Snowboarding Video Receives the LED Makeover

When low energy LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are used in art we can look forward to something pretty special. Throw some extreme sports into the mix and you get something that is 'out of this world.'

Fashion photographer and filmaker Jacob Sutton spends a lot of his time in design studios working for some of the fashion industry's biggest names, including Hermès, Burberry and The New York Times. When he isn't doing this Sutton likes to innovate, producing works of art that showcase his penchant for unusual lighting techniques. The results are as surreal as they are breathtaking.

Sutton's latest project, a short film for Nowness entitled L.E.D. Surfer, does not dissapoint.

Earlier this year Sutton decided to exchange the warmth and comfort of his studio for the snowy slopes of Tinges in the Rhone-Alps region of southeast France. There he met up with Artec sponsored snowboarder William Hughes (pictured above) for a weekend of filming in sub-zero temperatures.

Sutton wasn't after your run-of-the-mill extreme sports footage however. He had something a little more ambitious in mind. Sutton wanted to film Hughes carving his way across the slopes at the dead of night wearing a bespoke snow suit covered from head-to-toe in bright LED Lights.

Sutton revealed his motivation for the project in an online post stating, "I've always been excited by unusal ways of lighting things, so it seemed like an exciting idea to make the subject of the film the only light source." The LED Suit was designed and created by electronics whiz John Spatcher in collaboration with Flat Cat Productions. To make the suit a series of waterproof LED Strip Lights were interwoven into the frabric and powered by nickel-metal hydride batteries.

For the duration of the video Hughes is depicted as a white spectral form in contrast against his pitch black surroundings. The only discernable objects are Hughes and the waves of snow that are illuminated by the suit's iridescent glow.

In order to make the film Sutton rode along on the back of a skidoo equipped with a top of the range Red Epic Camera capable of capturing high-resolution footage at extremely high frame rates. Hughes described the experience as "the most surreal thing" he had ever done in his 20 years of snowboarding.

The small team faced a number of challenges during the filming process, the least of which were the freezing conditions. They also had to make constant repairs to the temperamental suit which, according to Sutton's father Jake, the man charged with its welfare, was "stretched to the reliability of its limits."

Our verdict? Unanimous praise! Not only is the video a fantastic work of art it is also a vindication of the ubiquitous capabilities of energy efficient LED Lighting. If you haven't already seen the video check it out on YouTube.