The best stuff in skiing is always put out by genuine crews, it's as simple as that. 4bi9, Stept, Nipwitz, The Bunch... the list is endless. And thus, Crew Of The Year, is perhaps our favorite award, because it generally rewards those who are out there, making great shit, simply for the sheer love of it. Even narrowing down to six was tough, with last year's winners Buldoz a huge omission... perhaps victims of their own success, even if only in the eyes of our judges.

This year, along with each winner announcement we also wanted to give an insight to the process behind the selection and also, a shoutout to all the nominees in writing as well as video format. What defines a crew is obviously a difficult starting point. In this instance, we'd generically say that it's a group of friends who hang out and put out content. And two of our crews, Chef Boyardee and Magma, absolutely smash out the content and you love to see it. Regular releases alongside a full length project are hard to manage, and both did a stellar job on both fronts.

The Runge deserve their whole own set of flowers, with a reckless, creative attitude to skiing that has been sadly lacking in recent years. We loved their movie and their total disregard for both personal safety and for the unwritten rules of skiing that made their project such a breath of fresh air.

Entourage have been going strong for several years now, although this year's movie is a step above when it comes to polish and the small details. The same is true of the Bucket Clips project, which is by far the best it has ever been and the movement keeps on growing. This year saw a tight knit crew form around the project too, going on trips, organizing premieres, making posters, raising funds and altogether, turning a simple mixtape into a movement within the ski scene.

Unfortunately for all of the above, this year saw the return (with a big ol' fucking bang) of Keesh. Were it not for them being nominated, they would have certainly been on the all time list with which we kicked off this article, and with good reason. Keesh 3 is a banger, plain and simple. On the crew front, we loved how they managed to dig up homies from the old projects, some of whom are still riding the same skis they did in 2014, and get them to stack shots too. With several of the crew now in the upper echelons of the ski world, it's sick to see them still putting out raw, no budget projects like this, and without question, they are the deserved winners this time around.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1103427/1000016437-mp4