SKEENA ANGLER
ROB BROWN

Shock Treatment

hy is the back end...why it moves?”
“Not enough weight. It’s light. I's a
pickup.”

“Leger,” says Michel to Eric, who has been
looking around like a nervous

deer, his head swiveling rearward each time the
rear end of my truck skitters across a washboard
bend on the Copper River Road.

I expect a little drift in such situations, but
there is more yaw than there should be. Naw. /t’s
just the poor condition of the road, I convince
myself. And the condition of the road is bad. lt

‘yearns for a grader blade, but with only a few

trucks hauling logs from sixty clicks up the val-
ley, it hasn’t had a grooming in months and
looks like a back road in a third world country
as & result.

’ “Le premier canyon,” I announce to my skit-
lish sports as we bump and jostle around its
perimeter, They smile meekly.

“The reever she is good?” asks Michel of
Paris, who earlier told me he speaks English,
but really only thinks he does.

“Pair-feck-shawn,” I reply, leaning heavily

on the first syllable while simultaneously wish-
ing there that there was a universal language,
- and that it was English with a Canadian inflec-

tion.

‘Actually the colour of the Zymoetz isn’t as
clean as the day before, but considering the
kind of turbid conditions we’ve had so often
over the last decade, it’s close enough to ideal.

“La deuxieme canyon,” [ announce like
some kind of backwoods bus driver as we. wind

-around the last serpentine”bend aiid dé&cend’” to

the wide flat part of the Copper River valley
where the shape of the land changes dramatic-
ally. The sun breaks through a sky crack. The
river turns into a silver ribbon. I squint into the
light, looking for angler shapes on The Little
Grizzly Run, and see none.

“We stop, here,” [ say.

“OK... goad,” says Michel as Eric nods.

Suiting up is a slow, cumbersome process
with Europeans. Besides the obligatory waders,
jacket, tod and reel, there are bags full of ca-

meras and other mysterious non-essentials. After
fifteen minutes we are off through the brush.

Michel holds up an articulated purple and fu-
schia leech bedecked with gobs of gliltering tin-
sel. “Gewd fly?” he asks

“No, not a good fly,” J tell him. “C’est une
mouche mal.” 1 hand him one of Ron Gran-
tham’s skiltering sedges and make wade-to-
here-cast-to-there gestures.

As I’m doing this Eric fastens on to a steel-
head, a big one. “Camera, camera, photo!” he

' yells pointing at the yellaw bag he set on a log

when we arrived, I lope over the rocks toward it,
stopping abruptly when he begins shouting
something incomprehensible and pointing at the
back pocket in his vest. As I make the return
run, he starts saying no again, pointing at the
bag once more. Off 1 go, panting now. In the bag
J} find a Nikon wrapped in a sock. I run back
with it.

“Mo, not right,” he shakes his head.

I grab the rod. The fish sulks. Seon Eric
comes stumbling back with a video camera that
I have no idea how to operate. He makes film-
ing gestures. I take some really bad footage,
then hand the camera back and, after many
awkward maneuvers, release the fish. Eric is
clearly miffed at being unable to get a still of
his 39 inch buck. J make a throat slitting gesture
and tell him that over handling will kill the fish.

After two fish are beached we race for the
next run. At the helipad there is a resonant bang
and a scrapping sound under my poor truck.
"@#%&,” | bark. No translation is necessary.

I lie under the truck and struggle with a bro-.
ken shock as two pairs of French hands are
thrust in my way. They try to be helpful, but this
is simply another case of too many cooks. Flu-
strated, I chase them away like a pair of barn-
yard chickens and order them to eat lunch.

The first rule of tinkering is save all the parts.
The first rule of automotive tinkering is carry
haywire. J have none, but I have bungee cords. I
wrestle the jack out of Michel's hands then jack
up the truck and bungee the broken cylinder up
and forward, then stand back to admire the job
while the Frenchmen look on skeptically.

The truck pets us to the Hangover Run where |
struggle with the language as steelhead porpoise
throughout the pool, and my clients do everything to
avoid catching them: they cast Jong, always long,
when they should cast shorl; they mend upstream
when they should mend downstream; they use huge
flies when they should be using small bugs. I give up
my feeble attempts at communication, when Michel
manages to hook and lose two fish, primarily because
he reels as the fish burn off downstream.

