Chasing Advanture with Chris Benchetler
During the 2015-2016 winter season, professional skier and GoPro athlete Chris Benchetler embarked on a search for most ideal snow conditions, zigzagging up and down the West Coast of the United States and Canada, documenting his path with filmer Matt Cook.
A season prior, Benchetler met the seasoned filmer and follow-cam wizard Matt Cook–aka SkiChef–at the GoPro Snow Athlete Summit at Galena Lodge, and it wasn’t long before they were cooking up something together. A few months later, the game-changing four-part series, Chasing El Niño with Chris Benchetler took over the GoPro Channel. The combination of incredible skiing from Benchetler and the innovative and immersive filming of Cook resulted in an inspiring tale, and Chasing El Niño was immediately begging for a follow-up.
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Benchetler visits Rob Machado for some inspiration during his journey.
Cook and Benchetler are kindred spirits. While Cook has created and honed his own signature style of filming, Benchetler, too, has carved his own path in his sport. Embracing the camera fully, Bench has not only been featured in films from Teton Gravity Research, Warren Miller, Poorboyz Productions and more, he has also played a key role in the creation of Nimbus Independent, a production company he helped found in 2008. Benchetler’s smooth, effortless style sets him apart as a skier, and he would argue that it’s his constant pursuit for inspiration across other genres that sculpted his skiing prowess. Cook, an accomplished skier himself, has harnessed his talent on snow to capture a new perspective and composition in snow filmmaking. Together, Cook and Benchetler have exploited their individual perspectives to create some of the most engaging snow content out today.
This past winter, Mother Nature reintroduced us to El Niño, and bestowed a record-setting snowfall onto the Western Hemisphere. As you can imagine, Benchetler and Cook were ready to make chase, and this time, some inspirational characters would emerge to help guide their way, along with a new key player: the Stealthy Marmot.
One van, one filmer, an passionate skier and a few of his talented friends, a legendary surfer, some 16,500 miles and countless memories later, the chase is over.
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The Stealthy Marmot, in all her glory.
Now, just in time for the beginning of the 2017-2018 winter season, the boys are ready to present their next story, one that will surely inspire and, if nothing else, have you frothing for snowfall. Shot completely on GoPro HERO5 and the new HERO6, along with some help from Karma, the feature-length adventure film celebrates everything that makes Chris Benchetler the athlete, artist and person he is today.
Sit back, relax and let Cook and Benchetler take you on along on their next journey, Chasing AdVANture.
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GETTING THE SHOT
Filmer: Matt Cook
Equipment:
HERO5 Black
El Grande extension pole (Cook uses a counter-weighted carbon pole with a GoPro HSP Mount to attach Grip)
