TEDxGabriolaIsland

Here's Mike Stevens' TEDxTalk that I helped shoot over at The Haven on Gabriola Island back in March. Mike is an amazing harmonica player who does some really good work with isolated northern communities in Canada.

More TEDxGabriolaIsland here.

Katch Up

Here's the short film we made that won the Olympus 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler this year. Stoked!

KATCH UP from Kevin Hardiman on Vimeo.

TEDx

I was recently fortunate enough to work on the TEDxGabriolaIsland. If you're unfamiliar with TED go here. The event took place at The Haven. This place has been very good to me lately so I was happy to help out with video at the TEDx. The event was a big success. There's already talk of doing another next year.

We shot 4 cameras so I think we covered it well. The edits should be up soon. I'll post links when they go up. Thanks to Sean Kearns for getting me involved and everyone that helped put this together.

Barfoot on Powder & Rails

Powder & Rails has the Barfoot story up. Last summer I helped Trevar Cushing from Powder & Rails get some interviews with some Canadian shreds of yesteryear. This is P&R's first stab at the Canadian scene. Hopefully we can do some more. Click on over to Vice for more.

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

Duff!

Last but not least of the Living Legends from Push.ca - Dufficy!

Kale Stephens

The Living Legends series continues over at Push.ca with Kale Stephens. Check it right here or over there.

Goat Tour Pt 3

The weather changed overnight. Even with ear plugs in I could hear the dreaded drops hitting the tent. We all slowly rose from our warm dry bags to assess the wet day in front of us. The clouds were hanging low and there was a constant drizzle. After getting some coffee and food into us we made our way to the old Tubal Cain mine just above our camp. Four of us went in for a look see. There's dark and then there's absolute dark. We found the later. A little bit creepy would be an understatement.

Forrest and friend.

Yoshida considering the entrance.

I think I just saw Gollum!

We all made it out of the mine without waking any cave demons. It was totally Lord of the Rings in there. The day was drab and gray but we decided to session a patch of snow with a tree jib before we packed it up and moved down the trail.

Temple checks a line. The little guys were always close by.

Lester's puppy Laska.

Let's make it interesting. In run by Blair & Forrest.

Forrest halfway there.

Blair in the air.

After a successful final session it was time to load up and head out. Going downhill should be easier. The goats practically dragged me down the trail. They wanted to get home more than anyone. Except for one of them. One of the bigger goats (Hencho) decided he'd had enough about 2/3's of the way down and went on strike. He almost had the rest of the goats convinced to do the same, but we got them moving again before a mass revolt ensued. After unloading Hencho and securing him to a tasty salal bush we continued down the trail minus one goat. By the time we'd reached the truck, unloaded and gone back up the trail to help Les get Hencho down it was dark. Even after a good rest and being unloaded this goat was not into it. He refused to walk. Blair & Les had got him down the trail as far as they could. Mike and I joined the group and the four of us shouldered the beast and packed him out the rest of the way. That's right - we packed out the pack animal. I swear he was smiling the whole way.

How often do you get to hang with a blue goat?

About halfway down the trail before Hencho's revolt.

Hencho and Les at the end of the trail. I think Les is wondering how H would taste with a nice Shiraz.

What a mission! We were all relieved to be down off the mountain safe and sound. And just like that my snow season was over. Another day of sun would have been nice, but getting 2 in a row this year seems lucky. What a winter!

Goat Tour Pt 2

 So... we woke up to dry skies and got our train headed up the valley to the zone we'd scoped the day before. No goats today. Oh - I forgot to mention we took a couple of the goats into the alpine on Day 1 just for the hell of it. Well, for photos actually. Mountains, goats, snow shredding... you get the picture. Well you will when Yoshida's pics come out next year in the mag. Oh, and we dyed a goat blue too. He was pissed at first but I think he got into it after a while.

Smoky morning.

Break on the trail for...

...gypsy snacks from Forrest.

Blair & Sammy head up. Pic from Temple.

