It’s official! ELEKTRO from Alterna Films is out in stores and available for digital HD download right now!

If you haven’t seen the teaser yet, watch it now! This is a MUST BUY for this year!

After much bureaucracy and an impressive visit to the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, I am the proud owner of a Canadian work authorization! You can call me Coach Janssen, or Drill-Instructor Janssen, either way works.

Well it’s pretty exciting I have a legal job coaching but what I am really STOKED ON is the beginning of CAMP OF CHAMPIONS!! which is TODAY!!!

It ended up being an in-snow day because it was dumping on Blackcomb Glacier! June 21st! Thick snowflakes, thick fog, a sick park with so many hits that new things would just keep appearing out of the fog, and a whole bunch of campers ready to send it.

Motivation levels rocketed: my new bud Calvin couldnt wait to hit the jumps and is probably still sitting in direct proximity to the drop-in, waiting for a window. And the kid is only 4 feet tall or so (I’m bad at estimating their age, maybe I’ll get better)!! One of Silvia’s campers was front-blunt-sliding so hard she almost missed lunch, but of course Silvia had an eye on that and made sure her campers ate right.

It’s all about being stoked at Camp of Champions and everybody really is!

During Staff Orientation in the last couple of days I noticed how stoked all the coaches, lunch crew, security, diggers, and so on, are to be here and to be a part of this. Everyone was anxious to get on their snowboards, skateboards, check out the park, meet the campers. It made me think that all the staff is like a grown-up version of the campers – same stokedness for summercamp!! But then I realized that most of us cannot exactly be considered grown-ups. And it all made sense. Age and skill level doesnt matter – just group up a bunch of shred kids from all over the globe and let them have fun in one of the sickest parks worldwide! Did I hear Ken Achenbach (the boss) say this actually IS the biggest summercamp park worldwide? But who cares. It’s sick here!!!

I don’t have my own group this week so I get to shred all day, which is really sick. I also get to sleep in a little longer if the weather is bad. And I already got to meet all of the girl campers – they are being coached by Silvia Mittermueller and Bev Vuilleumier and the help of CIT Reid I and II – Raewyn Reid and Darrah Reid-McLean right now but I also went and shredded with them for a bit today…
Among the male coaches are such amazing individuals as Chris Dufficy, Matt Belzile, Etienne Gilbert, Rob Kingwell, Hans Ahlund, Kareem El-Rafie, Andrew Burns, E-Man, Will Lavigne, Beau Bishop, Jake Kuzyk and many, many more…

There is also a new thing called “SEND IT WITH…” – there is gonna be shred sessions on special features with Pros like Dan Brisse, Andreas Wiig, Stevie Bell, Torstein Horgmo, Jake Blauvelt…

There is also “Adult Camp” for people over 19 – the legal drinkers. This week for example, the Forum Team is taking the Adult Campers out partying with a limo. No details yet but I’m sure it’ll be good time…

The next session, Camp B, is already sold out but Session C and D still have available spots! Come up here if you can pull it off!!! It’s gonna be a wicked fun summer!!!!!

campofchampions.com

For once it was NOT raining when my flight arrived in Düsseldorf so that was good. My desk at home was not good. It was full of mail and on top of that I had to step-by-step recover the contents of my wallet at numerous government and traffic institutions. One of them being in Berlin – a mere 5 hour drive. So after two nights in my own bed I was off to our German Capital city. Luckily my good friend Müller was driving there anyways to visit my other good friends Tina and Anne who live there now. So I got to finally visit them and live the Berlin city life for a few days. Thanks for the hospitality!

I love beer. But it really fills me up and I have to drink a lot of it to get really drunk but then I feel really full and lazy which it’s not as fun. Therefore, I have enacted a personal “No Beer On Weekends” – Policy a couple years ago. I disobey it at times, but I try to stick with it as much as I can. Which sometimes ends up a little nasty…

So this British Columbian Stitch-Face by the name of Max Ritchie is turning grey and old and he decided to have a Kegger-BBQ. I brought vegetables and salad, that got forgotten about as soon as the booze started flowing. Which was immediately upon my arrival. The time of the week was a Saturday, so the policy was in full effect with a bottle of Canadian Cinnamon Juice aka Fireball. I heard to become Canadian you have to drink a lot of it. So I did. Cinnamoned myself right into the Black zone. That’s where you can find me on a Saturday night. I even have a toothbrush there now.

