Sylvain Bourbousson – Frontside 5 – Stranda, Norway © Matt Georges. Click the image to see it BIG.

Behind the Shot is a new regular on this site, and will bring you every week or so an iconic shot from an iconic photographer, where he explains the context of the photo session, as well as all the technical aspects you might want to know about. You are a snowboard photo geek? This is for you!

Let’s start with one of our long time senior photographer, Matt Georges.

Here’s his breakdown:

Sylvain Bourbousson – Frontside 5 – Stranda, Norway

Camera: Hasselblad FCW2003
Lens: Carl Zeiss T* 150mm F.4
Film: FUJI 400VC
Speed: 1/1000e
Aperture: f16

The Tech

With the old medium format cameras, you can only find fixed lens, no zoom. So you need to get your legs out and find the right angle and distance for the compisition of shot you want to have. Here, I used a Carl Zeiss T* 150mm f/4 lens, giving a 6X6cm format, which pretty much correspond to a 100mm lens for a classic 35mm format.

When I shoot with the Hasselblad, I often shoot from the ground. It give me the texture I want for the foreground, and gives more pop to the rider. I learn that through my years of shooting skateboard photos, laying down in dog piss more often than I would like…

In my composition, I pretty much respected the 1/3 rules, at least vertically. It gives a certain rhythm to the shot with a distinct fore ground, second ground, back ground. Since I was shooting with a negative film 400 ISO that captures a lot of light, I needed a high speed to freeze the shot – minimum 1/1000th second – and with the sun striking, I could play a lot with a large depth of field and a closed up aperture like f16. The wide depth of field place the subject nicely into the scenery, and everything looks sharp although I did the focus on the kicker in the first place.

The Context

The North of Norway is a real nightmare when it comes to weather, and you’d better be ready to have some down days. Sometimes you wait for a good old week before you can get lucky enough for a sunny window. And sometimes when the light comes, it arrives together with the wind, which is not great for the riders. In short, it’s pretty tricky. So we had shaped a kicker during the storm so it would be ready in a blink for the first ray of sun. It had taken us 2 solid days of shaping under snow and rain, with the Absinthe crew filming for Twelve back then. The crew with me was Sylvain Bourbousson, David Bertshinger, Mat Schaer and filmer David Vladyka. A week after the shape, it was finally time for Bourbousson to guinea pig it with a nice and ballsy Frontside 5. He took it pretty much full speed despite the heavy wind and flew quite dangerously. There were rocks and ice patches all over the place. Basically, this is the one and only shot that got done on that lovely spot. A real shame. Really gutted, we decided to bail and move North to try and get some stuff down toward Narvik area. If the worste comes to worste, at least we’d have new bars to drown our sorrow in…

I would have loved to have more time and better conditions to shoot that spot, it just looked insane didn’t it! But who knows, we might be back one of those days! But what’s even more sad about this, is that this diptic collage should have made it into last year’s Onboard Photo Annual… That’s if some friend at the mag I won’t say the name – he’s bald and speaks funny – wouldn’t have forgotten about it. The shot didn’t make it into the final selection. Double bummer. But revenge taken, it’s now here on the site for your enjoyment!

Check out Matt’s new website.

Text: Joonas Reijonen

ELIAS ELHARDT IS A “CALM PERSON WHO THINKS BEFORE HE TALKS;” “AS A RIDER HE IS A FREAKING CAT:” ”(HE IS) JUST HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING;” ” SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE YOU TALK TO A WALL WHEN HE’S DAYDREAMING.” THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE DESCRIPTIONS GIVEN BY FOLK WHO KNOW ELIAS ELHARDT. FROM TTR PODIUMS TO THE POWDER FIELDS OF ALPS THIS YOUNG GERMAN HAS DONE ‘EM ALL. ONBOARD TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT ONE OF GERMANY’S MOST PROMISING RIDERS.

When searching for ”German snowboarder” on google the most common article that pops up is about a snowboarder who burned his cash to get attention after he was stranded on a ski lift for six hours. So as you can imagine the list for well known German snowboarders is not too long. Thankfully Elias doesn’t need to burn notes to get noticed, his riding does that.

