Words and Photos by Chris O’Connell

G’Day Mate! Armada is back in NZ.

Tyler Hamlet from PBP and I finally made it to New Zealand to meet up with the rest of the team in Wanaka to shred Snowpark. On the way out of LA, we stopped by Oakley and picked up the new Red camera to document the action for the next PBP movie. The Red is the next generation digital camera that shoots 113 Frames per second, so we are making some magic happen down here. Just think Lord of the Rings meets Skiing and you will have a good idea of what the shots look like.

We drove straight from the airport to Snowpark, after 20 hours of travel and immediately went up for a sunset shoot. The weather in New Zealand can be quite fickle, so we have to take advantage of the good days while they are here. So far it’s been 4 bluebird days in a row and we have been shooting from sunrise to sunset every day.

Tanner has learned double flips in the pipe and they are off the hook, his third one ever was 15 feet out! He’s also throwing tricks like cab 450 rewinds onto boxes, getting back to his slopestyle roots. 21 days of skiing in a row for Tanner and it looks like tomorrow might be a weather day, so maybe he’ll take a day off.

We had a home cooked Asian feast, which was one of the highlights of the trip so far. Our friend Dragon from Korea cooked us Korean Pancakes and Utah from Japan made us sushi. It was amazing food and good times. JP brought a box of wine to the party,which was at Jason’s house. His roommate is a winemaker; so the box was like scratching your nails down a chalk board, total faux pas. She insisted that he take the box home with him and sent him away with a fine bottle of Pinot Noir. He learned his lesson and we all laughed.

Kim Lamarre has been back in action and she’s killing it. She did some big 180s at sunset and got some banger shots on the Red. She also had a little crash on the bottom jump, hit her head and didn’t remember anything, so it’s almost like it didn’t happen. Ski patrol was asking if she was okay, she disagreed with them over whether or not she crashed. She said she wasn’t even skiing, so it wouldn’t be possible to crash.

Andri Ambuhl and Kim Boberg are both new European National Team riders are stoked on their first team trip, and the chance to shred with Tanner, Jacob, Sean, Taylor, Jaime and JP.

Well, we are off to go sheep chasing tomorrow, stay tuned for more updates.