Gigi Rüf, Haines, Alaska © Blotto.

Dean ‘Blotto’ Gray has been documenting snowboarding for ever and he is without a doubt one of the most respected photographers out there. His ability to create a surrealistic atmosphere, or at the opposite take the essence of a glimpse of a moment, are unique. For his first entry in our Behind The Shot feature, he chose to picture the quiet, peaceful moment that you can get killing time in AK between two big mountain sessions. Get in the head of Blotto now!

The pleasure of documenting snowboarding is the unlimited possibilities for fun, creativity and travel, all of which cure boredom, promote productivity and enhance adventure in our everyday lives.

Gigi Rüf, Hippy Hopping in Haines, Alaska.

Camera: Hasselblad 203FE

Lens: 80 mm

Aperture: 6.3

Speed: 1600

ISO: 400

Film : Provia F100

The Context

The pleasure of documenting snowboarding is the unlimited possibilities for fun, creativity and travel, all of which cure boredom, promote productivity and enhance adventure in our everyday lives. Some of these missions bring you to sleepy mountain towns where people go to get away from the everyday hustle and stress of over populated cities; finding refuge and a mellow existence around limited numbers of humans. However, a handful of these sleepy mountain towns conceal just the right amount of snowfall and terrain features that snowboarders are looking to explore, ride and document.

Haines, Alaska has long been a destination for shredders who strive to find a new line, push the envelope of riding and fill out video parts. This Southeast Alaska town has played host to many film crews over the years, most notably Absinthe Films and their band of riders, who’ve certainly left their stamp on the town and the mountains.

The Tech

While most of the riding happens in the hills, we’ve occasionally found ourselves with time to kill while chilling around the hotel as the newest storms reset the mountains. Longtime Absinthe rider Gigi Rüf saw a good opportunity for a few ‘hippy hops’ over the yellow barricade outside the Thunderbird Hotel, so I used a Hasselblad 203FE with 80mm lens and Provia 100F film. After the action session, a few of us went exploring around the shore line, locating a snowed in Volkswagen Beetle, among other items in this mini junk yard. The same camera and roll of film was used for the portrait. As you can see, the skies and mountains look clear and ready go, but it’s the range to the North we were patiently waiting on a reset.

Check Blotto’s awesome work on his website, and follow him on Instragram/Twitter: @deanblottogray.

For previous Behind The Shot, check here.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, surely a washed out digital polaroid of a rider’s eye view of the rockstar life you wish you were living has got to be worth a quick butchers. If you fancy stalking some famous dudes, you could do worse than to download yourself  the instagram and see them the way their iPhone sees them (other handsets are available). You could even stalk us @onboardmag while you’re at it.

Everybody imagines that their heroes live in a rose tinted world of free flowing beers and bottomless pillows, which is fortunate since nobody can resist the temptation to insta-age their life with filters, blurs and borders until it looks like you’re back in the 60s, and snowboarders are no different. What’s that you say? It’s waist deep in junk out there on the internets, possibly more than you can manage to wade through whilst waiting for a gondola, however nifty you are with the Google. Well have no fear, we’re here to help lighten the load. We’ve compiled a who’s who of snowboarders stroking their egos with the knowledge we’d rather procrastinate in their virtual company than with the real people sat around us, so you don’t have to do the legwork yourselves. Phew.

10. Kicking things off is Jamie Anderson at number ten, setting the standard pretty high for vast snowscapes and fluffy pillows we all want to get stuck into. But frankly we don’t need to know what beetroot dinner you’re eating or what colour tea you’re drinking. In fact if it weren’t for the  delicious selfies and lady-yoga shots peppered between the all the self help slogans and your dietary requirements, you wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near this list. And we know you live by Lake Tahoe, we don’t need to see the view again. I’m wondering now if this should have been a ‘top 9′ instead…

@JME_ANDERSON

9. In at 9 is the affable Gigi Rüf, an Austrian unfamiliar with this end of any competition. ‘Shred Dad’ is still keeping it real in between his trophy collecting trips in far off fluffy places as well as producing his own planks to do it on. This guy knows his way around an instafeed, mixing life on the hill with artwork, landmarks, and his mates standing by adverts of themselves on busses. What Gigi lacks in rock and roll he makes up for in stoke, which it’s immediately clear his kiddies have inherited.

@GIGIRUEF

8. Next at 8 is Kevin Pearce, the second coolest Kevin of the week. That dude’s grin must have a lot to do with why he has 9931 followers lapping up his every instamove. As our man on the ground in the FRENDS house, he’s pretty handy with the camera. After hard months of rehab pics it’s great to see some riding creeping back into this guy’s feed.

