SnowKiteFilm.com :

Ozone Factory Vietnam

Me and Sigve are visiting the Ozone factory in Vietnam. It's pretty crazy to witness everything that goes into making the kites, from the design process to finished product. Thanks to David and Ngan for showing us around!

Remi's Pro model

Remi has just come back from the Folgefonna glacier after testing the first prototypes of his Nobile pro model snowboard. The board looks really sweet and the graphics are killer! If you wanna ride like Remi does, this is the board to do it on. Click the link for more pics...

Analog reading on digital images

I'm reading the book Droidmaker by Michael Rubin in between editing sessions on Something Stronger. Definitely a great read for anyone who's interested in the origins of the digital technology we now take for granted. Two thumbs up!

Don't try this at home!

Not getting enough air in your frontmobe can be dangerous! Just ask Petter Johnsen, who broke his back in three places and had to be choppered to the hospital...Luckily he's not paralyzed and will be fully recovered by the end of the summer. Get well soon Petter!

Spycam

The Adventure Cam 3 from Viosport is a helmetcam that we're using for our instruction film. I've been testing the different lenses and ND Filters that came with the camera and I'm pleasantly surprised by the picture quality this little gadget delivers. I'm also eyeing the possibility of using it as a spycam :) Thanks to Hjelmkamera.no for providing us with the camera!

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Tapeless

Marius Arnesen has kindly lent me his Panasonic HVX 200 for a week of testing. This camera records beautiful HD footage to memory cards or hardrive. I'm definitely getting one of these for next winter. The future is tapeless!

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Down by the riverside

We decided to make the most out of a grey day and shoot some footage by a river inlet. As the day progressed everyone got braver and tried to pop on the water and land on the snow and vice versa. In the end everyone got drenched, especially Sigve who fell while trying a backside boardslide to flat 3 and landed face first in the river.

Tales from the rail

It's pouring rain outside, but we're happy because we've managed to sneak a rail from the local ski hill. As soon as the sun peaks out again we're gonna test this sucker out!

Gyroscopin'

Shooting handheld from a snowmobile is a tricky thing. The solution is this gyro that attaches underneath the camera and cancels out unwanted bumps and shakes. The result is ultrasmooth shots even when shooting zoomed in with tele lenses at speed!

Easter kicker

It's Easter, which means kicker building. The whole crew got to work on a massive jump that will set the bar for snowkite kickers. We found a prime spot on the plateau that should work on a variation of wind directions, now we just need some wind!

Roadtrippin'

Our search for snow has taken us all the way to Cranbrook, B.C in Canada. We discovered some amazing riding potential here, but the snow and wind needed to take advanage are still eluding us. Thanks to Sheldon and Reneè Decosse for housing us and showing us around to the best spots. Check out their custom ski and kiteboards at www.decossecustoms.com

Discovering Discovery

Still no wind, but we finally found good snow. Last night it dumped almost 40cm (15 inches) of powder snow on Anaconda in Montana. We immediately seized the opportunity to ride the local ski hill, Discovery. It's not a big place, but there are some sick treelines and steep descents to be found. It's supposed to snow even more tonight. We're keeping our fingers crossed...

Speed Demon

The snow conditions in Idaho at the moment are less than ideal, but Bjorn doesn't seem to mind as he's about to try out Andrew Goldman's new juiced-up scooter. Andrew runs a snowkite clinic in in the Soldier mountain range that has some amazing riding potential. Check out his site at www.snowkiteidaho.com

The Commander

After meeting a nice lady from Bergen at the car rental in Seattle, we upgraded our minivan to a Jeep Commander 4WD SUV. It uses twice the amount of gas of a normal car, but now we're safe in the knowledge that we can go anywhere.

On our way to Boise, Idaho to meet up with local snowkiter Andrew Goldman, I got pulled over for speeding, going 90mph in a 65 zone. The result was a $427 fine. 12 hours later I get pulled over again, this time for almost hitting a state troopers car while changing lanes on the Interstate. Ooops...

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The most important meal of the day

We're back in the U.S.A for a month of riding and filming. Today we're in Cashmere just east of Seattle, getting ready to head up to Boulder Park. But first we had to get a solid breakfast from Barney's, the local restaurant. Delicious!

Pink is Punk!

Marius is modelling Bjorn's new skidress from Norrøna. Expect to see alot of it in our next video!

Got Sun?

We've had our share of snowstorms the last week. The snow keeps falling from the sky and there's no end in sight. Hopefully we'll see some sunshine when we go to the Czech Republic next week.

Return of the kings

The crew is taking a break from shooting the follow-up to Entropy in France. The Snowkite Masters is going down at Col De Lautaret once again. We've had only one good day of wind and two accidents so far. Sigve hurt his foot on a rail and Claes fractured a rib after crashing on a kiteloop handlepass. I couldn't ask for a better start to the season.

