Hopefully there are ski movies that make a difference, and SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP is absolutely one of them. The story of the legendary Jackson Hole Air Force it so fascinating, inspiring and cool that I found myself watching the film over and over again.

SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP is a great story of brotherhood

Jackson Hole Air Force was a tight-knit, underground group of skiers who pushed the boundaries at Jackson Hole ski resort and redefined the possibilities of what resort skiing means. Back in the early 70s people only skied slopes, but Jackson Hole Air Force members wanted to explore the backcountry and find the freedom and joy or freeskiing. Unfortunately this was illegal in United States, so sometimes they had to break the law in order to initiate the big-mountain ski culture we know today. For example Doug Coombs was arrested and banned from skiing in Jackson Hole. He was welcomed back in early 2000, only few years before he suddenly passed away.

What makes SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP really interesting is the “battle” between Jackson Hole Air Force and ski patrols. While the patrols did their best to keep people inside the boundaries the Jackson Hole Air Force skiers managed to slip to the other side of the rope. The best part of the story is that some patrols actually wanted to ski the backcountry with Jackson Hole Air Force, and one of the patrols was fired because of breaking the law with the renegades.

SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP ski movie opens the history of Jackson Hole Air Force from the beginning to the present including all the highlights and lowlights. It all started in the early 70s when a group of ski bums hang out together and started exploring more challenging ski terrain such as Corbet’s Couloir in Jackson Hole.

During the years Jackson Hole Air Force became well known and respected. If people saw lines in the backcountry they immediately thought “wow! Jackson Hole Air Force guys must have done that”. During 90s and early 2000 extreme skiing became popular and the first World Extreme Skiing Championships were organized in Alaska. Top five places were all taken by Jackson Hole Air Force members. After a while everybody wanted to join the Air Force.

SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP is a ski documentary that has been created from the archival footage of Warren Miller, Roger Brown, Dick Barrymore, TGR, Howard Henderson, Rick Hunt and few others. SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP is not only the best ski documentary on planet Earth but also the greatest story in the ski world. It is absolutely fantastic. Hometown Boys strongly recommend watching SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP!

Buy SWIFT.SILENT.DEEP ski movie from Amazon.

Check it out! This might not be Absinthe Films but it surely gets you into good mood. SOUL is the word that comes to mind immediately when watching  this one. And the riding is still really good (featuring for example legendary Finnish riders like brothers Joni and Mika Mäkinen etc.)

I especially dug the skate part (probably because I am a complete tool on a skateboard myself). Japanese powder is never bad either.

Props to Jari Salo and his “crew” of 30+ riders to proving again that age is just a number (ok, such a cliche but you get the point…)

In short, we can say Yearbook is a pretty good ski movie, and we honestly believe you would like it too. Anyhow, there are few things we didn’t like that much, we all in all we recommend watching Yearbook. You can order it from Amazon where the price is pretty cheap. For a longer version of the review, continue reading.

Yearbook ski movie review

Hold on! You might wonder why we reviewed a ski movie that was released years ago? You’re right, Yearbook is not a new ski movie. We just happen to have it but we never wrote a review of it. Therefore we decided to buy a pack of beer, get drunk and watch the film again just to write this goddamn review. So here we go…

First let’s take a look what they say about Yearbook in Amazon:

School is in session. Featuring the honor students of skiing performing at their top of the game, Matchsticks 2004 release promises to be its greatest yet. Classrooms include: Bella Coola, British Columbia, Aspen, Colorado, the Alps of Norway, Courchevel, and Chamonix France. Senior class member Shane McConkey returns with a performance of a lifetime, ski basing across the Alps and absolutely destroying his home of Lake Tahoe California. Sophomores Tanner Hall, Mark Abma and Eric Pollard deliver the best all around segments in skiing. The freshmen class of Ingrid Backstrom and Tanner Rainville will open peoples minds to the next level of skiing. The Class of 2004 proves to be the best in skiings history.

Cool, eh?

Athletes in Yearbook include: Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, CR Johnson, Hugo Harrisson, Tanner Hall, JT Holmes, Mark Abma, Rory Bushfield, Steele Spence, Ingrid Backstrom, Tanner Rainville, Mike Wilson, Eric Pollard, Stian Hagen, Nicholas Karlstrom & Mike Douglas.