@KEVINPEARCE

7. Number 7 is Frank April, whose online persona is just what you’d expect from someone who in real life spends his days gliding down handrails like a boss and his nights necking Grand Marnier. His feed is a one stop shop for gnarly places to sleep, beer bongs on wakeboards and empty booze collections. The man’s got plenty of rockstar in him and mayhem around him – get your glimpse here.

@FRANKAPRIL

6. The top Kevin of the internet is Kevin Bäckström, our 6th Favourite instasnapper. A healthy portion of his 15,000 followers are swedish girls who seem to like nothing better than to scrawl his initials on their perfectly hemispherical buttocks in order to qualify his status as Scandinavia’s favourite rebel son to hate. In between tattoos, parties, and moody portraits, there’s snaps of lines and from events as well as plenty of reminders of his initials.

@KEVINBACKSTROM

5. Shaun White is like Marmite in whatever he does, and it’s no different here at number 5 in our oh so crucial list. No doubt he’ll be devastated with most likely his worst result of the new WST year. Those of you outraged by what he choses to dress himself in each day will get no end of amusement here, where bare chests, hawaiian shirts and cravats are just the start of it. If dog beauty pageants are more your thing or you want to know what he’ll look like in 25 years time before your man crush goes head over heels for him, you’ll be well catered for. And If you can’t remember what Lake Tahoe looks like since Jamie last reminded us, he’s got that covered too. 

@SHAUNWHITE

4. Mark Landvik is actually quite good at taking pictures which, combined with being privvy to some banger action most every time he goes riding bags him spot number 4. Silhouettes, tilt shift, double frames, you name the settings and Landvik’s all over them. If it’s too long since you were last out there getting after it, let Landvik lend you a glimpse from his drop in for you to dream a line down. Cats have been winning the internet since before it was dial-up, and mark’s is one ridiculously hairy feline. Shaun’s bulldog’s never had a chance.

@MARKLANDVIK

3. Eric Jackson takes home the bronze medal today, albeit with a little help from his friends. It’ll not surprise anyone that the man who apparently never stays still has done a few things recently that might blow your mind. Luckily for us, he had the good grace to share the stoke from along the way. He’s got fish on hooks, ridiculous lines and heaving barrels up in his page there, and a beard to be proud of too.

@EJACKSHREDS

2. Second place goes to the man with the most pets and guns in the industry, Scotty Lago. Man’s got style for days in the pipe, and he’s none too shabby behind the camera either. Also, his was the only page with a horse’s head mask, always a winner. What more could you want?

@SCOTTYLAGO

1. The biggest of the instadogs of snowboarding right now is Xavier De Le Rue. It was always going to be tough for anyone to compete considering what the Frenchman’s been up to. Then he went and dropped the ‘waterslide with a penguin’. There was no looking back from that really, was there? Big lines, big hair, and big animals are a winning combination even in real life, and right here they’re all that mattered. Hats off to you Xavier, we wish we could’ve been there.

@XAVIERDELERUE

Cut together by our Teutonic brothers at MBM, this is the first highlights edit we’ve seen from the recent Red Bull Ultra Natural. Trust us, it’ll get better than this when they delve into the terabytes of Phantom cam footage and use music that doesn’t make you want to break things, but if you’re after an eyeful of tricks that went down on the gnarly setup, click play…

The Red Bull Ultra Natural went down the other day with our BAUStrian buddie Gigi Rüf coming out on top of a fully stacked field of legendary big mountain freestylers. Watch the video of his winning run and hear him be all stoked and humble at John Jackson…

Not much else to say other than we’re looking forward to checking the full, sanitised, voice-over guy narrated NBC überspectacular TV show when it drops March 30. Ok, so it’s only in the US but you know someone somewhere – perhaps even Red Bull themselves – will get it out to us Euros sharpish afterwards. We’re also looking forward to out Instagram feed returning to normal.

BAUStrian Gigi Rüf takes the title at the second edition Red Bull Ultra Natural [previously called Super Natural - they had to switch the name for copyright reasons we heard] ahead of Nicolas Müller and wildcard Bryan Fox. Check the gallery of shots and a pretty sick course-prep video…

The second edition of Travis Rice’s backcountry freestyle competition of extraordinary magnitude went down on Baldface’s Scary Cherry run yesterday, with Gigi posting the highest score of the day to secure this pretty damn prestigious title. Basically the start list was a who’s who of next level backcountry freestyle and to run out as the winner here you need the winning mix of skill for days and spuds of steel. Gigi has both in spades.

