PHOTO: Andrew Miller
RIDER: Manuel Diaz
AREA: La Zone
LOCATION: Portes Du Soleil, Switzerland
CAMERA: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
WRITER: Arlie Carstens ©
According to Absinthe Films co-founder Justin Hostynek, “For this shot, we built a hip in La Zone with pro riders Manuel Diaz and Jason Robinson, which was an area hidden in the backyard of our filmer David Vladyka. For over a decade our crew had exclusive access to this terrain. It’s located in a low mountain pass the old-timers call Col de Cou. It’s to the south of Lausanne, on the border with France. Vladyka named it La Zone for a reason—he didn’t want anyone to find out where it was.”
As the story goes, before Absinthe became the stewards of this secret spot, Col de Cou had been used for centuries by smugglers to transport illegal goods between France and Switzerland. Talk about a pedigree!
In 2015, this image of Diaz was used as the cover of the award-winning Absinthe feature film, Eversince. As methods go, this one is so good it ought to be illegal.