Midnight troubles

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We have one hell of a night behind us.

To start the evening off, we got kicked from the first spot by an aggressive Planina “native”, then we got all three cars locked inside the fenced parking and with temperatures around -20°C the spirits were low as it gets.

But Šparovc was not done and Katja, Šmid and me were not going to back down either. We went to some bridge rail into a natural bank and put in some after hour shoveling. Šmid was pulling Andraž with a car, so he could get enough speed and past 3AM we had some of the best street shots so far! Šparovc getting hollywood style inrun shots and a grind 450 out with a seizeble drop, was worth every frozen toe. Some hand brake drifting on the way back home was just the icing on the cake, haha!

Kranstrdam quicky

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Strangely, we only have enough snow in our area, nothing few kilometers out in any direction. It is still lightly falling every day, so mission time is prolonged. Top notch!

We had a super quick hit with Jibrothers today, less than 20 minutes of filming on the rail at the wall. Great work, we are going for another one when it gets the dark…

It is not Sunday everyday

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I had a shoot for Qparks in Planneralm today and the best thing was that I was able to take more riders with me than usual. Pristo, Podli and Agi were up for the go and Katja joined to take pictures, so we were packed, hoping for a good park and maybe even some pow. There we should meet with Filip, Tom, Michael and second filmer Killian, so I was looking forward to a serious highlight filming.

It turned out that the forecast with sun in the morning and snowflakes in the afternoon was a bit early. We drove into full on cloudy, snowy and super freezing day. Shit happens sometimes, in a way it is funny, we drove seven hours for a cup of tea, haha.

Stacking footy for Untouched

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After six days in Schladming area (for longer reports check Snowbroader.eu or Untouched website) and one lay day at home, we went straight back. Austria is the place to be, if you are looking for powder right now, so we are trying to get footage any given sunny day.

Now that we have the Ujusansa van for the Untouched project, we are able to travel with some friends as well. This time it was Valentan, Rako and Mičo. Hopefully they will collect enough shoots to have parts in the final video as well!

We were on the mountain with the first lift in the morning (I do not remember ever being that early anywhere, haha), but it was a great decision, while lots of other film crews got the same plan. Kicker shots, powturns and stacks of b-roll checked!

Austria with Untouched

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Finally everything got good for backcountry filming, the base is set and there is enough fresh above, so the Untouched crew went filming to Austria.

Maček, Pristo, Katja and me went to Planai&Hochwurzen and we took some friends with us as well. One “seasoned pro”, Tadej Valentan and one “powder rookie”, Žiga Rakovec, haha.

We had Domen joining us the second day and Dejan Hodžič and Luka Podlogar were also in the area with filmer Matej Gostinčar, so we split in two groups and tried to get the best of it.

For two days we have been mostly in the woods of Hochwurzen, filming cliff drops, while the other part of the group went to Flachauwinkel and got some kicker shoots!

Today few guys went home, few went to Italy with Elan, but Maček, Tadej, Žiga and me prolonged our stay in the area and built first kicker of the season. It is on! Check back for more in next days…

Vogel park opening

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Mt. Vogel is our home resort and I have been waiting to go up there since I came from Portugal. It is a place where you are surrounded by your friends and proper mountains and thats all I ask for the winter.

On Friday they opened the snowpark, the sun was up and everybody was there. We hit the kicker, filmed a little and just hanged out together. Bangin’ first day!

Enjoy the clip and merry Christmas to all!

Jibrothers in Planica

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Today we got a little crew together and went for the first winter shots for the Jibrothers.

Andraž Šparovec, Agron Imeri and Uroš Podbevšek were eager to hit one of the most known rails in Planica, the home of the famous skiflying construction. The jumping hill is not the biggest anymore, but you can not erase the historical events that happened on this thing.

Anyway, we were more interested in rails around and it was a good decision, while it was the only place with enough snow in the streets in westerly part of Slovenia. There are three rails and everybody usually rides the shortest one, yet the Jibrothers pushed it up a notch and picked the middle one. I tested the new tripod (it is banging) and we got two shots and few pictures, which is a good start for the upcoming season.

Epic Barbariga

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Lets get one thing straight. The word “epic” got pretty warned out these days, just like claiming seems to be the next best thing in surfing all around the world. It is a circus.

It is not epic just because you are there, nor just because it turns glassy. ”Epic” hits once or maybe twice every few years, when you score conditions that usually never happen or have possibly never had happened before. Otherwise it would not be epic. It would be random, regular, classic, whatever.

On Saturday 17.12.2011 Barbariga was epic. Period.

Three years straight it did not even break. This year it worked three times, waist high and choppy. Yesterday it was close to 2m, cleaners even more. If you got caught inside, it washed you in and at least 50m down the coast like a little puppet. The power was unimaginable for waves of Adriatic. It tubed and spit out. Nobody has seen it like that before and some guys out there, were chasing it for almost ten years. This is epic… and hopefully this is a legit time to claim, haha.

Me and Katja documented for about an hour and then I decided to do some helmetcam shots. Which we will maybe never see, because the cam got ripped, ironically, on the smallest wave of the day. Shit luck, yet everybody is invited for some late December scuba diving, haha.


Last surf session before the winter

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It is finally getting colder and it even started to snow in the higher mountains of the Julian Alps.

Cyclones that bring the most snow to Slovenia, arrive over France, continue their way below the Alps in Italy and bring southern winds over Adriatic Sea. Which in short means waves. Once or twice per year we get lucky and the front makes a sharp turn and the winds turn southwest. Then it is time to check Barbariga.

The forecast was looking really nice and we were hoping to ride some sizable lefts, yet the weather had its own plan, I guess. We got a waist high chop, but it was fun anyway. I also did some filming for my “no deadline” Slovenian surf documentary, because like I said, it is rare to get a chance to surf Barbariga and this is also a (big) part of what surfing on “home turf” means for Slovenian soul surfers…

Comment Last surf session before the winter

Concrete waves of Spain (last part): Algorta heaven

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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!