Cover photo by Patrick Ring. All other photos (unless stated) by Will Wesson.

Daycare is, unofficially at least, the first Line Skis street movie. It features a stacked crew of riders, some of whom you rarely see in the streets. In our humble opinion, it's a spot-led street masterpiece and since it drops tomorrow, we wanted to catch up with Will and Patrick, the minds behind the mayhem, and find out a bit more about the project.

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So, first and most obvious question; why’s the movie called Daycare?

Will Wesson: Haha, it’s kind of an inside joke that just developed over the course of filming. Basically, I’m way older than everybody, except for Andy [Parry], who’s involved in it. I was organizing it, so it kind of felt like I was running a daycare or childcare of some sort on certain days. I’d just be like: ‘Ok everybody get in the van, I’ll drive you to the spot. Does everybody have water? Does everybody have food?

I was definitely proclaimed ‘Team Dad’ pretty early on and that’s why it’s called Daycare.

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There’s a lot of different spots in the movie. Where was it shot?

Patrick Ring: It was shot from Spokane, Washington on the West Coast, to Toronto on the East Coast, and everywhere in between. Mid-West, Utah, New York, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Iowa…

WW: Quite a bit of the Mid-West, because it’s the most reliable for staying cold and holding snow. Every February Andy, myself and a bunch of others drive from Utah to the East Coast, via the Mid-West, for Tell a Friend Tour. The gas is paid for with the TAFT/Line Van budget and we have to drive back west after anyway, so I thought why not hit a few spots on the way back west to break up the drive? It started like that the first year with me and Kale Cimperman in Iowa.

After getting a few clips, we thought it’d be fun to do more next year, so I asked Line if they would support some sort of short street edit, like ten minutes or less. They were thankfully down and eventually enough people got involved that we started taking big detours to chase snow on that annual drive from Utah to the East and back.

PR: I started running into Kale at the library. He told me that he’d been hitting street with Will and I asked if maybe they need a filmer… I kind of hopped on board after that and it just snowballed. The first year it was Will, Kale, Me, Taylor, Bennie, Andy, and Reagan. The last year is when everybody kind of started piling in.

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You ran into Kale in the library, do you mean an actual library?!

PR: Yeah. I was going to school at the University of Utah and Kale was a grad student and professor there. We’d known each other from back in the day and I’d just started running into him like every day at the library. It was my last year and, pretty much right when I graduated, Daycare picked up.

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Will, you said you’d seen some of the spots before, and watching the movie, they’re all pretty varied and some very unique. Did you already have a list of the spots you wanted to back and hit? How did it work?

WW: We found a lot of new spots thanks to Google Maps. Reagan’s pretty good at that, he's definitely the Google Maps Master. Pat’s good at spotting stuff as we’re just driving by, kind of with a ‘skateboard eye’, I definitely had premeditated spots, ones I’ve known about before, just always wanted to hit but just never had the right snow conditions or schedule. Those were kind of the foundation and then I knew that a lot of the surrounding areas would have potential. We’d go to these places that we already knew and then build off of that and then find new spots nearby. Toronto was one of the only places I hadn't been to before, but luckily, every spot we found on Google Maps there would have like three more right next to it. It was a pretty fun little scavenger hunt.

PR: I'll add that Will is our spot policeman, and he's gonna make sure that the spot is gonna be worth it from how it's turns out on film, bust factor, natural speed, etc. He’s on another level and once you get past it, he’s the man and he’s as good as it gets at finding spots. We really just have to thank Will for being super on it; ‘No! It’s got to be about the spots!’

WW: Yeah, I was pretty bossy!

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How many spots did you guys pick, and Will was just like 'nope!’?

PR: There was a lot! Towards the end, we needed to get some tricks, but even then, it was like: ‘This kinked rail is boring, you should hit his one that’s wood’, or whatever. He has an eye for finding something unique about every spot and trying to find things where you can only ski it that way, because of how the spot lies. We could have gotten more tricks on every trip, but they wouldn’t have been as valuable and made stuff stand out. There were definitely some arguments, but I started to get it by my second year, when I saw the video coming together. Now that it’s finished, it’s like ‘Alright Will, you’re right. I’ll never question you about it ever again!’

Jed making life difficult for himself with the squeeze

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Did you hit any spot twice in the whole movie?

WW: We tried to keep it all very individual. OK, we found a cool spot, who has the best skiing style or best trick for it? That’s gonna be the coolest shot and if that’s you, that’s your spot. Everybody would work together to help that person to do their thing. I think that makes the best video. It’s not just a chaotic session. It’s definitely fun to ski together, and there were a couple of spots where multiple people hit the same spot, but we tried to always do it in a different way, so it’s not too repetitive.

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What was the timescale between the first and final shot of the movie?

WW: The first clips filmed for the video were from a trip across country after Kale and I shot in NY and Iowa in March of 2021. I hit this big tree that fell over and Kale filmed it. There’s also a shot in the credits where I do a down, gap, down backslide. The most recently filmed shots were from a spring storm in Salt Lake City in early- April ’23.

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So it was almost exactly three years?

WW: Techincally, yes. But, like I said, we didn't set out to shoot for a specific video or project, we just filmed two or three clips in March of that year and I didn't want to drop it on Instagram, because that felt like a waste. We thought we’d hold on to them and see if they turned into something. The next year we tried to film a bit more and this past winter it really ramped up and we were like; ‘Ok this is a thing now.’ More people got involved and it became a real video.

Tucker doing Tucker things... check the movie for the madness

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Obviously, Daycare has you, it has Andy, it’s supported by LINE, but it’s definitely not Travelling Circus. It still has a similar vibe and definitely the same comedy in the final edit, was that a deliberate choice?

