Snowboarder Magazine

We rank the TOP 10 Video parts for 2009

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:00

Now that all of the major snowboarding titles have been released, we thought we would rank the most impressive individual parts. Basically our criteria was to look for the parts with the most technical, innovative, consistent and entertaining riding with extra points going to those who mixed up their parts with variety in their riding. This was based upon the following titles: Neverland, Black Winter, The B Movie, Forum Forever, Videograss, Cool Story, Shine On, Nice Try, Hard to Earn, This Video Sucks, They Came From and Get Real.

TOP 10 Movie Parts for 2009:

1) Torstein Horgmo – Black Winter (Standard Films)

A rider well overdue in accolades opens up Standard film’s latest release with perhaps the best well rounded part all year. While Torstein’s park spinning abilities have been well documented before we haven’t really seen a great deal of it in the backcountry and we sure haven’t seen this much jibbing from Torstein before either. Yet again we are reminded of that word consistency when it comes to his riding as we do another follow cam park lap this time at Park City, Utah where Torstein stomps 13 tricks in a row over jumps, wall rides, rails and other features. The riding is that entertaining in this part that you soon become so mesmerized, you actually forget how horrible the music is.

Torstein's unedited Park City lap

Black Winter teaser

2) JP Walker – This Video Sucks (Defective Films)

JP Walker the man known as 'The Don' goes for something unique for his umpteenth movie part. To freshen things up and give himself a challenge JP decided all his tricks should be done switch, fakie, backwards, in reverse. As JP says in the intro it was simply something that had never been done before. For the uneducated you probably wouldn’t even notice this was an all switch part as that’s how smooth JP’s riding is. As expected the majority of JP’s part is shot in the urban environment but just because he’s doing an all switch part doesn’t mean that he’s hitting little features, there are some big long rails here he goes to town on. This part also features the most backcountry jumping we’ve seen from JP in quite a while and yep he’s still got it..

JP's full part..

3) Nicolas Muller – Neverland (Absinthe Films)

From the first note of the Who’s “Teenage Wasteland” you just know this part is going to deliver. Rightfully so it opens up Absinthe’s Neverland, easily the best release this year. If you’ve ever ridden Japanese powder you’ll be foaming at the mouth watching Nicolas hurl himself off anything and everything all with a smile on his face whether he lands or not. His fluidity and edge-to-edge precision riding is mind blowing and his approach to pow just makes you want to book a flight to Japan there and then. This part features an amazing amount of pillow transfers and tricks off tree rides from backflips, to spins and even rodeos. Such a ‘feel-good, fuck I wanna ride pow right now’ part from Nicolas, reminding you just why you love snowboarding.

Neverland teaser..

4) Jeremy Jones – The B Movie (Burton)

Aside from the overplayed motor biking imagery, this part really caught us off guard. You’d figure for a guy in his 30s, that JJ would be toning it down a touch, but that’s hardly the case. Jeremy has taken a relatively new trick in that of one foot 360 shove-its to the urban environment applying them to gaps, rails and even wall rides, as one would on a skateboard. Some really impressing and creative riding from Jeremy and just when you think the trick is getting a bit over used he steps things up with his usual array of sick urban riding. At times it’s easy to forget the fact that JJ can ride backcountry booters until you’re snapped back to reality with some slick pow stompage. Awesome and very innovative part backed by golden era Metallica, great to see a veteran still creating what’s sure to be the new trend in snowboarding.

The B teaser

5) Gigi Ruff – Neverland (Absinthe Films)

Backed to a soundtrack of our favourite Dead Kennedy’s song, this part from Gigi is quite simply a lesson in style for anyone watching. From his overtly wanged methods, to his late backside 180s and ridiculously held grabs this part features some amazing riding complete with crazy big mountain lines and even a couple of double corks on backcountry booters for good measure. Would easily have been the opener or ender in any other movie.

