Look ma, no clothes. Photo: Sierra Surfer
This all started as a result of personal needs and some ambition between Eric Messier and me. It all began during the summer of 2012 — I can still clearly remember the day we basically came up with the whole idea and named it Warp Wave.
We had both been working with Comune for a couple seasons where we had an awesome crew of guys based in Tahoe, an abundance of snow, and Ryan Scardigli as a dedicated filmer making those Comune films come to life. Eric had been filming video parts for years; he was no stranger to the camera and learned early on about the importance of “action in the frame.” Working with Ryan on the Comune projects was basically my introduction to snowboard filmmaking, and being so immersed in the groove of going out and filming seemed to flip a switch in me that sparked an interest in the film making side of things.
Jumping forward again to the season of 2012, I was given the opportunity to film with Think Thank, a bigger video project with more riders involved. It was a completely different vibe than working with Ryan on the Comune projects. The filmer we had for Think Thank was not based in Tahoe, so he would come out west for a couple weeks and we had to make the most out of his time with us to try and compile enough footage for a video part.
You’re supposed to enjoy snowboarding, not get anxiety over it… Photo: Sierra Surfer
I felt a weird sense of pressure and panic, like something wasn’t right; it wasn’t the way that I worked the best. I learned that this was more or less the standard of snowboard filmmaking: the rider films as much as they can in a relatively short period of time, and then the footage disappears onto hard drives for a few months before someone else goes through it and pieces together the footage in a way that they see fitting.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s awesome that there are people dedicated to this process, creating content for snowboarding and for the masses; but I also felt that there was a fault in this process, a disconnect between the rider and the film maker; an important piece of the process was missing.
So there Eric and I were, sitting in a local Truckee coffee shop one summer day reflecting on a good season, but one we both felt disconnected from. We both understood there was this missing part to the snowboard filmmaking process. And we both understood that if we didn’t take the matter into our own hands and try our best to insert that missing piece, we were both going to completely disconnect from the snowboard industry, whether we liked it or not. Eric had many video parts under his belt yet he still felt like he hadn’t produced the the type of content that really spoke to his ideas and motives in snowboarding. I, being a rookie to it all, wanted to be the creator of my own content — to portray snowboarding the way I wanted to see it.
Snowboarding through our own lens. Photo: Sierra Surfer
And so it began. We went into the 2013 season with a goal to simply create snowboard films that reflected our personal interests and outlook on snowboarding — very simple and very different. We did what we enjoyed: we turned our boards, we rode powder, we tweaked our grabs, and we rode whatever we wanted.
It was amazing. Everything felt so natural. We’d head out in the morning with no preconceived goals of what tricks we wanted to do on certain features, we just grabbed our good friends and shredded what ever came in our path. We would pass the camera back and forth between riders and stress was at an all time low. Everything was as it should be.
I mean, it’s just snowboarding, right?
We would get back to the house at night and go through the day’s footage and get amped on it! We would both sit down and put the little videos together exactly as we wanted, no middleman in sight.
People seemed to really enjoy the videos we were producing that season. We would get feedback from snowboarders across the globe that really responded to our videos. It seemed like it wasn’t just us who felt this disconnect. The response we received really fueled our fire to produce more and more, and to push our creativity.
I would say that’s when we both started falling in love with the process of filmmaking and cinematography. It was a new and exciting challenge and opened up a new world of what we could do. Our process evolved and simplified and we were enjoying every part of snowboard filmmaking.
In the summer of 2013 we began working on a full-length movie, basically just re-editing all of our videos from the season into a 25-minute flick. We came up with a concept and our first full film, Rem Cycle.
It was a dream sequence of all the different places and terrain you might shred, and the people you might shred it with. It seemed to speak to a lot of people.
It wasn’t crazy. It wasn’t full of trick progression. It was just snowboarding.
This past season was a real test to our dedication to Warp Wave and snowboarding. We have always been based out of Tahoe, a place that offers a ton to snowboarders. As the season unfolded, Tahoe did not get even close to an average snow year — we didn’t have much to work with. We had to make money so we could hit the road and seek out snow across the West if we wanted to keep producing films. As easy as it would have been to throw the towel on the season, we were so dedicated to the process that we did everything in our power to find snow and keep producing.
New adventures are out there when you look. Photo: Sierra Surfer
The lack of snow in Tahoe opened the door to adventure and new experiences as we traveled to Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Nevada. We found desolate hot springs, caves in the earth carved out by lava, deep snow and even wild animals that shared the road with our car. We got to meet and ride with new people, make connections in new areas and experience other people’s passion to snowboarding.
This unfolded into the concept of Warp Dü Looké, our full-length film this year. It’s all about warping, or changing the way we look at snowboarding, and really embodying the aspect of adventure and travel and basing a film around that.
We found ourselves looking past the shores of Lake Tahoe, finding the open road where rad people and new experiences await, places where the only way to find what lies around the corner is to load up the car and go. I think this film comes to snowboarding at an important time. Having been an Olympic year, the industry turned its focus onto freestyle progression as the world’s most technical riders showcased the level snowboard has reached. Snowboard media, for the most part, has spent a majority of the year highlighting insane multi-cork tricks over huge jumps and in giant half pipes.
I believe snowboarding’s audience has been overwhelmed with this one dimensional progression, while the roots of snowboarding — adventure, friends, and good times, things you could say are a progression of the soul — have gotten lost in the mix. We are hoping Warp Dü Looké provides the snowboarding audience with an insight into this other type of progression. We hope it inspires people to think of snowboarding as a vessel into adventure, into breaking out of comfort zones and being open to new experiences.
The films produced by Warp Wave highlight snowboarding in its simplest form, touching on snowboarding’s past while bringing a new edge and insight into snowboarding’s future. Bringing many snowboarders and friends together, Warp Wave aims to inspire others to step into adventure and creativity, to look at snowboarding in a new way, and to always focus on the rad times life presents.
Photo: Sierra Surfer
For more from Warp Wave, check out their site and Tumblr. And watch their videos on their Vimeo page. Lastly, be sure to like them on Facebook.
