Blacksmith productions is very fortunate to work with talented people in the adventure sports industry. Please take the time to view the profiles of the athletes, photographers, and videographers that help make Blacksmith Productions what it is!
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= Photographer |
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= Videographer |
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= Snowboarder |
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= Skier |
Ben Furimsky |
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| Ben Furimsky is a veteran big mountain skier. Throughout his career he has had numerous podium finishes in big mountain competitions, published photos and several movie segments. Ben thinks of skiing as a form of expression. To him every mountain is a canvas waiting for lines to be drawn on. He prefers to ski big backcountry lines around his home in Crested Butte, Colorado when the conditions allow. He likes any kind of terrain and tries to be creative with the natural features he encounters. Currently, Ben’s focus is filming Point-of-View footage. This allows him to relive the experience of a favorite run or to share the feeling with others. He is currently sponsored by Smith Optics, Leki, Helly Hansen, and rides for the Solomon Fast Team. |
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Christopher M. Roy / USA  |
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| Discipline: Big Mtn. Skiing, Ski Mountaineering, Sea kayaking, White Water CanoeFavorite Powder stash: I’ll have to take you too it, Teton Range Bag of trick he can’t live without: Mate Born on Cape Cod, Chris has been skiing since he learned to walk. From the machine groomed trails of the Northeast to the Rocky Mountains, Chris has been refining his skills along the way pushing the limits of Big Mountain skiing. With ski summits ranging from Glacier National Park, Teton National Park to the N. Cascades, skiing is a year round journey for him. Chris has found a passion for his ski mountaineering during his time in the Teton and is learning from some of the world’s top instructors/ guides. He continues to work on his technical skill as he plans for Alaska and world wide ski mountaineering trips. Currently residing in Bellingham, WA Chris spends his summer months traveling the glacier peaks of the Cascades. Having Mt. Baker in his backyard he summits it annually with a new friend, want to go? When not skiing he works for Elakah Sea Kayak expeditions leading trips in the beautiful San Juan Island. Getting out with his white water canoe always makes for a good summer story too. Once the winter hits he returns to the Teton Range to chase the snow with Blacksmith Productions (a ski/split board film company), learning about the snow pack through American Ava. Institute and exploring with Jackson Hole Alpine Guides! |
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Douglas Brown  |
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| Douglas Brown is a photographer who lives and works in Vail, Colorado. He has been published in magazines and advertisements in several countries since 1994 photographing sports such as skiing, kayaking, and cycling as well as scenics and the abstract. Currently shooting locations for movies, and in between films, shoots rafting from his kayak on the Colorado River. Competitive ski mountaineering is something Douglas got involved with in 2008. Now for 2009 he is planning on a winter full schedule of racing and filming. A ski mountaineer since 1989 this is not a new activity for him. More of a proving ground after years of training throughout the Rockies. In 2000 he decided to stop using the resorts ski lifts. Back country skiing every day became a way of life for him. From Utah's pristine steep powder to the Tetons endless vertical and back to the Gore Range's versatility. Currently Douglas routinely ski's 15 to 20,000 vertical feet per week of big mountain powder, most of witch lies in the Gore Range. |
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Jeremy Wegner  |
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| Jeremy was born and raised in and around the burbs of Chi Town the Windy City. He has been planted in Crested Butte for over 10 years and has been working with Ellis for 4 years now. Expect to see more exciting lines and deep POW from Jeremy in the next Blacksmith production. |
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Matthias Giraud |
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| I was born in Normandie, not necessarily the best place to start skiing!!! My parents had a vacation-home in Saint Gervais Mont Blanc, 30 minutes away from Chamonix in the French Alps. Around the age of 11, I started racing for Saint Gervais ski school during my breaks and on weekends mainly G.S and Slalom. At 13 years old, I move to St Gervais to go to school and compete more. I was housed by friends and was skiing three times a week. I also started snowboarding a bunch but when I was taking my skis back, I was pretty much thinking like a snowboarder… and started throwing tricks with my G.S skis as there were no freestyle skis at that time. At 15, I completely stopped racing and entered a Freeride team in Saint Gervais and began to jump cliffs, doing front flips and backflips off cornices and cliffs - man it felt good!!! About a year later twin tips came out and my goal was to be able to throw tricks off anything, in every conditions as well as skiing big mountain as fast as possible. Concussions and broken sternums (4 times) didn’t stop me. I graduated high school and moved to Lyon where I entered a business school. It was the closest school near the Alps and it was the only option to be able to keep skiing and studying. I managed to do my internships in a ski shop at the bottom of the mountain in St Gervais, which gave me the opportunity to ski a shit load, get my ski instructor license and start teaching. I finally got the opportunity to move to Fort Lewis College with the help of Durango Mountain Resort – Purgatory for the locals! I left France at 20 without any hesitation and since then things went very well for me. I started to receive help from companies at 21 and moved forward in my career by skiing professionally at 22. The 07/08 season has been a turning point in my career as an athlete. I started BASE jumping with the help of Jesse Hall and ski BASE jumping recently which has opened the door to many more exciting projects. |