Yearbook is a bit different ski movie. There is a nice school-related script behind the movie, and it seems to work well. I’m actually surprised at how good of “actors” these top skiers are. Although their roles are pretty classic, including nerds, teachers and those who are always surrounded by girls, I like the idea. I like Shane McConkey as a teacher and Tanner Hall as… you guessed it. He gets all the girls. I need more beer.

Yearbook starts with some pretty cool heli-ski shots and fast skiing on a steep face. The film was shot in many great places, such as Whistler, Bella Coola, Hanes and Zermatt. The first skier, Mark Abma, does a few very nice backcountry runs and chutes. Next comes the tough female freeskier Ingrid Backstrom who has some attitude. She really skis with nice style and fast speed.

Next comes always-so-cool Tanner Hall with his cool tricks. The movie goes from backcountries to parks. During the following few minutes we see some more park skiing and nice tricks, but because I’m not that much into park skiing, I get bored. I grab yet another beer…

Pretty awesome skiing in Yearbook ski movie

Then the bomb explodes. Shane McConkey comes into play with his awesome basejump stunts. Yeah! I love this. NOW I Gotta get MORE beer. Lovin’ this shit!

Shane McConkey’s backcounty skiing and absolutely friggin’ basejumps work like a magnet. I find myself watching a few scenes again and again. This is absolutely cool stuff and I love it! Shane McConkey is one of the icons of the sport, and the producer of Yearkbook seem to know it too. Shane gets much more time in the movie than others, but that’s not a problem at all, because Shane’s skiing and basejumps are really interesting to watch. Basejumping huge mountain cliffs like on Eiger is something we haven’t seen much of before this movie. Shane is the KING!

After Shane McConkey’s scene I thought there was going to be some more park skiing, but no. Another icon steps in front of the camera. Seth Morrison needs no introduction. I might be his fanboy, but I just love watching Seth’s style and awesome back and frontflips off of huge cliffs. Seth Morrison just happens to be so gifted as a skier and he knows how to use his gifts. Unfortunately he had bad luck with snow conditions, and at the end of the day he broke his arm. Damn!

Next comesa  few not-so-well-known names with a series of new school tricks. Nice skiing, nice tricks, but I’m more into big mountain skiing. Anyhow, I must say some of the tricks are really impressive, especially considering Yearbook ski movie was released few years ago.

Finally this rather boring sequence is over and Dean Cummings starts skiing some really nice powder. Dean performs a few 20-meter cliff drops and continues skiing powder snow more than a meter deep.

My mate and Homeboy co-writer Janne is a great fan of Eric Pollard. It’s a pity Janne didn’t see the next sequence in which Eric launches a big avalanche after his very first turn. He gets buried, slides down to the bottom, but is found by his mates. Eric is an experienced skier, so he gets up to next peak and starts skiing. Guess what happens next? He launches another huge avalanche! Lucky man. He survived the second one also. What can I say? Wow!

Then again back to the backcountries. Chris Davenport skies a damn nice and narrow chute with a little drop in the end, and after that lots of pow. Looks so good..

Then comes a big crash. Mike Wilson tries to jump over a huge gap, but fails. He breaks so many things in himself that I didn’t even manage to count… Anyhow, after a few weeks he is fully recovered and back on skis. Right on, man!

It’s not only skiing in Yearbook

OK, Yearbook is a 100% ski movie, but what I mean is that there are some really nice sequences of other things than skiing, and I really like them. One pretty good example is Rory Bushfield jumping off a high bridge. And yes, it’s winter. He jumps without a shirt, makes a backflip, swims in icy water and climbs in the snow back to the bridge. Now, how cool is that?

If you like watching skiers crashing, the next sequence is for you. There are dozens of bad crashes both in backcountries and parks. Oh man, I really feel sick watching guys crashing on rails and hitting their balls… Fuck!

Yearbook ski movie is really cool, so watch it

I really love the camera work and shooting angles in Yearbook. For example, when skiers jump boxes and quarter pipes, the helicopter with the camera man flies from left to right or vice versa. Yearbook is of high quality, filmed from different perspectives. Although there were couple of boring sequences, I really enjoyed watching and warmly recommend it to you too. Yearbook is a really good ski movie, so watch it. You won’t be disappointed.