Luckily my sub-conscious makes great decisions while I’m in my Saturday night happy place. I supposedly threw the empty Fireball bottle (thanks for cleaning up the mess, friends), had some serious talks about unresolved issues, rolled joints (now I really don’t believe that one), smoked them (no way!) and fell over backwards into bushes (some extensive detective work the next day revealed it by matching up broken branches to the scratches on my back).

At least I didn’t get in any fights or break my foot (right, Jill Gwilliam?!)… But there still are some bruises unaccounted for so who knows. I look pretty funny naked to say the least.

I feel kinda bad for Max. I hope he had fun. If I had that party at my place I would be a bit nervous… Either way, Jill pretty much killed it. Falling down the stairs she hurt her ankle, which swell up to the size of… well, a broken foot?! To get home we only had to walk up Bayshores Hill but Jill was in pain and the boys were telling her to suck it up and walk home. She couldn’t fall asleep until she smoked my secret stash (the real stash had gone up in flames in the back of a pick-up).

Sunday morning at the hospital. Still a little drunk. X-rays, wheelchairs, boys with peanut allergies. Then the Doctor told Jill that her foot was broken. Intense. Then my truck broke down and we pretty much ditched it for Cesar’s. Victoria day long weekend, Fireball and Cesar’s – I think I got some Canadian in me…

Sorry for Partying…

Since the Grouse Mountain Session two weeks ago, filming has slowed down a whole lot.
We had some nice warm weather and together with the Telus Festival, 4-20, and of course Grenade Games, spring is in the air!

Not yet having enough days on my season pass, I’ve been stoked to go shred the hill any chance I get. Blackcomb park has been superfun and the slush and spring feeling has been IGNITING MY LOVE FOR THE SHRED once again…

Snowboarding for the soul
With friends and Cradle
Stopovers in the woods and waterbottles at the top of the run
Apres-Cesars on the Merlin’s Patio
Life is Good

Check out our progress on the Alterna Blog, there are also new blogs about an avalanche that almost took out all our sleds and the yearly GROUSE session!!!

Teaser coming soon….

The last month has been insane and I would almost consider it a highlight of my snowboarding career. Going to the backcountry as much as possible, waiting for nice weather, window-shopping, looking for spots, spinning the wrong direction, wrong turns, shoveling, looking for lines, take-offs, landing, eating shit, good snow, bad snow, ice, slush… One broken belt, two broken ice-scratchers…

Photog Phil Tifo… – check the background for Martin Gallant and Dave Short

I’m starting to get to know the zones a lot better and I’m so much more comfortable being out there and looking for my own things to hit than I was just a month ago. I have been watching the guys closely and trying to copy how they go about it.

I don’t have very many shots though unfortunately. But there is some really good ones, too. I never thought it was gonna be easy…

Yesterday for example, I went out with Rasman, Rob and Tifo. Tifo pointed out this jump to me that I was able to hit natural. While doubling up there I fell off the sled and hit my head on my board that I was carrying (bruise no.1). Meanwhile, Rob and Rasman were filming a cliff drop close-by. We then went to this other jump spot, where Rasman was going for a sick FS360. The landing was flat as hell and it was anything but powder. I doubled him up and he finally landed it. On my way down I was on one side of the sled nd hit a bump I wasnt ready for. Both my feet slipped off the footrest and my shins painfully slid down the cheese-grader metal all the way to my knees. It felt pretty shitty and led to bloody bruise no. 2. I was, however, able to hold on to my sled or else it would have made its lonely way down the hill…

Self-portrait on my sled…

My turn to go hit Rasman’s jump. I was gonna bs 3 it but then decided for a straight-air first – luckily. The landing was way more flat than I thought (and I thought it was flat) and I took my knee to my forehead. Beautiful. (bruises no. 3 and 4)
But I had built this pad-down drop the day before so I took Tifo and Rob there and started hitting it. Did a couple of cab1s until I was happy with my style. When Rob doubled me up, he pinned it as I was jumping off his sled and his no-board, that is attached to his sled, hit me in the ellbow wicked hard (bruise no. 5). I did however, get the shot – photo and film!

Chris Rasman – so fun to shred with this guy!

