Three skiers from different continents join a team led by an industry icon to represent an age old ski company and emerging energy drink in a winter full of skiing, filming, competitions, and parties. Unfortunately, skiing's the easy part.
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Writer/Director/Producer Jon Lang, was and still is heavily involved with the modern freeski movement for the last 15 years as an Olympic certified Freeski Judge, and previously a Content Manager and events coordinator for the sport, traveling all over the world fostering and developing the sport you see today in X Games, World Cups, and the Winter Olympics. This story is loosely based around Jon’s life traveling the world on the AFP World Tour.
SYNOPSIS
After a long winter on the road attending tradeshows and ski events in a declining economy, failing ski shop owner Jeremy Walker returns to the quiet ski town of Welches, Oregon - home to his wife and two daughters - to find a new opportunity sliding his way from an old friend. Ron Denim - manager of Factory Skis, the oldest, yet now least profitable ski company - convinces Jeremy, his former Olympic training partner, to head up a new ski team for their new, and potentially last lineup of skis, for the younger generation to keep the company alive.
In collaboration with Exxtreem Energy, Jeremy leads Factory to host an online ski competition to generate hype, spread the word, and find the best talent. Every hungry skier in the world applies, yet only two spots are filled by contestants, the first spot is given straight to the world’s best, and most arrogant skier, Xavier Laroux, a French millionaire and world class prick that never goes anywhere without his private jet and Linje Helgren, a Swedish supermodel and top snowboard competitor. He would be utterly detestable aside from the fact that he wins nearly every competition, does new tricks nobody believes are possible, and constantly leads the entire ski industry to new heights.
That leaves only two actual spots on the team. One goes to Tanner Willbacke, a Canadian big mountain skier who beats his best friend out for the chance of a lifetime, while at the same time, is losing what he thinks is his last chance to date his best friend’s sister, Susie Thompson. Tanner’s the luckiest skier in the world, yet he’s torn between life on the road, or staying home to his familiar comforts. It’s one thing to be a great skier with pristine jumps built for you by a paid terrain park crew with million-dollar groomers. It’s a whole other thing to wake up at 5 am each day, ride a snowmobile deep up into the mountains, do your own avalanche checks, hike steep cliff faces, build your own jumps with a shovel, and do the hardest tricks in the world into deep powder landings. Tanner and Randy are animals, it’s unfortunate only one of them can join the team.
The final spot goes to the least likely candidate, a poor Kiwi from Auckland, who’s only skiing happens nightly at an indoor ski facility hours from any real mountains or snow. Kai Papakoa might not have normal ski opportunities, but he spends every free moment jibbing gnarly urban rails set by his friends at Snowplanet. Each evening he leaves his messy house with beer cans littered everywhere by his unemployed parents, takes two connecting buses through the city, and loses himself at the year-round facility. When it comes to rail skiing, Kai is as good as it gets.
Within minutes of the team meeting up at headquarters in November, it’s a complete disaster. They have to travel the world together, ski the biggest events, do photoshoots and film ski video segments, and clash personalities as tempers flare, injuries arise, and the wild winter nightlife draws more attention than just the media. Savage crashes, drug overdoses, bad publicity, a scary night in jail, and a suspension push the team to their limits in a long winter on the road.
No matter their preferences, backgrounds, and life choices, they are three of the best skiers in the world, and nothing more is needed to bring them together to change the sport of freeskiing, and their lives, forever. Jeremy was an industry icon for a reason, and finds a way to transcend his experience and knowledge into these three young skiers to create an unbreakable bond, and an irresistible brand.