Extreme sports equals hospital visits

My friend and Untouched crew member, Bine Žalohar, has finished his season before it started. He tore his ACL and will miss a large part of winter, yet he is in good spirits and already planning filming trips for the summer.

I went with him to the hospital yesterday, in order to get some shots of the doctor and cliche stuff like that, but hospital workers are not really fond on filmers. In times like that, you have to be pretty resourceful. A little talking, a little begging and even a little help from Bine’s mom gets you places, places like MRI room, haha.

I wish Bine a light speed recovery and hope we will film on snow next time!

Unussual jobs: Filming a political add

Politics never really interested me, while I am down with laws of nature and personal happiness, other than rules that money, society, church and traditions try to apply on you.

It is the last week before the parliament elections in Slovenia and the race to the throne is in its last stage. Today I got an early morning call from a friend, asking for a filmer on a very short notice. We were supposed to go somewhere in the nature and do an add for one of the fresher political parties. At first I was kind of puzzled, but I tend to look on things with an open mind, so I saw this as an opportunity to learn and work on something completely out of my character.

It was a really nice day in the hills above the fog, which we are trapped in for more than two weeks now, and I got a little insight on how things work when you are trying to make it to national TV. You live, you learn…

JugoMajstr2011 waiting period started…

Every year Ujusansa organizes slovenian national championships in surfing, called the JugoMajstr a.k.a. Master of the South winds. It takes place in Medulin, Croatia, which is a little strange for “nationals” to be held in foreign country, but for Slovenian surfers it is the closest surfbreak, like it or not.

The first one was in 2006 and it was basically a soul session of few guys, yet in past few years the slovenian surf community grew to a point where we have more than forty competitors applying, some also from Austria, Hungary and even Brazil. It got a little bit serious, a bit better organized and maybe even a bit more fun, while you get pretty much all your surfer friends in one place for a day or two.

Medulin is a good break, yet it works mostly in winter time, thus the late season call. We call it cold winter classic, because booties and hoddies are sort of mandatory to last more than an hour in the lineup, haha.

The teaser below is from last year, but anyway, you can get a pretty good picture what we are hoping for… more info about the competition here

Check Basanostra!

I first heard about Sebastian Funk a.k.a. Basti a.k.a. Basanostra from my friend Matevž Pristavec, who delivered me some of his shots. He told me that Basti is one hell of a filmer that always takes guys somewhere where powder and good kickers are waiting. It was my “rookie” year filming snowboarding and I though, man that is some heavy know-how right there.

I finally met Basti when I got this checkout for Qparks last year. We clicked instantly, had a lot of fun on Dachstein and this year we even spent a portion of summer surf tripping together. He is super down to earth guy, with tons of knowledge, who just loves to film and do action edits that have some sort of story behind.

This might sound a little cheezy, but I think of him as my mentor (although he hates to hear that, haha), while he was never affraid to share his experience or knowledge with me. For a guy coming from Slovenia, where it is really hard to get some quality film schooling, let alone an honest opinion or good advice, this always meant a lot.

He started a new webpage, BasanostraProductions, which is well worth checking out. You can also follow his work on his facebook fan page.

Last in series of Ujuclips

I have been working 24/7 since I came from my surfing trip.

I have been filming on Dachstein with Qparks, starting to open my own firm (LegitFilms is going legit in few months), going to various work related meetings, working on new Untouched Project webpage (expect the release in day or two), received my official Master of Sociology certificate, capturing tons of tapes from the trip and editing last summer edits for Ujusansa.

Here is the last of the Ujuclips. As you will see in the montage, the last days in the camp were full on surf oriented. We got really good waves the whole term, but there was also time for some partying, hehe. All Ujuclips can be seen on Ujusansa’s vimeo site.

Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2011

Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam is the first big event of the season and it is organized in Superpark Dachstein, which is build and maintained by Qparks.

This year the level was just off the hook, riders stomping doublecorks and 10s already in qualification, but everybody pushed it even more in the finals. The winners where Seppe Smiths from Belgium and Amy Fueller from England and Slovenia also had its representatives, with Cilka Sadar coming in second in girl division. Congrats!

I was picked to be a part of the video team again and this year everything considering my work was really well thought and set. The hungarian video wizard, Hambalko Balint, and I were the filmers for the daytime, while the head of filmers at Qparks, Basti Funk, was the editor at night. It was really great to work with them and I think we made a great job.

You can check what went down for three days in the video below…

Concrete waves of Spain (last part): Algorta heaven

My explorations of the surf route from France to Portugal had come to an end last week.

Katja and me made 11000+ km, seen, surfed, skated and experienced so many things I could write a book. It truly was the trip of my life, with ups and downs and everything in between. It is good to go abroad for such a long time, so you re-learn where your real home is and who your true friends are.

On the way back we just had to do another stop: Algorta, Cantabria.

Every transition lover and true skater has seen this wonder of a skatepark in skate movies, so we could not just drive by not to get a little feel of it. The park is super good for surf style shredding, but I mainly wanted to ride the blue pool (now its actually black).

It looked kind of abandoned, full of trash and the locals riding everything else but this… and you learn quickly why. I can say without any shame I was scared after a long time, while it is so steep you think you are free falling into a pit of doom! Nonetheless I think my friends Uroš and Šmid would love it, but you really have to give a pile of respect to all the pros who ride it properly!

LOVEOLUTION III is online!!!

My friends at Love Distribution have finished their third movie and it simply bangin`!

I have been honoured to film some stuff with them and hoping to do more in the coming seasons as well… Check all the crazy snowboard action from Seppi Scholler, Marc Swoboda, Dominik Wagner, Matevž Pristavec and others (plus some bmx, skate and stunt riding skills for the icing). Movie below and also available for download on their webpage…