Neverland Portland Premier, Words with MFM

Absinthe always makes great movies and when September finally rolls around, I'm always looking for that premier more than any other. Something about a big mountain and pow-heavy video on the big screen gets me shred ready faster than seeing the first flakes on the mountain webcams. My buddy Colin over at ESPN beat me to the writeup (actually a bunch of people did) and he's a far better writer than I (actually plenty of people are), so you might as well check out his article.

But, before I drop that link on you, here's something to listen to while you read it, an interview I did with Marc Frank Montoya after the show. Unfortunately my camera (yeah, I use a video camera to record audio, it's what I got) ate the first half of the interview, so I'll recount that to you now to the best of my ability. We talked a little about how long he's been filming with Absinthe and agreed it had been a long damn time. He bounced around to Kingpin and KidsKnow for a bit but always came back. Why? Because they have the backcountry (especially Alaska) scene on lockdown. He wasn't actually going to film with them this year because he's doing his own thing (or joint thing with FODT) with another crew. If you haven't heard, it's called Hard to Earn check for it later this fall. One thing that's easy to see if you look below the surface is that Marc's into all kinds of different business ventures. Trying to make money for himself instead of making other people rich, as he says it. Is it hard to keep up the businesses and have time to ride? He said he never really looked at snowboarding as a business, just something he did for the love. He never let the businesses get in the way of snowboarding or his snowboarding get in the way of his business ventures. And that's where the following video picks up. The question posed to him was: Your name is on a lot of products, was there ever anything that you wanted it on that you never got?

Yeah, some kid had Marc sign his smelly shoe.

Now, while you're listening, go over here and read about the video.

Points of emphasis: Dan Brisse comes through (in his Absinthe debut, by the way) with one of the best sections I've ever pointed my retinas at. Evel Kenievel ssized airs, stomping the cityscape like his name was Godzilla, the crowd went bananas and Brisse earned every decibel.

Seeing as much powder as Nicolas and Wolle rode is the sort of thing that almost had me looking for plane tickets to New Zealand. I'm counting down the days now.

Cale Zima flat out destroys himself. When he's 40 and can't get out of the recliner anymore at least he'll have some of these handrail hammers to look back on. The dancing is hilarious also.

Travis Rice. Yeah, forget about him? Going huge as always.

The list goes on. Just buy the movie. Reviewing Absinthe videos should just come down to that from here on out. You didn't need me to tell you that. Just go buy it. You'll never regret it.