Ride like a gentlemen

Stephan “Pfossy” Kofler   / foto by Harald Grießmair

It’s not a secret Italian snowboard skills are not that famous worldwide. Why? ‘Cause we first took snowboarding like a role game instead of a real sport, thinkin’ about the better way to appear like a real rider instead of learning the tricks and improve our skills going abroad to compete, too. But there’s a special place up in the Northern part of italy, surrounded by the Alps and ethically and culturally closer to the near Teutonic coutries, that blasted in the snowboard scene only in the last four-five years, sweeping away all the older snowboarding culture holder, or so called.

They started doing huge and perfect snowboard parks, they popped out from nowhere with unrepeatable names, winning contest all over, and they started calling theirselves Gentlemen. In 2009 Gentlemen riders is a heavy recognized crew, that decided to show what they do on cellulose…and they’re doin’ it damn good! We talked with their spokesman, Stephan Patrick Cristoph, about their past, their present, and their future…Ladies and Gentlemen…ehm, The Gentlemen riders.

Rider: Lorenz Breitenberger / Ph: Harald Grießmeir

What does Gentlemen pseudonym stand for?
The gentlemen name comes from the gentle way the members  act with others riders on the slopes, independently from their origin or skills. Plus Gentlemen riders try to produce quality stuff, without posing.

GMR Video is only an aspect of the whole Gentlemen Crew, isn’it? Wich areas the GMR business cover?
Yep, but all the GMR riders are gentlemen crew members first. However GMR is an indipendent branch of the crew, so to move easily and quickly.

Rider: Simon Gruber / Ph: Harald Grießmair

Tobias Raffeiner/ Ph: Andy E

How does it come South Tirol Area churned out so many talentous riders? With the same structures as other areas, yours seems to be a gold mine for gravity sports talents..
There are secret trees growing here in the woods from which we pick some seeds before the winter comes.  Then we gave them to a fairy who puts some of them under each rider’s pillow while they’re sleeping…

How came the idea to produce See the Light?
We wanted to produce a video with our crew since a long long time. But we got some problems in the past seasons such as injured riders, broken cameras, crucial crew members disappeared and so on…then we re-organized the whole thing and simply started filming. At a certain point we realized things were getting good and as we gathered enough footage we edited it..that’s it.

Rider: Daniel Neulichedl  Follow: Simon Gruber

Rider: Lorenz Breitenberger / Ph: Harald Grießmair

Who supported the project? How did you manage the whole thing?
The Gentlemen club always backs us, of course, then we had the essential support from fakieshop.com and F-Tech for all the trips and shootings. But to say the truth, we still do not have a true support, ‘cause all the bills are paid with our own money; however, with the management of  Stefan Kofler, Christoph Gotsh e Patrick Schgor and the primary help of the riders, we finally brang to life this No Budget Film Company.

Which is the hidden meaning of See the light?
First of all the name is a tribute to the fairy that illuminate us…(laugh)..just jockin’! The truth is that many of the riders has a daily work, so we found ourself filming a good part of the video during the night time, using power generators and artificial light…last but not least many of the riders saw the light after knocking their heads against walls and poles, tryin’ to nail a trick.

Rider: Simon Gruber / Ph: Harald Grießmair

Rider: Tobias Raffeiner / Ph: Harald Grießmair

Do you filmed exclusively in the south Tirol Area or you moved elsewhere, too?
We filmed mainly in South Tirol but it happened we got abroad, too.

IS the rider list  a “only local thing” or are we going to see some host riders, too?
90% of the riders in the video are locals and Gentlemen riders, but we filmed also friends who rode a lot with us during the winter such as Verza and Ame.

Rider: Simon Gruber/ Ph: Harald Grießmair

Rider: Patrick Schgör / Ph: René Tumler

When will we see the light, too? And how will it be distributed?
See the light premier will be at october 24 park opening party (Val Senales) and on october 31 will be also showcased at skipass fair. Later it will be free downloadable from gentlemenriders.com.

What are we going to expect from gentlemen crew for 2011 ?
Next year we’re gonna film also with younger riders with more street and pow spots and less park riding. We want to push the level and upgrade in the tecnical part like filming and editing. Enjoy our movie! And if you’re gonna be good, maybe we could tell the fairy to come to you, too…(laugh)

Rider: Simon Gruber/ Ph: Harald Grießmair

Rider: Stephan Kofler / Ph: René Tumler