Elias started snowboarding on his local mountain 11 years ago. “We where a clique, always hanging out at the skate park together. Then it was just natural, that we had to try snowboarding as well.” Elias says that having fun was the most important part of snowboarding and getting better just came naturally over time. He soon began to get the attention of his fellow riders: “I met Elias four years ago just randomly in Snowpark NZ. I mean you can’t help but see Elias jumping around the park and riding every pump and transition that he can find”, says Peter König, a friend and a fellow rider.

Cab 7 Bonneval, Photo: Matt Georges

After making a name for himself in rookie contests he suddenly disappeared off the scene. He had suffered a nasty lung infection, the recovery from which took a whole season. “Those days, when I started again after the illness were just amazing. We had more than a metre of fresh powder and went up on my local mountain every day.” In no time Elias was back in the saddle and kept hammering the competition scene with German precision. Loads of top ten positions sprinkled with a few podiums, including first place at the 4Star Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam with a perfect Backside 1080 Double Cork, and the world again knew Elias.

But where does all his success in competitions come from? Elias’s team manager Andi Aurhammer thinks that it is in the way the competative atmosphere affects him. “There’s a lot of pressure so he becomes very concentrated and focused.” When asked about the Olympics and slopestyle becoming one of its events Elias doesn’t give a straight answer: “I’m really not sure what to think about it. I just hope that snowboarding never looses its roots and soul, now that everything is getting more and more professional. And would I compete in Olympics? I’d definitely not focus on it.”

Elias Elhardt Invert Cab 5, Photo: Matt Georges

Elias himself came to our knowledge through competition, but is that the only way to get sponsored these days? “I think nowadays there’s different ways for young riders to get noticed” Elias told us. “For example by producing your own little video part and spreading it on the web. Nevertheless, I guess the most common and fastest way up for young riders is still to prove themselves in the competition circus and will be for some time.”

But while Elias keeps racking up points on the TTR tour he has also managed to put together amazing video parts in Jolly Roger and Hooked for the Pirate crew productions. “Filming gives him the stage to express his kind of snowboarding. He enjoys playing around in powder. I guess he sometimes doesn’t even realizing that the camera is turned on”, says Aurhammer. In movie parts style is all that matters: “Elias’s style is actually pretty hard to describe. I was thinking about that one day and couldn’t come up with an answer. He just has his own style. You will recognize him when you see him. He has a good eye for being creative on the mountain, on all terrains like backcountry, park or just riding the slope”, says König. Maybe versatility is the word that defines the young German’s riding. According to Elias his “ultimate movie part would have powder lines, kickers, natural hits and pillow lines combined with some jibbing and spring shredding in the park. Most importantly I like to see that the rider in a video part likes what he’s doing and that makes me want to go snowboarding too.”

Elias Elhardt Frontside 7, Photo: Matt Georges

The one word that keeps popping up about Elias is fun. But is there a place for fun in this day an age when snowboarding is getting so serious? ”Snowboarding is getting more and more professional and nowadays the focus is a lot on the performance. Through that progress sometimes the joy of riding is getting a bit lost. Although I guess this is a very natural process for a sport growing up. I think it’s important to stick to our roots and keep freedom and fun as our main idea behind it all.” To show that fun to everyone Elias started the Elias-friends.com videoblog at the beginning of the season. “As in contest riding, it is the performance and bangers that count. I was missing to just shred with friends and enjoy. To show this part of Snowboarding more, we started the Elias and friends project. I think it’s good not to only focus on ‘bigger, harder, better’ in professional snowboarding but to also give room for creative and most importantly fun riding.”

An Italian filmer and a good friend of Elias Mario Castelani travels with him and produces short videos of the sessions around the world. “I think it’s cool to show people more, than just the video part and contests. It’s fun to share good sessions we’re having throughout the season and also the experiences we are making while travelling”, believes Elias. But is it a mandatory for a pro rider to facebook and tweet? “It’s a good thing people get connected through platforms like Facebook. It’s just important to use it as a tool to make real live better and not to replace real live.”

Elias Elhardt Front 3 Tail, Photo: Matt Georges

The future of Elias Elhardt is looks good. He has settled himself among the top riders both in the competition and filming scenes and having won the German Snowboarder of the year award twice in a row his options are open. But when asked him about what the future might hold he had one main wish: “I’ll probably spend more time in the backcountry to go filming in the future. Shredding powder is simply what I love the most in snowboarding.” Elias would like to thank his sponsors Nitro, Rip Curl, Deeluxe, Dakine, TSG Protection and Moreboards.

