What: All Day Every Day
When: Saturday, Nov. 22, doors at 8 p.m.
Where: Westin Hotel, Emerald Ballroom
Admission: $10
There may not be any serious snow on the slopes of Whistler or
Blackcomb yet, but there will be plenty of powder on the big screen this
weekend, courtesy of a local film production crew.
Kevin Sansalone first began tinkering around with snowboard
filmmaking almost eight years ago, when he was laid up with an injury. The
hobby quickly turned into a career.
“It was like a hobby before, and then… it organically grew into
something that was being sold all over the world and getting a lot of
attention,” Sansalone explained.
So about five years ago, Sansalone and a good friend and
colleague, Clayton Larsen, formed Sandbox, a talented team of young designers,
filmmakers and riders that has produced popular riding flicks like Flavour
Country and Time Well Wasted. Since its inception, Sandbox has grown
significantly, both in terms of athletic and production abilities.
“A lot of the riders we’ve had since the beginning of Sandbox,
so we saw them grow from sort of no-name rookie guys into, now they’re popular
and they’re all over the magazines,” he said. “Some guys have even outgrown us
and they’re onto bigger and better things.”
Now, they’ve released their fourth full-length film, All Day
Every Day, which features scenic vistas and shots from right here in our own
backyard, at Whistler-Blackcomb, in Whistler’s backcountry, the Rockies, and as
far away as Norway, Sweden, Austria and Spain.
“One of our best shoots this year was our Whistler-Blackcomb
helicopter shoot,” he added. “… They built us a great, really big jump and the
stars all aligned. Everything was perfect: the sun was out, the clouds cleared,
and we had an amazing sunset and the riders did some unbelievable tricks.”
The film features a heavy-hitting roster of riders, including
Andrew Hardingham, Andrew Geeves, Rube Goldberg, Ryan Hall, Brendan Keenan,
Rusty Ockenden, Max Ritchie, Steve Cartwright, Dwayne Wiebe, Nash Lajeunesse,
Geoff Brown, Mikey Pederson, Logan Short, Etienne Gilbert and a newcomer from
Australia, Ryan Tiene.
Sandbox has already toured Canada, the U.S., and parts of
Europe and Australia with this latest film, and they just held the Vancouver
premiere last weekend, an event that drew an impressive crowd of almost 900
people. Now, they’re finally bringing the film home to their own backyard to
premiere it to Whistler’s loyal crowd of snow worshippers.
The audience at the upcoming Whistler premiere, which includes
a pre-party with three on-site bars, music by DJ Vinyl Ritchie, and a charity
photo auction for Zero Ceiling, can expect to see a few impressive new riders
and sponsors on the roster, along with unbelievably crisp imagery, thanks to
the crew’s new HD equipment.
The riders and production team are predominantly based in
Whistler, so maintaining a loyal local following is very important to Sansalone
and the rest of the team, who are hoping to capture the hype and energy of the
upcoming season here in Whistler.
“Everyone’s saying it’s kind of weird that we’re ‘bringing it home’ — it’s the last one of the tour,” Sansalone explained. “Usually you do the world premiere at home, and usually, we have, but I thought this year… we’d change it up a little and do a really big premiere really close to snow season.”