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Robert T. LaPier  |
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| Big Mountain Freeskier Roots: I spent two years ski racing at a 300 vertical-foot hill known as Beartown, in upstate, NY. After learning the fundamentals, I took advantage of weekend trips to Vermont, Canada and the Adirondacks with the middle school ski club. At age 14, an unforgettable week of powder skiing in Colorado primed me for my life in the West. From age 16-19 I taught skiing and snowboarding at Whiteface Mountain to afford a season pass. In college I tailed the Copper Mountain Freeride team and learned to fuse my high school diving acrobatics with skiing. I finished on top of most regional slopestyle and halfpipe competitions. While at summer camp in Whistler I met a fellow enthusiast and together we envisioned a similar camp with a, “big-mountain,” focus. After finishing college in NY, I returned to the West to put full energy into our summer camp, “Empire Freeride,” on the Beartooth Pass in Montana. For two years I worked with KGB Productions to make a character-focused ski feature, “The Sublimation Experiment.” During the making of the film we spent time in the Sawtooths, British Colombia, and the Alaskan backcountry, climbing and skiing challenging terrain. In 2006 I judged the Subaru US Freeskiing Open in Jackson and realized that these competitions were a great venue for me to meld my jib/terrain park background with Big Mountain features. My interest in Freeski comps has allowed me to use my 10+ years of competitive experience to perform in the most challenging terrain and variable snow conditions. I’ve recently worked with Grand Targhee to create a regional IFSA sanctioned Junior Freeski competition. In March of 2008 we hosted the first-ever, “Targhee Tee-Off.” |
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Tyler Boyd  |
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| My name is Tyler Boyd and I am originally from Madison, Wisconsin. I am just finishing my senior year at Colorado State University here in Fort Collins, CO. I have been passionate about adventure films for a long time and Fort Collins is a great place to help me pursue those passions. Shooting and editing ski films has been a dream come true. I worked with Thrillhead Creations for part of last season and am looking forward to working with Blacksmith Productions right now. Sharing an interesting and unique story through film can be one of the most powerful artistic mediums and I hope to do that for all you viewers. |
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Jack Hannan
 Sponsors: Fat-ypus |
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Jon Mason  |
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| Sponsors: Fatypus, Obermeyer Home Ski Area: Breckenridge, CO About: I'm a Colorado native who grew up in and around competitive skiing. As a kid I skied moguls for Team Breckenridge, so after school it was only natural to move to Breckenridge. With the best terrain park in the world, Breckenridge served as great training ground for competitive slopestyle skiing. I had some success, but found my true passion was for big mountain skiing. Living it summit county lends itself nicely as a central location for traveling for Freeskiing events and filming oppurtunities. Next season I look forward to filming with Blacksmith Productions, competing in freeskiing events and traveling to amazing places. Discipline: Big Mountain Freeskiing, Skiing Pow Competitions:
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Kent Hyden  |
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Tanya Christensen  |
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Susan Medville  |
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| Susan Medville, admits she has a "split-personality" life. "I have this
academic-sounding job, then I go huck myself off of cliffs." She works professionally helping to set up Museums and on historic preservation projects. The rest of the time she can be found working her way up a mountain then sending her self back down, usually on skis but with lack of snow she has been known to get the job done on a mountain bike, more recently on a dirt bike and even on foot. She and her husband Jon Johnston have spent their time between Crested Butte, Colorado and Pemberton, British Columbia. She has been enjoying becoming a more proficient ski mountaineer and using her snowmobile to gain access to the wonderful Coast Range. She competed on the International Freeskiers Association circuit and won the 2003 North American Freeskiing Championships at Kirkwood, CA. She has been the two time second place finisher on the North American Freeskiing Tour. She is always up for a good trip. In April of 2002, she joined four other women on the first-ever ski expedition to Bhutan. In 2004 she climbed and skied Mt. Blanc in France. This winter she is planning to delve deeper into her BC back yard, skiing LaGrave, France and hopefully visiting some other exotic locals. Cloudveil, Fischer Skis, Pistil Hats and Zeal Optics all help make her winter adventures happen.