Follow Elias and friends on www.elias-friends.com

WORDS: TOM COPSEY

Snowboarders have always been ravenous for any kind of shred sustenance, but recently the way we sink our teeth into snowboarding’s rumpsteak has changed immeasurably. Following the sport used to be a much more lethargic affair: In the days of old school shred media kids went snowboarding. If they were good they’d have pictures taken of them, words scribbled down of their achievements to be typed up six months later, and if they were really good their hucking would also be burned onto celluloid and pumped out on Vhs the following season. If you wanted to be involved, to know what was happening in the scene, you either had to be there bro-ing down, or buy the mag or video the following winter. If they weren’t from your local hill, the pros you looked up to had all the real life qualities of hollywood’s finest. Not much.

Of course, now everything’s turned on its head. Today’s generation demand their information yesterday and when it comes to keeping up with riders chances are you’re ‘friends’ on Facebook with those that get you amped, you follow their brain farting tweets and have their blogs bookmarked. The boundaries between us mortals and the pro shred-head has narrowed to the point that whereas before you might know what they were up to six months ago, you now where they’re at the moment they login, what music they’re digging, and what trick they just stomped. We are better connected than ever before with the guys and gals pushing the sport.

The medium for bringing snowboarding into the ‘now’, of course, is the internet. As the web and its workings have tweaked increasingly for ease of use for people who can’t be bothered to go full geek, so with a minimal amount of nerdiness the riders themselves are now able to use the net as a platform to take control of their image and inform, stoke out, entertain and interact with the rest of us on their own terms. Snowboarders with websites or blogs is nothing new – there’s a bunch of riders who’ll intermittently post their ramblings from the road with a couple of shots – but over the last couple of years a notable few have really tapped into the true potential the web holds – video. Let’s face it, these kids might not be so good at penning Pulitzer Prize-winning road trip reports, but when it comes to shredding and charisma, this lot have it in spades and with it the potential to churn out online gold dust.

“I’m so bad with all geek stuff, so if I can do it everyone can,” says Halldor Helgason who, along with his brother Eiki, have been leading the charge of rider-generated content with their site helgasons.com, a site where you’re just as likely to see Halldor getting a cock tattooed on his fi nger as you are some Grade-A shredding. The Helgason’s site, now with backing from the boys’ sponsors that allows fi lming nutter Johannes to tag along, is perhaps the perfect example of how riders can put themselves about in the pipes. With that winning mix of rapid-fi re clips featuring fuckwittery, fun shredding that regular Joes can relate to plus a fair amount of Hero shots too, it gives you a decent insight into the lives of these freakishly talented Icelanders.

Eero Ettala is another guy who’s got it dialled, with regular video shot by buddy Rasmus or himself, plus some awesome archived stuff he digs out from old VHS tapes. Though he initially conceived ettala.com as a kind of online diary where he could post stuff from the road and footage that would otherwise be orphaned for his buddies to see what he’d been up to, he realised from the get-go he wanted more than mere words and pictures: “From the very beginning of creating my site, I wanted it to be a bit different than most of the blogs, and have it concentrated more on the videos than photos. When I do something I want to do it as good as possible.”

Kevin Backstrom, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

Eero’s compatriot, Antti Autti, also echoes the desire to go further than the norm, which is refl ected on his site, anttisworld.com, featuring a decent amount of video, slideshows, and musings from the Finn. “I think it’s good to offer more than just blog,” he states. “Doing a blog is really easy but doing a blog that actually gets you addicted and stoked is way harder.” He also makes another good point about how having such a site frees riders from the constraints other people’s preconceptions, as he explains: “I thought it’d be a great opportunity for me to expand my riding from contests only. I guess the main reason for it is the fact that it’s really hard to get into fi lm crew nowadays. You know, I’ve done so many contests throughout my career that I’m for sure in that ‘contest rider’ box so with my website I wanted to create a chance to fi lm and post it online for people to watch.”

