Sometimes, the best results come from a certain breed of energetic and enthusiastic youth, who have yet to be jaded with years of experience.
Curtis Carriere, who is still a year away from applying for his G1 licence, has already put out a video, and is working on a second.
Day Dream, a skateboard flick starring Carriere and five other local riders, is expected out on Aug. 18.
Carriere said all six parts include solid skateboarding, filmed mostly by Carriere at different spots in Greater Sudbury.
“I try and film as good as I can,” Carriere said. “I make sure my filming’s perfect all the time, because I like doing that.”
We skate every day, but sometimes you don’t land any good tricks.
Curtis Carriere,
producer
His experience comes from watching professional videos and those made by older generations of local skateboarders.
“I was always interested in (skateboarding) as a kid,” Carriere said. “When I started really getting into skateboarding, I just decided, might as well make a video (and) have some fun.”
Carriere said Day Dream will likely be about 30 minutes long, even though it’s taken close to a year to film.
“Filming takes long,” he said. “We skate every day, but sometimes you don’t land any good tricks.”
The success of a filming session can rely on a number of things, from weather to the skaters themselves.
“Sometimes it’s mayhem, sometimes it’s fun,” Carriere said.
Fourteen-year-old Chad Gagnon, the youngest rider in the film, said skating for Day Dream has helped him develop his skills.
“It makes me try more things,” he said. “Yesterday, I ollied (jumped) over a barricade out of a bank as high as my neck.”
Originally slotted for the “friends montage” — a collection of clips by other skaters not featured in the film — Gagnon said he was thrilled to now have his own part in the video.
“It got me really pumped,” he said. “I started taking it seriously, getting as much footage as I could. It almost feels like it’s my job.
“I’ll wake up and be like, ‘let’s go skateboard.’ It’s my daily routine, it just happens automatically.”
Other riders with feature parts in the film include Darren Criece, Kyler Simon, John Peltier and Joseph Lister.
Carriere said he has put in a lot of work filming and editing, but said he enjoys every bit of it. He said he hopes his efforts will help enhance Greater Sudbury’s skateboard community, too.
“Maybe it makes kids want to skate,” Carriere said. “They see a video, and they say ‘I want to do that.’ That’s basically what happened to me. I saw (local skateboard) videos, and I started skating.”
Day Dream will be played at Pinnacle Sports, and given out to customers purchasing skateboard goods at the store.
For more information, contact Carriere via Facebook or visit his YouTube channel, skatefever14.
