Last Monday was Gaper Day at Whistler Blackcomb: the unofficial send-off to the snow season. Snow conditions were, of course, not the best, and heavy rain deterred all but the most diehard skiers, snowboarders, and tickle trunk aficionados. The day started at 11am sharp-ish, with a race down the stairs outside Merlin’s Bar and Grill. [...]
Posts under ‘Arts + Culture’
Blake Jorgenson runs 2013 Whistler Outdoor Photography Summit
This fall, some of the greatest action sports photographers in the industry are running the fourth annual Whistler Outdoor Photography Summit, in conjunction with the Whistler Arts Council and Out of Bounds Backcountry Photo Contest. The summit will celebrate the process of documenting, exploring and bringing outdoor visuals to life. “Photography in Whistler and the [...]
Mountain Movers: how will National Geographic’s new reality show affect snowsports?
Terrain park builders are the latest subject added to National Geographic’s collection of reality TV shows; full of colourful characters and even more colourful language, Mountain Movers is a three-part series likely to provoke discussion about the snowsports industry. The show focuses on Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson and his team at Snow Park Technologies (SPT). SPT [...]
National Geo Turns Park Building into Reality TV
An interview with Snow Park Technologies’ Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson on building terrain parks, snowsports participation and “Moving Mountains” National Geographic’s reality TV show—Mountain Movers—focuses on the terrain park building crew at Snow Park Technologies (SPT). SPT is responsible for some of the most innovative terrain parks in the world, including Winter X Games, the Burton [...]
Deep Winter Photo Challenge 2013
Saturday January 19 saw the annual Deep Winter photo challenge presented by Whistler Blackcomb, Arc’teryx and GoreTex, take place in Whistler’s Fairmont Chateau. Six professional ski/snowboard photographers had 3 days to shoot their team of athletes in-bounds on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains during the least wintery conditions a Deep Winter comp has ever seen. They [...]
Trend Watch: The Hand-Crafted Snowboard Revolution? Maybe…
Generally, a snowboard is a snowboard. When you dig beneath the marketing, the pro riders, and the minor technical differences, the overwhelming majority of snowboards are made from the same materials and are shaped one of two ways (rocker/camber). But snowboards didn’t start this way. In the early days, pioneers were carving out hand made sticks [...]
An Interview with Red Bull’s Scott Jewett / Une entrevue avec Red Bull’s Scott Jewett
An Interview with Red Bull’s Scott Jewett Over the course of its 28 year history Red Bull has managed to intertwine itself masterfully into the root structure of the action sports industry, becoming one of the category’s most recognized brands. Despite having invested minimally in traditional advertising, Red Bull has managed to carve out a [...]
The 3 Information Management Styles, or How to identify an agency worker based on their web-surfing techniques
In this final installment of our 3 part series on managing your signal to noise ratio, we present a handy-dandy identification guide: How to identify which species of agency worker is which, based on their responses to the question: “how do you manage your information and inspiration sources?” Systematic vs organic. The more systematic, the [...]
Best New Trend in Outdoor Gear : Bamboo Replaces Steel
Back in 2006, we saw bamboo make some inroads in outdoor gear manufacturing, as an alternative layer in ski and snowboard construction. Then, it became the buzzworthy fibre for outdoor apparel… although most technical brands soon opted for Tencel, instead. More recently, we’re seeing a revival in the 100 year old tradition of using bamboo [...]
The Good-Looking and the FUgly – Marketing That Gets an F for Disrespecting Its Audience
If storytelling is the new branding and experience is the new marketing, then marketers are going to need to learn how to lay off the key messages, and leave space for the audience to connect the dots, all by themselves. I present, in support of my sharp-and-pointy opinions, the following marketing face-off… wherein exhibit A [...]
