Forest Bailey is one of the most exciting street and backcountry snowboarders to shoot with. Forest grew up in the countryside in Jamaica, Vermont, but don't let his laid back mellow demeanor fool you. Deep inside he has a fierce warrior approach to any obstacle, and it shows in his riding. In 2015 we traveled to Nagano, Japan for a 3 week jib trip in April. We had been eyeing up this spot the entire trip but our guide kept shaking his head saying that there was security all over the place and we would for sure get busted. On one of the last days of the trip, when the sun was going down, we decided to set up the spot and give it a try. We had everything set up and were about to start shooting when a Japanese guy in a golf cart rolled up screaming at us. Somehow we negotiated with him and told him that we would clean everything up before we leaved. With the light fading, and under pressure from the authorities Forest landed this frontside 180 in a couple tries. This photo ended up running on the cover of the SNOWBOARDER cover later that year.

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