Skiers with no poles, small label reggae/beats, no actual parts or names anywhere, smaller mountains, even skiing at the resort (vs. the usual heli-skiing footage), switch landings and take-offs anywhere, nice “normal” tree skiing, insane mt. Baker powder, a part including pro skiers snowboarding, very mellow editing…

Poor Boyz Productions IDEA Ski DVD by Erik Iberg and Poor Boyz Production is truly different. The film follows three pro skiers (Eric Pollard, Pep Fujas and Andy Mahre) through one season and tries to capture their every day, “real” experience.

Whether the film is as ground breaking as some people claim (especially in www.newschoolers.com) is yet to been seen. I wouldn’t say it compares to the Greg Stump stuff or even to early MSP or TGR in pioneering new fronts, but what is really nice in my opinion is that the film kind of sets the new pace and mid-set for the ski flicks (In addition to another cult classic, Teddybear Crisis by Chris Ostness and Henrik Rostrup). In snowboarding this trend has already been really clear for years. See any Standard Films TB series flick from the 90′s and compare it to the current ones, and you’ll understand what I mean…

No big mountain things in Idea ski DVD

What really stands out against the current big name Ski Porn is the fact that these guys don’t even go that huge or do any death-defying stuff at all. Ok, some of the backcountry booters are of a respectable size.. but still look relatively safe and very well thought and planned; no 100 feet park hits, super steep Alaskan faces, avalanches, crazy urban rails or anything like that. Just skiing.. skiing in a very unique style these guys been experimenting few years.

Take Andy Mahre for example – son of the former champion racer Steve Mahre has skied without poles since a little kid. He is also said to be skiing switch faster than 90% of people do forwards!

Eric Pollard then is a guy who probably has the most snowboard influence in his skiing of any pro-skiers ever. Back in the late nineties and early 2000′s his style was way ahead of the time: crouched low, legs far apart, hands down, no crossed skis ever and very smooth moves, basically meaning fewer spins but tons of pure style. He is also known for supporting very wide skis (starting at around 100mm) for all-day, all-mountain use. In addition the guy seems like skiing’s one true renaissance-man: a visionary skier/snowboarder, an editor, a graphic designer, ski designer/innovator.. seems like he even builds up some of the skis he is using!

Pep Fujas again was the top competitive new school skier only a couple of years ago – now he concentrates on totally different kind of skiing, and also without poles (at least occasionally).

Throwing poles away

For any old-school skier the no-poles thing is a very intimidating thought. I mean, we’re skiers, we’re supposed to have poles, right? Skiing without poles is only for little kids and maybe, just maybe, for those late spring days when you’re skiing with a beer can in both of your hands. First I thought this way too. Skiing without poles mostly reminded me about snowbladers (or skiboarders).. not that I have anything against those but still I wondered why the world top-class all-mountain freestyle athletes wanted to look like 10 year old park-rat kids? Whatever your opinion on this issue is, it still seems that when discussing about this movie, the debate always turns into the poles vs. no-poles argument.

Then, after watching Idea several times, I realized that maybe that’s not even a point after all. I mean the guys didn’t even wanted to produce top notch ski porn or to show mind-blowing stunts after stunts. In my view this movie is all about FUN and positive attitude, showing how these guys have good times on skis (or even on snowboards or snowmobiles), without poles or with them, no matter. The movie tries not to be any kind of statement at all (although many seem to think just the opposite way!).

I showed the film to my friends: all skiers but varying degree of commitment and/or following the latest trends in the sport. One of the more old school guys of the group said somewhere during the film: “damn, these guys at least seem to have some good fun“. I think that captures the whole essence of the flick. Fun, fun and fun.. isn’t it all we search in winter sports after all?

I know I can’t do half of the stuff these guys are doing, yet to bring the incredible style to it like these guys do. But for sure this stuff is inspirational.. I’ve been eying those new style funshaped skis for awhile now thinking about why on earth I haven’t been trying those powder 180′s or 540′s more often earlier.. or trying to figure out all the new style moves this kind of skis/skiing allows in natural forms of snow (or any other objects like tree stumps). For me it seems that for a hard-core skier the focus has always been faster, higher, more of this and more of that.. while there is so much more to it IMHO; even us old-schoolers could once in a while just take it easy, have an open mind and just make it as fun as it was when we were starting out as kids!

Ok, there are also few things in the film one can criticize: some of the editing seems pretty non-professional to me, e.g. the company logos at the start of the film. It would also be nice to know at least roughly who’s skiing and where.. now the skiers in different outfits just fly by, pretty hard to recognize who’s who! And finally, I have to admit that Pep Fujas just looked better where he skied with poles. I mean the guy rips and can do turns too, not just the jumps. In the air the no-poles style actually looks pretty good (after all) but when just cruising I can’t justify it 100%.. Mahre is an exception, that’s kind of his trademark style he started many years ago. Damn, again I’m discussing this! Seems like this debate will go on and on…

You can find Poor Boyz Productions IDEA Ski DVD from Amazon.