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• RIDE FREESPORT FILM FESTIVAL 07 (Oct 07)
• LONDON RIDE 07 (Oct 07)
• NEW ZEALAND HELI SKI (Jan 08)
• SAAS-FEE RIDE 07 (July 07)

(OCTOBER 07)

RIDE FREESPORT FILM FESTIVAL 07

The Ride Freesport Film Festival originally started as a film premiere night in 1999 for the ski action movies of Warren Smith, Guido Perrini and Melody Sky. In 2006 Warren and Melody decided to evolve the film night into a mini film festival for young up and coming British Ski Film Makers and Photographers to show their work on the big screen.

The 2007 event presented 2 films, 2 short movies and 2 photographers showing their work. Leading British Freeskier Pat Sharples presented the work of Warren Smith + Melody Sky showing 'A History of Ride', Eddie (Slavemonkey) Thelwell showing 'Monkey Business', Dave (Godfather) Young + Andy Bennett showing Monkey Vision 2,, Nic Watkins + Nick Southwell showing 'The Journal', pand the photography of Pally Learmond and Camilla Stoddart. The film festival took place at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square and the after party at the Zoo Bar for the late night after party.

To see more information on the Ride Freesport Film Festival, click here. Gallery of images from the night can be seen here.

(OCTOBER 07)

LONDON RIDE 07

Tha London Ride just keeps getting bigger and better! With a crowd of thousands, the riders at this years comp were amped with enthusiam. The air was buzzing as the much anticipated competition kicked into action. The UK audience in London crowded round the quarter pipe to get prime viewing position of the UK and International riders battling it out on the indoor snowflex quarterpipe at the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show.

The cameradrie and enthusiasm within the riders was awe inspiring. Some of the international riders had never riden snowflex before but were quick to pick up the technique showing just how talented they are at their sport.

MC's Pat Sharples and Phil Hopper of the British Freeski Camps and Ride Freesport bounced off the energy coming from the crowd and gave the riders even more enthusiasm for going big in the event.

Quarter Pipe Qualifier

Volkl Internatioinal Team Rider, Flo Weiser from Austria started off the comp stomping a massive flair in the qualying round. He set the standard for the competition in which flairs, 7's and 9's seemed popular on the snowflex quarter pipe. Henrik Harlaut from Sweden was off snow and on the snowflex surface for the first time ever, and only took a few runs to get the hang of it before his was achieving big air and thowing down some big tricks.

	The UK Ridere were right at home on the man made surface. James Woods was hitting the biggest air getting higher out of the pipe than anyone else. Rob Taylor threw a huge back flip throwing his hat off his head to the delight of the audience. James Machon was throwing out clean 7's and 9's and as ever, Andy Bennett was as ¨solid and dependable as a 'Ford Mondeo¨ said event judge Nick Southwell. Andy has gained himself the reputation as the Schmacher of the skiing world, according to MC Pat Sharples.

Murray Buchan from Scotland was the only rider to attempt the pipe switch, doing a Switch 720. This was in addition to his Truck Driver 720. Unfortunatlely his landings were not so clean knocking him down the leaderboard.

Young Josh Fawcett (UK) tried a crazy inverted 540 and made it into 8th place in the qualifying round.

Podium Battle

In 4th place in the final came James Woods who's clean riding on the snowflex surface seems as smooth as his riding on snow. James did a tweaked out flair but was unlucky in the end to crash on a D-Spin 9.

Volkl team rider Paddy Graham is currenlty one of the UK's styliest riders. He pulled a Mute 7 out of the pipe and was awarded with 3rd place in the final putting him through to the Superfinal.
	However, Mike Wakefield (UK) who has just come back from having a year out due to injury (fractured neck) was riding in his 1st competition since the accident and had only been back on skis a week. He did his signature Wake 'n' Bake and took 2nd place in the final, also putting him through to the Super Final.

However, it was henrik Harlaut that pulled through to 1st place in the final proving that he is just as good as his reputation proves. Henrik had never ridden an artificial surface before and on the practice run before the comp he attempted it for the first time. He was shaky to start but within a short amount of time he was cranking it up to being the best on the quarter pipe. With a clean and effortless Mute 7, he was no doubt in favour of the winner position.

Super Finals

In the Super finals, Paddy Graham (UK) took 3rd Place with a Mute 7.

Henrik Harlaut (Sweden) took 2nd Place also with a Mute 7)

However, Mikey Wakefield rightfully claimed the 1st place winning title of the London Ride 07 with his signature Wake n’ Bake. He timed the launch perfectly and without any effort carried out the forward spin and landed perfectly. It was peotic that the winner of last years title and one of the original posse of British dry-slope freeskiers should take the London Ride title, with a signature trick that is recognized across the International freeski world. Considering the last competition he won was the London Ride 06 and then he was out of action for a year until the 2007 competition! he proved that he is in a class of his own on the dry slope!

