Name: Dave Mossop

Job: Still photographer and filmmaker

Can you give us a brief description of your lifestyle?

My lifestyle and job are like, very seasonal. Generally life is heavily influenced by whatever mummy nature’s current mood is, and I monitor her behavior on theweathernetwork.com. During the winter I focus mostly on shredding and warming my toes at the fireplace whenever I’m not shredding. Still photos usually work best on sunny pow days, so I spend lots of time driving my Volvo to wherever that is most likely to happen and listening to Ratatat along the way in order to kindle some inspirado. Lately I’ve found myself traveling tons, so it’s been a great opportunity to get to know people of other cultures, absorb the world’s diverse sights and sounds, and sample an amazing variety of tasty treats and funky fumes. It gets exhausting though so I’m usually glad to come home and shred laps with good friends.

For many years I tree-planted all summer, but nowadays I shoot and edit action sport films for Freeride Entertainment in Nelson BC during the snowless months. As a metaphor, if winter warms toes at fireplaces, Freeride’s more like warming your toes between the breasts of a Vegas whore while pounding Grey Goose and eating fancy sushi. Ahh but that’s only when we’re not actually working. Real life is faaaar less glamorous. Working generally entails an extremely unhealthy balance of computer screen retinal damage, poor posture, sleep deprivation, massive calorie intake and a severe lack of exercise. The coffee breaks are especially pleasing though in a town like Nelson.






So, how do you make it work so that you can get all that work done and still shred tons?

Well, skiing is what I love to do, and since love is such a wondrous and powerful thing, I’ve talked myself out of most typical aspirations like financial security, having a permanent address, and having normal stable female relationships. Mountains vs. women is a timeless classic after all…now if only they could unite!

Originally I got into shooting skiing so I would be able to ski pow everyday for the rest of my life, and at the same time somehow make ends meet. Now I realize how incredible it is to create art that talks about what you love to do. Working with friends to compose a perfect image, or to bring a film or animation idea to life is deeply gratifying and usually super fun and hilarious. Creating these things always involves an absurd amount of work, especially if you want to produce high quality. Not to mention all the equipment which is extremely spendy.

Plus, for the five or more years it takes to prove yourself to the industry you don’t see a dime in return. But the hours feeling sick and pulling stacked all-nighters in order to get a film done in time... somehow end up being worth it. And then, even if ends don’t meet, which they usually don’t, you can grab a quick manual labour job like planting, firefighting, hanging Christmas lights, or hustling dishwashers for a few months a year…and you’ll be good enough to keep it going. We’re pretty stinkin lucky here in North America that way – a good thing to remember.

Any advice for aspiring filmmakers and photographers?

The only advice I can give is…listen to your heaaart.

No, just kidding, that’s like, pretty cheesy. Basically if you want to make a dream happen, work as hard as you possibly can for many years making zero money. Any money you do make should be poured into gathering pimped out tools like pro cameras and computers so you can achieve your dream in higher quality. And finally, in my case, edit everything like a savage. Only show your very finest photos, only put the most mint footage into your films, pay close attention to detail and quality, and always make your show short and sweet.

Most importantly though, always be yourself and try not to take life too stinkin’ seriously. Creativity and originality are what this world is thirsty for, and only you have access to the massive potential locked up in your head and hands.







Name: Amy Sharples

Job: Public Health Nurse (RN) and Ski Coach

What do your jobs entail?

For nursing, Public Health is essentially working to promote health and prevent illness in populations, which means that me and two other girls provide all of the public health services for Golden, and its surrounding areas. And as far as coaching goes, I have been coaching ski racing for the last 7 years. This year I have moved over to freeride coaching which I do on Sunday’s at Lake Louise where I work with five 11- and 12-year-old girls.

How do you balance your career and skiing?

The first thing for me in being able to balance work and skiing is to have a job that you can do anywhere. Secondly, I am incredibly lucky to have a nursing job that is as flexible as mine is. I work full-time in the summer and save money and then part-time, in the winter. If it snows and I absolutely HAVE to go to work, then I work half-days – ski hard in the mornings and then get my work done in the afternoons.
I guess the biggest thing for me in being able to work and still ski tons is that I don’t care enough about money to want to work more than part-time. I love my job, but I know that being up on the mountain close to every day is more important to me than the numbers in my bank account. My priorities, like living, loving my life, and skiing every day are very clear and very important to me.

What advice would you offer to someone trying to do the same thing?

The best advice I can give to someone who wants to live in the mountains AND have a good job is to know what you’re passionate about. Know what is going to make you happy. Then do what it takes to make it happen – if you have to go to school for 4 years, then make that commitment and get it done. If you have to spend some time in the city for work experience or school or whatever else, then invest in some good snow tires and be willing to drive back and forth to the mountains for a while. But know what it is that you want to do with your life, work hard, be willing to make a few sacrifices, but not too many for too long, and then make it happen!