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Susan Mol  |
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| I started snowboarding in the Poconos, PA in 89' when Sorels where just fading out and halfpipes were small, lumpy ditches we'd spend hours shoveling for one good hit. I moved to WA for real mountains and learned two words: backcountry and avalanches and within two years seaked out Crested Butte, CO as my home to discover more about those two subjects. It's been a steady climb ever since with only a few season enders. Big Mountain Competition has been a door opener for sponsorship, product testing, guiding and now filming with both Blacksmith Productions and Sweetgrass Productions. Some of my career highlights include 1st place, US Extreme Boarderfest in CB, 1st place, North American Freeriding Championships in Kirkwood, and 1st overall for the North Face Masters Series in Alaska. Riding the AK backcountry last season unleashed a fire within. I may never look at the white face of a mountain as less than one straight shot ever again. I own a window washing business in the summer to support my winter habits and the costly job of Crested Butte Ski Patrol (yes, they usually make me ski) but my focus never strays from split boarding steep pow. My future includes R&D for Voile, making history with my girls at Liquid Militia Productions, stomping the NF Masters with support from APO snowboards, and crossing off a few descents on my Wish List. Oh, and finding a Canadian husband that happens to live in Revelstoke or Nelson, BC. That's not too much to ask, right? |
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Tamara Gutman  |
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| Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in New Jersey, I spent my youth tumbling at a gymnasium. It wasn’t until my early teen years when I first stepped into a pair of binding/skis. My family would then travel to the Poconos on the weekends, and enrolled me into the local ski race training program. I was a junior racer for 4 winters, qualifying for J2/J3 Eastern Championships, and spending two summers training in Austria, with the Austrian women’s national coach. I then continued to race in my first years of collage at Northeastern University. After transferring colleges, I began to ski for fun (in Vermont). Two years later I moved out to Telluride, CO (where I stayed for 5 years).