Yeah, it’s a great ski movie. Highly recommended.

I’m too drunk.

Another sure sign of the coming autumn is the realeses of ski movie trailers from the production companies.  If you don’t have any feel for skiing at the moment, I am pretty sure you have after watching this trailer. I thought I was totally into mountain biking right now and was going to write about cyclocross bikes but skinny tires and spandex wearing guys will wait for better time for now.

They are not too modest at the MSP, naming the movie “CLAIM, the Greatest Ski Movie…EVER!”. Well why shouldn’t they – big production, big budgets, the best skiers in the world. This is SKI PORN, as I already wrote last winter about their last movie, Seven Sunny Days.

Still, what really impressed me the most was the song. I can’t believe they put THAT particular song in the trailer. Do you believe this was actually all the rage in the 80′s? In Scandinavia at least, and at least among the 12-year old school boys! Those were the days, I believe I learned my first wicked daffies and spread eagles at the pretty much same time Europe was on the top.

Ok, no more rambling, here’s the trailer, enjoy

Few observations from the trailer:

They brought back the “Saucer Boy” – frickin’ awesome!

That floaty air at around 2.50 – pure sex. I just love stuff like that. Sure the flippy-spinny stuff is cool but nothing beats the simplicity of a big tucked up air, “sent” with some serious speed (so that you get the good trajectory, not just fall from the cliff!)

Paraglider “switch up” at around 3.47 – Holy s**t. Usually I don’t dig base/paragliding etc. stuff so much in the ski movies but that was something different & creative!

And at last but not at least… Sorry, I got to do this. The real stuff, Europe performing in their home country, sometime in the mid eighties. Well, enjoy(?) also this. That guitar solo (3.34–>) is pretty damn cool, heh.

Wanna have this ski movie? You can find it from Amazon for the cheapest price!

Well, Idea was something different. And it has raised a lot of discussion around ski community. A good thing for sure. It is really good someone to really shake up the “given” norms from time to time (examples: the first “hot doggers”, Plake & co, snowboarders in the 80′s, Jeremy Nobis’ first time on the fat skis in AK, the first new schoolers etc.).

Then, there are time likes Sunday mornings. You just want it like it always was and how it should be. Seven Sunny Days is just like that. It is straight ski porn the way you like it -the quick fix, gets the job done etc.

The format is pretty obvious already. Matchstick Productions makes pretty damn good ski movies. Ok, they might not be art. But you sure want to go skiing after watching them. Skiing too fast, too big, too recklessly…

There’s the Shane McConkey James Bond imitation, the ski base segment, the best jibbers on huge obstacles, the helicopter filming on Whistler booter session (almost like an institution already on MSP films), the new breed of the do-it-all skiers like Eric Hjorleifsson and Mark Abma, the most interesting new-comers like Colby West and James Heim, the trendy (but not too experimental) music etc.

So, you really get what you expect. The list of skiers on MSP is pretty impressive and the filming just oozes professionalism through the whole flick. And that’s maybe the only complaint – some “edge” here and there might make the film even better, perhaps?

Skiing wise, hard to complain because the stunts and lines are just mindblowing. This is a matter of taste too though…IMHO Idea and Tanner Hall’s Believe were fresh because they were showing some of the more “normal” skiing too.

But for its intended purpose Seven Sunny Days is a sure winner…again, if you want to get some kicks to go skiing, buy this movie! (btw. you can buy it from our online shop too).

Oh, and I almost forget! MSP also dropped Seth Morrison a couple of years ago (or vice versa). That is one permanent loss for their films for sure. But I guess you just can’t have it all at once?

From the all-star team of MSP skiers to my I eye the most interesting was Mark Abma. It has been nice to see his development through the MSP films in latest years, from a jibber to a real allrounder. My racer friend pondered that the guy must have some mogul background, meaning he might not have the racer like use of the hips in the turns but on the other hand very smooth and neutral looking more “straight” stance. The same guy analyzed that today’s skis and skiing style allow that kind of style, and that actually it is pretty good looking and very effective. I couldn’t said it better. Abma is smooth and his airs in the gnarly terrain something very few have the balls and skills to do.

Poor Boyz have done good work also before. Check out Janne’s review of the Idea ski film. I also recommend you another cool ski movie, Ski Porn!