N O R E G A R D F O R T H E R U L E S F O R U M N E W Z E A L A N D

When the Forum boys get together there is always carnage, and this year was no exception. The crew was wasabi snorter Rene Ribotton, Benji Oppan the six foot five nice guy, Remark’s Park crew champion Ash Guthrie, Queenstown shredder Mahi Mains, our token Seppo Josh Zerkel and myself, Liam Ryan. We assembled in Queenstown and in true Forum style, headed straight to the pub to come up with a plan. We hit the hay at some ridiculous hour after far too many beers.

In the morning we woke to find a decent amount of snow on the ground. I jumped on the laptop straight away and checked the weather. Oh my god! “The heaviest storm to hit New Zealand in the last 15 years” was leaving snow covering the ground in Queenstown and Christchurch, with more on the way. Hold on a minute here. We already had a good crew of snowboarders plus a photographer and filmer, and all the gears to hit up urban features. This never happens, especially in New Zealand!

Over our week long trip we saw two fractured kneecaps, one broken finger, a misplaced spin, one stolen jacket, one near fight, three incidents with the police, one 22 hour day, one kidnapping, two hundred plus beers and one near arrest. All of which was fueled by a solid diet of fast food and duress.

T E X T L I A M P E T E R R Y A N P H O T O G R A P H Y J O H N N Y M C C O R M A C K

N O R E G A R D F O R T H E R U L E S F O R U M N E W Z E A L A N D

Looking for spots in a quake damaged city was an eye opening experience. This spot was once an entrance to a school where children would pass through on their way to class every day. Now the gates are permanently shut, doing nothing but waiting to be busted down. Stalefish over a quake damaged wall.

COVER: L I A M P E T E R R Y A N S T A L E F I S H , C H R I S T C H U R C H

Mahi absolutely destroyed this rail, riding fast with strong aggressive style. Mahi 50-50’d the rail a bunch of times, before he tried a backside 180, gapping the down. After landing it a few times, he went for one more. Right at the time he was popping from the flat, he slipped and fell the whole way to flat, slamming on his back. Definitely one of the heaviest slams I have ever seen!

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HERE: M A H I M A I N S 5 0 - 5 0 T O F R O N T B O A R D , F R A N K T O N

Reports of epic snow in Christchurch were coming in, so the mission was on. We woke up in Queenstown at 6am, drove straight to Christchurch CBD and started looking for spots. After trying to get enough speed from the bungee we realised it wasn’t going to happen. Luckily we knew Ben Comber, Christchurch’s snowboarding pride and joy, who happened to have a winch. Unluckily he was shooting his own spot and ended up arriving at 1am.

B E N J I O P P A N 5 0 - 5 0 1 8 0 O U T . C H R I S T C H U R C H

While the 100 kg big rig, Benji Oppan, was giving the winch a workout sessioning this quarter pipe, another car of cops turned up. This time, two good-looking female officers hopped out. Rene, with his fractured kneecap, wasted no time and hobbled straight over to chat up the lovely officers. They were stoked to see something fun happening in their city and stayed for a while to enjoy the show.

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We came across this big pile of snow on our second day in quake plagued Christchurch. We thought a quarter pipe on the corner of Linwood and Tancred—smack in the middle of the suburbs—would be a fun feature, so we met Lockey Sutherland there with the winch and got the spot working perfectly. In no time we had a gathering of locals standing outside their houses drinking coffees, smoking cigarettes and enjoying the spectacle.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: J O S H Z E R K E L A N D R E C H T , C H R I S T C H U R C H

Just as we were setting up for this shot a cop car pulled up and turned on its lights. We all went quiet as they rolled down the window. “So, are you gonna do something?” In a fit of laughter we cranked the winch and the session continued. Air to fakie, with my mate on the road works sign giving me a hand to shape the quarter.

FOLLOWING SPREAD: L I A M P E T E R R Y A N M U T E T O F A K I E , C H R I S T C H U R C H

J O S H Z E R K E L N O S E B O N K , C H R I S T C H U R C H

After a casual 22 hours of missioning and setting up spots, Josh nose pressed the hell out of this rail. This was especially impressive, as just 10 minutes earlier he watched Rene come off early on a front board and slam his knee into the rail, fracturing his kneecap. At this point we thought 22 hours was a good effort and called it a night at 4am.

FOLLOWING SPREAD: J O S H Z E R K E L N O S E P R E S S , C H R I S T C H U R C H

Below The Belt was shot July 23-29, 2011 for manualmagazine.comCopyright 2011 First Floor Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.