I think Chris Brown is the best rider on the planet. Okay,
that's a pretty massive claim to be making; Chris would definitely disagree.
However, he has got to be one of the most modest,
down-to-earth pro athletes out there. He doesn't really even understand the
whole fan thing. He just doesn't get it. Even when grown women turn bright red
after they realize they're standing in front of the crazy shredder they've only
ever gawked at with a helmet on, or when grown men ask him to autograph
whatever shirt they happen to have on-he doesn't put it together. People do
look up to him and appreciate his talent; he just doesn't realize it. He really
is just a normal guy who has a serious passion for snowmobiling and that is
what's so impressive.
For those of you who don't know who he is, you may have seen
the guy jump the freight train in Slednecks 10 or on YouTube.
That would be Chris Brown.
It is definitely safe to say he is one of the best riders on
the planet. I was out with Chris, Geoff Kyle and Cody Borchers one day and he
proved it to me. Not to say that I'd pick favorites out of those three; I've
personally seen them all do amazing things time and time again. On this
particular day, we were all stopped in the bottom of this huge open bowl up one
of the drainages between Whistler and Squamish and Geoff pointed out a cliff
drop near the top. It was this crazy finger that jutted out of the steep face
and curled to the looker's left.
From where we stood it almost looked like a diving board,
and to my ski- and snowboard-oriented mind, it looked absolutely impossible as
a snowmobile drop. The three of them ripped up to the top of it, which was
actually pretty scary in itself. Don't get me wrong, I'm not your typical
girly-girl who can't stand to watch the boys do crazy things-I'm certainly not
scared to stand on top of most cliffs. But this scared me. Just watching them
up there made me nervous because it was so steep and it was all gnarly rocks
below. Geoff decided he wasn't feeling it-not a good sign-and Cody got lured
into the sick pow lines farther down the ridge, so it was all Chris.
He jumped off his sled and started walking down to the
take-off, as he always does to ensure it's `relatively' safe. He checks for a
few things, one being the landing. It always seems to look flatter from the
top. Then he grabs a chunk of ice and throws it off in the direction he thinks
he needs to go to hit the tranny just right. He has someone down below shouting
up with advice on whether he needs to go farther, shorter or to one side or the
other, based on the trajectory of the snowball and where its little mini
bomb-hole ended up. The other key thing to check is that there are no shark
fins (rocks) on the take-off that could snag a ski and make for a bad flight. The
sketchy thing about this drop (and if you ask Brown, he'll say this was the
scariest drop he's ever done) was the fact that it was just too steep to walk
down to the take-off. He had to just wing it and hope for the best.
After calling for the cameras to start filming, he jumped on
his XP and started rolling into it. Even before he got to the lowest of his
footprints, he started sliding. He stuck his right ski in his tracks, which led
him dangerously close to the edge of the cornice on that side of the finger. Cody
thought he might tip off that side of it. He managed to keep it together as he
rapidly built up speed, sliding sideways down the face with full brakes on
until he sent it off the end of the finger. I thought he was going to get
sucked down the fall line and go off where it wasn't quite vertical and that
would have been a big mess. He did clip a rock on the take-off, and you can
hear it in the vid, but being as calm in the air as he is, he still stuck it. Definitely
one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.
My absolute favorite day for the Slednecks crew was up Brandywine in the pro snowboarders' stomping ground. It
was the day after Geoff had done his big chute drop (the one that Slednecks 11
viewers get to hit with him through the VioSport POV) and Chris had done his
180-foot `Chin Gap.' These two pro snowboarders were looking across the valley
at their bomb-holes and trying to comprehend what it was that had made those
tracks and how. Their filmers were stumped, too. I heard them say they looked
like snowmobile tracks but they could not, for the life of them, figure out how
these riders had gone straight up and then flipped their sleds around and gone
right back down in the exact same tracks. They didn't even consider the
possibility that these tracks were made by Chris and Geoff launching off the
cliffs above them. These guys are earning the snowmobilers of the world serious
respect around this neck of the woods.
Chris used to ride strictly in Colorado, mainly with Chris Burandt, and he
started branching out and spending more time in BC over the past two seasons. What
most of you don't realize is that most of that footage you've seen of other
riders in the tight, technical trees is shot by Brown. He's right there with
them in the middle of those gnarly woods with no easy line in sight-he's just
never on the other side of the camera.
