Anto Chamberland Interview

I met Anto about 3 years ago, on one of those wonderful 1am, -25 degree, downtown Montreal night shoots. A nice little feature at the time and Anto stepped up to the plate with a 180 gap to switch 5-O. Ever since then Anto has continued his progression and recently had a full part featured in Brothers Factory's 2010 flick, NEXT LEVEL. Things are definitely on the up and up for Anto, so keep your eyes peeled.

The following is the 'directors cut' version of an interview I conducted for Snowboard Canada Magazine and published in the Fall 2010 issue. Enjoy.

JP – What keeps you busy when you’re not strapped into your snowboard?

AC – I like to surf, skate and I’m also a part-time firefighter.

JP – Surf? Where does a kid from Montreal get waves?

AC – Sometimes I’ll drive down to New Hampshire, there isn’t always good surf down there, but a quick check of the surfing forecast helps before making the four-hour drive. There is also a stationary wave in Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. It’s nothing like the ocean, but it’s a great feeling.

JP – Have you always wanted to be a fireman?

AC – No, just since 9/11. I thought it would be a good career for me and I’ve found it to be the best job in the world.

JP – If Lady Gaga, Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton were trapped in a burning building and you could only bring two of them down safely, who would it be and why?

AC – I guess it would be Lady Gaga and Lindsey Lohan. Does Paris have a life? She can stay there, the others are pretty weird to though.

JP – Lately we have seen footage of you in the Brothers Factory movies. How did you hook up with them?

AC – Charles Demers (one of the two filmers) was with a small crew in Montreal. He needed one more rider to help shovel a set-up and called me. I ended up filming with them for the next three days. He sent the shots to his brother (Will) and I guess he liked what he saw because I’m still filming with them.

JP – The BF crew is full of talent, what advice would you give to someone trying to get into a crew like that?

AC – I would say it’s harder than you think. You have to be ready to fully invest yourself in the project. Filming a movie is one hell of a job, the guys behind the camera want the movie to be the best and they work their ass off big time. If you plan to go to school or have two jobs, don’t start filming and waste the filmers time for a 5-trick season. You don’t build a video part in an afternoon, it’s a big ass project so you better be ready.

JP – What’s the best thing about being a shred from Quebec? What’s the worst?

AC – The best would have to be the amount of snow and rails we get in our cities. The worst would be the lack of big mountains, big jumps and the season is a little shorter as well.

JP – Last year was definitely one of the shorter ones, did you try to get out of town in order to get the job done?

AC – Yeah, we went to Philadelphia when they got like a metre of snow. The last time they had that much snow was in 1995 so people were struggling just shovel it all. There were cars stuck everywhere throughout the city. It’s weird because it’s so normal for us but so dramatic for them. When we were riding everyone was looking at us like ‘what the fuck’?

JP – What’s one thing that you would change about the snowboard industry today?

AC – I would remove the snowboarders that shred for money and not because of the passion or love they have for the sport.

JP – Those who have seen you ride know that you’re one of the passionate ones, when you hang up the boots, what would like to be most known for?

AC – For my perseverance and determination. For every problem that I’m faced with I believe there is a solution and more often than not I find that solution.

JP – Who is the person you respect the most, why?

AC – My dad. I could say cheesy stuff like he had always been there for me and that’s true, but I respect him because of the way he reacts to all the fucked up, hard, good and bad situations we can face in life. He’s been through a lot and remains positive through it all, I respect that.

JP – It seems like everyone in Quebec has their own opinion on where the best place for Poutine is, what’s yours?

AC – I don’t really like Poutine, but we definitely have the best Maple Syrup.

JP – Wow, a Quebecer that doesn’t like Poutine, that’s amazing. Lets pretend you’re down to your last $20, what do you do with it?

AC – Find a way to make it $40.

JP – Nice, what about the most ideal place to be stranded for the rest of your life?

AC – Not sure, a house near a hot water point break or somewhere in B.C… Tofino, Whistler or Squamish.

JP – Cats or Dogs?

AC – Dogs for sure. Cats don’t do anything. Dogs are like a good friend, always there and happy to see you.

JP – Finish this line… If Notorious B.I.G. was still alive today he would…?

AC - … be finishing his 15^th album, which is just as good as the first and dominating east coast rap.

JP – Fill in the blanks...

