Outdoors industry is providing online entertainment for those dreaming of wider horizons
Many moons ago, I interviewed a family from Dundee who owned a camper van and used it to explore Scotland’s ski hills. During the winter they would check snow and weather conditions on a Friday, figure out which resort looked most promising, and hit the road. My favourite story – and one which made me extremely jealous – concerned a trip they’d made to Cairngorm one Hogmanay. Arriving on New Year’s Eve and setting up camp in the car park beside the funicular base station, they had awoken on New Year’s Day to discover that several feet of fresh snow had fallen overnight. The access road from Glenmore was blocked, but there were enough staff already on site to open the lifts, so the lucky few who had camped out in the car park were able to ski laps of perfect powder to their hearts’ content until the snowploughs were finally able to get the access road open sometime in the afternoon, and all those who had been waiting patiently in an enormous traffic jam along the shores of Loch Morlich were finally able to get a look-in.
One side-effect of the ongoing lockdown is that the entire outdoors community is experiencing something similar to that morning on Cairngorm: the few who are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of mountains, lakes, rivers or seas are free to go skiing, surfing or kayaking every day, as long as they count it as their single, state-mandated exercise session and as long as they don’t take any unnecessary risks (see my column of two weeks ago). The rest, however, are unable to access their usual playgrounds, and must make do with running, walking and cycling around the areas where they live, the skiers trying not to obsess about how much snow is going un-skied up in the hills, the surfers doing their best not to check surf reports every five minutes so they don’t have to think about all the great waves they’re missing.
On the up-side, however, the outdoors industry has really stepped up in terms of providing online entertainment for all those dreaming of wider horizons. A few nights ago, for example, I was delighted to discover that, as a subscriber to Surfer’s Journal magazine, I was entitled to stream Jack Coleman’s mind-blowing new film Zone Frequency for free, by way of a lockdown treat. Named “Best Picture” at the London Surf Film Festival last year, it features open-minded surfers including Bryce Young, Ryan Burch and Ozzie Wright riding weird and wonderful-looking surfboards everywhere from Oahu to Australia. Not only that, Coleman cut and scored the film specifically to ease feelings of anxiety after he began suffering from panic attacks, and if it doesn’t quite leave you feeling as zenned-out as you might after a few hours in the water, its combination of mesmerising slowmotion visuals and hypnotic sounds certainly feels as if it could be having a beneficial effect on your blood pressure levels.
Elsewhere in outdoors cyberspace, the extreme skiers and snowboarders at the Freeride World Tour may have had to cancel this year’s showpiece Verbier Xtreme contest, but they have been working overtime to make footage from previous contests available to the snow-starved masses. Want to relive the highlights of the Verbier event from 2010? Or watch Candide Thovex’s winning run from Verbier in 2009? Check out the FWT’S social media feeds for links.
Meanwhile, over at the World Surf League, they’ve been throwing open what they call “The Vault” (we’re pretty sure it’s not an actual vault) to make classic contest footage available free of charge. Remember the 2007 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast 2008, when a young Mick Fanning (the shark-punching guy, non-surfers) kickstarted his run to his first world title? Or the 2002 Boost Mobile Pro at Lower Trestles in California, which culminated in a classic all-aussie final between Luke Egan and Mick Campbell? By the time you read this, more gems should have been liberated from The Vault – check out worldsurfleague.com to watch.
Finally, for those who prefer audio to video, Matt Barr’s Looking Sideways podcasts – available from all the usual podcast places – are wonders of longform journalism. At a time when the outdoors world increasingly seems fixated on click-baiting social media posts and 30-second viral videos, Barr’s interviews with snowboarders, surfers and skaters can last for an hour or more and give a real in-depth understanding of their subjects. There’s a huge archive dating back to 2017, too, so by the time you’ve listened to them all, lockdown will probably be over. ■
Coleman cut and scored the film specifically to ease feelings of anxiety after some panic attacks