Fire On The Mountain

Corky Recommends a Good Action Sports film

by Corky Carroll

I get tons of email every single day of the year that is promoting one thing or another.  I look at all of it just in case there might actually be something worth checking out.  Most of the time it’s stuff like somebody wanting me to interview some chick who has a new cooking show online or some hype for the “most wonderful new product to hit the world ever and ever, and you get a free Ginsu knife as a bonus parting gift.”  Usually none of this stuff has to do with surfing, beach culture, or anything else that I might want to write about.  But, that said, every now and then I get something that actually turns out to be very cool.  Something that I would definitely want to share with all of you out there in “readers of Corky’s columnland.”  This week I have one of those. 
 
There are three things that I personally love, have done most of my life, and have written about the relationship between all of them many times.  Surfing, skiing and music.  Snowboarding would fall into this same grouping because of its relation to both skiing and surfing, although I have to admit that I have been a lifelong avid skier and never really took to snowboards.  Nonetheless, it’s part of the deal.  I know that there are many of you out there who share the stoke for this grouping of activities. 

So, there I am going through my emails the other day and I get a promo for a new “action sports short like no other.” It’s called “Fire on the Mountain.”  Reading on I see that this is a movie that combines surfing, skiing, snowboarding and music.  In fact the music is completely done by the Grateful Dead and the surfing by one of my all-time favorite surfers, Rob Machado.  O.K. ya got me, I am thinking.  So I hit the link to the movie and watch it.

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Best wishes for Happy Holidays and a Healthy 2020 to all!

Man, this is a REALLY good little movie.  The narration is done by Basketball great and notorious fan of the natural arts Bill Walton himself.  For those of you under the age of consent, Bill is the father of Luke Walton who is the former coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.  Bill is in the Hall of Fame, one of the greatest centers to ever play the game and UCLA alumni.  The footage is fantastic on all levels.  The snowboarding is done by Jeremy Jones, Danny Davis and Kimmy Fanasi.  Skiing by Michelle Parker and Chris Benchetler.  And, as previous mentioned, the surfing by Rob Machado.  All of these riders are top dogs and the performances are outstanding.  Rob getting deep barrels in Indo and the rest of them just shredding huge steep faces at Mammoth Mountain.  State of the art stuff.  Mix in outstanding photography, some interesting psychedelic effects, music that only the Dead can deliver and a lively and stoked Bill Walton on the microphone and ya got a real great little movie. 
 
O.K. yeah, I might be a tad biased on this.  I love everything that this movie is.  Free flowing improvising blending surf, snow and music into a moving canvas of pure and natural art.  Those of you who always claim that surfing is more of an art form than a sport can point to this film and go, “seeeeee, there it is.”  It is a sport, but is also an art form and so is skiing, snowboarding and obviously music.  Yeah, this is not an original concept and it has been done before in one form or another.  But, once again that said, this one is REALLY good.  Totally worth checking out. 
 
The link they game me to watch the film is www.dead.net.FireOnTheMountain.  You should check it out.  Also the link to the soundtrack is https://Rhino.lnk.to/FOTMOST.  Good to see my old pals at Rhino Records involved in this.  Years ago they released a 4-cd box collection of surf music that I was part of.  Great company, they actually paid the residuals on time.  
 
On a different note, I would like to wrap up this column with a very sincere MERRY CHRISTMAS, Happy Holidays and Have a totally cool Yule to all of you.  Wishing you all love, health and happiness.