It's Monday, it's December and let's be honest.............we all need a high five right about now.............that is all.

This is an unbelievably great video about a Canadian legend in snowboarding: Martin Gallant aka The GodFather. It really put a smile on my face. I spent some of my earlier years shooting and hanging out with Martin in Whistler and it was always entertaining and productive. There is some great vintage shred footage and some equally great interviews with Canada's best. Another quality video by Push.ca in their ongoing series. Respect!

This guy epitomizes the "Still Got It" philosophy. Shin Campos has lived snowboarding for the last 25 plus years and is still out there getting it done all winter long. He's become a good buddy of mine and this video is a really good look into his personality and his life.

I'll have more for you about the "Still Got It" philosophy over the summer and into the fall but just remember you heard it here first and keep your eyes peeled for news about our upcoming project.............

For now, enjoy this video from PUSH.ca on living legend Shin Campos!

It's a cold, overcast west coast day and the snowboard season is winding down. That's not to say there isn't a lot left to do this winter or that the season is over. On the contrary, there are hopefully a lot more sunny days on the mountain left this month as well as some late spring park shoots. But for the moment I am enjoying some downtime at home thinking about summer.

What got me started on this tangent is a great blog and website by a guy named Morgan Maassen. I'm not sure exactly how old he is but from what I can tell he's one of these younger phenom type shooters along the same lines as my fellow snow lensmen Cole Barash. Both of these guys have amazing talent, drive and vision. But it was Morgan's blog and this little video he posted about Scott Shuman, aka "The Satorialist". Last summer I did a shoot for KNOW?Mag in which I was asked to emulate (not copy!) this style of shooting. This video reminded me of that shoot and summer time.



It's definitely worth watching this video to see what he has to say about his blog, his photography, how he got started etc. The video is shot really well and is part of a series called Visual Life from Intel.

As I was thinking about summer I realized how I have been planning on ramping up my blog content for some time now. This summer I hope to accomplish this goal and bring you much more information from the photography and action sports world. This will hopefully include interviews and portfolios from some of my favourite photographers, behind the scenes stuff and some regular feature type content. If you have any suggestions, ideas or proposals, please send them to me via email: info@colinadair.com

Today is January 13th. To all of us who love to snowboard, NoBoard, or ride any kind of board or plank down a snowy mountain it's known as "Greg Todds Day". A friend, legend, inspiration and original thinker who passed away 6 years ago in an avalanche doing what he loved to do, NoBoard in the BC Backcountry.

Last weekend was the annual GT Memorial NoBoard Race. An event not to be missed and contrary to what many people think, open to everyone. I rallied out there for an extended weekend to join in the festivities and shoot some photos for DC after the event. It is always an amazing time with old friends and something I really look forward to every year. Don't miss it next year!

Here are some photos from the journey out to the Kootenay Mountains from Vancouver:

Snowy roads and closed highways due to avalanche control mean epic conditions for riding powder.






Met up with the crew and woke up to this. I proceeded to put my truck into the first snowbank I could find.


Parking lot hang after a good day.


Race day preparations. Serious business. Ceasar mix and a keg.


Tuttle making firewood to keep the spectators warm.


Long live GT.


The view from the starting line. Way down below is the finish line which you see in the photo above. Each heat in the race has about 5 people in it. Best overall time wins. When you get close to the bottom you can hear everyone yelling and cheering. You want to pin it but if you fall you are toast.


This is my line down the course. No bindings. No problem.


I won my heat and got 6th place this year. My best time, best result and best run of my life! The trees just seemed to move out of the way for me and for a while there I was in first. Didn't last long though, by the next heat I had dropped down to second. This list shows the top 20 only so as not to embarass any big time pros, ex pros or loudmouths who may or may not have had their asses kicked by me.


The auction and party after the race. About 8000$ raised for Gregs family and kids.


The overall winner, Ave (R) and winner of the Asian Canadian Downhill, Jake Price (L). The politically correctly named Asian Canadian Downhill is an all out, no rules, first guy to the bottom race. The first two to the finish have to chug a can of beer. First one wins the prestigious title.


Winner of the ladies division, Jenna Low and some perv creeping on her.


Trevor Andrew and the Trouble Gang put on a show for the crowd.




Temperature dropped the next day just to add insult to the many injured brains after the party.


Leaving town and another huge snowstorm.






No sign of the ferry left some time to take a few more pics. A logging truck on the other side got stuck on the hill, delaying the ferries return.














