April 23, 2014

The Cooks’ Side of Shredding - The Day that Launched a Business

Teton Gravity Research recently released the viral video “The Cook Can Shred – Higher Unplugged Episode 6.” In the last week it's caught fire in the blogosphere world and has been reposted by numerous sites including The New York Times, Snowboarder, Transworld, Outside Television and Yahoo.

Well … it just so happens that one of the persons featured in the video is the founder of Lite Pro Gear, Canyon Florey. Watch the video here and then continue reading for Canyon’s side of the story.

CLICK HERE FOR THE TGR STORY

“That was an amazing moment in my life! I felt like it was this culmination point, where my lifelong journey in climbing, cinematography and snowboarding all came together!” Canyon described the scene of him arriving to the bottom of the K-Tooth. “But as incredible as this ride was, the thing that happened at the top was even better!” His prototype Feather Camera Crane, a portable and ultralight camera jib, had just nailed one of the best shots of the film.

In the spring of 2012, his filmmaker friend, Chris Edmands, invited Canyon to join the TGR crew in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska to assist in the filming of “Jeremy Jones – Further.” He'd be the guy to jump in wherever–filming, rigging, base camp managing and running his “new lightweight travel jib.” Canyon matter-of-factly stated that he started preparing meals because “I knew where the food was.” He quickly got dubbed 'The Cook' to which he laughingly explained, “Jeremy said hey man I hope you don’t take offense to the name ... it’s like in Lethal Weapon, they call the guy who can do everything, The Cook.”

Canyon amusingly recalled that he had received some funny looks when he initially showed up. “I had pretty rag-tag gear, most of it being held together with duct tape and such, but I think I made an impression when they saw I could actually ride.”

The scene in the video came from a day that he had climbed up the back of the K-Tooth with the crane prototype. It was a camera jib he had designed for the adventure cinematographer; ultralight, but durable and easy to use, and would add the element of smooth movement to a shot. Chris and Canyon set it up at the top and swung it out over the abyss and they "crushed the shot of Ryland Bell descending! Such a rad addition to the movie!”

It was at that moment in the thin air of Alaska that he saw his future.

The trip became a huge motivator upon his return to Lake Tahoe. It was the inspiration he needed to take the daunting step of launching Lite Pro Gear. He pointed out that “things would probably be different if it wasn’t for that experience.” Luckily for the videographers currently using the crane around the world, it wasn’t.

Last week, Canyon had just finished a project with professional climbers, Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright, filming "Sufferfest 2" when he became aware of the video. “I had no idea it was going to be released.”

But thanks to Jeremy Jones and Teton Gravity Research, he’s been able to relive the “Best line of my life!”