After two winters in Colorado, I began to get bored with skiing. A friend then introduced me to the “off-piste” world. It changed everything for me. Rather than leaving the mountains, I took my first avalanche course and began to explore the backcountry. These new experiences changed my style of skiing and I decided to enter my first Big Mountain Competition. Since then I have continued to compete and push my limits on the slopes. I also find that I spend most of my days in the backcountry, skiing, snowmobiling, and enjoying the peace that the mountains have to offer. 2007/2008 Semi-finalist, Canadian Freeskiing Open TV: Film: Photo: Internet: Sponsor/Affiliation History: |
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Frank Konsella  |
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| Frank Konsella began skiing at the age of 3 in his home state of Colorado. The very first day he ever skied was a full-on blizzard, and while the other kids were inside staying warm, Frank stayed out on the deck, goggles on, waiting for another run. Skiing has since taken Frank to adventures in Chamonix, Argentina, Alaska and his home away from home in Pemberton and Rossland, BC. His latest adventures in 2007/2008 included his 6th top ten finish in a Big Mountain Competition at his home hill of Crested Butte, as well as completing a multi-year project to become just the 4th person ever to ski all of Colorado’s 54 fourteen-thousand foot peaks. See him in this year’s Blacksmith production, “The Wish List”. |
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Nikolay Piotrovski (Nick)  |
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| Age: 20 Hometown: Moscow Sponsors: Rossignol, SPY, Dakine, Trespass, Trueride.ru I was born in Russia, been skiing for 13 years - 5 in Freeride and 2 in NewSchool. Also have worked for a long time worked as a ski-instructor. At the present time I work for Ski Style Magazine and I am an organizer for Mt Elbrus summer camps. Since recently I am the producer and director of “Action Brothers” studio. Concerning competitions, I’d like to make my presence known, I don't have much experience in this area yet, but I love to risk and risk a lot - I want to be the first! I prefer photo and video sessions, because it’s more interesting to me at this moment. Favorite Tricks: 360mute/japan, 540, back flip arching/japan/mute, Lincoln, underflip. Competition Results: 2008 - 2nd “On the first snow”/Red Lake resort - Slalom 2008 - 11th Sochi Snow-X-Show- Pro - Freeride Companies: 2007 - ESC'07 New School contest, Nikita Girlfriends Battle- Judge 2007/ 2008 - "Russian Ski Magazine" - Ski testor 2008 - Organizer of first tests in Russia devoted to New School skis for “Ski Style Magazine” 2008 - "Elbrus Summer Camp 2007", "XCamp 2008", "Red Bull Invitational" -Organizer and Judge 2008 - "Ski Style Magazine" - Marketer and reporter Profiles: “Ski Magazine”, “Extreme” Interviews: Sport TV, "A-ONE", "NTK", "Russia today" VIDEO PROFILE: http://actionbrothers.ru/nick.wmv |
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Sean Oconner  |
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| Sean, 27, is an action photographer who strives to capture the glint
in the eye, the crux move, and the spirit of adventure and
individualism.
He has spent the last 13 years climbing and attending "The School of Life." While recovering from an injury, Sean began to photograph his fellow climbers. Soon Freesolo Photography was born into a world of high angle image capture. With over seven years of professional experience, Sean is devoted to image creation, individual and business development, as well as working towards sustaining our most precious backdrop. His images have appeared in Climbing, Rock & Ice, Kiteboarding, American Forests and Backcountry magazine in addition to catalogs and websites for Prana and Ibex. For more information about Sean, go to |
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Malahov Ivan (Mad) -1.jpg) |
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| Age 28 Hometown: Smolensk Sponsors: Volkl, Rip Zone, Giro, Hotski.ru, Ssxs.ru At the present is one of the best freeride/freestyle riders in Russia who has obtained recognition in both areas of the sport . Freeride - 13 years, New School – 8. Works with Magazines: “Vertical World“, “Ski Style“, “SKI“, “Extreme“, “Ski Pass” Works with the largest extreme Web Sites: www.insnow.ru, www.Rasc.ru, www.Twintip.ru Profiles: “Vertical World“, “SKI“, “Extreme“, “Ski Pass“. Video Profiles: ““Sport TV” ;Segment in The Thesis movie – The first Russian Newschool movie. Competition Results: 2004 - 1st Samara Freestyle tour – Ski cross; 2005 – 1st Russian Cup at Krasnaya Polyana - Freeride 2006 – 1st Russian Chempionatship by Elbrus Mountain - Freeride 2007 – 1st Snow Cup Kazan- Big Air 2007 – 1st Nike Freemountain Open - jibb contest 2007 – 1st Sportmaster Cup - pyramid highest air 2008 – 2nd Esc New School Contest by Elbrus Mountain - Big Air 2008 – 2nd Westcom jibb contest at Ski Salon - jibbing 2008 – 15th Nissan Freeride World Tour at Krasnaya Polyana - Freeride 2008 – 5th Open Nissan Freeride Montafon at Austria - Freeride 2008 – 24th Quest Nissan Freeride Montafon at Austria - Freeride 2008 – 5th Red Bull Powder Kick at Bansko, Bulgaria - Freeride 2008 – 2ndSochi Snow-X-Show- Pro - Freeride 2008 – 3th Nissan Newschool contest “Flammable camp” at Dombai - Freeride 2008 – 22nd Nissan Freeride World Tour - general credit in amount of 4 points 2008 – 4th Vans North Action - jibbing at Kirovsk 2008 – 6th Red Bull Invitational “X-Camp” - Big Air |