It's a long drive home but worth every second. Can't wait for next year................R.I.P. Greg Todds! You may be gone but you are not forgotten.

It took me a couple days to get this post done. I could not get through the door to the office due to the swelling of my head after seeing the SNOWBOARD MAG Photo Annual. Two photo annuals have come out this year so far and both have my photos gracing the pages. Quite an honour for them! My fingers are crossed for the Snowboarder Photo Annual to make it a trifecta. Actually it will be a quadfecta or quadruplecta because I know the Photo Issue of Frequency has a portfolio of my images coming out as well very soon.

I think my head is starting to swell again so before I get trapped in the office with my fathead, here's a few scans of the shots from the SNOWBOARD MAG:

This trip is almost over. I made my way up north with the BrainFarm crew to Santiago. They all went home because they've been here for almost 2 months. I had changed my flight a while ago and found myself with 3 days to kill. I'm over on the Coast in a place called Pichilemu. There are a bunch of surf breaks here, the most famous being Punta De Lobos, a nice left point break, perfect for my goofy foot styles.

We had to get out of dodge while the getting was good. We had exhausted our options down south in Patagonia and with a break in the weather before it got nasty again we escaped. It's an amazing place. Highly recommended if you like the outdoors. We were staying at an amazing lodge called Lakutaia. We were the only ones there as it's not really tourist season there yet but the staff were so awesome and the food was amazing.

Here are a few pics from the last week or so:

A crazy storm rolled in one afternoon. It came through in about 20 minutes. The light was amazing.



Followed up by a full moon later that evening.





The lodge also boasts the most southerly golf course in the world. It's in kind of rough shape right now because winter just ended but come summer, those 3 holes of golf will challenge the most talented short game players out there. I think Phil Mickelson is coming down for some work on his game.



Here is our plane. A Canadian made Twin Otter. The only plane that can handle the intense winds and weather of the region. It was packed so full of snowboard gear and BrainFarm's insane amount of equipment that we only had room for 6 people.



More to come from this trip and hopefully some epic surf shots..........

I've had to resort to some extreme solutions due to the extreme nature of the place we are in. Desperate times means desperate measures. The other day we drove by a park dedicated to the Virgin. I took the short pilgrimage back there in order to plead for some help in our quest. It's been two weeks almost and yet we have not been able to shoot any snowboarding yet. Traditional methods to bring us luck have been exhausted.......









Well. It worked! The heli is here! Now all we have to deal with is the weather, snow and constant wind...........Mark Landvik's expression here says it all.

After a couple days in Santiago we have made it down south to Punta Arenas but have yet reach our final destination of Puerto Williiams. We ran into the middle of the Bicentennial of Chile so everything was shut down for a huge national holiday for the last 4 days. Frustrating for us because we can't go anywhere until the paperwork for the helicopter clears. However, we have been able to get out into this region and see some of the country as well as enjoy the festivities around the Bicentennial.

We are moving from here on Tuesday and the real work can begin. Snow conditions down south are apparently good and we will be a short flight away from the furthest southern point in South America, Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn). The landscape and scenery have been amazing so far. Here are a few samples:

The view from my hotel in Santiago


Just north of Punta Arenas


We stopped at a small 'zoo' and this guy was not liking us too much. About 8 feet tall with nothing but a dinky wire fence between us and him. These things are freaky.


This little guy was the highlight of a huge bicentennial parade in Punta Arenas.




Down at Fuerte Bulnes, about an hour south of Punta Arenas, we were searching for sea lions and penguins but it's still a bit early in the season for them to be in this area. We did see a few seals but they kept their distance.

I just got a bunch of film back from the lab the other day and I have been editing up a storm. I also finished (almost) editing the 1500 photos from the Sun Wizard recording sessions at Mushroom Studio and I'm fresh off a shoot with another band called Blank Cinema earlier this evening that went really well..........Needless to say I hope to have a lot of posts coming down the pipe over the next week so keep checking back, sign up for the RSS feed and please forward to anyone you might think would like my photos!. At the same time, there is a potential job I could book which will keep me very busy over the next week instead. Hopefully it's the latter but I'll still try to throw up a few posts in between............cats and dogs I say! Cats and dogs.......

As promised.........more photos from the camping trip to Mussel Beach on Vancouver Island a couple weeks ago........shot on my Olympus point and shoot film camera with Portra film.