Suppose you and your friends made a film and you were really kick ass riders, who killed in pipe, park, and backcountry. Plus, you still had fun playing around and doing silly stuff. And of course you are great filmographers and smooth editors, too. If all of that were true, than maybe your video would be Perception. Now I’m not saying there is anything less than 100% professional about this film, but at the same time Perception has a very different vibe than most of the films. Maybe the lack of pretension comes from the fact that you’ve probably not heard of the most the riders in this film (except Steve Fisher), although I’m sure you will very soon.

The opening sequence is a great prelude to the entire film, with mix of all riding styles, artsy mountain shots, and the silly antics that have become so popular of late. Watch the trailer for a taste of the opening sequence as it uses a lot of the same footage and has a similar flavor.

Perception mixes it up with park, pipe, urban rails, and backcountry riding. Here are a few parts to watch for: Ryan Johannsen assaulting the BC backcountry with some insane chutes, big fluffy pillows, and huge cliff drops; Jared McCrum’s huge frontside 720, park runs, and rail parts; and Chris Barker’s combination of big mountain freeriding and crazy inverts (hello double backflip?).

There’s a lot of little things to like in Perception as well. I loved the jumps over the pumphouse (?) thing in the first section – both the hit and the miss. The extra non-snowboarding footage is amusing but brief. The soundtrack is fun with a mix of older songs and more recent rock and hip-hop, plus a few more eclectic (read silly) choices. I enjoyed the MC Solaar track especially.

The Super 8 Motel railslide shots are great and leave you wondering what people driving by must be thinking. The front yard mini quarterpipe is something I wish I could build in my yard. The engineer in me truly appreciated the unique truck powered rope tow they used in Jared McCrum’s section.

The bails section is filled with gnarly spills, ragdolls and yardsales and has one of the most apropos tracks I’ve ever heard – Sixer’s Ground Zero. This section is enough to leave your whole body aching just from watching, but thankfully there’s nothing gory.

Perception runs a little over 32 minutes long. The extras include a friends’ riding section, “The Patch” – a summer rail session, a very cool short of the Hard Rock Rail Jam, “Mike’s Basement” which has an indoor skatepark, as well as ads for Smith and Deluxe SC.

Look for Perception in your local shop or order it directly from First Tracks at http://www.firsttracksproductions.com/. Perception might not be the biggest name in films this year, but you’ll be happy to add it to your collection.