The Weakend is back after a brief hiatus. I'm blaming the jetlag/hangover induced haze post SIA and X Games last weekend. Those two events have dominated the headlines over the past seven or so days and there's all the gear porn you could possibly want in the news section, alongside some some amusing notes on goings on from our photographer Grant Whitty.
The X Games was a hit and miss affair with events ranging from pretty dope to weak. Luca Schuler's injury aside (he's ok fyi), Big Air was a good watch. I'm not generally a fan of the whole huckfest thing but sitting around a TV with the rest of the NS crew knocking back some drinks and watching Kai Mahler, Woodsy and Henrik take it to flat with style was pretty damn entertaining and impressive. Lisa Zimmerman, Kaya Turski and of course Kelly Sildaru threw down hard for the ladies too.
Competitions are coming thick and fast right now as top pros waste more and more time in the pursuit of 'dem points'. In fact, there's a Grand Prix (not) happening in Mammoth as I write this. Pipe finals got cancelled after the boys and girls sat around for 3 days waiting for the wind to stop and finally got fed up. Whoever does well in qualifying is going to the Olympics at this rate as the finals keep getting cancelled. In this case Torin and Marie Martinod took the top spots. Slope qualis and finals are scheduled for today and hopefully they go off later, partly so everyone didn't totally waste their week and partly because the course actually looks dope [edit: Maddie won women's, the men's got cancelled]. On the complete other end of the spectrum, Andy Parry is currently giving away $2k in the midwest, quite literally putting his money where his mouth is.
That's definitely enough coverage for the competition scene, so in other news, Jossi Wells signed a deal with The North Face to clothe him top to bottom. What that means for his Supreme leather jacket is hard to say. I had to double check Supreme weren't also owned by Vanity Fair but it turns out they aren't, so it may have to be added to Axe Kill's collection.
Now on to the ski porn, and first up this week it's none other than Candide. He's on a mission right now with his drone and that mission appears to be: make every single other human on the planet feel dogshit at skiing. He's certainly been doing a good job of it for the last 3-4 weeks.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/857104/Candide-Thovex-Mobbin--At-La-Clusaz-With-His-Drone
On the subject of people who make us feel shitty at skiing, Simple dropped another banger starring Jake Carney. One of the big production companies needs to snap him up because he makes skiing ridiculously good looking. In a very related point, someone should also pay him/drag him kicking and screaming out of the Whistler park to film elsewhere. K2, I'm looking at you.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/856651/SIMPLE----OFFSET
Fire park edits were definitely a theme of the week and one banger was Jay Wilder's 'Chapter 2', which as far as I can make out is the story of him being slept on as fuck. Amazingly, given the calibre of the other names in this here recap, his was actually our top rated cut of the week.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/856506/Chapter-2
Then there's the Bad Hombres. Ben Smith, Levi Ascher and Ethan Swadburg are very good at making skiing look easy, Ethan's nosetap gap nosetap was pretty much the epitome of 'looks easy, definitely isn't to make it look like that'. The filming is banger too, but the voiceover from El Presidente and perfectly matching Gorrilaz tune really take this to the next level.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/856545/Bad-Meets-Evil--Bad-Hombres
Last and, in some senses, least is a full movie. It's Always Sunny At Alta 3, reminds us that skiing isn't actually that easy after all. It also reminds us that it's fun as fuck. The film is everything that's good and right in the world of skiing, and while you might not have Alta on your doorstep, I reckon this could inspire you to have this much fun on skis wherever you are.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/857182/It-s-Always-Sunny-at-Alta-3
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*Actually I lied, I know I'm making this too long now but asian_allen said his goodbyes this week and signed off with a dope compilation of shots from the last 8 years. Dude was a legendary member and way way ahead of his time. He was doing tricks people are losing their mind over today 5+ years ago. So shoutout to Allen, kill it in whatever you do next and don't forget to get some runs in sometimes.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/857065/Allen-Lam----Line-Skis-2008---2016
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