Words by Ben Gerwing

For the past 4 years, FRESH

has hosted one of the most successful ski movie premiere shows in Canada

and this year was no exception. From October 12-14, the Freshtival went down

in Calgary, Alberta. With help from Salomon and Resorts of the Canadian

Rockies, this year was the biggest the event has ever been, and kids

and families alike were coming from all over to check out eight of the best

new ski movies and hang out with their ski idols.

Previous years of the Freshtival

saw it take place at the Orpheus theatre at the SAIT campus. But due

to such a huge demand, the last two years of the freshtival have needed a bigger

venue. The uptown theatre in downtown Calgary is a great place to host

the event and is right in the middle of a great Calgary bar scene.This

year eight movies were shown- here's a rundown. The Thursday

show included "Corduroy" from Rage Films and "Anomaly" from TGR. Friday

featured two sets of movies: referred to as the after-school special,

the 3:45 show included "Long Story Short" from Level 1 and "Skimatic" from Pléhouse. The Friday night show was sold out a week before

the movies even took place, featuring "Photoplay" from Theory-3 Media/PBP and "Push" from Matchstick. Saturday’s

shows included Poor Boyz's "Ski Porn" and Tanner's film, "Show and Prove." The

crowds at every show were amazing, and Friday night and Saturday's movies

had to be moved to a bigger theatre due to such a great turnout.

The last few years have seen some kind of a rail jam or wallride event on the Saturday before the movies, but unfortunately

this year's ideas could not come to life. Instead, Red Bull flew in a

videographer from Whistler and invited a few athletes who were in town

for the event to hit three rails, and make a short movie about it to be

shown on Saturday. Mike Henitiuk, Justin Dorey, TJ Schiller, Matt

Margetts and Stu Bileodou threw down at all three locations. First

up was an insane down rail in north Glenmore park. The rail was about

90 feet long, and I believe about 85 stairs. Every athlete took some

crazy falls and only Justin Dorey was able to clean the whole thing.

Next up on the list was a bomb drop off a billboard along Mcleoud Trail. Some nice 180s were thrown down and Stu Bileodou even went for a misty

5, landing hard on his side. After distracting traffic and causing

an accident we decided it was time to move on to the the third and final rail

of the day. We arrived in Shouldice Park to find a 90-degree elbow rail

with a huge drop on one side. Justin Dorey was getting close to

doing the whole rail, but took a chunk out of his thumb and was off to

the hospital. The only athlete who cleaned the whole thing was Mike

Henitiuk. He stomped it three times: switch-up to pretzel 270 out,

and to switch and regular.

Athletes

who attended this year's Freshtival were Seth Morrison, Mike Douglas, Sarah Burke,

Rory Bushfield, TJ Schiller, Josh Bibby, Eric Hjorleifson, Chris Rubens,

Dana Flahr, Ian MacIntosh, Mark Abma, Mike Henitiuk, Justin Dorey and

others.After

all off the rails, movies and free swag there is always an afterparty!

This year everyone met at the Cherry Lounge for drink specials and to

party with their ski heroes. The crowd had a great time and it was a

great way to end another year at the Freshtival.