Go.Go.Go: Skiing, Surfing, a Super 8 Camera, and Micro RV in Japan

Author

Tanner Bowden

Film

Super8

Pro skiers Callum Pettit & Mike Henitiuk roam the South Island in a micro RV to ski, surf, and explore in new short film

Published: 01-07-2021

Updated: 08-02-2021

About the author

Tanner Bowden

Tanner Bowden is a Vermont-based writer, editor, photographer, former wilderness educator, and Field Mag Editor-at-Large. He also contributes to the likes of GQ, Men's Journal, Gear Patrol, Outside.

Tanner Bowden is a NYC-based writer, hobby photographer, and gregarious skiier. Follow Tanner on Instagram for more adventure, travel, and mountains.

Analog filmmaking. Pow skiing. Small-wave surfing. Vanlife living. These are all very nice things. Now, write them all into a single storyline and set that trip on the island nation of Japan, and that’s not just nice, that’s inspirational—aspirational even. That’s also the gist of a new bite-sized short film by pro skiers Mike Henitiuk & Callum Pettit called Go.Go.Go.

This isn’t your typical ski vid. It’s more Super 8 home-movie travelogue than snowscape sizzle reel. The film's brief narrative begins in Tokyo streets, but it doesn’t stay there long, thanks to a mini RV that carries the pair to colder, snowier climes, and later, to the iconic seashore for a bit of surfing (spoiler: the snow is deeper than the waves are tall).

Photo courtesy Mike Henitiuk & Callum Pettit

Despite its sub-five-minute runtime, Go.Go.Go is fast-paced. No scene is longer than a few pow turns, and most are half-second glimpses of traveling around Honshu by van—shrines, Sapporos, and most importantly, 7/11.

Both a tool for keeping attention and the result of strict physical filmmaking parameters—filmer Alex Biel only had 13 rolls of Super 8 film to document the entire journey with—Go.Go.Go and its nonstop series of short, grainy clips artfully transports the viewer's to place and time we’d certainly rather be. It may only be for a few minutes, but boy does it do the trick.

Love this short film? Check out this 35mm stop motion road trip film with pro skier Rob Huele. It's nothing but fun.

Go.Go.Go: Skiing, Surfing, a Super 8 Camera, and Micro RV in Japan

Pro skiers Callum Pettit & Mike Henitiuk roam the South Island in a micro RV to ski, surf, and explore in new short film

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