Sneak preview of one of Gigi's double corks

6) Bode Merrill – Neverland (Absinthe Films)

Wow just simply, wow is the word that comes to mind when watching this part. I would say this part is jam packed with more diverse tricks than any other part all year. Well-rounded with no shortage of jibing and backcountry riding, this kid has definitely come out of nowhere and in the best release this year has wound up with the end part, deservedly so we might add. I had never heard of Bode Merrill till I watched this part and was totally blown away. Again some really ballsy and tech gap to rail tricks as well as no shortage of jump tricks, again double corks feature heavily and not to mention a vast array of one foot and fast plant tricks. This kid is the future for sure.

Bode's leftover footage and different angles from Neverland

7) Halldor Helgasson – They Came From (Factor Films)

There is no more stylish and technical rail rider alive than the Icelandic sensation Halldor. If Halldor were from the USA he would be a household name in snowboarding already. Naturally this part is the opener in They Came From and the amount of combo tricks that Halldor throws down on rails is incredible. It’s the sort of part you need to watch with the remote just to figure out what he’s doing. There’s also plenty of jump tricks on offer too though most of it is park orientated. That’s not to say Halldor doesn’t have skills as he throws down a bevy of 900s, backside rodeos and even a double cork for good measure too. They Came From might just well be the first Sci-Fi snowboarding flick around making it even better.

Halldor's full part..

8) Scott Stevens – Get Real (Transworld Snowboarding)

Scott Stevens is usually a regular in the Think Tank movies and his parts are always one of our most anticipated. No one probably reflects the skateboard influence on snowboarding better than Scott Stevens. Innovation and creativity are two words that immediately spring to mind watching his part. Tricks are filmed often as skate lines with multiple tricks in the one line. Fast plants, back foot fast plants, one foot rail slides, rail to rail transfers, board to board transfers and plenty of unstrapped action too. Very entertaining part even if it is a little on the mini shred side of things, it just screams fun!

Get Real teaser

9) Robbie Walker – Nice Try (People)

Are we being a little biased here backing our boy Robbie? While it’s mindblowing to see Robbie star in a movie with some of snowboarding’s biggest names, what’s even more incredible is the fact that Robbie doesn’t look one bit out of place. Robbie flexes plenty of jump muscle with multiple tricks on more than a few different jumps proving his consistency and bag of tricks, not to mention smooth style. More jibbing in his part this time around which fits in perfectly and his end trick of a 100ft double cork is mindblowing. He must have come pretty close to opener or end part in this movie.

Robbie's full part

10) Dan Brissie – Neverland (Absinthe Films)

You got to hand it to Dan Brissie he sure has a big set of balls. Everything in this part his huge, be it an urban or backcountry gap jump, a triple kink rail or his amazing roof to roof transfer in downtown Denver. He rides fast and hard and gives everything 120% which makes for some entertaining viewing. Brissie is well rounded in his riding abilities and for a relative new comer this part has definitely stamped his arrival in the snowboarding world.

Check out an Absinthe webisode featuring the roof gap in question..

5 Parts that Just Missed the Cut..

11) Pat Moore – Forum Forever (Forum Snowboards)

12) Seth Huot – Nice Try (People)

13) Laurent-Nicolas Paquin – Videograss (Videograss)

14) Keegan Valaika – The B (Burton Snowboards)

15) John Jackson – Forum Forever (Forum Snowboards)

Top 3 Newcomers..

1) Johnnie Paxson – Hard To Earn (FODT)

Slick end part backed by the beats of Gangstarr. Super smooth style for this jib kid who also has freeriding, backcountry booter and a double cork feature in his part. Not scared of gapping to a sketchy concrete landing or to backside grind concrete walls this is definitely a head turning part putting a lot of big names to shame.

2) Chris Grenier – Get Real (Transworld Snowboarding)

Awesome well rounded part that opens Get Real. Plenty of solid rail tricks including a 50-50 to 15 foot stair landing and front boarding a double kink on a powder board.

3) Jason Dubois – Black Winter (Standard Films)

Plenty of ballsy rail tricks and combos from Jason Dubois all backed by a Bad Brains soundtrack. His last trick of a 50-50 kink rail transfer to fence is pretty incredible.