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It's here!

After a few delays we finally received our Entropy DVD's and they are now ready to be shipped around the world.

Ipod, youpod, we all pod

Just received my 2007 Bergans jacket with ipod controls built into the sleeve. A marvellous invention. Can't wait to try this on the snow :)

Roll out the red carpet

We had our big premiere party in Oslo on thursday the 19th of october. Entropy was shown in all it's HD glory at Frogner Cinema. The film was projected from a HDCAM source tape using a 2K projector and I was astonished to see how crisp and clear the pictures looked on the screen. HDV can definitely hold it's own for large format projection, but the lack of dynamic range, limited color space and motion artifacts are still issues to be dealt with.

The premiere went off without a hitch and the house was packed. About 160 people attended. The DVD is a little delayed (of course), but should be available at the end of this week (28th of October).

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My precious

Shiny round objects can be very attractive. This disc contains the final PAL DVD version of Entropy. Now I just have to encode the NTSC version and then it's time for replication. Estimated time of arrival 23rd of October. (Fingers crossed)

Glacier Goat

We're glacier hiking in Jotunheimen at the Nordic Mountain Film Festival. This dude is going to lead us all across safely.

I'm not worried.

Bridges of Gothenburg

I'm on my way to sweden to meet up with Claes and shoot an interview. Hopefully I can get from Oslo to Gothenburg and back in time to catch my flight back to Stavanger. It's going to be tight...

It's a wrap!

We've officially had our last day of shooting! I'm enjoying my last rays of sunshine before locking myself into the editing basement for the next four months...

Can I kick it?

The snow is quickly disappearing, but we still managed to get a good kicker session today. Remi's testing the beast while Ecka watches in amazement.

Slednecks

Bjorn is chilling out on the scootersled after a hard days worth of filming

Where's the "%&!$ wind?

Sigve is wondering where the wind went. Another false alarm drags us up to the plateau for nothing.

Walk the line

The sidewalks in Finland are so good we'd rather walk than drive! The crew is on it's way back to the hotel after an exhausting day shooting in collaboration with Ronny Basso of kitefilm.com for his upcoming snowkite instructional video.

The inevitable backlash

Bjorn and Anders are feeling the effects of last nights party...

High spirits

It's the last day of the ISKA World Championship in Vadsoe and everyone's having a blast.

Press the button

I'm the proud owner of my first ever World Championship press pass. Sweet!!

If the cap fits...

AG models his new snowkitefilm.com cap

Remi was a race car driver

After crashing his car during the last stage of the World Cup, Remi won a model racecar track, we're testing it out.

The leaning tower of DV tapes

Back at the editing bay, doing a short promotion film for Fisherman's Friend. The DV tapes are starting to stack up, and this is only a fraction!

Frayed nerves

The last leg of the Semnoz World Tour starts today and everyone's a bit high strung. Everyone except Bjorn that is, who knows he's got the whole thing bagged.

No wind Masters

...and then it stopped blowing. Luckily the sun is still shining and event director Kristjan is serving hot dogs, yummy!

Nordic Masters

We're at the Nordic Masters in Sälen, Sweden. The weather is nice and the winds are blowing :)

Under surveillance

We duct taped the camera to the ceiling today to get some interesting shots. The steering wheel attached to the camera is a Manfrotto Fig Rig. This genius piece of equipment is priceless for getting stable shots while shooting handheld, I highly recommend it!

Down to earth

The last two weeks have been all work and no play. Here you can see yet another kite collision during one of several beginner courses I've been teaching...*sigh*

You've been hoovered

Claes experiments using the vacuum cleaner as a hairstyling tool with decidedly mixed results

Back at the bay

I'm stuck at the editing bay for the forseeable future, trying to finish up some shots for an outdoor clothing company...

Clear as day

Running some test on a 42 inch HD plasma screen. Everything looks to be running smoothly and the quality is breathtaking.

The emperor's new camouflage

Sigve's testing out his new camo suit from Brunotti. He'll probably be MIA by the end of the season...

(Head)setting the trend

Just got my new soundpads from Sweet, and yes they definitely are! The pads clip onto my helmet instead of the regular earpads, so now I can easily listen to my ipod while filming and riding. Genius!

Finally some sunshine!

We woke up to blue skies and 30 knot winds this morning. Looks like it'll be an epic day at the plateau!

Poor light conditions

The last two days the light has been too poor to film, which means lots of downtime for the crew. Remi divides his time between the kitchen and his laptop in equal amounts.

New format challenges

Shooting in HDV(High Definition Video) isn't always just fun and games. The editing process presents a challenge, but the end results are definitely worth it. The Sony FDR-FX1 produces some amazing images...