VOLUME 01
S N O W B O A R D I S S U E 2 K17
J A PA N
OREGON
L A K E TA H O E
CANADA
CON TE NTS VOLUME 01 SNOWBOARD ISSUE 2K17
04 | ERIK INTERVIEW 12 | CRO S SING 24 | G A L L E R Y 34 | L IDDL E X S CRE AMERS 36 | ACK NOWL EDGEMEN T S
Frank April, 5-0 | Quebec City, CA
F ROM T HE EDI T OR Thanks for reading OFF BASE. I created this magazine to hilight the people, places, and situations that I experienced during my season shooting with Arbor Snowboards. From Japan to Tahoe, Oregon to Canada, it was one hell of a season filled with laughs, tears, friends, enemys, and mischief. — Sammy Spiteri
OFF BASE | 3
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Frank April, Double Front Board
“Q U E B E C C I T Y I S I N I T S O W N UNIQUE BUBBLE I N E A S T E R N F R E N C H C A N A D A .�
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Crossing over the border into Quebec City for my first time last winter to shoot with Arbor Snowboards threw my expectations for a loop. Although the province of Quebec city lies just miles from the United States and the rest of English speaking Canada, the place is in its own Unique bubble in Eastern Canada. Since English is hard to come by in Quebec, our crew was lucky enough to have pro snowboarder and strip club enthusiast Frank April translate food menus and show us around the city. Upon Franks airport pickup, I jumped into his crowded, cigarette filled truck and we were off to scope spots for the next 5 hours. I was slightly nervous yet very excited to see what mischief we would get into the next couple of weeks.
Mike Liddle, BS Tail
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Frank April, Sw Bs 180 5-0 Ian Sams, Frontside 180 Melon
“W H E N T H E P R O S W E R E B E I N G LAZY ASSHOLES, T H E F I L M E R S S TA C K E D C L I P S !�
Paul Heran, Wallride
L A Z Y
A S S H O L E S
After a couple weeks on the road, most of the guys hit a understandable point of fatigue from hucking their carcasses off of buildings (see photo on next page). One particular day, they guys would not do shit; they were tired, hungover and nothing was working. I was eyeing this little tunnel wallride all day, trying to get someone to hit it for a cool little photo (see above). No one wanted to do it, which was a bummer since it would have been the easiest clip to get with a really cool outcome. Eventually Paul Heran, Arbors other videographer, stepped up and did a few wallrides for me to shoot. On a side note, I found out later that this was Paul's first wallride! OFF BASE | 18
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Frank April 5050 Creeoer
Frank April, 5050 Creeper
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Ian Sams, Frontside Blunt
“ I D O N ‘ T U N D E R S TA N D H O W L I D D L E L O O K E D AT T H I S INSANE OLLIE AND FOUND IT POSSIBLE!”
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LIGHT POLE OLLIE Mike Liddle is a super quite, but awesome dude who lets his snowboarding speak for himself. When he came to us wanting to hit this spot, I knew it was going to be insane judging by his enthusiasm. He told us he wanted to 50-50 the rail than ollie the light pole. I thought the idea was insane; barely doable. I was terrified that if he was slightly off, he would break the light and get impaled by thousands of shards of glass. In typical Mike Liddle fashion, he got over the pole every time, and didn't break a sweat while doing it.
Mike Liddle, 5050 Ollie Over The Light
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“ H E M A D E I T A L L T H E WA Y T O T H E E N D A N D S O M E H O W L O O P E D O U T, W E W E R E HEART BROKEN.”
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Erik Leon, Plant Finger Flip
Erik Leon, Boardslide Attempt
HEART BREAKERS Every so often a trick doesn't go as planned, and the crew walks away with zero clips. On this day, Erik battled one of the most insane kink rails I've ever seen. The thing zig zagged left and right and had 14 kinks; all of which had different pitches and angles. The thing was brutal! As if the rail wasn't gnarly enough, speed was another issue. Erik had to be winched
across a busy street before every attempt. Frank April was operating the winch at a surprisingly consistent speed every time, especially for being wasted. Halfway through the session, Erik made it all the way to the end but somehow looped out, the crew was heartbroken. He tried the rail until the sun went down and sadly never rode away. OFF BASE | 23
Photos: Paul Heran and Sammy Spiteri
BS
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L I P, Q UEBEC CIT Y
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HOUR S OF FE A R
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ike Liddle rode to the the song '22 Hours of Fear,' originally by the ambiguous M band, The Screamers in his new part in 'Cosa
Nostra,' the Arbor Snowboards team video. After randomly finding the song for Mike's part in a deep YouTube music whole of death, I found the story of the band interestingly relatable Liddle's snowboarding. The Screamers were an American electropunk group who started playing in 1975. The band was amongst the first wave of the L.A. punk rock movement. The band was so influential to punk, members of the Dead Kennedys even credited The Screamers as a key influence on their group's personal inspiration, as well as a huge inspiration to punk as whole. Even with all the influence they had on the future of punk, the band was blind to their growing following. Weirdly enough, The Screamers never actually released an official recording of any kind, only bootleg versions from fans. The band just wanted to make music; they couldn't care less about marketing themselves to fame. You may be wondering why I'm ranting about some band who changed the punk world. The story of the band reminds me a lot of Liddle. He is so fucking sick without even knowing it. If people weren't paid to point a camera on him, he would just kill it under the radar, not giving a shit about who sees. Thank you Liddle for your badass approach to snowboarding! -Spits
Listen to the Screamers & watch mike in Cosa Nostra.
Erik Leon | Hood River, OR
VOLUME . 01
OFF BASE | 36
SPECIAL T HANKS Mom and Dad Katherine Lee Paul Heran Bryce Hymans Frank April
Sean Black Erik Leon Nial Romanek Ryan Hughes James Saxon
Max Tokunaga Brady Lem David Daisy Leslie Freitas Ian Sams
Thanks Paul Heran for your continuous support. Thanks to everyone I have forgotten that helped me with this magazine.
Made w i t h love by S ammy S pi t er i.
Mike Liddle Ryland West Yami Faruta Joey Roldan Friendship
“ YO U R A C T I O N S A R E C O M P L E T E LY OFF-BASE GET THE HELL OFF MY PROPERTY O R I ' l l H AV E T H E C O P S O N Y O U ! ! ” —SUPER CITIZEN
W W W. O F F B A S E M A G . C O M