The bar has been raised in the filming of the Slednecks
series since Chris and Clayton took over production. Chris is out on the scene
for all the good filming days and it really makes for an exciting atmosphere. The
level of motivation to constantly out-do one another as riders, and as a team
effort to out-do each preceding film, is very intense. It seems to me that each
rider's part in the film used to be comprised of a bunch of `good' shots with a
few-maybe two or three-really impressive shots. They'd do their two big drops
of the season and their segment (or `seggy,' as they call it) would be
complete. Not the case anymore. Chris is really good at spotting lines and
drops and there's always an adrenaline junkie who'll step up to the plate. It
just makes sense to have an experienced, ballsy rider in the
producer/director's seat of the industry's leading snowmobile film. Of course,
the `leader' could be a matter of opinion, but I'm basing that tag upon sales
volume.
Brown is on the cover of both Slednecks 10 and 11, which,
just for the record, was a decision made entirely by Clayton Stassart, John
Keegan and Jason Moriarty. Chris refused to be involved after his shots came
into consideration. He actually thought they were going to use Cody's shot
(back cover), but the boys at Slednecks liked the magnitude of Chris' drop, as
well as the fact that there was space in the photo for text. Just to clarify,
Chris and Clayton's business is Compound Films, and they produce the Slednecks
series under contract with the originators of the Slednecks name, and
owners/operators of Slednecks Outerwear, Keegan and Moriarty. Chris is really
committed to producing the highest quality film possible, for the love of the
sport, and although it really is his baby, Keegan and Moriarty still play a
huge role in the major decisions.
Anyway, enough business talk. Let's find out what Chris has
planned for this upcoming season:
McIvor: What sleds
are you riding this year, Chris?
Brown: I am SO stoked on my Ski-Doos. My XPs are so light
and nimble it feels like a whole new sport in the trees and in the air. Geoff and
I were up Sproatt last winter and stumbled upon a little fantasy-like
playground. We got lured in by the pillows and untouched pow at the top and
once we were pretty much committed to going down the entire drainage it got
tighter and tighter, as well as steeper. We were in a dark, old-growth forest
where space between trees was rarely wider than a sled, and it was so steep
that we'd have to throw our sleds over on their sides to stop. There were
mandatory airs all over with tiny little transitions before more giant trees
below them. It was one of the sickest adventures of my life. It was a serious
mission getting out of there. We went back later in the season with friends and
hit it on our skis a bunch of times. You know it's a burly sled line when it's
steep and gnarly on skis. Those XPs are so sick.
So what mods have you
done to your XP?
Last year my sleds were stock, other than the shocks, skis
and bars. There is no way I would ever send it off the drops that I hit without
my Fox Shox.
I've heard you guys
going on and on about how sick those shocks are. I guess that's how you make it
look so smooth on the big landings! But other than that, you'll leave your
sleds stock?
Boondockers is going to set me up with a turbo this year so
I can get back into hillclimbing and, of course, do some big mountain
boondocking. All I need is a sled now! I'm hoping to get my hands on a 600
E-Tec. Rocky (Boondockers) thinks it will be a little `800-killer.'
Will you wrap your
sleds like you did last year? That seemed to be a big hit. Everywhere I looked
I saw kids, and some adults, with similar plaid wraps. Has anything inspired
you other than your Pemberton Dinner Jacket (redneck flannel)?
I might just switch up the colors. Not sure yet.
Any big plans for the
season?
I would really like to finish the distance jump I started
last spring. That's a long story, but I know I can do it now. I held the record
at 246 feet a few years ago. 300 feet will be easy. We lost a very, very good
friend up there in the spring and I felt it was more important to support her
boyfriend and be there for him than it was to finish jumping. So yeah, that is
something I would like to do for her. I plan to be back and forth between Colorado and BC so I can
make another `best Slednecks yet' and be with my little girls, Bailey and
Andie, as much as possible. I want my segment to cover it all. I aim to
showcase huge gaps, massive drops, tight technical tree riding and even some
hillclimbs. We might even feature some `squirrel riding.'
FYI, squirrel riding is where the girl sits in front of the guy on the
sled so that he is free to ride as he normally would on his own. Shelley
Arnausch declared it `squirrel riding' up in Bralorne last winter, because the
girl assumes the squirrel position with her little fingers curling over the
center of the bars right against her chin. I've had the privilege of being
Chris Brown's squirrel a few times, which is how I've been able to witness his
skills firsthand. A lot of the time I'm in a white tunnel throughout the entire
descent, struggling for air through the constant face shots!
To keep in the loop as far as what Chris is up to and for
the full story on his 180-foot drop-the Chin Gap-check in to his website www.slednecksbrown.com.
And if you think you've got what it takes to be in Slednecks, head to Whistler
and tag along with them. That's how Chris got his start in the films . he just
started sending it bigger than the guys they were filming.