Smoot's silly ski movie

Every devoted skier has watched numerous ski movies in their lifetime.  If you grew up in a ski town or a city near mountains, like Portland, you might remember the opening of ski season was signaled by the viewing of that year's Warren Miller movie.  It was a huge event, hundreds of people in attendance, prizes, and everyone giddy with excitement over the thought of the year's first turns.  Not long after came a new cinematographer named Greg Stump.  Adding an eclectic cast of characters, an MTV style soundtrack (Target Practice was my favorite), and mixing in the lifestyle of the crazy skiers we emulated, "Maltese Flamingo" became my go to ski movie for years.  It was most of the world's first sighting of Glen Plake, with his huge mohawk and long skis, he was soon jumping farther than Scott Schmidt had even dreamed of.  His next movie, which I unfortunately never purchased, was Blizzard of Ahhhhhs.  Also the first time any of us had heard Seal's Crazy.

About 25 years ago, when I was 18, my friends Eric and Kirstan and I borrowed my brother's new VHS camera, which was attached to a 25 pound suitcase/battery.  Sworn to death if I brought it back broken, we made a few runs down "The Face" and "One Bowl" at Mt. Hood Meadows.  We went home and watched the movie, but it was very uninspiring.  Later, during the years of racing/training at Breckenridge, we were filmed on a daily basis for later viewing and dissecting to be better ski racers.
This movie is somewhere in between all of those projects, but closer to my first attempt back in '87.

The background- just made 2 laps up to the top of Ski Hesperus, a very little area about 20 minutes outside of Durango.  It is only open at night during the week, so we were the only ones around.  Only 1 lift and maybe a dozen runs make it a great little training hill for kids.   I was tired.

Jessica asks, "Why aren't there any videos on your blog."  To which I responded, "I forgot I had a video camera on my phone."   So here you go.

Enjoy the movie.  The plot is weak, the acting pretty sketchy, and the casting director was sacked after the first take.