Dendriite Studios

Been filming all this season with a truly inspiring and talented group of people. They call themselves Dendrite Studios and simply put, they kill it.

They've been releasing a series of webisodes throughout the season called Perspectives. Call them lil' gems of visual delectibility...with some epic shredding tossed into the mix of course. This is all leading up to their full feature release coming this fall.

Between these shorts, the footy being stacked daily, and the lines I've been fortunate enough to witness in person, I can say with serious confidence that this flick is going to melt some faces, blow some minds, and maybe even ruin some lives. We can only hope.

Anyways without any further adue, here is the most recent clip featuring myself and Chris Turpin. Head over to www.dendritestudios.com to the rest of the optically delicious goodness.

Perspectives #6 - Ten Years from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.

I'll Kick You in the Horse

Two days of Revi are said and done, and it’s up early once again to head off to Golden, BC this time. A blanket of fresh snow with more on the snow is something that almost always gets me stoked as can be. It just puts a minor damper on things when you have to drive over one of the gnarlier mountain passes in that storm.


Sick for shred, not for driving


Terrifying

Several white-knuckle hours later we roll into the parking lot of Kicking Horse to find an epic scene of pow as far as the eye can see.


Peanut, tour mascot, stoked to ride

Unfortunately we run into a slight snag when a paperwork technicality means we can’t demo at Kicking Horse. O yeah and tickets? Those are out the windows too. So what do five shred bums with ADD do? Buy tickets…nope. Wait for a phone call so we can demo…no sir. Drive as high as we can on the hill, start a barbeque, and build jumps off houses…YAHTZEE!


Joel Whalen, poppin' ones

Kind of like a hood ornament for a house

So jib we did and after too many hotdogs for our own good we headed back into town. I could talk about it but just peep the video from Revi and Golden, for a better idea. Courtesy of Jah Raven Creation.

Quick Cut - Surface Demo does Revy and Golden. from Jah Raven Creation on Vimeo.

Back in Golden we stopped by 180 Board Sports for a quick waxing session on all the skis. The boys there hooked us up with access to their shop, which just so happens to be inside of an old bank vault, epic I know.


The crew chillin' in the vault at 180

Wax on, wax off, chug coffee

After some 20 odd pairs of waxed skis, and more coffee and shred stories than we could believe, we were out the door and off to Calgary.

Revel in the Stoke

Limping into Revelstoke at some time before midnight we found ourselves at our new temporary residence for the next few days. About a quarter of the way through the tour and still no hotels, count it! The residence belonged to Photo Strain’s aunt and uncle and let me just say I never though people so into taxidermy would be the nicest people on earth.

What better place to lift weight, than next to the dead bears? RAR!

The seven odd bear pelts on the wall were complimented with a nice warm fire and dinner, the wolf carcass splayed on the wall contrasted by the eerily similar dog walking around the house, and the countless antlers on the walls only went right along with the Revelstoke feel in the end.

The wolf beast mounted on the wall

The Shayne beast mounted on the floor

Woke up at the crack of whatever to find a nice little sprinkling of powy goodness on the world around us and quickly made our way to the hill. After meeting up with Surface shred dogs, Joel Whalen and Rob Heule, we made our way into the only building in the immediate area and made our way up the hill to enjoy our first demo free day of the tour.

Team Surface gondi ride

Joel Whalen 180'ing over the powder waterfall

Revelstoke as a place and as a mountain is simply dope as hell. Japan pillows under the chair go hand in hand with the cliffs, drops, and tree jibs as far as the eye can see. Nothing is really permanently closed and the pow is always in full effect so long as you know where to go. Even the cat tracks back to the lifts have some of the funnest wall hits and mini jumps along side of them to keep us ADD kids entertained.

Fresh drops for everybody!

After the fact, 50 feet down and one pillow tap in the middle

The following day the name of the game was demo, and demo we did. Tent was up at the top of the Gondola and the masses couldn’t have been happier. Having cliffs right next to the demo tent made for some good times as we were able to session em’ up in between tightening screws.

