If you’re looking for technical yet overtly stylish airs, creative features that are slain with ease, street skiing that’s out-of-the-box creative enough to make Picasso jealous, all tied together with the BADDEST saxophone tunes on the market, Emil Granbom has got you covered head to toe. Granbonious, a proud member of skiing’s saving grace that is The Bunch, has taken obvious influence from his fellow riders. In everything they dive into, from Alex Hackel’s recent X Games Real Ski edit made in collaboration with Pär “Payben” Hägglund, to their ingenious feature-length creation, “Is There Time for Matching Socks?,” The Bunch is paving new roads when it comes to defining what the art of ski films, and skiing in general, can be.
This is not to say that Emil’s riding is all copy and paste. His extensively deep bag of tricks both in the air and on the rails is very unique, and it’s obvious that he is skiing exactly how he wants to. His personal style is evident in every nook and cranny of “Patsham;” which, for those of us who are wondering if the title is a sneeze gone wrong or an actual word, it turns out to be a World of Warcraft character. Maybe this isn’t the intended metaphor that Emil had in mind, but it’s what the internet gave me. Either way, it’s an extremely fitting title. Emil’s skiing is video game caliber, and if you didn’t know better you might think this edit consists of highlights from a talented STEEP player.
There is no way to shortchange how impressive an edit like this is. The high level of skiing, filming, (and music, obviously), is absolutely fitting to the caliber of skiing that members of The Bunch have made us accustomed to. There is no doubt that Emil is a talented skier, but the obvious fun he’s having is what makes him a real pleasure to watch. Skiing is a freeing art form, and that’s one of the reasons we all love it so much. It’s an opportunity for physical expression, a way to push yourself through pain and hardships to see the beauty that resides just on the other side of all that painstaking effort. For every slam featured in “Potsham”, there were probably 10 more brutal take downs behind the scene. The drive the Emil exhibits is a reminder that with every hardship comes an opportunity to get right back on your feet, battered and bruised, and charge a little harder, because that fantastic feeling is right around the corner.
