The Off-Limits Contest Course
Come springtime, the snow in the frontcountry melts away and the quality of backcountry stuff is on par with the city’s concrete. For the seasoned professional, this means that options for filling up that two-minute video part get slimmer than the pants at Mount Hood. This brings entire video crews and and sponsor teams to the closed-to-the-public trails of mountains across the country to hit specially-built features that you would never see outside of magazine pages and next fall’s videos. Here’s some ideas of how to get a sneak peak of the action when the big boys come to town.
1.) Get in good with the park crew. Most of the time they’re friendly, and even more often they’ll trade secrets for the time-honored green pass.
2.) When you find out where the venue is you have three options– A.) Roll through the credential check like you’re Shaun White himself and don’t look back. B.) Plead with the event organizer to let you in because you promise to stay out of the way, and it’s really your mountain that they’re at anyways. C.)Use your knowledge of the terrain to sneak in through the woods next to the area. This is where some camo gear will really come in handy, or if you’re hard-up for cash just wrap some branches around you and stealth your way around a la Wile E. Coyote.
Internet Commenter Challenge: Name the video!
3.) Make it worth their while. Offer to do sled-tows, grab coffee, rake jumps, anything you can do to increase your relevance to the event will help.
4.) Most importantly, don’t blow up the spot. Pirating photos of the top-secret features and riders compromises the exclusivity of the event. So let the media outlet covering it drop the first photos, then you can Facebook it up and show your friends how cool you are because you got to rub sunscreen on JP’s back.
