Yelling dropping

There’s nothing like yelling “dropping” for the first time of the year. It doesn’t really matter what it is your filming but the first day out there trying to get shots brings back those juices that have been absent all summer. The amount of anxiety and nervousness somewhat coincides with the size of the feature that your hitting. Some years our first day out has us standing on top of some monster cliff trying to wrap our minds around what we’re supposed to be doing. Other years it can be some mellow jibs or fun freeriding on day one. We have a jump at Sonora called “Day One Jump” because, well, that’s pretty self explanatory really. It’s pretty mellow and fun, but it doesn’t have the best landing, so there’s rarely any usable shots from it. This year we started out with some tree jibs and it was great. Nothing death defying but fairly cool and worth while.

The way riders yell “dropping” is very interesting to me. Most give a “ready!?” yell to the filmers and then follow it up with a “ten seconds” or “thirty seconds” or whatever their style is. This is usually followed by a “dropping!”, right as they point their board forward. My friend Peter yells “ten seconds!” and then stands there for at least thirty. Our buddy Alex yells out “Ready?!” and upon hearing a reply quickly yells “dropping!” and is gone. I’m pretty consistent with my dropping style. I yell out “Dropping in ten!”, follow that up with a gentle rocking between my toe and heel edge and then “Dropping!”, I’m out. For me there’s a routine in it all and my body knows what’s going on. If I’m at home picturing a trick and can imagine the whole thing, from strapping in, til what it’ll feel like on the run-out, then I know what it’s going to be like. Almost like I’ve already done it, so it’s gotta be easy right? Rarely, but it works for me. Hope the New Year treats everyone well.