Jeff Patterson has an interesting idea for altering Canada's geography: "If I could transplant all my friends and the town of Banff to Squamish, it would be the best place on Earth," he laughs.

Patterson was born in Cranbrook, BC, but spent his formative snowboard years living in Banff. "Banff was home for me for many years," he explains. "I still, in a lot of ways, consider it my home. The community there is amazing, and there's something really special about the Rocky Mountains. Coming out to the coast was a business move for me."

With a background in terrain park design and construction, Patterson got the itch to diversify nine years ago and picked up a camera. He had his first shots published that same year, with a small sequence of a Mike Michalchuk double backflip running in an issue of Snowboard Canada. He shot photos locally for the next seven seasons, working with riders like Jonaven Moore, TJ Schneider and Scott Gaffney, but found himself leaving town to shoot more and more with each passing year. Finally, in spite of laying down firm roots in the Rockies, relocating to Whistler became a decision he couldn't avoid.

"Banff has a lot of beauty, but there aren't as many athletes out there," he laments. "I seemed to be on the road out west more than I was in Alberta, and when I was home I was shooting handrails more than mountains. So it was a good choice coming here. Now that I've been in the Whistler area for a few seasons, I've started to realize how much there is to explore here."

Living among the largest concentration of pro riders in Canada has kept Patterson's dance card full. He's logged numerous shooting days locally with video crews like Sandbox, Mack Dawg, and Transworld (for These Days), and has also branched out to shoot with the largely European Absinthe gang when they roll into town.

"The Euros have a really chilled-out perspective on life, and snowboarding," he comments. "But at the same time they take it really seriously. The Absinthe riders work super hard and they all seem to have a great way of seeing terrain that others would not. It was a great experience to get out and see how they rode, how they worked together, and witness that talent up close."

With another season underway, Patterson has plenty of gas left in his tank. A new winter brings new challenges, and fresh opportunities to do what he loves best.

"Despite some of the negatives, I still love snowboarding -- that is why I keep shooting. I love being in the mountains, and being able to rip some pow on occasion. Snowboarding has allowed me to see many places, meet a lot of amazing people, and get experiences that I would never have been able to attain in a regular 9 to 5 job."

Self Portrait: "While visiting New Zealand for a Snowboard Canada feature a few years back, our crew was lucky to get the full-on Kiwi hospitality experience that included bungee jumping, jet boating, some heli rides, and of course, the Canyon Swing in Queenstown. I duct-taped my brand new camera and fisheye to my hand, and held the trigger as jumped off the platform. There are various ways to leave the ledge, each with a "scare" rating of stained underwear. The crew told me to go feet first and backwards as the easiest way -- in typical Kiwi fashion they were fucking with me. Afterwards I saw on their website that (http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/jumpstyles.php) it had a shitty underwear rating of 5! Very, very, very scary... the highest rating of all the jump styles. This is what I believe I would look like a half-second before death by head-on collision, or something similar."

Wolle Nyvelt: "Two seasons ago, out of the blue, I got a call from Pat Bridges at Snowboarder Magazine asking me if I wanted to hook up with the Absinthe crew in Nelson. Naturally I dropped what I was doing, and drove across BC through a crazy snowstorm to arrive on time. In the end it didn't matter, as half the crew was held up at the border, and the other guys were M.I.A. somewhere along the way. I stayed with the crew for a week had a couple days at Baldface Lodge, and spent the rest of the time hiking around the backcountry of Whitewater ski area.  Wolle was a pleasure to shot with, as was the rest of the crew. They all hunted for unique looking things to shoot each day. I was lucky to get a blue sky and capture this shot."

Jasper Baydala: "Josh Baydala was the filmer and editor for Capita's First Kiss video a couple seasons ago. He is an amazing artist, a unique and creative individual, and definitely has a style of his own. While filming this tow-in urban gap in downtown Calgary, Josh decided to take a break from filming and do a bit of shredding himself. I really like this photo. I'm not sure if it's the color, the artwork, or the crazy outfit Josh is wearing. It actually could be the fact that he's doing a Rocket Air, while wearing leopard-print tights and a scarf... yes, maybe its just the entire image collectively. Thanks, Josh. On a side note to anyone reading this, Josh has recently changed his name to Jasper. So yes, this is Jasper Baydala."

Jonaven Moore: "I can honestly say that there is really not a single snowboarder I respect more than Jonaven Moore. I met Jonaven back in the early ‘90s in Banff while he was just a grom winning pipe contest and hangin' with the Team Core crew. Jonaven went on to become one of the most amazing big mountain freestyle riders in the history of snowboarding. He has came back from more major injuries than anyone I know, and has had a long career spent pursuing big peaks in Alaska and throughout BC. Jonaven still rides like he was 20! Look at this shot, kids... Next time you spend half a day building a cheese wedge, take a look at the mountains around you. Jonaven sent this cliff - 60-plus feet -- with more style than he knew what to do with. And didn't even need to shape a lip, or ro-sham-bo for first hit, because nobody else would have done it. Respect."