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Erik Morrison 
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| Name? Erik Morrison Age? Old enough to know better! Size? Little Born? New England Resides? Big Sky, MT Occupation? Producer/cinematographer/guide Loves? Baby, friends, family, and life! Hates? Two party system, black licorices, and the long winded ski movie interview about the weather in AK! Aspiration? To live a life worth living. Fear? Senility Color? Red Mood? Excited! Food? Sea Food Drink? Whiskey Board? Venture Bindings? Spark Terrain? Anything with pow. 8's or 11's? 11's Powder pig or guinea pig? Guinea pig into pow. Favorite Spot? Yah right! Shout outs? Thanks to everyone who has supported and believed in me. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you. |
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Jeramie Prine 
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| Jeramie Prine is a freelance photographer based in Lander, Wyoming. He enjoys shooting images of backcountry skiing and snowboarding, landscapes, nature, and people. He was drawn to photography while backcountry snowboarding, and found freedom and enjoyment while combining two of his favorite passions. Jeramie loves the challenge of heading into remote locations by his own power and trying to capture that perfect image and vibe. When not shooting photos or riding the backcountry, Jeramie teaches English on the Wind River Indian Reservation, is a father of two, runs a guest ranch in Northern Wyoming, and is the president of Togwotee Pass Backcountry Alliance. His work has been viewed in “Return to Schralptown,” Voile-USA splitboard and telemark gear, backcountry.com, and in local publications. To see more about Jeramie, go to: www.jeramieprinephotography.com |
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Justin Theemling  |
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My name is Justin Theemling and I live in beautiful Wilson, Wyoming, surrounded by the amazing Teton Mountains. Over the past thirty years of my life I have been very fortunate to live, travel, and ski in some of the most beautiful places in the world! With my camera I try to capture the action and beauty of these amazing places. Most of all, I love to ski, raft, mountain bike, and this is a great way to show my passion for the sports and for nature in which I play. |
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Zack Marquis  |
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| According to certain sources, Crested Butte skier Zach Marquis hit a booter in the Irwin backcountry last season and apparently launched into intergalactic orbit. Unconfirmed reports suggest the Blacksmith Productions athlete is not bummed about the situation at all. In fact the rumor has it that he has taken up with a band of interplanetary space hooligans and has reportedly been seen spending all his time hunting the legendary space elk, trying not pay for his cosmic Coors at the Eldo and whooping tourist ass at galactic foosball. Sources cannot confirm that Mr. Marquis is also the owner of a new 1991 Ford Escort spaceship with ski racks and a cd player. |
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Amy and Eric Flygare  Amy has been sliding down snowy mountains in one form or another since she was 7 years old. For the past 16 years, a snowboard has been the preferred weapon of choice. As one of the first female snowboarders at her local resort, she spent most days riding with the local dudes, which pushed her to progress quickly. What started as an occasional family pastime has now become a way of life. |
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Eric started snowboarding when he was 13. He bolted a couple of rubber straps to a plastic toboggan and went for it. It didn’t work well but it began the obsession. In high school he taught his girlfriend Amy to ride. Three years later they got married and the obsession only got worse. After living and working in the terrain park at their local resort for many years, the Flygares have transitioned to nearly 100% backcountry riding and couldn’t be happier. What tops their life goals is to ride as much powder as humanly possible. Topo maps, Google Earth, Doppler radar, and snotel are the staple diet in the Flygare house. Searching out and riding the next sick line is pretty much what occupies their time. Amy and Eric live and play in the Bear River Mountains in Northern Utah where they enjoy deep powder and little competition to get to it. For the past 5 years they have been getting to the goods by slednecking and skinning on their splitboards. They recently added a new little powder wrecker to their family and are already training her to schralp the gnar! |
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