Declination: Up the Jungle With Gilligan, Skipper, and the Weirdest Man in Skiing

by steve casimiro on July 10, 2012 · 5 comments

5 responses

World weary gonzo narrative is easy to attempt and almost impossible to pull off, but Nick Waggoner and crew at Sweetgrass have absolutely, positively crushed it in this short travelogue of aiming upriver through the jungle to ski the Peruvian Cordillera. With storytelling like this, the hell with skiing. Did I just say that? I did, cause, holy smokes, when Waggoner went against the current with Ptor Spricenieks, accurately described as “the weirdest man in skiing”, and two guides nicknamed Gilligan and Skipper, with cameras rolling, the result is compelling, itchy, fervid, and freakin’ terrific.

It’s one beautiful creepy incident after another, with the perfect tone and embellishment from the voiceover. It might not make you want to travel into the jungle, but it’ll make you watch anything Sweetgrass serves up.

“As we lie down to sleep we packed our ears with cotton, stonewalling a tropical moth otherwise set on impregnating our ears with larvae. Sweet dreams.”

Sweet dreams, indeed.

Declination is other places, other spaces, and the things that happen there.

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Jake July 10, 2012 at 12:20

Most boring narrative ever in an otherwise awesome video.

riley July 10, 2012 at 15:25

i’m with you Jake. The VO is well written, but its hard for me to get over that voice.

glad i watched it, though.

Steve, you ever seen a surf flick called ‘Zen and Zero’? if you liked the above, i highly recommend you check it out.

steve casimiro July 10, 2012 at 16:55: Have not. I’ll put it on the list.

I can understand why you might not like the VO. I’m pretty skeptical about heart of darkness emulations…but IMO, this one works really well.

Reply

Craig Rowe July 10, 2012 at 15:52

I don’t know, the VO works. I think it’s purposefully droll and matter-of-fact to help illustrate the utter madness of the trip. The whole time I hear the narrator really saying, over and over, “What the fuck are we doing? What the fuck are we doing?”

Great stuff.

Roy July 11, 2012 at 07:01