“T am a bad fisherman,” he proclaims...

“You are indeed,” 1 reply with a big smile, "But

you're having fun.” -

Movie makers |

hit rivers here

By SARAH A.
ZIMMERMAN
AMERICAN kayakers and
filmmakers hit the white
water of northwestern B.C.
last week shooting footage
for an upcoming action-

packed film.

Adventure, breathtaking
imagery and heart pump-
ing river running is at the
heart of the films produced
by California-based cine-
matographer Scott Lind-
gren,

He was in Terrace with
fellow filmmaker and pad-
dler Dustin Knapp as well
as professional kayaker
Clay Wright.

They came to the north-
west because it’s a unique
location - one that hasn't
been featured in many ad-
venture sport movies.

The threesome were the
first of several kayakers to
arrive here shooting the
fourth instalment of a
video series called Liquid
Lifestyles. ,

The previous three in-
stalments included kayak-
ing footage from Califor-
tia, India, Africa, Indone-
sia, Nepal and Canada.

At just 29 years old,

Lindgren already has cre-
dentials most cinemato-
graphers only dream about
~ an Emmy award,

The award came in
1998 for best cinematogra-
phy for a documentary shot
in Bolivia.called Andes to

* Amazon.

But it took quite a few
months before he was able
to gel his hands on the
prize,

That's because every
winner is charged $800
U.S. to take the award
home. For a young cine-
matographer the price tag
was a bit too steep.

“T didn’t tell anybody
about it for a few months
and then my mom caught
wind. of it so she bought it
for me,” said Lindgren.

More importanily, the
award gave credence to
the work he loves doing.

The draw to filming in
northwestern B.C. is also,
sid Lindgren, because of
the easy access to hard-to-
reach spots.

The network of logging
roads here provides access
to rivers that would other-
wise be inaccessible.

The group hooked up

D

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - B5

™

USTIN Knapp, Scott Lindgren and Clay Wright were here last week shoot-

ing footage for upcoming, action-packed kayaking film Liquid Lifestyles IV.
They came to Terrace because of it's unique setting and easy access to
white water. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO,

with one of the best guides
to rivers around Terrace.

Shane Spencer knows
the rivers and mountains
around Terrace intimately
and gave the group valu-
able information.

“Canada pretty much

Skeena and hiked up,”
says Knapp. “That was de-
finitely a workout.”

But once at the canyon
the kayakers found good
rapids to run and were im-
pressed with the character
of the rock there.

“Canada pretty much rocks as far as
rivers and kayaking goes.”

rocks as far as rivers and
kayaking goes," said Clay
Wright.

The kayakers visited
Davis Creek near Terrace
far one day ot shooting.

“We paddled across the

VERITAS’ keeper kicks the ball back into play at the final of the Terrace
Elementary School Association's (T.E.S.S.A.} mixed soccer tournament
last week. Veritas beat Thornhill Elementary 3-0 in the final of the series
that saw five local elementary schools take part. All the games were well
played and many ended with very close scores. The young athletes
braved rain and windy, chilly weather each game day but all left the field
smiling even if they were a bit wet and muddy. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

Street series title a

close call for Thomson.

By LISSA

ARCHIBALD
IF YOU'RE a drag race
fan you’re familiar with
the term Wintemationals -
especially if you're a fan
or competitor in the north-
west.

The Terrace Terrace
Kitimat-Airport was roar-
ing with action Sept. 7-9
as the Terrace Drag Race
Association hosted the
final event of the season.

Despite. cool weather
the turn-out was still good.
And regardless, cooler air
temperature produces big-
ger horsepower.

The popular Friday
night Street Series Shoot-
out was attended by over
50 entrants who battled it
out in the points race this
season.

Top spot looked as if it
was anyone's game when
points leader, Lee Thom-
son, was unable to conti-
nue racing because of
mechanical problems.

Lee’s wife, Lorilee gra-
ciously dropped out of
competition and handed

over the keys to her ‘76
Vette. Lee went on to suc-
cessfully take top honors
for the 2001 Street Series.

Saturday campetitors
had their final chance of
the season at the King of
the YXT or Gamblers
prizes.

Chris Bie, who has had
a very successful season,
was awarded king honors
for cars while Ian Berris-
ford cruised to the throne
in the snow/bike class.

