The Bird of Dreams.

Here’s the video
http://vimeo.com/28143662

When we first received a call from Epic Planks it was asking if any of the athletes in our film “Out of the Shadows” were without ski sponsors. While most already had them, a few did not. I put forth their names and contacts. Epic Planks chose Alex Blais, a long time Blackcomb local who can be seen at the lunch tables beneath Glacier lodge nearly every day. He shreds, is super stoked, and a ridiculously funny guy with some of the most absurd one liners you’ve ever heard. Besides for the communication with Alex I expected that to be the last of hearing from Epic Planks for a while. They were a small start up company. The skis shipped to Alex looked great and he raved about them. I was ecstatically surprised when Epic Planks called to offer Dendrite Studios the opportunity to film a week long heli trip just north and east of our backyard at TLH Heliskiing.

Alex Blais sending it at TLH on the Epic Planks Crop Duster.

Alex Blais of course came along with Epic Planks athletes Danny Arnold, a young up and coming jibber from Michigan, and Jon Whelan, a young shred head from Nelson, BC. Epic Planks owners Bill Wanrooy and Brian VanDenBrand graced us with their awesome presence. Nic and I were pretty stoked to meet those two guys and are happy to report that both of them were like little groms in expectations of the trip. When the owners of a ski company are that stoked you know the skis are built with passion and determination. We rounded out the trip with two of our favourite skiers from the Dendrite stable, Maxim Arsenault and Matt Elliott. Both of whom are incredibly strong skiers, love the sport as pure as one can, filled with stoke, and are simply rad human beings. For all these great people to come together on, for many, their first heli trip, was exceptional. We tip our hats to Bill and Brian for putting this trip together, childhood dreams were about to be fulfilled.

The Crew below one of countless beauties.

TLH heliskiing is in Gold Bridge, BC. We rolled up to the lodge, luxury living at its finest, everyone exchanged smirks of, “Can you believe we are here right now?” We gorged ourselves on fine dining for breakfast and dinner. Lunches were packed with nutrients to eat in the field. Hot snacks were ready when we got back and the end of each day.

First course of many at dinner.

The bartenders kept the spirits flowing and foosball, pool table, ping pong, and the hot tub were all frequented. Simply put the time before and after skiing was as good as it gets, but really that isn’t what matters. What matters is what those childhood dreams visualized. The heli approaching, staring out the window as you fly by so many of the most beautiful peaks you can imagine, the nervous anticipation of landing, jumping out into the snow with the whir of the blades overhead, the heli taking off right over your head, exchanging shakas, fist bumps, and yells and laughter as the heli pulls away, and finally skiing the most incredible runs of your life. Those were my dreams from the age of 12 on onward, and TLH manifested them into real life.

Jon Whelan was not dreaming.

One of the dreaded fears of heliskiing is the down day. Up in AK you hear stories of the slow roast. Two weeks of amusing yourself as the storm rages and the bird won’t fly. I was pleasantly suprised that at TLH because of there alpine and treed terrain down days are very rare. There needs to be extremely high winds for the heli to not fly. It was dumping our first day and we flew through the storm to ski deep tree runs. When the skies cleared later in the trip we ventured into the alpine where big AK style spine lines roll onto glaciers as far as the eye can see. Every type of skiing that exists in the mind’s eye is here at TLH with the massive terrain they have available. Ten lifetimes worth of lines, many of which are on the official Dendrite hit-list if we ever get the chance to go back to TLH. I’ll let the video do the rest of the talking, but if you haven’t been heliskiing drop everything and make it happen, and consider TLH as the spot to go. Our minds were blown and I am desperately trying to figure out how to make it happen again! Bucket list item checked.

Danny Arnold far, far away from Michigan.

Thanks to everyone at TLH! Our lead guide Greg Johnson and the rest of the guides for opening the goods and keeping it safe, the chef, the staff, pilot Steve, and the rest of the pilots. Everyone and everything was incredible!

Pilot Steve would do a little hike for some turns while we did a lap. Our kind of heli pilot.

Enjoy the edit…winter is coming sooner then you think and dreams never die!

