A name that is being heard more and more often on the freeskiing circuit this year is Dane Tudor. With strong results at competitons like the Red Bull Cold Rush and US Extreme Freeskiing championships, Dane also blew the competiton away to win the 2008 Canadian Freeskiing Championships at Red Mountain. Throughout the 2008 winter season he has also been working hard filming a segment for Theory-3 Media’s new movie, The Journal.

Early in the winter I contacted Theory-3’s main man Jeff Thomas to organise a park shoot for the spring time. With Dane’s sponsorship from Red Mountain we decided that would be a great place for it and the plan was set in motion.

Fast forward to March and I arrived at Red Resort to meet up with Jeff along with skiers Max Hill, Brandon Kelly, Charley Ager and Dane. Standing at the bottom of the mountain on the first evening, the landing for the proposed jump is clearly visible and already looking great. Steep enough and long enough for us to make a really BIG jump!

Over the next couple of days everyone worked hard to get the jump in shape. The small park at Red had never seen anything like this so Jeff and Dane rode with the Cat drivers at night to give them instruction, and during the day we all worked hard with the shovels alongside Red’s park manager, Jordan Barca. After the first night pushing snow with the cat it started to become evident just how big this jump needed to be in order to match up with the mammoth landing that was already in place. The “Dane Tudor Invitational” jump as it was jokingly called, was going to be a monster!

The weather forecast for the week was not looking good though, anxious to get the jump finished in order to make use of any sunny spells that might appear, everyone was up late into the night working and shaping by the lights of the cat. On the morning of the third day all that was needed was a bit of hand shaping on the lip and the transition and hopes were hight that we would see it tested that morning.

Unfortunately the weather Gods had other ideas, as soon as it was ready to go, the clouds rolled in and brought with them the heaviest snow storm I had seen all year! One minute we were readying the jump, and the next minute it was snowing roughly 15cm an hour! Instead of adding snow to it as we had been all week, we now had to clear snow off it to reserve the perfect curve of the transition that we has spent so much time shaping.

Next morning though our hard work was rewarded with blue skies and picture perfect snow covered backdrop. Initial concerns that the in- run was not long enough were quickly put to rest as Max guinea-pigged the 85ft gap. He just clipped the knuckle on the first try but a fresh coat of wax soon had him in the sweet spot on the landing. With Red having never seen anything like this before, crowds of locals soon gathered on the side of the jump. Dane quickly showed that he is just as comfortable in the park as he is in the backcountry with a collection of smooth spins and stylish grabs and Max was soon throwing down his trademark shifty spins taking it nearly 100ft from the lip of the jump. The weather held up most of the day and by the end, everyone was stoked on the footage with all four guys getting some great shots for the movie.

Photos by Dan Carr - click to enlarge
Charley Ager	Dane Tudor	Max Hill

Despite celebrating Jeff’s birthday into the early hours of the morning we were at the base of the mountain before sunrise to grab a few more photos as the sun came up in the background. Crazy layers of cloud hanging in the valley made for dramatic shots in the hour long session so we called it a day and decided to head back to the condo for some much needed rest!

Thanks to Lara Wiseman and Jordan Barca from Red Mountain for all their help thoughout the week, and a big thanks to Red Property Management for our luxuirous slopeside condo. Look out for the footage next Autumn in the new movie “The Journal” from Theory-3 Media.

TAGS: Theory-3 Media, Dan Carr, Dane Tudor, Charley Ager, Max Hill, Red Mountain