WW: Yeah, we really appreciate and enjoy the adventure that goes along with the skiing so we felt it was important to show any entertaining and memorable moments. Same philosophy as TC, but less trip-based story and more just standout moments caught on video.

PR: As we were filming it when something funny would happen, we'd know immediately it would have to go in. When Will and I sat down to edit, we pretty much already had the same vision.

That’s another thing, along with Will and his spots, he cares equally about everything that’s not skiing. Outside of skiing, I film a lot of skateboarding. Skate videos often play into the hijinx and funny antics other than strictly skate porn. We made a really good team on that front and we thought we’d give ‘em as much just skiing as possible, with the funny stuff. Then minimal artsy stuff, because most people don’t care about that stuff. All of the hijinx/funny stuff makes the video more relatable to everyday people who don't ski

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What’s the story with those drunk guys who said 'You can’t film here! But I actually really like snowboarding!'?

PR: That was actually the first snowfall in Utah, the first year. That was early December and Taylor wanted to hit that spot. It’s at a Freemason building. That’s Scientology right?

WW: No, it’s something different! It’s a Masonic Temple. Those dudes were part of it, but they didn’t actually run it.

PR: Their dads were though.

WW: They were drunk and going to a party, and just felt like yelling at somebody. It was really cold, like near 0 degrees F and they were wearing short-sleeved shirts haha. When we actually talked to them, they chilled out and one was pretty hyped to be on camera.

PR: They came out hot! You can’t hear it on camera, while Taylor’s dropping in they were like: 'Get in your circus van and get out of here!’

Taylor lands it and then they got really upset and, whatever, we put in the movie. We’re with Taylor, Taylor’s girlfriend London, Kale, Will, our friend Shaggy, me, and I think Taylor’s other friends. I think as soon as they saw that it was girls skiing, because they approached Taylor first, they kind of calmed down a bit and started being like; ‘Hey we respect what you’re doing. This is our property, this isn’t our property.’ We asked if it was their property or not and they said it was the Mason's property or whatever and we ended up filming them. I said ‘all of that’s going in!’

WW: And Taylor got the clip, so that’s a bonus!

Kale bracing for impact...

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Are you guys happy with how the movie turned out in the end?

WW: Yeah, we just kind of set out to not be too repetitive. Everyone has their own style and we tried to highlight each rider's strengths with features that suited their skiing. Focusing on unique spots that don't exist in parks was the original concept and I'm stoked with how it came out in the end.

It’s special when you come across a piece of architecture or infrastructure that doesn’t exist anywhere else, wasn't meant for skiing and just happens to be perfect for an idea you come up with. The hunt followed by the puzzle of how to ski on it, build it, film it, etc. is very rewarding. It's also really fun interacting with normal people who just happen to come across us trying to ski on ridiculous things and see their reactions.

PR: On the filming side of things, I think that a lot of action sports, like snowboarding, skateboarding etc. are a lot more standardized with the way that things are filmed. We went pretty heavy fish-eye on this movie and I think that makes certain spots more skiable. We played into the filming side of things and the spots and the funny stuff. It all came together to make it more of a unique project. I’m just stoked on how it came together and I appreciate everybody’s hard work. Will in particular, everybody in the video owes it all to Will. Thank you to our DayCare dad!

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Some might say that this is saving the best for last, but what was it like getting Andy Parry back in the streets?

WW: It was super fun obviously. He’s a hilarious dude to hang out with and we've been friends for over two decades. In 2021, we actually did two TC episodes that had street in them and Andy got some good street clips. I think that was also the year that

ZOOTSPACE came out, with a kind of a different outlook on street skiing than the status quo at the time. It had lot of nostalgic music we grew up listening to and I kind of planted the seed by showing him the video and saying like ‘See, street can be more than just super gnarly or crazy technical.'

PR: He did do a 450 swap though!

WW: Yeah, true, he can be tech too. It kind of gave me and him a new outlook; ‘Oh yeah, everything can be cool if you do it in the right way, film it in the right way or there’s something’ entertaining about it.’ That got him and Ross Imburgia excited again. That and the table smashing haha.

They hadn’t taken street as seriously for quite a while. It just hadn’t been worth it, in terms of the consequences and what they thought was worth shooting. In our era of street, it was more about who goes the biggest or gets the most tech compared to now when unique tricks and spots are more highlighted. For me too, there were a few years when I was a bit over it. It wasn't sustainable physically, financially and it got boring trying to do the same types of spots over and over.

You have to be having fun in the street or else there’s no point in doing it. It’s dumb to risk getting hurt if you’re not enjoying yourself. If you have a fresh outlook and group of friends with a similar vision, then it’s really fun.

PR: I’m obviously a lot younger than Will and Andy and I grew up as a Traveling Circus fan. My favourite episode was when Andy nuts on the up part of a rail at Hood and then it went full circle because I ran into the front of the rail and nutted it, in front of Andy and that was one of the first spots with them. I got karma for laughing at Andy!

The streets was sick though, the first year he was skiing picnic tables and he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to hit. I don’t know what happened in the course of the year, but the second year he was finding spots before he showed up and he just started going in. His clips are crazy. Like crossing your skis on some of the spots that he hit is so gnarly, in streets with stairs and concrete. He also did some pretty classic stuff that wasn’t just ‘Andy tricks’ and it was really cool to see him go all in like that. Andy hit a roof spot!

He’s a great skier, he’s super creative and it was sick to see him take his talents to the street. I don’t think a lot of people would do his style of tricks on a street spot.

Patrick Ring in front of the lens- Photo Alex Havey

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Thanks guys! Daycare drops tomorrow, October 31st on NS & Line Skis Youtube.