https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/805014/We-Are-The-Faction-Collective---S03E02

It's not exactly breaking news that Faction's webisodes are some of the best edits around, but it's been a while since one of them blew me away to this extent. And it's one hell of a surprise to me that it's a park edit (a breck early season edit no less) bringing that claim out of me, given my penchant for footage shot either in the streets or in the backcountry. Etienne absolutely killed it with this one, the filming is perfect, the editing is clean, the song choice is bang on and you can be damn sure the skiing is on point. It's rare enough these days to see a big brand filmer also appearing in his own edits but as I'm sure you've already seen Etienne is no slouch on some planks either.

Delorme. Photo: Liam Doran

So why am I writing this? Well it's partly because the edit is fucking good and deserves all the attention it can get. But it's also to highlight a brand doing things a little differently. Faction have courted some controversy recently with the crowdfunding initiative but you'd struggle to argue that in the ski hemisphere they are doing anything but killing it. Of course there's the whole Candide thing, and he is the best. But for a little while now they've been building a team of underground killers and you can't help but respect that.

Will Berman grabs good. Photo: Liam Doran

Adam Delorme and new addition Antti Ollila are Newschoolers household names but have largely been passed over by the industry despite the level of creative skiing they've put out. Remember how long Antti went without a ski sponsor? The list of underground rippers continues: Will Berman, Duncan Adams, Cody Cirillo and lastly, deserving of his own shoutout for the insane snowtap shifty landings, Alex Hall. Faction are giving these guys a platform, investing in them and building a brand around that. With so much money heading in to the currently lucrative backcountry market, both on a manufacturing and production side of things, it's awesome to see a a brand in our side of things growing fast and providing guys we all love to watch with a canvas. They certainly aren't the only one but outside of the new start ups, the number of people really backing video skiers is decreasing. No brand is perfect and no brand does it out of the goodness of their hearts but kudos to Faction for that, keep up the good work!

Credit:

Featuring: Adam Delorme, Cody Cirillo, Antti Ollila, Etienne Mérel, Giulia Tanno, Alex Hall, Duncan Adams & Will Berman

Editing & Cinematography: Etienne Mérel

Additional Cinematography & Aerial Footage: Julien Eustache

Music by: Naughty By Nature – Hip Hop Hooray

Special thanks to: Breckenridge Resort