‘4-LO’ is a snowboarding movie about four young, virtually unknown, yet incredibly talented riders, Kai Huggin, Elijah Pyle, Griffin Biancucci and Haden Mcalister. The idea to make the movie came from Pete Alport, a seasoned filmer/photographer in the snow industry for over 20 years, who has and does work with some of the best snowboarders on the planet. He took a chance on this project because he believed in these ‘kids’ and knew they could make something special. The four riders didn’t know much about the backcountry, building jumps, zones, let alone trying to make a snowboarding movie, it was all their first time truly filming for an entire season. There were bumps in the road at the beginning, learning how to communicate, gear management, building, blasting bigger than the four had ever gone, trusting one another and believing in the long term goal: to stack as many shots as possible while finding a way to self fund the entire project. After two months or so, the crew was dialed, sometimes one rider, other times the entire crew, prepared, built setups efficiently, trusted/supported one another, re doing a trick because they knew they could do it better, and overall, they simply understood the effort it took to make a movie and committed. Yes, more days could have been shot, but each individual did the best they could with the budget (we had zero budget), jobs, school and their understanding of making a movie.
The art of making a snowboarding movie over an entire season is slowly being lost, however, these four riders can say they did make a snowboarding movie.