Last week HG Skis dropped an amazing trailer to their upcoming film "5 to 9" fill with an unreal amount of clips. After seeing it I needed more and couldn't wait until the IF3 Premiere to get it. There is always a story that ski movies don't usually share so I asked the HG crew some questions to find out the full story.
(Responses from filmer/editors Charlie Stemen and Sam Rogers as well as from HG riders James Amodeo aka Jim, Connor Gaeta, Cole Gibson, and Hunter Tyrell. Photos by Charlie Stemen unless noted otherwise)
Coming off of last year's mini movie "Aurora" what expectations/plans did you have going into this season?
Sam: We knew that we wanted to do more trips because they give you the most time to get acclimated with your surroundings and feel comfortable at spots. Creating a movie was definitely our end goal with IF3 as somewhat of a long shot. I think the biggest thing for us though was that we wanted to make sure we stayed true to ourselves, we weren't trying to go out and be like anybody else, we just were having fun and being creative in the streets.
Jim: I wanted to film a full part and ski at Sugarbush as much as possible. Unfortunately I was working in New Hampshire, at the worst establishment in the snow sports industry, and blazin far too much kush to do anything but lipslides to straight for the beginning of the year and not working enough to go anywhere the second half.
Cole: Since the whole crew stayed east while I moved to Big Bear, CA for the winter I didn't really have much of a plan to hit a lot of street. I came back for the holidays and that's where the majority of my shots are from but I also got a couple *rare* shots in Bear and a couple at Hood. Charlie: Film more than last year.
Connor: My plan was to listen to as much Chief Keef as I could while filming.
The title of your movie premiering at IF3 this month is "5 to 9" I'm sure during the winter you had some nights that hold true to that timeframe. What was your longest night?
Sam: The longest night came on the last day of our second trip to Mass. We had hit two spots during the day and then set up the cheese wedge redirect later that night, probably around 11. I think we slept for a couple hours in the cars at a playground down the street from the spot, got woken up by some guy in an unmarked SUV who claimed to be police yelling at us that we couldn't sleep at a playground. So we sessioned the redirect and after getting shots left at about 2-3 in the morning and drove back across town to a down flat down that we had been talking about hitting all week. It was the last day so we said fuck it and slept for another couple hours in cars at the base of the DFD and then woke back up at 4 and started breaking up the icy snow before the sun rose. As we were about to start hitting it a stream of cars started pulling into the school we were at and hundreds of people came up the stairs we were trying to film at. We were unaware that there was a military written test being administered that morning at the high school we were at. So after waiting for another hour we finally got to hit it and hunter got a shot. Then on the hour long drive back to his house he fell asleep behind the wheel.
Hunter: I almost died that morning driving home
Sam: ...but he didn't so it was cool.
Charlie: I remember Luke Haddock telling us we were insane for sleeping so little and still trying to ski. I think I slept 13 hours straight after that.
Being up all night hitting street spots is very demanding on the human body. How do you fuel yourself for the long nights?
Sam: Unfortunately there always seems to be a lack of good for you food on urban trips. I always try to fill my camera bag with bananas and granola bars but most of the time the only place open at 3am after you finish a spot is a gas station. There's a layer of wrappers and drink containers on the floor of the cars after a week of living out of them.
Connor: I eat a lot of gummies.
Cole: Dunkin Donuts, spliffs, beef jerky, candy, etc.
Jim: A lot of water, any source of caffeine that is accessible, as many snacks as I can afford and an unhealthy amount of American Spirits
Any one that has tried to hit urban know the struggles of pulling bungee. Who was the most obscure person to pull bungee for you?
Cole: Never really had any obscure people but shoutouts to the homie G Hundo aka G honey aka the assman aka Greg Gardner for pulling bungee like a goddamn bull on steroids at a couple spots. Give that homie a mole and he'll pull that thing a mile back #molestrength
Connor: G honey is the man.
Skiing in urban settings can never be perfectly planned. With snow being the most important variable our opportunities are dictated by the weather. What was the most spontaneous spot you hit last winter?
Connor: It was a Saturday and Burlington had just gotten a bunch of snow. It was only Charlie and myself for the day but we were down to try and hit something anyways.
Charlie: Connor found a down rail with closeouts the whole way down attaching it to a wall, with just enough room to slide it sideways if you pressed it. We just kinda looked at it for a while wondering if it was possible.