As does Forrest. Pic from Temple.

The mountains are green out here.

Forrest on his ridge. Pic from Temple.

The day went pretty well. The boys all got to tackle a line or two in pretty decent corn snow. The clouds held off. The views were amazing. Everybody came down smiling. Forrest even did a little pond skimming on the way out. We all made our way back to camp to find Pos & Stantech had made their way up the trail. We'd been to the Mervin Factory before we came in and they'd said they were going to try and meet us up there. "Yeah, cool" we said. "Yeah, right" we thought. But there they were - ready for anything. Well not really. It started raining that night and they were gone before we woke up the next morning. Good effort guys.

Yeah, it was a little weird. Pic from Temple.

Check back soon for Day 3.

Goat Tour Part 1

Last week I went down to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington to finish up my winter season. Blair Habenicht had corralled a crew of WA bros for a spring splitboard tour into the mountains near Port Angeles for a Snowboarder Magazine story. Travis at Standard Films figured I'd be the guy to send to try and video the whole thing. Always up for a challenge, I signed on. The twist was we were going to use goats to help pack our gear into and out of our camp. Lester West had the goats, Mervin had the splits, Mike Yoshida & I had the cameras and Blair, Temple, Forrest B & Sammy had the time. We watched the roller coaster weather forecasts until a little window opened up last week. After a day in P.A. getting last minute supplies we were off to the trail head. It was a 3 mile walk to the camp site mostly on dirt and patches of snow. After setting up camp in the dark, we all hit the sack. The next morning we awoke to Lester's alarm of gunshots. Nothing like getting your point across! Time to get up and check out our surroundings. After a not so quick breakfast we were off. The valley we were camped in was steep. Steep enough that it was easier to bootpack up the snow and dirt/rocky patches than to try and skin up. Finally we were able to put the skins on and tour up the last 3rd of the climb. We reached the top of the ridge and looked across the valley to see the terrain we were after. The side we had climbed had a few interesting riding opportunities, but better things were on offer across the valley. The access looked a little more splitboard friendly too. We milked it until the sun started disappearing and headed down to camp. A quick dinner of freeze dried goodness and it was straight into the evening's most important activity - trying to dry boots. 

Night Goat.

Going up on Day 1.

View north to the San Juans...

... with Mt. Baker in the background.

Looking across to Day 2 possibilities.

Blair & Sammy.

Boot Camp.

The hazards of drying by fire.

More to come...

Living Legend - Martin Gallant

 

Living Legends

Push.ca has been posting a series of videos they call Living Legends. Each video takes a look at a snowboarder or skateboarder from back in the day who's still in the game somehow today. I've been helping them out with interviews lately. Dennis Bannock was the first to get posted a while back. Check out the latest edit with Shin:

Keep checking Push.ca for new posts every couple of weeks. Or maybe check back here. Gawd that site's hard to get around.

April Wrap

April has come and gone. Lots of time in the mountains as usual this time of year. No AK this time. All B.C. (and one day at Baker). Winter stuck around and delivered lots of late season pow. Two weeks in the Golden area was a welcome change of scenery. Got to return to Chatter Creek with BJ after 6 years. That place is amazing. Thanks Isabelle.

Can't stop winter at Mt Baker.

Leland McNamara spent most of the month up in B.C. filming for the Rome movie. Check out Debari's custom paint job on his new Cat.

Justin Baun in his zone near Golden.

Baun's new cabin and a shootin' session.

Jane loves to shoot. Her pockets are always full of shells.

Baun, BJ & Jeff P.

Truck crust.

Bubbly goodness at Chatter.

Sweet lines at Chatter.

Line review.

BJ  atop some more goodness at Chatter.

Ronald McDonald rides again! It was strange going back to a snowmobile to access the backcountry. Old Ronald did pretty well though (after Rome put in a new motor).

Sullivan Fault. This view never gets old.

End of season wack steez.

Chatter Lodge. The biggest log building I know of. Good food too.

Sunsets and moonrises.