Mark Sollars: "Mark Sollors is one of the nicest kids around, or at least that's what my wife thinks. He's mellow, and lets his riding speak volumes more than his voice could. This kicker was a scary one for our whole crew this day. Mark actually went way, way, way too big on this very air, and ended up couching the landing into really wet spring snow. He compressed his back, and couldn't breathe very well. I thought we were going to have to call in a heli for him.  Anyway, in the end Mark was fine, but a bit hurt for sure. This is one kicker shot that I really like: the lighting, the shadows, and the fact that Mark wore red that day. Thanks, buddy. And to the haters that say I shouldn't have submitted because he crashed... well, you can tell me that when you huck your carcass as big as Mark does every day for the chance at fame."

Scott Shaw: "Scott Shaw is my ‘go to' guy for getting powder turns. In the past three seasons I think together we've created about six or seven double-pagers, a bunch of singles, and loads of filler -- all from roosting pow spray. Scott also happens to be an amazing park rider, pipe rider, and mountain rider. Yes, he rides everything. This shot was taken outside of Sicamous, BC, where Scott's family has a cabin. For the past four years Scott has been trying to get us to go there to shoot, so this past season I did. Look at the pow! It was cold, blower and deep. I wish I would have gone sooner. Sorry, Scott: I'll listen next time."

Brendan Keenan: "The shot took a lot of time to get. We had a crew in Golden, waiting out the never-ending Golden blah grey weather. For three days we sledded into this zone and waited for the light. Each time it opened up Scott Shaw and Brendan would run up to strap in and it would go grey. On day three, the light finally held, and for about 10 minutes it lit up this cliff band. Brendan hit it twice and landed perfectly clean after three days of waiting, rode out for about 10 feet and then was bitten by a shark fin rock just a few centimetres under the snow... he battle-axed down the slope a bit.  It can be pretty sketchy in the Rockies. Had he gone ass-first into the landing, he may have had a new butt hole that bled! I like this shot because of the story, the style, the lighting, and the redneck tracks in the background."

Keir Dillon: "One of the coolest jobs I ever had while being a terrain park designer was at Snowpark in New Zealand. I spent a long time there before they opened, designing stuff and figuring out how it would all work. I also had the opportunity to build New Zealand's first superpipe, and along with that had the chance to do the first run in NZ's first superpipe... it was an awesome feeling. To me it felt about the same as it probably did to Keir doing this massive backside air. This was taken during the big pipe contest day at Snowpark a couple years later. Loads of Burton big-wigs were out in force. A huge storm was rolling in, and the sky was crazy dark. I happened to have flashes set up, and Keir happened to be wearing white, and bam: there you have it."

Mike Sudermann: "I moved to Banff when I was 18. My first job was being a snowboard instructor at Mt.Norquay, and my boss was Rob Stevens (the guy who said, ‘saying weed is performance enhancing is like saying McDonalds is good for you' during the first Olympics broadcast when Ross won gold -- and McDonald's was an official Olympic sponsor). Later that year, they started to let me drive snowcats and build halfpipes and jumps, and that is what I continued to do full-time around the world for the next 13 years or so, until I started to shoot more full-time. Last year the new owners at Norquay asked me back to build the park again. Since it was where I started, and also knowing that Lake Louise canned the park program, I thought it would be a good time and a great way to give back to the crew in Banff that supported my lifestyle for so long. During my time there, Mike Sudermann jumped off this old ski jumping judging tower at Norquay. I used a flash, and made pretty colors light up. Thanks, Mike."

Scott Gaffney: "Scott Gaffney was on only a few of my early shooting adventures. One of my favourite locations to shoot ever has been Chatter Creek Lodge, near Golden, BC. Scott was there for our first journey into this zone, and also again on the second a few years later. Scott was not afraid to ride fast, which he proved in years of boardercross racing and X-Games medals, but he was also quite comfortable destroying big mountain lines. Scott pretty much retired from snowboarding later this year to pursue a career in firefighting, which he now does in Calgary. I know that if he wanted to be at the Olympics next year on Canada's boardercross team, he'd probably be able to jump on a board and go back to winning races like he never left. And I kind of deep-down wish that he would, just so I could say, ‘I told you so!'"

Marco Fletcher: "This is another piece of gold from my week-long adventure in Nelson with the Absinthe crew. This day was amazing; I produced two covers and a bunch of published shots, this one being one of the gems that has appeared over the world in quite a few magazines. Marco was one of the first riders I've seen doing the whole jump-into-a-tree, tap-tail-reverse-spin off the tree backcountry-jib stuff. This jump was one of his only straight-up kicker jumps for the week. I shot a few below, and then Justin Hostynek yelled at me to get up and ‘see this thing'.  So, thank you Justin, for letting me run up the hill and snap off a few shots of this sun god... apparently created from cold, crystallized ice in the air (it was -30 or so) and the sun being just about horizontal."

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