Back to work

50 feet from the demo tent, taking a lil' break

The highlight was definitely the kids out on the hill. Lil’ ripper not just ridings, but tearing the mountain a new one with skis twice their size. Revelstoke breeds epic so watch out. Next stop Golden!

Big thanks go to Strains Aunt and Uncle, everyone at RMR, as well as Jim Bay and his entire family for showing us around the hill, and having us for a great dinner. Can’t wait to come back.

Silverstars on the Horizon

Gotta start this one with a big shout out to Surface homie Neil from Alberta. We met Neil while shredding around Apex. He then trekked right along to Big White on our coattails and hooked it up with power tools and saw horses, key to any demo. Now we’re at Silverstar and Neil might as well be part of the crew. In the parking lot with us as soon as we get there and ready to shred around for the day.

Neil, loving life and rocking out with Surface

No demo today so the shred was on and shred we did, in fact so much shred that just about zero photos or frames of footy were taken. Low light, snow coming from the skies, and cold cold weather. Soul shred is damn good, love it, live it, do it.

So much stoke on the New Life, get on it

All you really need to know about Silverstar is that the park is immaculate, the trees are pow filled, and the houses resemble gingerbread houses.

Mild sampling of the crazy colours of Silverstar

This was also the first stop we actually decided to assemble our BBQ grill. Some parts went unused and other were broken in the assembly process, but everything seems to work and nothing has blown up yet so I’m calling it a success.

Assembly required, this may be trouble

Leftover pieces, NBD

Final product, very worth it

Unfortunately Neil will be leaving us today due to a wallet and cell phone lots to Ullr. I have no doubt he’ll be back and ripping in no time, send it buddy.

Finished off the night with a visit to Attridge Ski and Board in Vernon (fun shop with shred sticks of both the single and double variety), a hot tub at Andrew Strains parents place (Shayne got his backpack stolen out of the truck, bummer), and finally a warm nights sleep in non other that one of my favorite places to ever be touched by snow, Revelstoke.

Apex is Spelled E-P-I-C

Up early once again and the boys are already feeling exhausted with the schedule. Driving through the sunrise in the Okanogan always has a great vibe about it. Maybe it’s the massive lake, sprawling hills, or maybe just the fact that the towns have epic names like Peachland (delicious) and Summerland (kind of boring in winter).

Looking to be a very familiar scene

After a quick stop at Cambodian tire for some BBQ supplies, delicious brats, and some random thievery we were off to the winding road of Apex Mountain. The always knowledgeable Andrew Strain told us all about the Natives creating road blocks around the reserves as a silent protests, and we immediately became convinced that we going to be trapped in the mountains for weeks.

Looking too good, these needed to be shredded and shredded they were

Gettin' pumped for a day at Apex. SPORTS!

Luckily this never happened and we soon found ourselves in the bluebird pow that was Apex mountain.

Pulling right up to the hill, very literally

Quick laps to the ridge with sun and beauty on all sides

The riding was great, yes, the snow was awesome, true, but the people here are something else. Everyone was so excited that we were there and just stoked to get out and ride on something new and fun. By the end of the day I’m pretty sure everyone on the hill had ridden every ski at least once and all of our arms were just about as sore as our legs.

Everyone stoked to shred and our forearms getting sore

Looking back down the majestic mountain

Poppin' pillows

Made a quick stop by Pentagon Board Shop in Penticton, and aside from finding some coffee to keep us alive for the drive home we also ran into some awesome Ontario folk running the spot. Not to mention a sneaker wall that can’t be beat.

By the time we hit the road we had given out more bandanas, stickers, and stoke than we thought was possible and thankfully a hot dinner was waiting to meet our exhaustion back in Kelowna. In fact I’m off to eat that right now. See you in Big White.

Strain is hilariously tired

Big thanks to Jonathan and everyone at Apex, Neil from Alberta for just being awesome, the Orage boys for some new threads, and the entire Pottinger family for putting us up and putting up with our shred stank.