TLH Dreaming…

-Athan

During the month of February I shot this art piece for the Kootenay Mountain Culture / Arc’teryx Multimedia challenge. 4 invited teams created shows containing various artistic mediums. I was stoked to take home the win at this event, but I’m more stoked to get this visual stimuli out to the masses. I chose to do most of my work with photos and video, along with a bit of painting (helped by the rain), as well as a lot of audio work. I worked for 26 days straight…straight, and now I’m enjoying a break.

here’s the vid:

-The ocean is where it begins and where it will always return
-Vapour, liquid, solid, liquid, vapour
-Mountains sprout upwards and extend their roots deep into the frigid ocean below
-The continuously chaotic dance with zero degrees, blankets us with snow, violently rips it off, and pulses our swollen streams
-Winter in the Coast Mountains flows to a different beat
-That is why we are where we are

Thank you to Backcountry.com, Bluehouse Skis, GoalZero, and Smith Optics for their support. These companies believed in the project and you should go support them.

More of my photo work, although somewhat older, can be seen on my photo site Nicolas Teichrob Photography

At Dendrite we have a trip planned in one week to TLH heli, which should be rad. Joining us will be Matt Elliott, Alex Blais, Max Arsenault, as well as a crew from EpicPlanks.com, and the Kashmir documenting master, Anthony Bonello.

Ciao and enjoy the show
-Nicolas

For the past month I have been working on a multimedia show for the Kootenay ColdSmoke Powder Fest in Nelson, BC. Arc’teryx is the host again for this multimedia event and I am very thankful that companies like them exist, helping to provide us with an excuse to spend a lot of time working on a tightly edited creative project. The festival and dinner evening take place this Saturday in Nelson and is sure to be a killer time. Anyways, here’s a summery of the past month

26 days shooting
25,000 photos/videos/timelapse stills kept
40+ timelapses
26 nights with less sleep than desired
1 remixed track by Mr. Clean
1 concussion
1 wrecked shoulder
deep pow, loam, and surf
sun, rain, wind, snow
1 awesome flight
1 awesome supporting company (Smith Optics)
800+ GB of memory used
1 person ready for a break.

Next week I’ll be posting my show for all to see. I’m pretty stoked on it, and hope you will be too. In addition, I’ll be editing up a little video showcasing the amnesiac state I was in after my concussion, as captured by Dylan Dunkerton of The Coastal Crew

Now it is off to Nelson with a handful of exported files to make sure one of them works properly on their non-Mac system…who the heck runs a PC these days anyways?

-Nic

Oh yeah, the reason for bringing this up. I recently received news that Creeking has been selected for a Gala Screening as the 10th Anniversary of the 72hr Filmmaker showdown. Film 10 Screening & Awards Show is the event, and it takes place on Monday, April 18th, 2011. Creeking has been nominated for an award in the category of “Best Stunts”….right on!! Steve and Eric Clegg, Robin Munshaw and my bro Dave Teichrob were the big helpers and stars in this little nug.

-Nicolas

Intro – Summer’s Gone, by Golopapas

Brett Crabtree – Song 1: Gravity Taste Test, by Devices Disguised
-Song 2: Nail ‘em Up, by Current Swell

Chris Turpin – EEUOUAA (TheClapSong), by Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Max Arsenault – Heats Rising, by Los Furios

Ian Watson – JYD, by Espionage

Dave Gheriani /Adam Topshee/Alex Blais – So Heavy, by Black Pistol Fire

Athan Merrick/Jake Cohn – Simon Says Instrumental, by BoomBaptist

Matt Elliott – Matt Elliott’s home jam session

Little C – Signature, and Run to the Devil, by Entropik

Dave Treadway – Marmalade, by Sea of Bees

Jon Larsson – New City Anthem, by Sex with Strangers

Eliel Hinder – Be My Television, by The Racoons

Matty GT – June Bug, by Little Foot Long Foot

PY Leblanc – Air 6 (Mr. Clean Remix), by Luke Atencio and remix by Mr. Clean (Colin Smith)

Outro – Organ Inc, by Phontaine

Thanks

-nic and athan

sweet venue!

