Hey all! Had a great day this past Saturday at Mount St. Louis Moonstone, for the “You Look Good” 2010 Snowboarding Event, sponsored by Coors Light and Push.ca .
Richard Roth invited me out to shoot the event after we had a great night hanging out at the Barrie Area Photographers GTG.
It made for an early morning, but I arrived at the slopes around 9:30 am. Steve Elliott from Elliott Photography joined me a few minutes later and we headed up the hill… The day started out as a clammy overcast day, but things eventually cleared up.
We started up the hill from the base to a vantage point which allowed us to shoot the practice runs over 3 courses. We walked up from here…
The view up the hill was awesome as well…
After the practice rounds, the riders were ready for the competition.
We were at the end of the run at the largest jump. The riders were getting massive air on their jumps. Here are a few shots before things got crazy for Steve Elliott…
I was able to catch Richard while he demonstrated his superior coverage of the event, incorporating his snowboarding skills. Man! That dude can get around the hill… I don’t think there was a spot he DIDN’T shoot from (including the chairlift)! Here’s two shots of Rich at work…
We positioned ourselves near the back of the jump and shot sequences of the various riders. Here’s a sequence of rider Peter Bechtel.
It was just after this sequence that things got hairy for Steve Elliott. We got our cameras up as another rider was about to hit the big jump. The view I had was of the following…
Looking through the lens, I could tell that I needed to bail as the rider was coming right at us. I dropped the lens and took a quick step to the left. Steve was shooting and wasn’t quite so lucky. The rider hit the ground just to my right a few inches in front of Steve’s feet. The riders inpact and momentum ripped Steve’s feet out from under him like bowling pins getting knocked down. The next thing anyone knew, the rider, Steve’s new Nikon camera, and Steve were all heading down the landing hill. I could hear the announcer say…”Whoa! He’s taken out a photographer!”. Steve I suspect, couldn’t have agreed more, but had already sprung to his feet and was scrambling after his camera. To the riders credit, he was yelling out ‘sorry!’ before he even hit Steve, and was trying to grab the camera as he was sliding backwards down the landing hill, apologizing all the while! Dude…while you missed the jump on this run, you were a class act for sure!
Steve recovered the camera, dug a bit of snow out of the lens hood, checked things out and continued shooting…Way to go Steve!
Here’s a few more shots from the event…
And lastly…
Congratulations to all of the riders! You guys and gals put on a smokin’ display of skill.
See ya on the flip…
Cheers,
P.
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