Here’s a tasty course prep video that deals with the course setup. As for footage of the event proper you’ll have to wait. As last year, NBC has the rights to it and will drop the show on March 30th so hopefully after that we’ll be able to get our paws on some footy. However, as last year we’re sure some goodness will be leaked before. Stay tuned… 

RESULTS

1 - Gigi Ruef 
2 - Nicolas Mueller 
3 - Bryan Fox 
4 - Terje Håkonsen 
5 - David Carrier Porcheron 
6 - Mark McMorris 
7 - Eero Niemela 
8 - Pat Moore 
9 - Lucas Debari 
10 - Travis Rice 
11 - Jussi Oksanen 
12 - Bode Merrill 
13 - Jake Blauvelt 
14 - Wolfgang Nyvelt 
15 - Torstein Horgmo 
16 - Mikey Rencz

We’re sure there is still some resistance regarding the big sports brands entering the snowboard market, but come on: Watch this video and all you want to do is strap in and go riding yourself. And if you really need some additional information, this is a Nike clip of some heli-riding and pow slashing in Valle Nevado with the all-stars Gigi Rüf, Nicolas Müler, and Danny Kass plus local/Absinthe rider Maunel Diaz. “Set your drool meter to 11.”

Make sure you tune in from 18.00 CET to see snowboarding legends like Terje Haakonsen, Gigi Rüf, David Benedek, Jamie Lynn, Stefan Gimpl and more throw down in the burn Style Session alongside pretty much all of today’s kicker bosses. Gonna be BANGING.

Watch it live HERE.

More than 50 international riders have travelled to Innsbruck and the city will be once again the snowboarding hotspot of the season. A total of 11 X-Games winners are on their way to this year’s Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck. Next to the Style king and the winner of the Billabong Air & Style this year’s World Snowboard Tour Big Air champion will also be crowned in Innsbruck. It’s the last 6star Big Air event of the ongoing season and a total of 12 riders could take home the Big Air crown.

The event will kick off on Friday, February 1st 2013, with a magnificent show and meet-up of four generations of snowboarders. The current top-ranking riders, among them Piiroinen, Smits, Toutant, Kadono, McMorris and Weißenbacher, will need to pull out all the stops in the jam session to have any chance of stealing the show from the sports legends, participating in the burn Style Session. All-time heroes like Haakonsen, Lynn, Iguchi, Benedek, Basich, Gimpl and Rüf, throwing down for the cream of the snowboarding public. The live stage, meanwhile, will feature rapper Left Boy and, for the second time since 2004, Die Fantastischen Vier.

On Saturday, February 2nd 2013, all eyes will be on the riders in the 6Star World Snowboard Tour Contest when the world elite battle it out for the title, the Ring of Glory, 1,000 World Snowboard Tour points and a total of 75,000 euros in prize money. The field has been bumped up from 16 to 24 riders to do justice to the larger numbers at the pinnacle of the sport. Last year’s winner Peetu Piroiinen, Air & Style Beijing winner Yuki Kadono, third-placed in Beijing Ståle Sandbech and co- favorites Sebastien Toutant and Mark McMorris will attempt to pull off the first Triple Corks on the demanding megakicker setup in Bergisel Stadium. Ethan Morgan will be flying the German flag, while Matthias Weißenbacher and Clemens Schattschneider will stand tall on their native snow for Austria. German Indie rappers Kraftklub and the current best American white rapper Mac Miller will provide the musical backing to match.

Weather forecast promises way warmer temperatures than last year to guarantee best riding conditions with a soft landing and perfect surroundings for all our fans. We are looking forward to celebrate this once in a lifetime episode of the Billabong Air & Style with 2 days, 4 Bands and more then 50 riders with you!

Make sure you watch it and get all the details and info to either enjoy it live on the webor on TV in your country: http://www.air-style.com/en/id-2013-air-style-innsbruck/live.html

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Gigi Rüf is one of the finest snowboarders to have ever strapped in. Check this profile from longtime homies Absinthe Films – includes a monster front 7 from back in the day that would still be considered fully legit.

Let’s be honest. Anything with Gigi snowboarding in it will be good and worth every second it takes to watch it. So watch this. 

It’s not just bang bang bang, though, this has Gigi talking about what inspires him, his riding, and the design of his goggles. Hey, those helis have to be paid for somehow!