It’s been a little bit since we’ve been blessed with some new Kas Lemmens footage. It’s been even longer that the Dutch native has been logging clips with Dominik Wagner, Will Smith, and Ivika Jürgenson, and you could lean into it even further: it’s been almost two decades since Tim Schiporst has been behind the lens capturing it all, from the Postland days to Vitamin. And now, following a two-year, injury-induced hiatus, Kas offers up some of his most thought-out footage alongside his best friends. And the crew is no exception, in fact, they’ve brought nothing but blood, sweat, and tears to the Euro street scene with Transparent being the truest display yet.
We could go on about the sleepless nights, countless hours behind the wheel, and overall dedication that went into this project, but we’ll leave it up to the man who witnessed it all firsthand: Tim Schiphorst.
Featuring: Kas Lemmens, Dominik Wagner, Will Smith, and Ivika Jürgenson
Directed by: Tim Schiphorst
Additional Filming by: Kas Lemmens, Dominik Wagner, Will Smith, Ivika Jürgenson, Alex Pfeffer and Fabian F. Fuchs
A Transparent Review With Director Tim Schiphorst
I met Kas over 15 years ago at a rail battle in Holland. I noticed his self-made Ashbury t-shirt, logo drawn with a marker. I, thinking I was special with my goggles imported from a brand that wasn’t available in Europe yet, was excited to meet somebody who shared an interest in snowboard culture that was pretty obscure in our flat, dry country.
At that time, everything was about baggy clothes, Technine, FODT, bandanas hanging from the pants, and front blunt combos. But in walks this kid from an indoor dome, wearing tight jeans, an even tighter stance, doing tricks no one else was doing.
This was right around the time some friends and I started gathering a crew to film our first street film—and we’ve been filming ever since. Most of our crew was looking for winch spots and roof gaps. I remember Kas (and Wessel van Lierop) being mostly interested in doing technical down bar tricks, and trolling the rest for riding “Vi-Cu” spots (viaduct-cult: rails from bridges with big drops on the side).
Fast forward approximately 11 video parts we filmed together, and now Kas’ snowboarding scares the shit out of me. A trick-rail is only a spot if it specifically serves a certain trick.
During a two-winter absence due to an injury, he was dreaming up what should be his perfect video part. He’s adapted a mentality of less is more, with a laser focus on getting clips to look exactly as they are in his head. This mentality left some of my favorite clips in the bin. Not because Kas didn’t like them, but because they didn’t live up to his imagination.
Over the past five years, we’ve gone to four different quadkinks to try and film a gap backtail 270. He’s landed at least three—and the one that ended up in the video is only there because I basically begged him to use it.
The lengths that Kas goes to for a shot are honestly bordering psychopathic. And it requires a group of extraordinary friends that are down to go through this together.
Will Smith was the first international person that we started filming with 12 years ago, and is probably the only person that could ride four spots in a day (which he did). For his ender we got kicked out four times… on the same day.
Dominik Wagner has always been a preferred addition to our crew, but since he’s on the Vans EU program he’s considered unmissable.
One trip in mid-Finland, I joined the crew after they had already been shoveling for four days and nights in the rain on four hours of sleep with craziness in their eyes. I rolled up as Kas was car-pulling Dominik into that glass bank in Jyväskylä, spending six hours landing perfect Andrecht handplants back to back, obsessing over the position of his fingers, and in the end saying the clip looks “too easy.”
Dominik referred to Ivika as “probably the hardest working woman in snowboarding,” especially because she shares this drive for perfection. Not being satisfied with a 5050 on this massive ledge off a sports complex, she decided she wanted to go back another day for a boardslide. Even though the first try was a make, she kept climbing up the roof until the police showed up. Even that didn’t stop her from squeezing out one last effort to perfect the clip.
Put these people together and you have a group of friends that does whatever is necessary to make each other’s vision a reality. Whether it’s skipping sleep to go shovel, driving for 7 hours for a single spot, or picking up a camera because there’s no filmer available.
Recently I was thinking if we’re headed towards a culture where snowboarders spend their entire career on a single video project. It’s been exactly 10 years since we first decided to set aside a clip and save it for this dream part. Over the years, some clips lost their relevance, others were released (Nothing But - Postland 2018). Maybe 10 years from now that video will finally be complete.
Thanks to Vans for green-lighting this project and to Nitro, Public and Autumn for the support.
And, of course, to the crew for picking up the camera.
Photos From Transparent