Connor: But we were still set on hitting it. So we tie the bungee up. Charlie sets the bottom angle up on the tripod at the bottom and his fisheye ready to go in the middle on a shovel. I put my skis on and side step the bungee back while Charlie helps pull. Once its back far enough I sit down holding the bungee while Charlie runs and hits record on the tripod and then runs to man the fish eye.
Charlie: The best part was it was at a Chinese restaurant mid day, and the owner came out while we were setting up and didn't know one word of English. Connor: He was yelling at us the whole time while his son was tying to translate it to us.
Charlie: We vaguely implied that we would clean up and he went back inside.
What music were you playing the most last winter? Driving to spots, setting them up, or hitting them, what kept you flowing?
Jim: I don't think I listened to anything but Chief Keef and 2Chainz while riding with Smokedogg (Connor). I usually had Black Sabbath going in my car or some UGK
What is your craziest kick out story from the year?
Charlie: Not gonna get into a full story but I'll get arrested if I'm seen on Holy Cross campus again.
Cole: Instead of craziest kick out story I'll tell you a sick story about not getting kicked out. We were hitting this spot right in front of a rental house in Bear and a dude pulled up who we assumed was the caretaker and instead of kicking us out he asked when we were leaving [the house] and Bmack said Monday so he left us alone and we kept hitting the rail. Always nice not getting kicked out.
Sam: This isn't a kick out story in the sense that someone kicked us out but its still amusing to think back on. We were driving around in some town outside of Boston and saw this sick rail in front of a building, it was right in the middle of down town but it was 2 in the morning during a snowstorm so the streets were empty. We had a large crew, 3 carloads of people and after some group inspiration in the parking lot we started moving snow to set up this rail. The in run had to start right up against the doors to this building and so we had to bring trash bins filled with snow up a large stair set dozens of times. Right after some more activities went down in the parking lot as we waited for the snow to harden, somebody noticed the security cameras all around us. We then noticed the sign for the building, and the large letters on the door that we had just been piling snow in front of for an hour, POLICE. It was a small sub-station, I guess we just got lucky nobody was there, but we decided that for the sake of the entire crew not getting charges due to our clouded judgment we would take off.
Who had the worst fall?
Sam: Jim, by far, its hard to choose which one was the worst. He tore himself up on the cheese grater, and defied science by not blowing out his knees on a drop to flat in St. J. But I think the worst was when he dislocated his shoulder hitting a tree spine feature in the woods. After rolling around for a second he popped his own shoulder back in and was "good". We left after that.
Connor: Jim fell so hard he knocked all the tobacco out of his pack of cigs. He was fine but the spirit wasn't.
Your edits from Sugarbush Parks have been highly regarded for showing great style and skill in the park and mostly on rails and jibs. Should we expect to see any park footage in this movie?
Sam: Nope, we switched our focus this year to urban.
Charlie: Well, Frank has a jump shot.
Who can we expect to see in the movie?
Charlie: The HG Crew and Friends. There are a couple snowboard shots in there too.
Sam: The usual suspects, (Gibson, Amodeo, Tyrell, and Gaeta) along with a bunch of our friends that we were able to shoot with. Christian Franchino, Alex Hackel, and Lupe Hagearty were able to stack shots with us this season, there's also small cameo's from Ralph Kucharek, Erik Roomet, Luke Haddock, Joey Szela, and Sheldon Donatelli, and Rory Walsh
Jim: A heavy Dais presence
You guys never limit yourself to just team riders in your video content, why is that?
Hunter: We have different riders in our videos to try and make it the best edit it can be rather than just focus on our own progression.
Charlie: It's hard to film urban without multiple people. Sometimes it's just Connor and me that are able to go out on a certain day from the HG team. We have friends that ride for other ski companies, and some that choose to not have sponsors. We all still enjoy riding, filming, and hanging out with them all the same. I'm not going to point the camera the other way because someone's riding a different pair of skis than me.
Sam: If we limited our content to just the HG team then I don't think we would be accurately portraying what is going down. The other riders with us are working just has hard as everyone else, pulling bungee for the HG riders, spending their own money to travel on trips, all for the love of what we do. We are just trying to show the realest side of urban skiing, whether that is the struggles or the success, either way the homies were there with us through it so they are going to be in the movies
Jim: This shit is about having fun, not exclusivity.
Connor: Skiing with your friends is more fun.
Press play and get hyped.
