JUST as the summer has at last deigned to visit its balmy charms on London, an annual ritual is reminding those with a penchant for snow-clad pistes that winter in the northern hemisphere is afoot. Each year mid-September sees the premieres of extreme-skiing and -snowboarding films. These extended video clips (lasting from 30-90 minutes, complete with funky music) offer amateur snowsportsmen the vicarious pleasure of admiring professionals performing their certifiably mad antics.

Such flicks are peculiar to action sports. That is because unlike their peers in most other disciplines, skiers', boarders' or climbers' prowess is not gauged purely by how well they do in a competition. Rather, the most accomplished extreme sportsmen tend to be those who manage the most difficult and dangerous (or, in the jargon of many extreme pursuits, gnarliest) feats. Cachet is built when fans witness these stunts, and since most of them take place outside official contests with their large live and television audiences, compiling them into a film is just about the only way to disseminate achievements. Add to that the photogenic, elemental backdrop and the whole thing lends itself particularly well to cinematography.

The latest batch of films is bound to be the best yet. Not only are the slopes steeper and tricks trickier than ever before. Technological progress has meant that effects once reserved for deep-pocketed studios, like super slow-motion footage, can be achieved using off-the-shelf kit—not cheap, perhaps, but affordable. As a result, the most eagerly anticipated of this year's snowboard films, “The Art of Flight”, is a visual treat even for people whose interest in snow is restricted to ensuring it doesn't block the driveway.



Unsurprisingly, sponsors are only too keen to help out. As in other sports, brands are built by association with the disciplines' most successful exponents, and the films' main goal is to trumpet these successes. As a result, nearly every scene in “The Art of Flight”, for instance, features a helicopter (or two) emblazoned with the logo of Red Bull, an energy drink which supports a panoply of extreme sports. The boards themselves sport garish graphics with highly visible brand names. (Travis Rice, one of the most widely acclaimed snowboarders of the current crop whose exploits “The Art of Flight” follows, shows off the latest boards from Lib Technologies, an American maker.)



The most expensive snowsports films cost in the region of $500,000 to make. Much of this is spent on the helicopters which whisk the athletes to inaccessible mountaintops whence they hurtle down in what is essentially controlled freefall. Still, the sponsors seem to be getting a sweet deal. True, their marketing message is diluted by the presence of other competing brands (Lib Technologies kit features alongside that from rivals like Forum, Flow, Yes, and others). And, since only devotees would ever consider buying an action-sports flick, it does little to attract new converts to either the disciplines or the brands. However, it is at least precisely targeted—and there are plenty of aficionados to be won over. In 2008 the market for snowboarding equipment alone nudged $500m.



A high-resolution download of a typical film costs under $20 (a bit more for a DVD or Blu-Ray box). This may be too much for many young fans. Crucially, though, even downloading a film illegally through file-sharing services does not detract from their effectiveness as far as the sponsors are concerned. The athletes, too, bolster their reputations regardless of whether the fans paid for the video or not. Only the filmmakers may be somewhat less thrilled.