As much as it’s about the a bit of self-indulgent fun, the real gravy lies in the fact that now, online, these infl uential riders can now connect with the kids better than ever. Something that both the riders and the groms are equally stoked on – after all, today’s pros were groms themselves not so long ago… As Antti says: “If you actually have your own site people can hit you up with questions and have a chat with you about snowboarding and other stuff. I’d have been so stoked to do that with Kevin Jones or Terje when I was small…” Ettala believes it’s not only awesome for kids to be able to regularly check out what’s going on with their heroes, but also that “it’s something they can relate to too, just to see their favorite riders riding regular parks in resorts. If I was a kid I would like to see more footage of my favorite riders than just that 3 minute video clip in fall and then wait another year for the next clip.”

Torstein Horgmo hits the nail on the head when talking about narrowing the gap between pro and grom: “That’s the part I was missing the most when I was watching all the pros shred in the videos,” he acknowledges, “when I was 13 and watching The Resistance 10 times a day that is… I wanted to know everything there was about all the pros. It was important to me, so I just do the best I can with it now.” Though he admits that for his “snow, website good; no snow, website suck!” it was on torstein.net that he chose to drop the now infamous triple cork video. “I wanted to update it with good video clips everytime, so I knew I couldn’t post everyday,” he says, but for the coming season he has plans to hire a fi lmer to up the output.

Antti Autti, Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi

In his column on onboardsnowboarding.com, Nike team manager Jon Weaver asked ‘So could it be that soon we’ll see a rider who never wins a contest, never has a video part and is on a pro team, purely on the strength of his online presence?’ Rightly he explains that without sponsor backing it would be hard to achieve, but that fundamentally, yes, why not? He alsomakes another excellent point: “So the middle-of-the-road pro
snowboarder who now makes a video part once a year, well what connection does he have to the kids? Do they know his personality? Is he a nice guy? How does he shred his home mountain?” And when you break it down to the barest, most cynical bones, professional snowboarders are there to sell product and a big part of that is how kids relate to your riding and your personality.

Connecting with them is therefore a big deal and, with a good site, chances are the kids will be down. Though Jon admits it’s not essential yet that potential team riders are active online, it’s certainly something he takes note of when scouting: “It just shows that the rider is aware of their role and people who do it well can carve themselves a great niche.” Needless to say his charges are all encouraged to get involved with producing
internet-friendly material. Backing up to the riders who don’t currently sit at the apex of snowboarding’s Pyramid of Awesome, at the time of writing the online video part is kind of a big deal. Ok, your Rices and Rüfs have no need, starring as they do in one or more of the biggest productions around, but for rookies looking to break out or those who can’t get in to the bigger movies it’s an ideal way to get your footage uncaged and into the wild. Recently we’ve seen Ståle Sandbech, Kevin Backstrom and Ethan Morgan fire out solid edits of their riding highlights last winter and surely more will jump on the bangwagon. Let’s face it – if you’re not locked in for a movie part right now and your sponsor’s not footing the bill for a fi lmer, there’s no better way to put the footage to good use than chopping it up and chucking it in the boiling oil of the internet’s deep fat fryer. These guys went it alone, whereas the True Color Films guys bandied together to release their roadtrip movies through last winter and Miika Hast and Jonas Hagstrom convinced Protest to let them live the dream and simply ride pow, the only caveat being they had to fi lm it all with their GoPros. For riders like this who, no disrespect intended, aren’t in the A-lister bracket, saturating the internet with quality content is a good way to keep your name on people’s lips.

But what does this all mean for you? Aside from being better informed than ever of what your favourite riders are up to, and having a never-ending cascade of content at your fingertips with which to amuse yourself until your next shred fix, it also means you and your crew can get yourselves amongst it. As Halldor says, if he can do it anyone can, so what’s stopping you? Get out there with your iPhone, GoPro, whatever, Google yourself
a tutorial or tap up your speccy mate, get posting and at the very least your buds will be pumped. At best, well, who knows what team manager might stumble upon your creation? And the worst is it’ll just be fun way for people to check out your haps. Not exactly ‘bad’, then…

Words: ULI KÖHLER

With his versatile and creative riding style, Simon Gruber’s already conquered the Italian snowboard scene and with his part in the latest Isenseven movie the 23-year-old’s now set out to make it on a European level. Onboard looks at what makes the South Tyrolean tick…

Simon Gruber, Photo: Matt Georges

Simon Gruber isn’t good at skiing. Or at least this is what he realised ten years ago after coming in second to last at a local ski race in his home of South Tyrol. That day he picked up snowboarding, and immediately fell in love with it. The 23-year-old has since become one of the best Italian riders in recent history, and has won three out of the four last “Italian Rider of the Year” awards. After only two years of riding he got his first sponsor deals through Santa Cruz and Body Glove. Then he switched to the European Forum team, where he carries the Italian flag to this day.

