Alaska Entertainment

Raised on Chugach, snowboarder returns with film

Head Out

With Melissa DeVaughn

Published: October 13, 2006
Last Modified: October 13, 2006 at 05:31 AM

The news that Hatcher Pass received a foot of snow last week spread across our office faster than gossip of budding romance or recent breakups. From the photo department to features to editors and my office mate, Craig, we rejoiced in the fact that snow -- albeit just a little bit -- is finally here.

While 12 inches of snow may not sound like much -- it hardly covers the scrubby vegetation of the pass's low-lying areas -- it is enough for adventurous snowboarders and skiers to get going.

At least that's what Jesse Burtner thinks. The Alaska-grown film company owner and former pro snowboarder from Seattle will be in town tonight to premiere his company's newest effort, "Patchwork Pattern." This high-energy, tricks-filled video shows some of the world's best snowboarders accomplishing stunts that will leave 16-year-olds drooling for the chance to try them out now, and parents covering their eyes as they envision the impending hospital bills.

The gist of the film is this, Burtner said, when reached in Seattle earlier this week: "All you need is a patch of snow and a snowboard, and you can do cool stuff."

"Patchwork Pattern" opens with a scene showing a picnic table, a shovel and a traffic cone, with some boarders sitting in the snow.

"Then we descend on these objects and do what we can with them," Burtner said. "We took that and applied it to all the locations we shot."

So, when you consider that there is not yet much of a snow base at Hatcher Pass, it really doesn't matter. Burtner said he hopes the film will inspire boarders to expand their idea of what "good conditions" are and use what they have, be resourceful.

"We always wanted to be really creative," he said. "We are just doing tricks that a lot of people never thought were possible. We wanted to create as much as we could with as little as possible, so that people would see that if it's not a great day (for snow conditions), there's still a lot of stuff you can do to have a really good time."

Burtner, a 1996 Service High graduate and now owner of Think Thank Productions, grew up snowboarding near his home at Flattop and Glen Alps. He went to Western Washington University for a year before turning to the professional snowboarding circuit, where he competed for about eight years in slopestyle and big-air events.

Eventually, though, he began to concentrate on filmmaking, another of his loves that dates back to his early teens.

"I got a video camera at 13," he said. "They were always connected for me, snowboarding and filming, so I'm still doing everything I did in high school, only a bigger scale."

A much bigger scale, it turns out. Burtner's filming has taken him to Europe, Japan and all over the Lower 48. Most of his films include his old home turf, too, shot in the Anchorage Bowl, Valdez and Fairbanks. Viewers will likely recognize some of the locales in "Patchwork Pattern," he said.

To illustrate just how technical snowboarding can be, Burtner's film team uses a clever mixture of math equations throughout the film, which flash across the screen as the boarders do their things. Some of the numbers are random, Burtner said, but others are specific, signifying slope angles, speeds and other numerical figures to represent the sport.

"We wanted to show the viewer the technical aspect behind something really natural-looking," he said. "It's just trying to illustrate how there's order underneath the chaos, that there's tiny little mathematical precision under some of it."

This is Burtner's third film produced with Think Thank, but he helped produce seven others through a former partnership with the film company JB Deuce before creating his own company.

"Patchwork Pattern" covers the 2005-2006 snowboarding season and includes high-energy music set at a superfast pace. Burtner said he is pleased with the results and hopes Anchorage viewers will feel the same way.

"It's like a showcase of the riders' abilities so each rider has his own feature section," said Burtner, who still snowboards and is also featured in part of the film. "It's not like a narration, but more of a feel. We were trying to capture the feel of the season."

After the movie, you have the weekend ahead of you. And maybe, just maybe, Hatcher Pass will have even more snow to try some of the snowboarding stunts yourself.

IS IT JUST ME ... or is this the strangest course offering you've ever seen through Anchorage Parks and Recreation's Fall Activity Guide? Supposedly, there is enough interest each year that these courses fill up, though, so if you feel the need to acquire this skill, read on:

Beginning Wagon Driving With Draft Horses

Learn how to drive a wagon and care for draft horses in this course, offered by the Horse Drawn Carriage Co. LLC, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Carriage Wheel Ranch in Chugiak. The cost is $90 and is appropriate for those 14 and older. Call 688-6005 or visit www.alaska.net/~carriage for more details.

• Daily News reporter Melissa DeVaughn be reached at mdevaughn@adn.com.

Patchwork Pattern

Premiere party for snowboarding video, followed by trip to Hatcher Pass

When: 8 tonight (Friday Oct. 13) for movie; Hatcher Pass at your leisure

Where: Wendy Williamson Auditorium, UAA; Hatcher Pass up Palmer Fishhook Road

How much: $8 advance tickets at Peter Glenn Sports or $12 at the door; Hatcher Pass is free

Web: www.thinkthank.com