G.N.A.R.

If you only watch one thing on the Internet for the rest of the day, week or year, then make sure it’s this movie. Whether or not you’re squeezing in some Internet time in the office in-between jobs or if you don’t have much download capacity left or if it takes days to stream it, just make sure this is a priority.

It is a locked Vimeo video so you will have to go to this LINK and watch G.N.A.R HERE.

G.N.A.R. is an hour long movie all about the game of G.N.A.R. that Shane McConkey and pals invented in Squaw Valley and which puts fun back into getting radical. It’s based around a book called Squallywood that Dr. Robb Gaffney produced, which charts all the hairy lines around the Squaw Valley ski resort. From it, McConkey and co invented a ridiculous game where skiers get points for riding the lines (the number of points depends of the difficulty of the lines), then points are added to that total if they do tricks in the lines, or more fun, if they do pranks, goof offs and claims (“I’m the best skier in Squaw!” or “I can’t believe you are a pro, I’m so much better than you!”) at the same time. There’s also an ever increasing number of wilder things that get competitors points, like farting in a tram and claiming it, or going on a date with the hottest cougar in town. Points are deducted for failing to clean lines, losing skis, tomahawking, or failing to ski out the day.

The movie explains the game much better than I can here, and outlines Shane McConkey’s role in it all before going on to chart a tongue in cheek documentary of when they decided to make the game an actual competition with preselected contestants.

This movie is so damn fun that it changed how my day will go; I hope it does the same for you.

Looking at it comparatively, summertime Whistler gets a similar treatment much like Squaw did. People think it’s a hardcore town of show offs, wannabes and guys too big for their boots, when in actual fact it’s just guys (and lots of girls) riding hard every day because they are hopelessly in love with riding bikes. Maybe Whistler needs its own game of G.N.A.R.