Column: Snowboarding is all the rage in Southern California

Among the world’s high snowboarders gathered final weekend in Encinitas — a mecca for world-competing skate boarders, surfers and snowboarders — sure, snowboarders.

The attraction was the screening of a brand new 45-minute movie at La Paloma Theatre highlighting death-defying jumps, tips and breathtaking mountain descents by a fearless group of high younger athletes.

The snowboard flick, “Fleeting Time,” took two years to movie on slopes in Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Japan, Oregon and Wyoming.

It marks the directorial debut of Ben Ferguson, a 27-year-old snowboarder from Bend, Ore., working with Homestead Inventive and co-producing with Crimson Bull Media Home, which is lead sponsor of a multi-city screening tour. Will probably be adopted by a week-long free digital premiere on Crimson Bull TV Nov. 3-9.

The irony is that most of the snowboarding movie stars have ties (and a few personal properties) right here in sunny San Diego County.

“Southern California is a magnet for world-class athletes no matter what sport you do,” says Hailey Langland, 22, one in all two featured females within the movie.

“It’s an amazing place to get a break from the mountains and resettle earlier than the season begins.”

Langland’s boyfriend of 4 years, Crimson Gerard, 22, purchased a house in Oceanside this summer season, the place the couple plans to take transient layovers in summer season when not on tour.

“For me, browsing and being on the seashore enhances time I spend within the mountains snowboarding and within the chilly climate,” Langland says.

Gerard formally lives in Silverthorne, Colo., the place he constructed a miniature snowboarding park with a rope tow in his again yard.

I caught up with the couple by cellphone in Switzerland, the place they flew after the Encinitas screening to start coaching within the Swiss mountains.

Their film colleague Mark McMorris, a three-time Olympic bronze medalist, is from Saskatchewan, Canada, however has lengthy owned a getaway residence in Encinitas. In 2020, McMorris surpassed the 18 X Sport medals document of legendary snowboarder Shaun White, and he stars in his personal online game.

Brock Crouch, one other movie participant, lives in Carlsbad and attended the screening. His profession was on maintain after he was caught in an avalanche in Whistler, Canada, within the spring of 2018.

The ordeal broke his again, ruptured his pancreas and knocked out his entrance tooth, however he survived after being buried alive for five-to-six minutes below 6 to 7 toes of present. He recollects feeling “like I used to be simply caught in concrete.”

Crouch, 23, additionally surfs competitively and has taken half within the Junior World Browsing Championships.

Filmmaker Ferguson, whose grandfather was born in Carlsbad and whose nice uncle nonetheless lives there, notes that George Burton Carpenter purchased a house right here. He’s the eldest son of the late Jake Burton Carpenter, who based Burton Snowboards and is hailed as one of many inventors of the trendy snowboard.

And let’s not neglect that snowboarding Olympian Shaun White, now 36, graduated from Carlsbad Excessive Faculty.

These athletes are attracted by the robust motion sports activities neighborhood, Ferguson says. Plus, an abundance of excellent browsing spots and parks for skateboarding, typically low season hobbies of the snowboard crowd, are key points of interest.

North County is also residence to sports activities magazines, together with the brand new snowboard periodical, “Slush,” and others related to the business, its manufacturers and high sponsors.

Langland admits that individuals appear a bit confused after they be taught she grew up within the quaint surf city of San Clemente.

She first went snowboarding at age 5 together with her dad at Bear Valley close to Lake Tahoe and fell in love. By age 6, she was sponsored by Burton Snowboards. She received an X Video games gold medal at age 16 and have become an Olympian in 2018.

In “Fleeting Time,” Langland, who focuses on slopestyle, large air and superpipe competitions, was doing every little thing the fellows have been doing. She says her largest problem was manhandling the heavy snowmobiles up the mountain slopes at her diminutive weight of about 100 kilos and top of 5 toes.

“She has some wonderful footage within the movie,” Ferguson says. “Individuals have been shedding it for her” — particularly her frontside 720 (an aerial maneuver incorporating two full spins). “It was in all probability the most effective a feminine has ever executed.”

Langland admits that maneuver was her most fearful second of the movie. She had simply pushed 7.5 hours from Washington state to achieve Whistler, had gotten little sleep and was exhausted. Regardless of her reticence, she says it solely took two tries to land the bounce.

She discovered it particularly gratifying that a number of females approached her after the La Paloma Theatre screening to say it was so inspiring to see (two) gals within the film hitting the identical maneuvers as the fellows.

Ferguson describes “Fleeting Time” as a basic snowboarding film with loopy large jumps, large tips, high-octane shredding and large line using — all captured in wonderful pictures and drone footage. A soundtrack of dramatic heavy metallic, rock and punk heightens the adrenalin rush.

Probably the most difficult side, he says, was attempting to maintain calm throughout the sluggish manufacturing occasions.

“We simply chased storms. Per week upfront we’d discover out the place it was going to snow essentially the most, roll the cube and helicopter or drive snowmobiles in,” says Ferguson, who co-stars within the movie along with his brother, Gabe, and several other of their buddies.

Each participant is very skilled in security, takes avalanche recognition and rescue programs and is provided with first assist and survival gear. The closest avalanche name they’d was in Haines, Alaska, the place they encountered a sketchy layer of snowpack. Some motion occurred and airs within the movie.

Ferguson and Gerard hope to collaborate on a future snowboarding movie mission that’s much less time consuming, maybe for launch on YouTube.

“I simply hope this conjures up youthful youngsters to get on the market and snowboard,” Gerard says of “Fleeting Time.” Judging by its viewers of about 500 in Encinitas, it’s going to.