[VIDEO]http://www.newschoolers.com/membervideo/724872.0/HG-Skis-Presents--5-to-9-Trailer?s=175073&t=6&o=8[/VIDEO]
(Responses from filmer/editors Charlie Stemen and Sam Rogers as well as from HG riders James Amodeo aka Jim, Connor Gaeta, Cole Gibson, and Hunter Tyrell. Photos by Charlie Stemen unless noted otherwise)
Coming off of last year's mini movie "Aurora" what expectations/plans did you have going into this season?
Sam: We knew that we wanted to do more trips because they give you the most time to get acclimated with your surroundings and feel comfortable at spots. Creating a movie was definitely our end goal with IF3 as somewhat of a long shot. I think the biggest thing for us though was that we wanted to make sure we stayed true to ourselves, we weren't trying to go out and be like anybody else, we just were having fun and being creative in the streets.
Jim: I wanted to film a full part and ski at Sugarbush as much as possible. Unfortunately I was working in New Hampshire, at the worst establishment in the snow sports industry, and blazin far too much kush to do anything but lipslides to straight for the beginning of the year and not working enough to go anywhere the second half.
Cole: Since the whole crew stayed east while I moved to Big Bear, CA for the winter I didn't really have much of a plan to hit a lot of street. I came back for the holidays and that's where the majority of my shots are from but I also got a couple *rare* shots in Bear and a couple at Hood. Charlie: Film more than last year.
Connor: My plan was to listen to as much Chief Keef as I could while filming.
The title of your movie premiering at IF3 this month is "5 to 9" I'm sure during the winter you had some nights that hold true to that timeframe. What was your longest night?
Sam: The longest night came on the last day of our second trip to Mass. We had hit two spots during the day and then set up the cheese wedge redirect later that night, probably around 11. I think we slept for a couple hours in the cars at a playground down the street from the spot, got woken up by some guy in an unmarked SUV who claimed to be police yelling at us that we couldn't sleep at a playground. So we sessioned the redirect and after getting shots left at about 2-3 in the morning and drove back across town to a down flat down that we had been talking about hitting all week. It was the last day so we said fuck it and slept for another couple hours in cars at the base of the DFD and then woke back up at 4 and started breaking up the icy snow before the sun rose. As we were about to start hitting it a stream of cars started pulling into the school we were at and hundreds of people came up the stairs we were trying to film at. We were unaware that there was a military written test being administered that morning at the high school we were at. So after waiting for another hour we finally got to hit it and hunter got a shot. Then on the hour long drive back to his house he fell asleep behind the wheel.
Hunter: I almost died that morning driving home
Sam: ...but he didn't so it was cool.
Charlie: I remember Luke Haddock telling us we were insane for sleeping so little and still trying to ski. I think I slept 13 hours straight after that.
Being up all night hitting street spots is very demanding on the human body. How do you fuel yourself for the long nights?
Sam: Unfortunately there always seems to be a lack of good for you food on urban trips. I always try to fill my camera bag with bananas and granola bars but most of the time the only place open at 3am after you finish a spot is a gas station. There's a layer of wrappers and drink containers on the floor of the cars after a week of living out of them.
Connor: I eat a lot of gummies.
Cole: Dunkin Donuts, spliffs, beef jerky, candy, etc.
Jim: A lot of water, any source of caffeine that is accessible, as many snacks as I can afford and an unhealthy amount of American Spirits
Any one that has tried to hit urban know the struggles of pulling bungee. Who was the most obscure person to pull bungee for you?
Cole: Never really had any obscure people but shoutouts to the homie G Hundo aka G honey aka the assman aka Greg Gardner for pulling bungee like a goddamn bull on steroids at a couple spots. Give that homie a mole and he'll pull that thing a mile back #molestrength
Connor: G honey is the man.
(Photo:Cole Gibson)
Skiing in urban settings can never be perfectly planned. With snow being the most important variable our opportunities are dictated by the weather. What was the most spontaneous spot you hit last winter?
Connor: It was a Saturday and Burlington had just gotten a bunch of snow. It was only Charlie and myself for the day but we were down to try and hit something anyways.
Charlie: Connor found a down rail with closeouts the whole way down attaching it to a wall, with just enough room to slide it sideways if you pressed it. We just kinda looked at it for a while wondering if it was possible.