AC – (in bold and underlined) My name is Anto and I really like Tim Hortons. I also really like MacDonalds because it makes me feel good for half an hour and after, kind of weird on the inside. Sometimes I like to cook and eat sushi because that’s just how I roll. But most of all I like to got to my moms house to grab spaghetti sauce and desert because chicks don’t cook anymore and it will never be as good as my moms anyway.

JP – Appreciation time, who would you like to thank?

AC – Mom and Dad, Juliano, Laurie, Karo, Mic, Etienne Chartier, Andre Dallaire and AAD crew, Pat Trottier and Alternative, Al, Ant, Fred, Steph Groulx, Mat Bouffard, Jaz Lacroix, Vince Laplante, David Brocklebank, Charles and Will Demers, Franko, the BF crew, Dom Bouvette, Oli Croteau, Alexis Paradis , you, and anyone else I forgot.

Oh, By The Way... This Happened.

Mark McMorris - Backside 1440 Triple Cork!

Do the math my friends, that would be a total of 4 full rotations and 3 flips... WOW! That is all, just... Fucking... WOW!

MENS OLYMPIC HALFPIPE COMPETITION

WOW, I mean W… O… W… WOW! The Olympic Games Half-pipe competition did not disappoint. There were 48.4’s (well one of them), double corks (lots of them), a hobbit, a reality T.V. star and an athlete who started their run with back-to-back double corks (hold on… those last three are the same guy)… ladies and gentlemen, it’s Louie Vito. There were children amongst men that didn’t perform like children, men amongst men who performed like children and a double McTwist… co-incidentally thrown down by the same guy who got a score of 48.4 out of a possible 50.

He won the gold medal, he also won the gold medal four years ago in Turin and is widely considered the best half-pipe rider in the world. His name (if you’ve been residing in a cave for the last few months) is Shaun White and he’s pretty good at snowboarding.

Just to be clear, there was some competition and it was fierce. Silver medal winner Peetu Piiroinen was stomping huge tricks and bronze medal winner (Shaun’s team U.S.A. teammate) Scotty Lago’s lofty airs no doubt left jaws gaping throughout the crowd. Iouri Podlatchikov, Louie Vito, Markku Koski and Canadian Justin Lamoureux had had great runs in the finals, but it just wasn’t enough to dethrone Sean White.

Dropping first in heat one, Shaun earned a score of 45.8. That was on the first run of the competition. It was the qualification round. The final 39 snowboarders to follow through two heats of qualification were unable to beat that score. A feat 18 snowboarders in two heats of semi-finals were also unable to top. In fact it took until the final run of the first finals heat, for the score to be beaten. Then on the last run of the night, shattered… by the same person who set the original mark, Shaun White. What that means is Shaun White had already won the gold medal before he started his final run. A run where he would unleash a double McTwist on the final hit and received the competitions best score, 48.4. Just, because he can.

The day wasn’t all about Shaun White though, I mean let’s be serious, he rode the pipe just three times all day (during competition anyway). Justin Lamoureux put in a solid performance throughout the day, even though one must wonder why the announcers put so much emphasis on his age. It seemed like everytime Justin was about to start his run the announcer would blurt, “At 33 years of age, here is Justin Lamoureux, he’s the oldest member of Canada’s snowboard team at 33 years of age. At 33 years of age, he is the only member of Team Canada who’s seen New Kids on the Block in concert… twice. At 33 years old Justin is the only competitor who’s seen Karate Kid… at the movie theater.” Okay maybe some of that wasn’t said, but come on, we get it... he's 33.

While not completing a single double cork all night, Justin was the only Canadian to make it out of the qualification stage and finished a very respectable 7th overall. While his riding may not be spectacular, he is technical, extremely consistent and seems to know that the judges need to see from him. Congratulations Justin.

Scotty Lago represented the Frends crew with pride and monster sized airs. Actually, there was a point in one of his semi-final runs where it looked as if he somehow stopped all momentum downhill and just went straight up, that was a frontside 1080 atleast 15 feet outside the pipe’s walls.

Notably missing were Lago’s, Frends crew members, Danny Davis and Kevin Pearce, who both missed the event due to injuries, but Lago clearly had them in mind dedicating one of his runs to the 2 injured competitors.

Throughout the day snowboarders from Germany, Spain and as far away as China competed in the event on Cypress Mountain. There was even an Australian competitor who was a modest fifteen years old.

