Sandbox Films presents ShineOn

The season here in Whistler started off pretty slow for us with no early season snow. This is usually when the riders get out and get warmed up and ready to start really filming. Then when the big snow fall finally arrived it fell onto a really really bad layer in the snowpack, creating some of the worst avalanche conditions in history.

So this held us back even longer. We finally had all of this amazing snow but it was too dangerous to go out and enjoy it. Especially for our somewhat novice crew of backcountry riders and sledders, we had to be extra cautious. During this time we went out on a few rail trips across Canada and made the best of the record snowfall in the city of Vancouver.

When the snowpack settled out we jumped on the sleds and got back out to our favorite Whistler backcountry spots well into the spring. I think we have backcountry shots in the movie that were shot in June.

We also had our fair share of injuries this year. Every year some guys get hurt, that's just the nature of what we do. But this year we had a few extras. Most notably was Andrew Hardingham's serious slam at Mount Norquay. Andrew hit a massive jump and came down hard on his hip and forced his femur bone through his pelvis, shattering it into pieces... ouch! oh and his left arm broke into pieces as well. He is recovering well with a lot of fishing this summer.

On a brighter note, we had a lot of really great sessions and trips. Clayton and Ryan Tiene went to Japan and got some really cool shots and played with monkeys, dressed in traditional Japanese robes and ate disgusting giant raw squid.

We finished off the season with a bang right here in our own back yard. We had our annual Whistler Blackcomb jump session on Whistler this year. The park staff made us a really big jump with an even bigger in run. The in run was really really fast and the riders were in a full speed tuck the whole way just to get enough speed to clear the massive jump. We had some troubles with speed and clearing the jump at first. Max Ritchie to a licking but shook it off and kept on riding. We re-worked the jump and in run and the boys were able to clear it and nail a bunch of great shots. Clayton was following extra close in the helicopter this year with our pilot, Steve, from Blackcomb Aviation. He was a bit of a nut to say the least. He got that bird so close to the ground, riders, jump and the lift towers with ultimate precision. His flying really made the shots incredible.

Now we've been in the editing studio for the past three months straight and boy are we looking forward to some time outside, especially Clayton, he's put in a serious shift in here this summer.

- Kev

ShineOn World Premiere Tour and DVD release in September 2009