Gand; goat-n-dog, Kory Kirby and Nick McGowan met their freshman year at Montana State University- Nick is known as the goat, just cause, and Kory is known as the dog. They started a webseries a couple years called gand and that spring their t3i set up was stolen at Heavenly along with a lot of footage. Shortly after this, Nick blew his ACL, PCL, and Meniscus- and gand was dead. A year later it was reborn with two handycams when they created gandstyle, and their back at it again with their newest short film "BUCKSHOT" featuring Kory Kirby, Nick McGowan, John Knopf, and Seth Leinbach.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/825244/gand---BUCKSHOT--

Did you go into the week planning on making a short film, or was the idea born down the line?

KK (Kory): Well actually Nick and I (goat-n-dog) have been talking about making a short film for almost 4 years now...a stolen camera, three knee surgeries for gand, and all sorts of life bullshit has held us back. This spring I won $1000 in a rail jam, and dropped it entirely on a camera. Nick and myself were both healthy (for once) and I then went to Nick and said, "lets to the U.P. for spring break and not drink out livers into oblivion and try to make a street part" Everything came together for once, and I couldn't be more stoked on it.

NM (Nick): Yeah, sorta. We knew we wanted to film a lot in the streets, but anybody who has hit urban knows that plans change and get destroyed buy whatever uncontrollable reason way too often. Fortunately the whole team went in and we got something done that we are all hyped about.

How'd you link up with John & Seth?

NM: I honestly didn't know either of those guys before the trip. Kory and John have been friends for a while, and it sounds like the same for John and Seth. As far as i know, Kory hit up John and John hit up Seth. It was super cool to link up with both of them though, they are both super rad dudes and i look forward to staying in contact with them no doubt!

Why the UP?

NM: Kory's brother Mitch goes to school at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI and we have always schemed on making a trip up there to hit street spots and stay with him. He is graduating this year and it dawned on us that this may be our last chance to make it happen so we just ran it.

KK: My brother lives in the U.P. and I spent a summer up there working, that whole summer I was checking out spots all day everyday, they are literally everywhere, and hundreds are with in walking distance of the house we were staying at! The U.P. also gets insane amounts of snow. So basically up there is a city with hundreds of spots densely packed together and to much snow to know what to do with, it was a playground up there, made me feel like I was 12 again!

Nick McGowan hand plants the ruins // Christian Raguse photo

Looks like your crew took quite a few diggers- any injuries sustained besides a handful of cuts and bruises?

KK: No trips to the hospital! Shout-out to Seth Leinbach he got so beat up gaping over the mine ruines, and kept going again and again.

NM: Some how we managed to not get too worked which was sweet. Seth definitely took MVP as far as bailing and getting back at it goes. Watching the way he commits to a trick he wants is honestly inspiring.

Kory, you were going for that (illusive(?)) on the DFDFD long enough to bring the lights out- was that the trick you wanted when you first got to the rail?

KK: When I showed up I was debating that trick, or 270 on, I ended up going for the illusive, and once it got dark I couldn't let it go.

Seth Leinbach Mine Ruin Gap // Christian Raguse photo.

You guys had a winch for the trip- have you had access to one for a project of this scale before? How did it change the way you approached features?

NM: It was the first time i have ever dabbled with a winch. Seth having a brand new one for us to use was a deffinate game changer. Until our last day in michigan there wasn't a ton of snow, so we really had to get creative with what we could hit, and the winch essentially allowed us to widen our horizons about what we could still hit. That being said, we didn't use a bungee once the entire trip, and we were pretty set on hitting spots that require more speed while we had the opportunity to take advantage of some horse power.

KK: I've also never used a winch before, so Seth coming up with us was a huge game changer. We looked at the town very differently, and it shows in the features we hit. Jumps, quarter pipes, and up rails. We were all jacked on the idea of winching into gaps, so day two we built the mine ruin gap, all of us got broke off here. That was a huge awakening to urban jumps, speed is so variable, landings way to small, it actually kinda sucked haha. Day 3, 4, and 5 we didn't feel like falling from 25 feet up anymore...

Why "BUCKSHOT"?

NM: BUCKSHOT came about a few days after we both came up with a few mediocre names that we didn't like. We knew we wanted a name that reflected us and the way that trip went and like buck shot, this trip kicked, had hard impact, and was full of hard metal.

Nick, how's the buzz from shotgunning energy drinks?

KK: While driving* and a tall boy* was so impressed he didn't puke all over my car haha

NM: Before or after you feel like you are going to projectile vomit all over the windshield and crash. It will get you from one place to another, thats for sure.

Kory Kirby 720 at the Mine Ruin Gap // Christian Raguse photo

The mine ruin gap was huge- who got to guinea pig it, and did they shit their pants?

NM: Seth guinea pigged that spot, we all ate shit. I called it quits on that after back slapping way too hard for the second time, and Seth and John did similar things, the carnage at that spot was so real. Kory didn't say a word to anybody about what he was about to do and sent a seven and slammed pretty hard. After that he took a second and got his mind straight, then laced it so hard. It was TITE (yes I meant to spell it that way). Once we were all over that gap we ended up hitting that concrete quarter pipe and tranny redirect thing all within 20 feet of the gap. I'd say we shoveled for a total of like 5 hours at that spot, but it was worth it. I'll remember that day forever. Seth is a cat. The fact that he managed to fall over the edge like that and still land on his feet was superhuman.

KK: We were looking for some concrete to jump off and to slap, so we spent most the morning looking for the right spot. Once we found it, we actually set-up three spots in one, and it took a while just as Nick said. This was without a doubt one of the gnarliest spots I have ever hit, I hit it once and it hurt a lot, I hit it a second time and it hurt more. Nick, Seth, and John are all in the processing of calling it quits. I knew someone had to stick something off it, and I figured the sooner I tried something and landed the faster I could take my boots off and never hit it again hahaha. So just kinda spur of the moment sent the 7, went a little to big and if I wasn't wearing the usual double knee brace I would have for sure blown a knee I bet. I felt good thanks to the metal around my knees, went a little slower, and stomped it. I'll never forget that feeling skiing away from that one, my legs were shaking so aggressively, never been so happy to take my boots off in one piece... it was intense blind take off, no snow, winch, and a mine tailing rock landing... At this point in the day we had two hours tell dark. We shifted winch positions and hit the QP, Nick and John all got tricks along with some other friends that were there. We then were going to head out, and Nick made the game time decision to hit the up wall to hip redirect thing? The sun was setting, Nick had only about 5 tries on it, and he got it on his third attempt. That shot without a doubt is one of the sickest things I've seen in person. He just grabbed the winch, and did it, tru GANDSTYLE.

Check out the full film: https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/825244/gand---BUCKSHOT--