One wonders if his parents had to sign a permission slip in order for him to even be there. I for one was glad he didn’t make the finals as he would surely have had to be home before the street lights came on, quite the scheduling conflict that would’ve been. It’s amazing to me that he even made it all the way to Vancouver in the first place, I mean, imagine how many weeks of allowance money you’d have to save to pay for that plane ticket. Okay, so he’s young, but he didn’t ride like it, he didn’t make the semi-finals but he did put together scores that beat quite a few veterans and two-thirds of Canada’s team… except for “at 33 years of age, here’s Justin Lamoureux” of course. Yeah he’s fifteen, but he deserved to be there and I won’t name names, but there were a few that seemed a little out of their league riding with the worlds best.

When the snow crystals settled there was only one left standing, the same one who stood there four years previous, the same one who has graced the top pedestal in so many half-pipe competitions across the globe and the same one who could do it all again in Russia four years from now. He’s the Flying Tomato, The Animal, he is Shaun White. Enjoy the show while it lasts because we are witnessing possibly the greatest clutch, big-time half-pipe competition snowboarder… EVER!

HONORED

"She was there through my incarceration, I wanna show the nation my appreciation. Girl you're my angel your my darlin'..." Oh Shaggy you crack me up. You probably think I'm weird, well you're weird, okay. Go listen to Angel by Shaggy right now and if at the very minimum a slight chuckle doesn't erupt from your person then well... I guess I am weird. Seriously though it's funny,  like Fran Drescher and Bob Marley ran into each other on a hot Jamaican night, Bob played some reggae and Fran laughed, Bob played some more just to shut her up. A few rum based beverages and cannabis laden cigarettes later their two bodies would become one without a raincoat. Afterwards Bob probably got out of bed and put all of Frans belongings outside. Not because he'd do something like that, but because a lot of people would, I mean c'mon she is pretty annoying. Nine months or so later the first baby to ever come out of the womb singing Caroline was born. By the way this has absolutely nothing to do with me or my blog, I was listening to this song today and well yeah here we are.

Anyway on the photo and snowboard side of things, all is pretty peachy. As you can see in the pictures above my name appears rather largely as do two of my photos (note: not the cover photo, I wish but no not mine, that is Oli Gagnon's photo). The one on the left is of Eiki Helgason doing a method in Whistler and the other is of Max Baillargeon (that's a mouth full) with a nosepress.

I was fortunate enough to be asked by the photo editor if I would be interested in being apart of the Photographer Check Out feature, their first one for Slash Snowboard Magazine, obviously it was an honor I could not refuse. I wrote the little piece on the left and it was translated into French as the magazine is based out of Quebec, but once the issue leaves the stands I'll put the translation up here, until then you will have to go grab it at your super duper favorite retailer of printed magazines.

Again a big thank you goes out to Oli Gagnon, Etienne Tremblay and Etienne Gilbert for allowing me to be apart of this feature, hopefully I was a good guinea pig. 

There is more news including German translation, photos in galleries and more, now that I have the internet again I will update a lot more frequently. Stay tuned.

Photo of the Phortnght

Gaetan Chanut - Half-Cab, Pemberton Backcountry - Un-published.

As of late I've been posting a lot of photo's that have been published, but this Phortnight I've decided to change it up for a couple of reasons.

For starters I like this photo and secondly it's a little tribute to the snowboarder in this frame, Gaetan Chanut.

Although this was the one and only time I've been fortunate to shoot with Gaetan, it was a treat to say the absolute least. He is one of the most (if not the most) talented snow athletes in the backcountry that I've ever witnessed. 

The day that I snapped this image was a complete bust until the wee hours of the afternoon when Gaetan decided to drop the hammer on this cornice drop. My snowmobile died (literally, one of three pistons seized... buh-bye) 10km's into a 40+km ride and Gaetan doubled me the rest of the way. I feel that it's important to note here that I am not the smallest or lightest human around, so again kudos to Gaetan.

When we finally arrived to the Alpine (above the tree line) it was the slimmest of pickings regarding spots to snowboard, and when we did find something the wind picked up and ruined it. After some diligent searching and a huge 30+ foot Indy cliff drop that he stomped like a maniac... first try no less, Gaetan radioed to us that he had found something worthy. 

