EP 102 The story of Turnagain Hardcore with Sebastian and Giles Landry

Crude Conversations

In this one, Cody talks with Giles and Sebastian Landry, the founders of Turnagain Hardcore, a video production crew that produced Alaska-based snowmachine videos throughout the early 2000s. From 2001 to 2009, Turnagain Hardcore, or THC, released eight videos that helped nurture some of the best snowmachiners in the world. These riders were setting records and going bigger than anyone else in the industry at the time.

More often than not, the stakes were high. And every year, they got higher—bigger jumps, bigger tricks and more serious consequences. Their thinking at the time was, “If it can’t kill you, no one’s gonna watch it.” That was key to the mentality that drove THC. They wanted the videos to be an example of what Alaskan snowmachiners brought to the table. They wanted Alaskans to be proud to share the videos with anyone, anywhere in the world.

Turnagain Pass, from which Turnagain Hardcore gets its name, was homebase. It’s located about a half-hour from Girdwood, where Giles and Sebastian live, so it was an easy commute. In the beginning, they would go out there with tape measures to measure distances from potential take-offs and landings. They wanted to find spots where riders could go huge. But as the jumps and the consequences got higher, Giles and Sebastian made a point to find spots close to roads and cellphone reception. Thinking back to those times, they say that their biggest accomplishment was that they always brought everyone home.