Season workers from Vallandry and Peisey will already be familiar with Sketch Book Films, and in particular their superb film from last winter, Cutting Contours.

At Natives, we’ve seen most ski/board movies, and this is one of the best independent productions we’ve seen.

What makes it different? Well, for starters they were blessed with some of the best conditions for years. There is so much powder in the movie you can feel it flying up over your head as the riders take on the Vallandry trees and wide open faces of the Les Arcs area.

In fact, we liked it so much, we’ve decided to include it in our portfolio of DVDs available for sale on Natives. And we thought we’d have a chat with Rich Crow, founder of Sketch Book Films, to find out what inspires him:

Natives: When did SBF start?
SBF: The concept started in the summer of 2003 whilst riding in Wanaka, NZ, thinking about how we would love to make a movie of us and our mates doing our season. So we asked ourselves “why not?” Now we make movies for guests out on holiday, as well as movies for ourselves!

Natives: What’s your background?
SBF: I’ve been skiing since the age of seven and turned to boarding before heading to uni in Leeds, where I studied design and ran the University Snowboard Club. Organising a couple of trips to the French Alps each year just made my love of snowsports greater and after graduating, myself and a couple of mates moved to Whistler in Canada for our first full season. Since then I’ve been working as a freelance designer, which has enabled me to heli board in NZ, hike the back country in Colorado and learn to love the trees in France.

Natives: What are the downsides to SBF?
SBF: The hours spent filming when it’s dumping with snow and the client you are with is struggling to do a snowplough. It’s frustrating to see your friends hooting as they scream past having done one of the most epic days of the year! Then instead of going to the pub to celebrate you find yourself in the studio watching four hours of snow ploughing and side slipping!

Money!! As we all know it helps make the world go around and it’s also hard to get people to part with it. The 04/05 season saw us living in what most people would call a freezer, extra gas for the heaters at certain times of the month was not a consideration.

Natives: You’re based in Les Arcs, are there any plans for expansion?
SBF: Yes. I have plans to set up an additional team down the road in Tignes/Val D’Isere, then it would be great to take Sketch Book Films to North America and Canada.

Natives: It’s obviously hard work, but are you living the dream?
SBF: My goal is to have mountains in my back garden. My knees aren’t going to withstand the pressures of skiing and snowboarding for the rest of my life, but hopefully I can build a company that enables me to continue living that lifestyle.

So yes, even though it is hard work, I feel that I am living my dream. For me I look out the window, to see that view everyday, well it can’t be a bad day. Life is good!