Our Vancouver premiere went off to a pack house! Sold out show- As occurred in Whistler, the Vancouver show sold out the day before the event. We even had friends who were just going to buy tickets at the door, but with none available we had to send them away empty handed. We squeezed in as many people as possible in the theatre, the limiting venue, and it was packed. Eliel’s UBC crowd was cruising with some pre-party wobbly pops and they were super vocal to see little El bomb through powder. There was crowd stoke throughout the show, from the intro that calms everyone down, to the closing segment and onward. There was a rather high stack of swag to give out as well. There were gloves from Swany, hats and toques from Discrete and Smith, Doglotion tossed in some T’s, Intuition gave out some liners, a footbed from Surefoot, poles from Joystick, a pair of skis from Surface, and a whale watching trip from Geord at Adventure Whale Watching. The whale watching prize went to 11 year old Gabe Goerzen, one of three kids at the event, and the crowd was super amped to see a kid win!

Filmmakers stoked on a packed house!

The pre and post- party venue was pretty nuts. It is the crazy shaped room with a whole bunch of interactive displays and visuals to keep your science mind stoked for hours. There is a piece of a real spaceship engine (that has been to the moon and back), a piece of moon rock that is touchable, and you can even try your skills and landing or launching a spacecraft…I crashed. A big thanks to the Space Centre and their staff for being so accommodating to our antics and allowing us to bring a ski movie to such a rad venue.

Mark and Nic rocking the grass green Dendrite T

Colin Smith, aka, Mr. Clean, was spinning fresh beats all night. This guys spins one incredibly smooth sound and if you are ever in the Victoria area check him out!!

Mr. Clean keeping it fresh and the crowd stoked

Russell provided the beer that flowed all night. Their Rocky Mountain Pilsner and Pale Ale were huge hits with the crowd.

Space theme party room and Russell!

beer, music, people, chip, great times

Many athletes were on hand to take in the scene as well and have a good time. Crabtree, PY, Blazer, Eliel, Turpin, Topshee, Dave G., Max and Little C were all at the show to feast their eyes on Out of the Shadows, and quench their thirst with some brews.

Blazer pulling the name for the whale watching tour

Thanks for everyone who came out and for those who tried and got shut down by the sold outness of the show, stay tuned, because we hope to have another Vancouver show in mid-late Fall (late Oct hopefully). Next stop, Montreal for IF3.

-nic

I have competed in a couple of these before, most recently, the Deep Winter Photo Challenge. The lineup this year for Deep Summer is probably the heaviest hitting lineup possible for this event. Jordan Manley, Sterling Lorence, Sven Martin and Paul Morrison. I am very stoked and honored to get an invite amongst this elite crowd and it will be awesome to get my imagery out to the mountain biking community in this format. The Coastal Crew (Curtain, Dungee and Norbs) will be riding with me and the 3 days of shooting will surely be epic times of nugs, fun, and hopefully some laugh attacks via Norbs.

On the final day of shooting (Aug 9), I will have to cut things a bit early to attend Dendrite’s World premiere of Out of the Shadows. Ticketing info for that will come shortly, as well as details on our Vancouver show. Here are some mountain biking shots that haven’t seen public eyes yet, nor are being held by mags.  To check out more go here: nicolasteichrob.com

pc
-nic

We came up with this title while sitting in a hot tub at Selkirk Wilderness Skiing. After another great day at SWS, we put our brains together to discuss ideas for a title.

As well, Dendrite has caught the attention of some people in the industry, including ESPN. Here’s a little write-up about Dendrite on their weekly freeski blog update .

Stay tuned, as within the next couple of days our full trailer will be released, and it is bound to turn a few heads.

Peace
-Nic and Athan

Nicolas Teichrob flew down to Utah, leaving the Sunshine Coast, back in mid-February, 2010. During his time there, he competed in the Ski Salt Lake Shootout. This is a photo competition that picks individual images (rather than whole slideshows like most events), and the final image of this Perspectives, is of Leo Ahrens, and it won the City Lifestyle category.

To see more work by Nicolas, please visit www.nicolasteichrob.com

Here’s Perspectives #7:

To see more from the Perspectives series, visit our video page here.

This webisode is brought to you by Point-of-View-Cameras where you can get all your accessories and HD helmet cams, and deal with no border hassles by shopping at either the US or Canadian store respectively.

-Dendrite Studios

The machines and the lodge at SWS.

Why had we never heard of them? Well, pretty much ever since their inception, SWS has had a waiting list hundreds of people long. In the last few years with the economy not looking so positive, the waiting list has vanished and they have finally began a marketing push. Needless to say everyone at Dendrite Studios would be very suprised if that waiting list doesn’t start up again. All those people who suggested SWS were right. Damn right.

