I was having a really bad day where I just wanted to go home and crawl in bed. I was frustrated from work and starting to realize that it might be time to move on. On my way home, I checked my mail and found Frequency waiting for me. Instead of crawling under the covers, I lied down on my bed and flipped open the magazine. By the time I read cover to cover, I had relaxed and immersed myself in the world of snowboarding. I’m being honest when I say that the magazine made me feel better and I find it incredible that a magazine can do that.
Issue 6.4
Cover Shot
A lucky unknown rider captured by Jeff Curtes in Logan, UT is the cover shot for issue 6.4. The photo looks like a wave of snow hurling down the mountain with the bare glimpse of a snowboarders line going into it.
I love the cover but at the same time I think the powder wave has kind of been overkill lately…I really can’t complain about how awesome it is to ride and kick up powder but it’s been a lot of it this year in film or on camera.
Features
As the Photobook the main features are a variety of photos by different snowboard photographers. In the other department features you get smaller articles on Holy Oly versus the Artic Challenge, Taos Revolucion, Frequency Week and Chasing Avalanches.
The opening by Dano really speaks lengths about snowboard photographers and offers up good wisdom for taking photographs that have a voice in the photos. 5 Photographers from different locations around the world get to showcase their collections.
Evan Chandler-Soanes
North Shore Representations.
It started as just taking pictures with friends, the purest form of learning something that expands into more. From Seymour to urban rails around Vancouver BC. The funny shots are what get me, whether it’s a snowboard wrapped in tinfoil or an eye in the quarterpipe ice. The shot that gets me is a shot of powder turns without the rider in the shot…and Evan describes it perfectly.
Mark Gallup
The Depths of Interior British Columbia.
Mark talks about home and how good it is to come back to his home mountains, home life and capturing that on film. The first photo he talks about his camera, how he broke it and quite frankly it would have been funny to see the dessert he’s talking about and his improvising to capture an image. With an eclectic group of shots to tricks, the one that got me was a powder mound with a hand plant…the write up on it I didn’t think matched at all but the photo is beautiful.
Lorenz Holder
The Playgrounds of Europe.
Lorenz travels the world to locations you wouldn’t suspect for amazing snowboarding trips. What he finds is how we take our lives for granted, the happiness snowboarding brings us and the world out there that might not be so lucky. I liked the variety in his photos from urban rails to powder turns. The photos of the kids in Romania running after is unique and shows the stoked that snowboarding can bring.
Jess Mooney
Chasing the Dream(ers).
Still on the road to discovery of what it’s about, Jess talks about the lifestyle of always traveling and the camera being the consistent traveler. Jess offers up portrait shots of the professional riders, some in their own and others posing. My favorite shot is the thumbnail here, the North Cascades in Washington are beautiful isolated forests with perfect untouchable snow. The light and the shadows playing with the serenity brings me back home. He offers up Whistler in a way that it looks like Baker.
Jake Stangel
New England Not-So-Still-Lifes.
The appreciation of the east coast by Jake is all about snowboarding down snow (or ice) with your friends. He talks about the rare occasions when the mountains give back on the east coast. His photos capture the beauty of the east coast, the rolling hills in shots to the contrast of colors from the white snow to the orange-ish brown trees. Whether it’s the contest scene or just riding with friends, the photos capture it all. My favorite from his collection is the drop in to the park at Liberty Mountain, sitting with the friends talking about what line next, what trick to do…enjoying it.
Highlights
With the photos as the main focus, I thought I might get a little bored with the magazine this month. However snowboarding is different through each person’s eyes and these photographers each show different views, qualities and glimpses at how they perceive snowboarding. In the end, I read each sentence about each photo and really appreciated seeing the varying differences.
The Taos Revolucion article by Pat Milbery discusses the mountains transition from skiers only to allowing snowboarders. A positive article that tells a story of a Taos Native introducing Pat to the goods. It’s the first time I’ve heard of a really positive story, I mean showing the goods of your home mountain is really something.
I enjoy reading about the Holy Oly even though the contest started after I left Snoqualmie…damn you! Both the Holy Oly and Artic Challenge are contests worth checking out.
Finally Freq Week at Baldface Lodge just sounds like the best day ever from paper even after they mentioned it was the best day ever. The thing I appreciated was how everyone got there, from flights to bus to a beat up Subaru. The pictures from the week look amazing and rowdy typical snowboard fun at night to pow stashes during the day. What more can you ask for?
Quality
Frequency isn’t your typical snowboard magazine in terms of quality of the publishing. It is just as they described it, your coffee table journal. The magazine is higher quality and it was refreshing to read articles that took me more than a couple minutes to finish. I actually thought about what was being expressed and that’s hard to say about a lot of snowboard magazines. This is most definitely your living room coffee table magazine, it’s not meant for bathroom status.