From our friends at StokeLab.com

Stokefiles-

Videographer and all-around ripper Austin Gibney is something of an enigma. He might be better riding in front of the camera than working the controls behind it. Maybe. No doubt, his riding is precise and ballsy. Diverse, too – he kills it from the pipe to the backcountry. Click through to see the photo gallery.

His videography and editing are nothing to shake a stick at either, as we’ve been fortunate enough to learn while working with Austin the last 8 months or so. He contributes video to StokeLab on a regular basis, check the end of the interview for some links to Austin’s latest work.

Age 26, Austin grew up in Rhode Island, and moved to Colorado in 2002, to Gunnison to go to Western State College. He graduated in ‘06 with a degree in recreation and communication, and now spends his summers working with Outward Bound in Alaska, and winters chasing deep snow stoke from Crested Butte to Jackson Hole to British Columbia.
We caught up with Austin recently to get his take on riding, filming, and all the turns in between. —Mike Horn
StokeLab: When did you start riding?
Austin Gibney: I started snowboarding in 1996, I think that was the first time, pretty much grew up snowboarding at Loon in New Hampshire.

SL: How did you get into the videography side of things?
AB: Ever since I was in high school, my friends and I would film skateboarding and snowboarding. I just kept getting more into it, started as a hobby and kind of turned into a job now.

SL: What are you up to this winter?
AB: Working for Two Plank Productions, filming with this group of guys from Jackson Hole called the Runaround Crew. I’ve been hanging out with them and filming. When I’m not working with them, I’m in Crested Butte snowboarding and filming with my friends. The big difference for me this winter is I’m traveling more and not just staying in Crested Butte.

SL: Is that a good thing?
AB: It has its ups and downs. I like traveling, and going to new places. It’s more work. When you’re in a town you’ve never been to, you’re relying on other people or just going out and exploring.

SL: How many films have you worked on total?
AB: Full-length, five with Black Hole Productions, and I edited Two Plank’s “Screenplay.” BHP and Two Plank did a joint short film that I directed and edited, which won the Beating Film Festival in Silverton, Colorado. I also made a short 16mm film that won best cinematography at Reel Fest.

SL: What’s up with Black Hole Productions?
AB: Pretty much a local snowboard crew, we film and ride together, and put out a film every year. We’re starting to focus more on putting out web stuff throughout the season versus putting together a full video.

SL: Is it hard to be behind the lens sometimes? Wouldn’t you rather be riding?
AB: I think that’s what has kept me from pursuing it as a full-time job. I can’t be behind the lens all the time. It’s hard to be behind the lens when you see someone riding something you want to be riding yourself.

SL: You are out splitboarding a lot. What do you think splitboarding has done for snowboarding?
AB: I think it’s opened up a ton of terrain in the bc to snowboarders that was mostly just ski accessed before. Made it a lot easier to get to the better stuff. And it is easier to get more laps in because of the splitboard. When my friends and I go splitboarding, we tend to leave the cameras behind and go enjoy ourselves.

SL: What’s next for you? How do you see your riding and filming progressing?
AB: I still like hitting cliffs and jumps and doing the freestyle stuff, but for me it’s more about the adventure and that’s where splitboarding is starting to take over for me. It’s easy to go to new lines on a splitboard and get further out. I think that’s where my snowboarding is going to wind up—further away from trailheads, and higher peaks. That’s where I’d want the filming part of snowboarding to go to, the adventure, what goes into it and what makes something special.

SL: Anyone you want to give a shout-out to before we sign off?
AB: I want to thank all my friends because they are so supportive and they help me out so much when I show up and don’t have a place to stay, and let me crash on their couch or in a loft or wherever… sometimes it’s the floor. It would be really hard to do what I do without their support.
Also, thanks to my sponsors, Salomon, Bonfire, Skullcandy, Celtek, Bern, Colorado Boarder, Smith, Backcountry Access and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
And thanks to Spark R&D, who helps me out with bindings. I truly believe that their product is the main reason that there has been so much progression in splitboarding recently. With their binding you can no longer use “I’m on a splitboard” as an excuse not to do something.

Some recent video clips from Austin –
“The Runaround Project”
http://stokelab.com/runaround-project-webisode-2

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 at 8:37 pm and is filed under TwoPlank Blog & News Archive, Blogroll.