Fuel up. You'll be riding pow all day!

The crew consisted of Dendrite Studios heads Athan Merrick and Nicolas Teichrob, as well as athletes Chris Turpin, Eliel Hindert, Brett Crabtree, and Maxim Arsenault. The boys were amped to get after it.

The athletes are hungry.

Welcome to the Selkirks. Meadow Creek to be exact. On a normal year the town would be buried in snow and guests would take the cat right from town to the lodge. This year the town is dry and we drove in cars almost all the way to the lodge. As we arrived to the lodge we noticed the high freezing levels (which was expected based on reports). Welcome to El Nino. We could see the anxious looks on our athletes’ faces, while the guides assured us even though it is one of the worst snow years ever for the operation there is plenty of pow to be had.

No snow in a couple weeks? High freezing levels? You'll still ski pow. Eliel Hindert does just that.

And pow we feasted upon. Selkirk’s terrain is unmatched. They have the classic trees and pillows of every cat op in BC, but they also have spectacular alpine terrain. There are faces in every direction. Since this is an El Nino year with high freezing levels and hard sun we mostly stuck to North faces. It hadn’t really snowed in weeks but the pow was deep, plentiful, and light. Was it over the head blower? No. We had a hard time fathoming how much better the trip could get. Many times between gigantic smiles and laughter all of us said, “Can you imagine if we had blower pow on this trip?” With stoke levels at an all time high, it is hard to imagine life getting any better.

Right to the top with a cat? Ya, that's right.

The guides assured us that 95% of the time it is better. Speaking of guides hats off to Kevin and Scott who kept up with our antics and brought us to the goods safely and effectively. Those two guys are top notch and a blast to ski with.

Those are some cool dudes. Our guides Kevin and Scott eating dinner and keeping the good times rolling.

Turpin kept everyone entertained with rope swing antics and a different vision.

Chris Turpin is from a different planet. But we like that here at Dendrite Studios.

Crabtree became known as Stomptree.

Brett Stomptree...er I mean Crabtree.

Eliel continued to push the envelope.

Eliel Hindert giggling like a school girl. We love that laugh!

Maxim just did what he always does, fast and big.

Maxim Arsenault giving er!

The boys worked up a hunger feasting upon Selkirk’s delights, which brings us to food.

Fresh OJ at breakfast. Yes please.

Wow. We are all ski bums. We eat things like PB and J, and ramen, and free soup crackers from ski areas. We had never eaten so much food in our lives. Giant hot and fresh breakfasts with things like dill omelettes, eggs benedict, pancakes, and bacon. Lunch is eaten in the cat so you don’t miss any skiing time with two different types of giant sandwiches. Ruebens and seafood one day and Ham and Turkey the next. Veggies, fruit, fresh baked cookies, and the special Selkirk tea complete the mid day feast. Just when you thought you were full you get back to the lodge and appetizers are served with Thai soup and lamb kebobs with tzatziki and spanikopita. By the time the ski clothes are off and a quick hot tub rests those tired muscles, dinner is served. Steaks one night and seafood pasta another. Always with fresh salads. Awesome veggies and bread and desert. Needless to say no one ever left the dining room hungry or unhappy. Many thanks to the kitchen staff for working hard to keep hungry skiers immensely happy.

Dinner doesn't get much better.

Besides all these great things the best thing about Selkirk is the vibe. You are home, among family. The dining room has a few big communal tables where everyone mixes and mingles and stories from the day are shared. We never sat next to the same person. After dinner the small bar becomes a hang out place where the ping pong table and the pool table light up. The couches are full and people are stoked. And when the staff rallies everyone for a game of the famous Selkirk Crud, make sure you participate. It is ridiculously fun. Only a pool table, the cue ball, the number thirteen, and everyone in pure chaotic fun.

That face means they really like the famous tea in their hands. Can we get the recipe?

Stay tuned for the Selkirk Wilderness Skiing edition of Dendrite Studios’ Perspectives web clip series and many, many thanks to all of the guests and the staff at Selkirk for one of the most amazing weeks any of us have ever had!

Forest can drive a cat like no other. He's the man.

All photos taken by Nicolas Teichrob

The Perspectives series of web clips are about providing viewers with small amounts of eye candy on a regular basis as we lead up to the release of our debut film dropping in Fall 2010. A full teaser will be out in the next couple of months as well, so stay tuned for that and more Perspectives.

