to fire me a couple of his photos from the weekend also,

This shot was taking from the door of my hotel looking across the ski field (golf course in the summer)

I sat next to this guy chatting about my experience of gulmarg and what New Zealand was like.

Yasin Kahn is a local legend around town,a highly respected Kashmiri who runs the Kashmir alpine ski shop. He generally meets and drinks tea with all the pro athletes and production companies that are in town filming. This time it was Andy, Pep and myself accepting the invitation.

These three puppies followed me every morning as walked to the Kiwi house. Worthy of a mention I thought

Up until recently you could only buy alcohol at a couple of hotels around town. I’m not sure if this place is ‘legit’ or not but its not a big deal in true India style if the officials come calling they’ll just serve them alcohol and slip them some rupees. Here it’s Tim O’leary, owner of Alpine Heliski that slipping them a few rupees.

The same razor wire fence from the opening shot of the Gulmarg edit.

They monkeys are definitely a novelty to watch, any other season they would be charging around in about 7ft of snow.

I love these two photos (above and below), the craziness of the situation where the heavily overloaded bus with about 10 people hanging off of it was overtaking us on a blind corner with icy roads, clearly in need of new shocks and maybe a driver with a sense of responsibility.
I’m liking the condensation on the windows making the images look more dramatic.

This shot was taken from the ‘Kiwi house’ looking across to one of the learners slopes. Next year there will be a heli parked in the lower left corner of this photo….epic!

The 3 days before i left Gulmarg saw it snow over 1mtr of snow, since then it pretty much hasn’t stopped.The 3 weeks that i was on the ground in Gulmarg saw the snow pack become increasingly unstable, you can probably see from the amount of sluff that was ripping from a single turn in the edit that with the addition of over a meter of snow it was never going to be good. Since I’ve been back it has continued to snow…with major consequences, a huge avalanche has ripped out killing 17 soldiers and critically injuring another 17, you can read more about it here This wasn’t within the ski area boundaries, the ski patrol in Gulmarg is lead by a Canadian named Pete, and they do and excellent job, I defiantly recommend using a local guide if your heading to Gulmarg, Gulmarg Powder Guides would be my choice, trained by Tim O’Leary Alpine heli ski and Mark Woodwood (a New Zealand Guide who is heading back to climb Mt Everest for the 7th time this April) These Kashmiri Guides have the skill needed when shit hits the fan.

And finally heres a quick little timelaps looking up at the smoke from the shack next door, its glowing orange due to the streetlights in the carpark behind the building

So this is where I am now and what I’m currently doing. Filming in Gulmarg, Kashmir ,India. I have been pulled away from the scorching Wanaka summer and flown to the Himalayan mountain town of Gulmarg. My purpose here,to produce web video content for Gulmarg Heliski’s advertising campaign. The Original idea was to produce 3 webisodes with K2 international pro skiers Andy Mahre and Pep Fujas while they were here. Unfortunately, according to the Kashmiri locals, this is the worst snow season they have ever seen. This time last year there was approximately 9ft of snow outside the door of my hotel, this season there is barely 1ft! Therefore only the one webisode was possible. Andy and Pep left Gulmarg earlier this week to continue the winters shredding back in the US Andy,Pep and I were all here to scout and document the huge Himalayan peaks that Gulmarg Heliski will access when they launch in January 2011. The Gulmarg gondola access some incredible terrain its self and takes you to an altitude 3950m, I was lucky enough to be filming my good friends, Kat and Guy Nurse’s wedding in Kiakora the day before I flew here,however this ment going from sea level to the top of the gondola (3950) in the space of about 36 hours. From there a short hike to the summit of Mt Apharwat (about 4200) carrying my camera pack left me on my knees gasping for air. So going back about 12 hours, I land at Shrinagar Airport which is actually an active military base as opposed to a domestic airport. I walk down the stairs of the plane, look up to see a MIG 29 fight jet rip over head buzzing the airport, straight outta TopGun. The town of Shrinagar has had some bad press recently due to terrorist attacks targeting hotels and city markets. Most insurance companies wont give you travel insurance to come here because is “too dangerous”. Due to terrorist attacks and the ongoing battle with Pakistan (pretty interesting read about it here,Thanks Joe) the military presence in this place is intense, as soon as you arrive at the airport your handed a foreign visitor registration form to sign stating what you are doing in the Kashmir region. When returning, your bags are xrayed about 1 km before even get to the airport terminal, all vechiles are searched at this checkpoint. And if you try to take any photos the soldiers wave their hands at to tell you to put the camera down…..like this First the hand, then the AK Soon after, if your still taking photos he’ll pull the AK up from under his arm and start waving that. I promptly put my camera down at this point.I didn’t really want to witness the next signal. This military presence continues for the eye-opening 2 hour drive up to the town of Gulmarg. Here are a few more pic taken on my way up to Gulmarg. Roadside patrol A common site in Kashmir It really is just the first impression here that is intense. After the first day you realise there is nothing to worry about, 9 out of 10x the soldiers will smile and wave and are stoked to see you. It’s just a little shocking in the beginning to see to many guns. I’ve been in Gulmarg for over a week now and had the change to head down the valley and Tangmarg.This is the village we skied/walked to in the edit above. I went back 2 days after I was there with Pep and Andy. Awesome little village, I had lunch at this random dudes house who I met in the town square , Manzoo Chacha is his name.I meet his 2 sons his wife and sister. He then took me into the heart of the old part of the village. I got him to drop me here so I could go for a walk and take a few snaps. Grommet rocking the Tall-T Most women you see here seem to disappear back inside their houses when they see a westerner walking down the street. This was one of the rear occasions that didn’t happen. As you probably figured from the edit, the kids here love seeing westerners and especially love you taking their photo to show them. At one point on my walk i had about 15 kids following me.You can see some kids in the background running to come and see me. This was the 2nd house I was invited into for a cup of tea while I was walking around Tungmarg These are some of the kids we meet when we walked through the village after skiing A kid and a candy shop Hitch hiking Kashmiri style in the main part of Tungmarg village.

That’s all for now, I’ll hit back soon with some snaps of around the town of Gulmarg and the people here.