Everyone likes getting a good photo, and a true banger can be the one of the highlights of a pro snowboarder’s career. We asked some of our favourite riders to pick out their all-time best picture. James Stentiford, you’re up:
“This shot was really a complete fluke, thanks to a random meeting with an old mate whom I hadn’t seen for a few years. I was in Val D’Isere for Gumby’s Big Day Out 2005 with the Quiksilver team. My kicker days were over by then so I went out and about on my own in search of powder, eventually finding a fun little zone with steep trees and plenty of natural features. I was just lapping it on my own, getting face shot after face shot and laughing to myself the whole way down while the rest of the team were hurling themselves off icy kickers.
“That was in the days of film, when we had no idea whether we had got any shots”
Covered in snow and beaming from ear to ear, I came down to the lift and spotted Nick Hamilton in the queue. Nick and I had spent the mid nineties shooting together and going on trips until he headed off to the States to work for Transworld. He has a great eye for an unconventional angle.
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“When you work with a photographer for a while you seem to develop an almost telepathic understanding”
At this point we hadn’t shot together for seven or eight years, but the connection was still there. When you work with a photographer for a while you seem to develop an almost telepathic understanding; without having to explain too much, they know what you are going to do and where you are going to land. In the twenty or so years of shooting I’ve only had that with two photographers – Nick and the mighty Dan Milner.
We did one or two laps together, stopping whenever we spotted something. That was in the days of film, when we had no idea whether we had got any shots, so I was pretty stoked when someone told me I had the opening spread of the Transworld Photo Annual the following year. That was the last time we shot together, and maybe even the last time I saw Nick.
I’ve got other favourite pictures of tricks and big cliffs I’ve done, but this picture captures what snowboarding is about for me.”