Connor: But we were still set on hitting it. So we tie the bungee up. Charlie sets the bottom angle up on the tripod at the bottom and his fisheye ready to go in the middle on a shovel. I put my skis on and side step the bungee back while Charlie helps pull. Once its back far enough I sit down holding the bungee while Charlie runs and hits record on the tripod and then runs to man the fish eye.
Charlie: The best part was it was at a Chinese restaurant mid day, and the owner came out while we were setting up and didn't know one word of English. Connor: He was yelling at us the whole time while his son was tying to translate it to us.
Charlie: We vaguely implied that we would clean up and he went back inside.
What music were you playing the most last winter? Driving to spots, setting them up, or hitting them, what kept you flowing?
Jim: I don't think I listened to anything but Chief Keef and 2Chainz while riding with Smokedogg (Connor). I usually had Black Sabbath going in my car or some UGK
What is your craziest kick out story from the year?
Charlie: Not gonna get into a full story but I'll get arrested if I'm seen on Holy Cross campus again.
Cole: Instead of craziest kick out story I'll tell you a sick story about not getting kicked out. We were hitting this spot right in front of a rental house in Bear and a dude pulled up who we assumed was the caretaker and instead of kicking us out he asked when we were leaving [the house] and Bmack said Monday so he left us alone and we kept hitting the rail. Always nice not getting kicked out.
Sam: This isn't a kick out story in the sense that someone kicked us out but its still amusing to think back on. We were driving around in some town outside of Boston and saw this sick rail in front of a building, it was right in the middle of down town but it was 2 in the morning during a snowstorm so the streets were empty. We had a large crew, 3 carloads of people and after some group inspiration in the parking lot we started moving snow to set up this rail. The in run had to start right up against the doors to this building and so we had to bring trash bins filled with snow up a large stair set dozens of times. Right after some more activities went down in the parking lot as we waited for the snow to harden, somebody noticed the security cameras all around us. We then noticed the sign for the building, and the large letters on the door that we had just been piling snow in front of for an hour, POLICE. It was a small sub-station, I guess we just got lucky nobody was there, but we decided that for the sake of the entire crew not getting charges due to our clouded judgment we would take off.
Who had the worst fall?
Sam: Jim, by far, its hard to choose which one was the worst. He tore himself up on the cheese grater, and defied science by not blowing out his knees on a drop to flat in St. J. But I think the worst was when he dislocated his shoulder hitting a tree spine feature in the woods. After rolling around for a second he popped his own shoulder back in and was "good". We left after that.
Connor: Jim fell so hard he knocked all the tobacco out of his pack of cigs. He was fine but the spirit wasn't.
Your edits from Sugarbush Parks have been highly regarded for showing great style and skill in the park and mostly on rails and jibs. Should we expect to see any park footage in this movie?
Sam: Nope, we switched our focus this year to urban.
Charlie: Well, Frank has a jump shot.
Who can we expect to see in the movie?
Charlie: The HG Crew and Friends. There are a couple snowboard shots in there too.
Sam: The usual suspects, (Gibson, Amodeo, Tyrell, and Gaeta) along with a bunch of our friends that we were able to shoot with. Christian Franchino, Alex Hackel, and Lupe Hagearty were able to stack shots with us this season, there's also small cameo's from Ralph Kucharek, Erik Roomet, Luke Haddock, Joey Szela, and Sheldon Donatelli, and Rory Walsh
Jim: A heavy Dais presence
You guys never limit yourself to just team riders in your video content, why is that?
Hunter: We have different riders in our videos to try and make it the best edit it can be rather than just focus on our own progression.
Charlie: It's hard to film urban without multiple people. Sometimes it's just Connor and me that are able to go out on a certain day from the HG team. We have friends that ride for other ski companies, and some that choose to not have sponsors. We all still enjoy riding, filming, and hanging out with them all the same. I'm not going to point the camera the other way because someone's riding a different pair of skis than me.
Sam: If we limited our content to just the HG team then I don't think we would be accurately portraying what is going down. The other riders with us are working just has hard as everyone else, pulling bungee for the HG riders, spending their own money to travel on trips, all for the love of what we do. We are just trying to show the realest side of urban skiing, whether that is the struggles or the success, either way the homies were there with us through it so they are going to be in the movies
Jim: This shit is about having fun, not exclusivity.
Connor: Skiing with your friends is more fun.
Press play and get hyped.
[VIDEO]http://www.newschoolers.com/membervideo/724872.0/HG-Skis-Presents--5-to-9-Trailer?s=175073&t=6&o=8[/VIDEO]
