Watch the SCURVY World Premiere & Interview with the crew
A behind the scenes look into the film project – the people, the places, the lifestyle.
In some ways, we crave uncertainty. We revel in opportunities for new experiences, to see challenges and turn them into accomplishments. Whether it’s being kicked out of a spot, battling a trick, navigating the backcountry or fighting for the sport’s acceptance in the early days – difficult times, and coming out them successfully, are one of the basic principles upon which snowboarding is built.
Unpredictability is what makes us creative, adaptive, resilient, and through adversity can come reward, or at least a solid story to tell. It’s this mindset that brought about ‘SCURVY’, an Australian & New Zealand snowboard film made during some of the most challenging and unprecedented times humanity has ever faced, a collaborative project created in the age of the pandemic. Now that’s badass.
It’s been a number of years since an all Australian and New Zealand film project was undertaken. Why? It takes time, money, effort…an all round hard slog. Thankfully Burton Snowboards and Pirate Life Beer, who have been collaborators on all things cool for a while now, decided to focus on producing a film that highlights the best talent coming out of Australia and New Zealand. A mix of both the streets as well as the backcountry – showcasing the diverse talent among the crew.
“What is being dubbed the ‘uncertain times’ is not a new concept for a snowboarder”.
“I was silently shitting myself when I hit this spot. Two guys riding it before me got worked and went straight to hospital. Stoked to ride away alive with this shot!”
JYE KEARNEY
The filming of the project kicked off in February, when everything in the world to some degree was relatively still ‘normal’. The crew packed their bags and flew over to Canada where they were planning to embark on a 4 week adventure into the unknown – new locations, new spots, new crew and lots more.
Picking The Crew
Marcus Skin wasn’t just appointed to film the project he was the crew conductor.
He had to assemble a squad of Australia and New Zealand’s best snowboarders, who also happen to be long-time friends…the benefits of the Southern Hemisphere snowboard clique.
Jye Kearney and Carlos Garcia-Knight were two easy choices – good mates and Burton’s top two Australian and Kiwi riders. But Marcus also called upon Josh Anderson, one of Australia’s best up and coming urban riders, fellow Canberra local and all-round veteran ripper Troy Sturrock and JJ Rayward, the quiet and humble but supremely talented from New Zealand. To round out the crew, Bryce Bugera, who has somewhat become Jindabyne’s favourite adopted Canadian son, was given the call up, as well as a new Burton Kilroy recruit, Maggie Leon – who when she isn’t stacking clips, works on developing new prosthetic snowboarding equipment for adaptive snowboarders.
Crew sorted.
“I’ve been filming street for about 3 years now with our crew, Spotheads. It was definitely a different experience to film with a whole group of guys that I haven’t met before. Once I started riding with everyone at this down bar spot everything clicked and I felt super comfortable. Everyone on the trip was so sick”.
MAGGE LEON
Where To Go?
Sudbury, Ontario
Sudbury is pretty much exactly as you imagine a small town in the middle of northern Canada. Winter temperatures average around -20 degrees Celsius, which makes the lifestyle and people just that little bit stranger. Great for snowboarding in the streets though as most people are isolated inside.
Crews constantly battle in the streets to access and not get kicked out of spots by security, residents and the stereotypical pissed off elderly citizen. However, Marcus has picked up a few tricks of the trade the past couple years travelling round the world and filming with different crews. “People say that you can go anywhere and do anything with high-vis on and I back that statement 100%. Whenever we were getting nervous about getting kicked out we would chuck the high-vis vests on and chuck out a few orange cones. As soon as you look like workers from the city, people barely look at you. If they come and question you, you just say you’re just doing what your boss told you to do, and that usually keeps them happy”. – Marcus.
The crew for the Sudbury component of the trip consisted of the top street riders on the scene at the moment – Jye Kearney, Bryce Bugera, Maggie Leon and Josh Anderson. Sudbury was stop one for the project and a few riders were unable to make it over due to other commitments, so the four street soldiers got to work and went hard filming for two weeks straight.
Whistler, British Columbia
The Whistler section for the backcountry part of the film on paper was one of those dream trips. Snowmobiles were organised, a lovely alpine mansion with cars, a snowmobile guide to break trails and help with weather calls each day … the crew really just needed to show up and it was game on.
The crew was stacked for this part of the trip with a mix of the Sudbury gang plus some newcomers. Whistler squad included – Carlos Garcia-Knight, JJ Rayward, Jye Kearney and Troy Sturrock. These guys are some of the most talented riders when it comes to taking flight and ripping the mountain. Carlos made the finals for Olympic Big Air and knows a thing or two about playing it cool whilst high in the sky. JJ Rayward the other Kiwi in the crew is one of the top up and coming snowboarders in the Southern Hemisphere right now and is holding his own out in the backcountry.
“Fuck snowmobiling is way harder, than it looks!”.
CARLOS GARCIA-KNIGHT
The first day they ventured out into the Whistler backcountry, reality sunk in. The snow was average, a lot of the crew were experiencing their first time on snowmobiles, which is way harder than it looks and the weather turned to shit with really flat light. Not ideal.
The forecast for the next week was average weather, so everyone stayed proactive and snowmobiled each day to a particular zone and built jumps, cliff drops, landings and run in’s. When the snow finally started to fall and the sun popped its oh so beautiful face out, everything was ready to go.
Keep in mind, when the project kicked off in Sudbury, the Coronavirus situation was just taking off, the crew didn’t think twice about it at first. The focus was filming and this minor situation in Europe was mellow, as if it would ever hit a place like Whistler. Reality somehow sunk in further! The day the snow came, the sun popped out and the crew was geared up and ready to go, the call was made that international borders were going to be shut … really soon.
Within 12 hours the entire crew had to change their entire itinerary, lose any hope left of filming and jump on the first plane back to the other side of the globe, where it was +30c and no snow in sight.
Make sure to go to your local snowboard shop or bottle shop to grab a limited edition print book we did for the film project. The print book provides a behind the scenes look of the people, places and lifestyle surrounding the entire trip. The good times, the not so good times and everything in between. The print book was done in collaboration with Burton Australia and Pirate Life Brewing who have been the two main supporters behind the entire ‘SCURVY’ project. Check out the cover below and go grab one ASAP!