Well, considering I have been more than healthy all season long and these bruises won’t kill me, just make me stronger, I had a great day. My right knee is pretty swollen so I am taking the day off – back tomorrow though – we still have two more days of sunshine coming up and I still need tons of shots!

Oh, and I heard there might be an Alterna teaser coming up soon…

2 Alterna crews in their way up…
From left: Phil Tifo, Julien Sallenave, Beardmore, Rasman, Jeremy, JF Fortin

On February 19th, 2009, the Osiris Girls Team accomplished every action sports junkie’s dream come true: skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and wakeboarding, all in one day. Osiris Girls team rider, pro wakeboarder and SoCal native Melissa Marquardt proposed the idea to do all the sports in one day and the rest is history. The only thing better than getting to do all four sports in one day is having the top female athletes from each sport showing you how it’s done. X-Games Gold medalist skater Karen Jones, Sector 9 soul skater Annie Sullivan, Roxy team rider and ASP World Champion Longboarder Jen Smith, female wakeskate pioneer Stef Tor, and backcountry pow slayer Vera Janssen made up the crew that took part in “Shred Day 2009”. Filmer Jonathan Villegas, photographer Dan Coronado, along with marketing/team manager Kimberly Woo documented the day, capturing the adventure on film.

The day consisted of everything you’d expect and then some: bathroom breaks every ten minutes, sinkholes on the freeway, hilarious topics of conversation in the car ride and best of all, epic conditions at each spot. With fresh snow at Mountain High, glassy water at the Carlsbad Lagoon, perfect waves in Pacific Beach and good company at Sector 9’s Bread Bowl, only one word could be used to describe the theme of the day: epic. Of course getting to do all the sports in one day is fun in itself, but getting inspired by other girls killing it at their sport and then having a blast doing yours is what made this day truly remarkable. After all, having fun riding with your friends is what these sports are really about.

Check out the trailer for “Shred Day 2009” HERE

Beardmore doesn’t have a sled so I’m doubling him up. Or he is doubling me up on my sled. Easier that way. He decides to pass the cat next to the cat track, jumping a little creek, and the cat driver gets wicked pissed off. I’m laughing my little heart out, this day is gonna be fun!

A little farther up the cat track, CJ goes over the edge in a hairpin turn. We all watch him get back on track, laughing, then Beards and I have to take off because the cat is coming closer and that cat driver is still pissed off. We wait a little higher up for the rest of the crew and watch them come up towards us, when Rob rolls his sled (again), which falls right onto its throttle upside-down, track in the air, spinning wide open. There is a huge cloud and we all think his sled is gonna catch on fire any second. He can’t reach the killswitch obviously and he is trying to reach for the key when the motor shuts itself off. Ouch. Black smoke all over and a very burnt scent lays in the air. Rob has pee pee in his eyes. We are all pretty bummed out and have to leave the sled behind to make our way to the Alpine. Yes, that’s right – we are not even at the Alpine at this point…

Turns out the snow is crappy up there anyways and we are scouting all over the place. I find a bunch of things I wanna do after the next snowfall because I hate jumping into crap and am craving all the powder that is in the forecast right now.

At lunch I jump this little windlip on my sled. Beards gets stoked on it and hits it with me. We just session it and it’s superfun. We get all hyped up to snowboard and jump and we take off on my sled to build a jump we had seen before. But there are sledmarks in the landing so we just end up sledding all over until we are really, really high up and looking at this beautiful, sharp, mountain-top. There is a little windlip down it and it’s just sooo sick. We hike up there and it feels like it’s the top of the world. We decide to shoot that wind-lip and get the others and Beards and I both get shots (Beardmore’s shots are gonna be ridiculous – he slayed it!!) as the sun is making its way down towards the mountaineous skyline…

On our way back we have to pick up Rob’s sled and tow it out. CJ is the lucky tower and it’s mainly downhill. Julien, Beards and I kick back and let them get ahead of us because they are gonna be so slow. After a little while, CJ comes back up to us. He asks where Rob is. We are heavily confused and get a little scared because we think he might have gone over the edge of the cat track if CJ turned back and did not see him. Julien says to go look for Rob and now CJ looks confused and says “Oh, I think I just passed Rob when I drove back up. I just thought that it was you, Julien!” We break out in laughter again and catch up to Rob who is all lonely farther down the cat track, sitting on his sled…

What a day!

Watch the ‘Daily Habit’ on Wednesday !!
I’m on TV!!