. Nicole Hansen, with her
second Gamblers win of
the season, took top spot
on her Arctic Cat while
Doug Ribeiro managed top
Gambler for the cars.

Brian Hanson and Mary

Ann Munson were both
awarded $50 for their
‘almost-impossible-to-ob-
tain’ 500. second reaction
times.

As Sunday dawned, ra-
cers awoke to the realiza-
tion if was their last
chance for victory this
season and each competi-
tor came out to win.

' Kham Shanz and Gord

Hidber each had some an-
xious moments as these
two veleran racers each
pushed their vehicles per-
haps a bit too hard result-
ing in a bit of bent and
scraped metal.

Thankfully both drivers,
despite elevated heart
beats, were uninjured.

The final bracket win-
ners list showed Leland
Hovland in first with Brian
Hanson and Nikki Bloom-
field rounding out the top
three far the snow/bike ca-
tegory.

First place in the large
Sportsman group went to
Ken Petley with Ralph
Godlinski in second and
Brutus McCarron taking
third. Pro series fans
watched as Joe Orfao
came out victorious with
Boyd McCann settling for
second and Harold Dau-
mont for third,

Pro Outlaw racer, Lee
Thomson, took top spot
with Doug Ribeiro close
behind in second and
Kham Shantz. awarded
third.

They also travelled to
the Butze Rapids just out-
side Prince Rupert in
hopes of getting some ad-
ditional footage.

Whether the footage

the final cut for Liquid
Lifestyle iV remains to be
seen.

Once all the footage is
compiled Lindgren will sit
down for hours poring over
segments deciding which
ones fo use.

Then he goes through
the painstaking process of
editing it all together and
adding a musical score.

The Liquid Lifestyles,
crew is the third group of
filmmakers and athletes to
came through Terrace this
year shooting footage for
films that are in the works.

Professional snowbaar-
ders and snowmobilers

shot in this region makes also came here to film,

Le
Sports Scope

Birdie bashing
BADMINTON players around Terrace are dusting
off birdies and tightening the strings on rackets in
preparation for another season of adult badminton.

The Terrace Badminton Club has six courts that are
just begging to be filled every Tuesday and Thursday
night.

Games are played at Thornhill Junior Secondary
School 8-10 p.m. Cost is $4.00 per session or $86 for
the season which runs from now until April, All le-
vels of playing ability are welcome.

Call Diane at 635-3564 for details or just show up
with your racket in hand.

Motorbikers ride for kids

MOTORCYCLISTS in the Terrace area are gearing
up for the {9th annual Toy Run, Sept. 29. ;

Whether you ride a Harley or a street bike, all mot-
orcyclists are welcome. Riders are encouraged to
bring toys that will be donated to the Salvation Army
for gifts to be distributed to needy children at Christ-
mas. Cash donations can also be made al the ride.

Then, bring a toy, strap it to your bike and meet at
the weigh scales at the intersection of Hwy!l6 and
Hwy37 at 2 p.m. to start the Parade of Toys.

Riders take a circuit from the scales, through Ter-
race and ends at the Coast Inn of the West.

Call 635-3489 for more information.

Registration for special

olympians soon

TERRACE'’S special olympians will be back at the
bowling lanes and in the swimming pool next month.

All athletes and new volunteers must first register
before they can kick off this season.

Registration takes place at the Skeena Mall Friday,
Oct, 12 from 6:30 p.m,-8:30 p.m,

Fees for athletes are $35. For more details about
BC Special Olympics and opportunities available for
athletes in Terrace call Jo at 635-7936 after 7 p.m.

Serving up squash
THE OASIS Sports Club on the Northwést Commun-
ity College campus is now open for the squash sea-
son.

Doors open at 11:45 a.m. First court time available
is noon and the the last one in the evening will de-
pend on bookings.

Phone 638-5457 to book a court.

Ski patrollers needed

SHAMES Mountain volunteer ski patrol is recruiting
new members for the upcoming ski season.

Anyone interested in donating some of their time
on the slopes is invited to an introductory meeting
Monday, Oct. 1 at the Coast Inn of the West at 7 p.m.

Past first aid experience is recommended, Came
out and have some fun this winter with returning pa-
trollers and some new faces, For more information
contact Richard Stone at 635 1712 or Mike Sorensen
at 624 4940,