We pulled up on our snowmobiles and Gaetan was ready to drop, he asked the filmer what he should do, "A Half-cab" was the response. To the non-snowboarders/skaters out there that is a switch frontside 180. So, Gaetan dropped and stomped this bad boy and we went home. Gaetan beat us all down to the trucks that day... he had a massage appointment to keep, while I was bumping around like the head of a bobble-head on the back of Reno Belisle's sled. So a big thank you goes out to Gaetan for putting on a show that day and to both he and Reno Belisle who carried my not so small rear-end around the Pemberton Backcountry.

Bahama Mamma

The Bahamas, ah the Bahamas, a sun drenched, hurricane protected, white sanded, turquoise colored water paradise. I'm not exaggerating, not even a little bit... everyone has been to the beach, hell I've been to beaches in about 20 different countries but the Bahamas takes it to a whole different level. It's the best beach you've ever been to... on crack.

 The sun shines virtually everyday, the water is the most beautiful color blue any pupil has bared witness to and they have some crazy wildlife. Barracudas, dolphins, curly tailed lizards, geckos (way cooler than the one in those damn commercials), I think some kind of grouper fish (can't remember the name, but it's big, ugly and tastes amazing) and pigs that swim. You read correctly, pigs that swim. While I never actually saw this local phenomenon, I did see photos and to be honest it gives me just one more reason (among many) to return.

The locals are ridiculously friendly with smiles adorning their faces at every turn, hard to imagine why... HELLO, you live in the Bahamas. I was fortunate enough to spend five days in this Caribbean paradise and every time I get a flashback, a picture in my mind of one of the most beautiful places I've ventured to, I want to throw my shorts, flip flops, sunnies, a hat and the trusty SPF 30 into a small bag and return... never to return. 

My girlfriend and I stayed at the Four Seasons resort on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, granted not as visited or popular as Nassau/Paradise Island, but that's one of the best parts. It was one of those vacations that you don't need a vacation from, there was no hustle bustle, no schedules, no tours, just relaxation in a tropical paradise. Picture a deep tissue Shiatsu massage... this time on Blueberry Cush, trust me it's relaxing. 

We took a boat ride to the island where they filmed parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series and where just a year previous the Victoria's Secret Swimsuit catalogue was photographed... now that's a gig I need to get in on. We snorkeled, went for a swim on/in the Tropic of Cancer, drove the one road that traverses the island and took a water taxi to a small island where they cook up the aforementioned super ugly fish and drench it in butter, SO GOOD.

Having visited over 25 countries and countless cities, this is the most beautiful destination I've stepped foot on. Hopefully these photos will provide a small amount of proof.

This is the actual Tropic of Cancer, check the longitude/latitude, it's legit. We swam here, white sand, turquoise colored water... this place is WHERE IT'S AT!

This curvaceous palm tree was right outside our patio at the Four Seasons, on an unrelated note, the fact that my girlfriend worked for the Four Seasons did amazing things for our hotel bill.

On our drive we took a random turn up a dirt road and stumbled upon this old cannon, would not have sucked to man that bad boy back in the day... what a view.

This is a shot of the pool at the resort, taken on our last night in paradise.

This is the island where they shot the Victoria's Secret Catalogue, it's also where we ate steak and lobster on the beach, toiled with curly tailed lizards, snorkeled with giant starfish and a very curious Barracuda, which we later found out are not harmful to humans... unless they're bigger than you are, WHAT?

Photo of the Phortnght

Alex Cantin with an up-hill in-run Frontside 5-Oh in Nelson, B.C.

Published in Snowboard Canada's 2009 Buyers Guide Pg.  207

What can I say that I haven't already said about Alex Cantin, he's a quiet killer, a snow stomping machine whose nickname is the mountain lion. This was taken on the trip I organized and fulfilled for Canada's national snowboard rag, the last feature of the trip and a rail that required a tow- in by two people with shovels... definitely not the most ideal of settings but that didn't stop Alex from executing this picture perfect Frontside 5-Oh.

Photo of the Phortnight

Jesse Delgrosse - Backside 720 on the infamous 1080 Gap.

Published in Snowboard Canada magazine Pg. 195 and in Whitelines Magazine (UK) Pg. 24-25

As the backdrop shows the Whistler Backcountry can be a dangerous place to play. On this particular day I was perched next to a mini-van sized piece of ice and snow, the remains of an avalanche a few days previous. Hearing and seeing smaller avalanches all around me I snapped this photo of Jesse getting inverted in one of the most peaceful yet perilous destinations I have yet to spend time in.