London Ride brings urban freeski style to the masses. Ride Freesport again proved it is possible to bring international-class freestyle events to indoor venues. With the support of event sponsors Snow and Rock, the UK snowsports public can now get to watch genuinely world-class skiing in their own urban backyard.

London Ride organiser, Warren Smith, was especially appreciative of the display the riders put on. “This is necessarily a tight and seriously challenging quarter-pipe. The commitment the guys showed out there to perform for the crowd testified to the pride they take in their skiing. We look forward to bringing the London Ride back to the Metro Snow Show in 2008.”

To see more on the London Ride click here

(SEPTEMBER 07)

NEW ZEALAND HELISKI

This summer, after an amazing 6 on the glacier in Saas-Fee, Warren Smith and Melody Sky headed to Wanaka, New Zealand, for the first ever Warren Smith Ski Academy - Heliski Camps. Warren took a group of 8 skiers down to tackle the terrain and peaks of the Harris Mountains. We were also shooting photos and vidoe footage for Oakley and Volkl which added something interesting in there for the 8 skiers to watch. They in turn got some footage and photography of themselves heliskiing which was a great bonus to them!

They lucked out as on the day they arrived it dumped and most of the peaks got a good 50cm's of fresh. After an intro day of technical coaching, Warren teamed up with the guides at Harris Mountain Heliski and the heli lifts kicked off on the second day of the camps. In just 5 heli ski days Warren, myself and the clients clocked up over 45 heli lifts each.

What was crazy for the crew was that each lift was only costing them approximately £33. By the 3rd day of heli skiing they all reckoned they had covered the cost of their flights down to NZ from the UK as it was so cheap in comparison to heli skiing in Europe. The skiers from the UK changed their skiing way beyond their expectations. The scenery was magnificent, and to see the peaks and lakes of New Zealand from the air was breathtaking.

Three of the group had never heli skied and never skied off piste before! Having heard about the heli skiing set up with the Warren Smith Ski Academy in the winter, they decided to give it a go. On the first day there were a few tumbles, but within no time at all the whole group were easily skiing the powder with their new technical knowlege and fat skis.

Alyn Morgan who normally skis with Warren in Verbier said, “I couldn't believe the trip went the way it did. I totally got it this time with my off piste skiing. With the volume of drops and practice in the freeride terrain, for the first time I really felt I got the knack of cranking up the bigger freeride GS turns. I've already booked my flight for next September”.

Warren himself said, “In 19 year of coaching and freeskiing, this is by far the best trip ski camp I have run. It's not just the fact that the terrain was awesome and the price was so low, but it was also the general vibe living in Wanaka. Such a cool town, somewhere I could imagine living”.

The Academy were based at the Edgewater hotel which is situated on the lakeside of the stunning Lake Wanaka. The viewsfrom the hotel are breathtaking. Edgewater is a 4* hotel with an award winning restaurant, Sargoods. Accompanied by the hotels great selection of local wines, it was hard for the group to leave the conforts of the hotel; especially after an enjoyably exhausting days heliskiing. Melody was happy to be able to photograph Lake Wanaka at sunrise, sunset, during the day after skiing and got some fantastic scenic shots.

Edgewater

The nightlife in Wanaka is one factor that convinced us all to leave the cosiness of the hotel for. With plenty of bars and coffee shops, there is something for everyone. There are endless good restaurants in town and the level of cuisine is exceptional. Wanaka is still not overrun with tourists and has managed not to allow itself to become as commercial as Queenstown.

The ski fields of Tremblecon, Cardrona and Snowpark are very accessible from Wanaka. If you feel like a day off skiing, there are endless amounts of adventure activities, walks and sightseeing to do in the area. The Academy took part in a variety of activities outside skiing, from wine tasting to horse trekking the Lord of the Rings film location.

On another day they took small 4 seater aeroplanes and travelled almost 1 hour in the air over the mountains and valleys towards the ocean where they landed at the famous Milford Sound. Here they got on a boat for a 2 hour trip of the most incredible scenery. Dolphins, seals and penguins were spotted on the trip.

The plane journey on the way back was just as awe inspiring as it had been on the way there. Flying close to mountains such as one of New Zealands highest Mt Aspiring. It was great to get another perspective on Lake Wanaka, Edgewater and the Rippon vineyard too!

All in all it was a throuougly enjoyable trip, with the entire group already booking for next year! The Warren Smith Ski Academy already runs a Heli Ski operation in Verbier in the winter and with the Wanaka venue becoming a new regular part of the Academy program, the clients of the Academy could be up for a lot of airtime!

The Crew

it looks like the team at the Academy and the clients who can afford it will be freeskiing with massive grins for the next few years. As for carbon footprints, we might have to start tip toeing!

(JULY 07)

SAAS-FEE RIDE 07

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