Simon Gruber Wallride on the Frontside, Photo: Matt Georges

The Italian flag? “Simon changes his opinion of him being Italian about four times a day. He is only sure about his nationality when it comes to football and food,” explains Forum team manager Chris Patsch. This is mainly down to him being from South Tyrol, the German-speaking region in Northern Italy, that is all too often neglected when planning a snowboard trip. “South Tyrol is home for me…. good food, great people. Seiser Alm and Kronplatz are great for park riding, as they are constantly shaped by [local shaping crew] F-Tech. When it comes to backcountry riding I like Val Gardena the most, or else we usually leave the beautiful South Tyrol and drive to ‘Italy’.”

Simon Gruber 50-50, Photo: Matt Georges

Wherever his heart really is, it is Simon’s riding that definitely stands out from the crowd. Having filmed for various regional productions he made it into the Isenseven roster at the beginning of last season and delivered a versatile part in ‘Don’t Panic’, consisting not only of front and back 10s
over park kickers, but also pillow line bashing and a solid array of urban trickery.

Simon Gruber 50-50 to Front 3 Nose, Photo: Matt Georges

Simon Gruber 50-50 to Front 3 Nose, Photo: Matt Georges

To be honest, though, prior to his Isenseven appearance his name hadn’t gone ‘household’ outside Italy. Whenever you get your hands on an Italian snowboard magazine, chances are high that it features a couple of bangers from Simon, which he believes comes down to him being part of the Italian scene. “For Italian riders it is fairly easy to get coverage in a local magazine. It is all too tempting to stay ‘at home’ all the time.” This
mentality is fuelled further by the Italian infrastructure: “We have excellent resorts, parks, everything really… why go travel somewhere else? To me, however, it is very important to follow a different route.”

Simon Gruber Back 10 Double Cork, Photo: Federico Pellini

Giacomo Margutti, editor in chief of Snowboard Mag Italy, has spent a lot of time with Simon, and knows his riding and potential better than most. He outlines Simon’s ‘route’ for us: “He’s of course one of the best [riders] our country has to offer in the snowboarding fi eld. His future looks great, if only he will fi nd the courage to challenge new experiences and ride a bit more abroad with international riders – rather than just staying in Italy.” His former TM Jon Weaver, who has since joined the Nike 6.0 train, described him as being “one of the most naturally talented riders around. He has an amazing ability, which is so good to watch!”

Simon Gruber Lend A Hand, Photo: Matt Georges

Being rather modest about his own achievements Simon turns to irony when it comes to talk about his time with Isenseven: “Everyone is taking the piss as I’m the only Italian. No one is taking me serious. It beats me why I’ll be filming with them again this season!” Apart from fi lming for Isen he will enter a couple of contests, the highlight being the Nanshan Open in China, and of course fi lm the odd web clip with the infamous GMR crew, the Gentleman Riders from Val Senales.

Simon Gruber Back Lip Through The Kink, Photos: Matt Georges

In whatever he does, Simon’s most striking ability is his creativity. He is already a part-time park shaper for F-Tech, and knows what can be done on any given obstacle. It is Giacomo Margutti, who sums up Simon’s talent best: “I remember once riding down a slope with him. The slope was just a regular one, without any particular features, but he rode down jibbing so many things he found here and there. This way he created his own world. I think people who don’t know what snowboarding is about should once ride down with Simon, and they surely would fall in love with riding sideways!”

Simon Gruber Front 3 Cliff Drop, Photos: Matt Georges

Another striking thing about this kid from Ora (Auer) close to Bolzano is his soft spot for double grabs. Simon: “If I had three hands I would even go
for triple grabs!” But even without a third grab we look forward to seeing more of this gifted half-Italian, half-European ripper. Simon would like to thank Alex Berger from F-Tech and Fakie Shop, his friends and family, all the brands that keep sending him parcels: Forum Foursquare, Smith, Nike 6.0, Monster, Skull Candy, Elm & once again F-Tech and the Fakie Shop.

Simon Gruber Hip Backside, Photos: Matt Georges

Simon Gruber Front 7, Photo: Fizza