One week after the Volcom Takeover in the Lower Valais (Verbier) the Swiss scene migrated to the beautiful Snowpark Goms in Upper Valais (Gluringen). The event consisted of a two hour overall jam on the whole setup, followed by shorter sessions on each of the different features: a mini-pipe, a volcano, a transfer rail, a barrier to rail and a random VW beetle. Contributing editor Kuno Egli was there capturing all of the action with his camera and sent over this report…
If you’re wondering where that beetle came from, it just so happened that Juni Page’s mom had it sitting in the garage for years. After the car nerds assured her that this particular model is not a sought after old-timer, the good old beetle was sacrificed, and jibed countless times.
If Juni puts on an event, you can bet that the BME team riders will show up. Elias Allenspach was one of them. He turned heads during the overall jam, as well as during the sessions on the individual features. A few years ago, Elias focused primarily on halfpipe contests. However, this changed 3 years ago, and the hunt for medals was replaced by the hunt for clips. I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions…
What are your impressions of Smoke the Rail?
Smoke the Rail takes a completely different approach compared to “normal” contests. The concept is simple but effective. All the riders have fun and very few focus on the contest. Instead, they all ride together and have a cool day. Some people get creative, others can barely manage a run because they’re too busy with everything going on around the event, and others just send it!
What other events are you looking forward to this season?
I’m still looking forward to Volcom’s Spot to Spot in Avoriz and all of the closing events at the end of the season in Laax. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be, but I definitely won’t be missing Avoriaz!
How is your transition from competing to filming going?
It’s developed gradually over the last three years. I’ve learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, regretted some things, and burned others into my memory.
I had a bumpy start… after two seasons of filming, I had already shot everything I wanted for my first film project, but unfortunately we lost all of the shots because my cameraman’s hard drive broke and he hadn’t made any copies. So, at first, I was hugely disappointed and had doubts about whether I could really manage to realize my first project all on my own. However, I told myself that this project was for me and my soul, so I simply started again from scratch this season.
This time, I had no budget from anyone because I had spent all of my money trying to rescue the hard drive… But I’ve learned a lot about filming, organization, preparation (especially in powder), and time management. I took an avalanche course in December with my crew, and it opened my eyes once again and broadened my horizons.
Since then, I’ve been running from one place to the next in search of powder. Shoveling, running, scouting, digging, hauling, making phone calls, etc. I massively underestimated the whole thing and realized how difficult it would be to get powder shots. Clips that I thought would be easy for me to get a few years ago leave me speechless today.
However, I would say that the biggest challenge is having the right people around you who wholeheartedly support your project, especially when there is no budget. At this point, I would also like to thank all my friends who have joined me on missions in the resort, in the park, or in the streets this season. THANK YOU BOYS!
What’s the project about?
It’s my first personal project. I want to show everyone what I can do outside of the halfpipe, and what has inspired me since I left the national team. It will be a short film showing me riding in powder, in the streets and also in the park. The friends who supported me will also be featured. I will work out all the details while editing and decide how I want it to look.
My goal is simple. I want to show people what I enjoy doing, and if they like it, I hope to do more projects like this, perhaps with other crews in the coming years. I’m not 100% sure about the name yet, but at the moment I’m leaning towards “HARDDRIVE”. I think that name sums it up well… what I’ve been through over the last three years with the broken hard drive and the battle against nature in the mountains.
What are your plans for the rest of the season?
During the week I’ll be at university in Lucerne, continuing to work on my bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy, and economics, and on the weekends I’ll try to film more clips for my project. I’m mainly be in the Laax region, because it’s the easiest in terms of organization and money at the moment. And then there are all the events towards the end of the season, which I look forward to every year!
Thanks for the chat Elias! And thanks to all of the shapers, Snowpark Goms, Tom Lehmann for the speaker skills, all of the generous sponsors, everyone who showed up and most importantly to Juni for another amazing event!