Return of the Nina chill's the heart, which is a welcome quality in a riding film. It's shots are big, they're gray and they're silent, just like a perfect day in the steep and deep that awaits on a still day, glistening across Bakers rope lines. ROTN recaps 7 years of Baker riding, but in case that isn't enough nuclear winter footage for you, Ma Nature threw down 2 La Nina cycles in the course of filming, including of course the muthadawg, 98-99.

The perfect day at Baker is the closest you'll ever get to complete stillness without being the ball, Danny. Even bombing through the tree's.

Watch this film and forget what the sun looks like forever. Between the B&W riding footage and the scarceness of music in this puppy, it's perfect. Snow sucks sound, and black and white looks like flat light-ROTN feels like a pow day, taking advantage of the fact that sometimes less is more.

ROTN's notable lack of a soundtrack is key to making the film right-you can hear riders rustling across cold smoke powder laid down the night before, just like, ummm, never happens at Baker. Feels like nirvana. The sound of near silence, punctuated only by the even deeper stillness when the rider leaves the surface for the air.

There are big lines in this, and they're coupled with backflip's, 3's and 5's, etc. But the thing that ROTN does that Mack Dawg hasn't in a while is takes snowboarding into the wild, rather than trying to make snowboarding wild. No kooky dooky jumps and haircuts in SLC, just Gore-Tex, powder beards, and big mountains on deep days. By way of contrast, the last MD preview I saw featured helicopter transport to a kicker, surrounded by completely neglected ridgelines. I wonder if they took a XBox?

Lastly, a honest assessment of the risks taken in the back country is paired with footage of a rider slashing down a steep line before getting smacked blindside by a slide on a heelside turn, and shooting into a tree trunk with a audible impact. ROTN captures the first few moments of stillness following the impact, as the parties collective breathe is taken away, followed by a frantic rush of adrenalin and fear. You can almost feel both sides of the coin-the victim reeling from the impact, hopefully above the surface, and the massive adrenalin dump, accompanied by fear and action, hitting the rescuers simultaneously.

Bottom line, Return of the Nina is the realest snowboard movie I've seen in way to long. And I've only watched 3:30 of it on YouTube.