Perspectives #6 can be seen below or, along with #1-5, over on our videos page.

Chris Turpin athlete profile added to the People page here

Eliel Hindert athlete profile can be viewed here

We are also less than 1 week away from our film shoot at Selkirk Wilderness Skiing. Joining the production team of Athan and Nic will be Brett Crabtree, Chris Turpin, Eliel Hindert and Max Arsenault. We look forward to bringing you some quality content from this trip.

A big thanks to Adam Barker for running this and to all the athletes I worked with during the week.  All the photogs killed it and it made for a pretty stacked show of images for the judges.  -Julian Carr, Michele Manning, Leo Ahrens, Carston Oliver, Parker Cook, Todd Ligare, Josh Van Jura, and Jesse Hall
.

Leo Ahrens just chillin

-Nicolas

peace
-Nic

-Nic

-Nic

As well, Dendrite founders Nicolas Teichrob and Athan Merrick teamed up for a full pager in the Gallery of the Jan 2010 issue of Backcountry magazine. Stoked to see this go to print after sitting idle all season. Nothing like a gallery shot.

Athan Merrick in the Blackcomb backcountry- Backcountry Mag, Jan 2010

Back to producing content for your viewing pleasure.

-Nic

This Perspectives is presented by Pointofviewcameras.ca. Without their assistance we would not have these fun shots. Visit our video page to see Perspectives 1-3.

Skiing is by Jake Cohn and Athan Merrick.

Music is courtesy of BoomBaptist and Archivist Records. The track is called “Drumatic.”

Cheers!

-Athan

Skiers: Matty Richard and Matt Elliott

To see this and the first two Perspectives clips, head over to the videos page or view just the 3rd one below.

Enjoy!
-Nicolas Teichrob

I shot with Matty Richard and Matt Elliot, both Rossignol riders and both rippers.  My game plan was to use my creativity as a way to shoot every single action shot in a different way.  I utilized a few techniques I’ve practiced while shooting mountain biking and others that I tried for the first time and they worked great.  A bunch of these unique shots will have to remain off line until printed in the magazine, but here is a sample of some of shots from the event.  Stay posted for Perspectives #3 which will provide a behind the scenes look at  Day 1 of the event.  Thanks to Matty and Matt for skiing hard the whole time and getting up early and staying up later to get the lifestyle images I was after.  Dylan Dunkerton also came up to Whistler to help with some editing…although his computer crapped out Wednesday morning but we managed to run final cut on another comp. thanks for the help Dyl, and thanks to Stevo for constructing the music from scratch.

peace
-nicolas teichrob

Athan Merrick came out to the coast to finish up his sled trailer and get his skis mounted, while I worked on designing and building the lightweight slider. The slider went through many prototype phases and the final result is lightweight and incorporates some fun machining shown in this clip.

December has shot past us and we are full on ready to capture some great images in 2010. Jan 1 was spent packing and getting ready with all my gear for the Deep Winter photo challenge. It was a great day of just relaxing and checking the mental checklists, with a bit of surfing and beach fire in there as well. I am currently up in Whistler and we begin shooting on tomorrow, the 4th. Stoked to have a lot of fun this week working with Matty Richard and Matt Elliot. Stay tuned to Dendrite Studios in a few weeks to see a behind the scenes look into the photo competition.

Happy New Year from all of us at Dendrite Studios, and enjoy the show for those of you who make it out to Deep Winter.

-Nicolas
Get creative.

The first two of our Perspectives web clips are up and online.  Head over to our ‘Videos’ page to view them.  The first clip titled ‘Winter Prep.’ and features some workshop building as we prepared our gear for winter.  It was shot with some help from Dylan Dunkerton of Coastal Crew Productions .  Dylan did a banger job and we are stoked to have him along to help with aspects of our debut film.  The second Perspectives gives you a chance to see some of the ideas and techniques we will be employ in our filming this winter.  A bit of November powder yielded some great conditions to get a few early season shots.  Enjoy and have a great Christmas holiday season

Come check out The Deep Winter photo competition on January 7, 2010.  I have been invited to shoot in this photo comp and I am stoked to be able to show a bunch of people my images taken during the comp from January 4-6.  

Peace

-Nicolas