Pop quiz: If one were to collect dollar bills while watching this year's snowboard film crop in its entirety, the highest stack of money would be derived from a) A dollar for every time a kid rides a handrail, b) A dollar for every time the word 'sick' is uttered on-screen or c) A dollar for every time a pair of tight pants enters the frame.
The answer? A-ha ... It's a trick question. Five minutes into the Any Snowboard Movie If I Had A Dollar game and you're already out the door, on the way to buy Funyuns having amassed this new wealth.
It's hard to make an impact in snowboarding, even harder to lay it down year after year after year. Yet, eight video parts deep in his career, Larry Penguin (Laurent-Nicolas Paquin to some, LNP to others, who knows what to others still), continues to be crazy fun to watch ride, as evidenced by his ender-part in this season's Rome team two-year movie 'The Shred Remains.'
Clearly as pro as they come, Scary Larry stomps rails that are as long as his beard is red. He locks in for the full distance, Skatestoppers and chain link be damned. His tail grabs are held until the last possible second, with many-a-tweak, just so. Need park booters to make you smile? Yep, he's got those too.
For this final installment of our 2011 video awards, we thought it due time to honor one, Hairy Larry Penguin, for shuttin' 'er down, once again, in a heavy-hitting movie stacked with A-Team talent. Here here, Monsieur Paquin. We caught up with Dirty Larry to check in on his current state of affairs.
ESPN.com: You have a lot of names you go by. Which Larry threw down for this particular video part?
Laurent-Nicolas Paquin: There was Larry, Dirty Larry and the boys, Hairy Larry, Scary Larry ...
How did all the different Larrys come about, Lair Bear?
The real Larry came from Lance Hakker at Ashbury. It first started with Larry Penguin since my last name Paquin. It sounds like penguin if you say it all weird in English.
Have any good stories from filming your part for 'The Shred Remains?'
There are so many. Me and Cavan [John, Rome's video producer and team manager) drove his truck to Cherbrook, which is three hours from Québec. The truck was shaking and Cavan was like, 'It's cool, man, my bearing is [jacked].' On the highway, people would drive past and just stare. We stopped at the gas station and got out. Five of the bolts on the wheels were gone, broken -- one left. We were driving, like, 60 mph. We could've lost the wheel and pretty much died.
Aside from the fact that two years is a year longer than one year, how was making a two-year movie any different than a single-season project?
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I love filming. I never want to ... just film a bit and put it on the Internet. Having a part is the best feeling.
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I was hurt the first year -- broke my back early in the season, so I filmed for a two-year movie in one year. I had the part in VG, though. ["half parts" in both 2010's 'Bon Voyage' and 2011's 'Shoot the Moon.']
Was Rome pretty loose as far as exclusivity goes?
I talked with Cavan and explained to him that the VG crew are my boys. I was there since day one and wanted to hang with them and film some cool s---. People were hyped that I had a part in it and I was stoked to film with good friends like Johnny [Lazz], [Chris] Brewster, [Chris] Grenier and Gus [Engle].
As a skateboarder with rad snowboard style, what's your take on bringing skate style into snowboarding? What about flip tricks?
I started skateboarding the summer before the winter I started snowboarding, 15 years ago, so I'm really a skateboarder trapped in a snowboarder's world, haha. [But,] the only skate style I think I bring is spots.
Jed [Anderson] says it best: that by watching skate movies you just see spots that in your head you're like 'Wait, this look like that spot I saw,' or, 'If I hit this spot like that ...' The whole flip thing, I'm not doing it, but Scott's got it on lock and it's cool how he does it. I'm a big Stevens fan: he's cool, and I like how he does new, cool looking s---.
Any truth to you being the only dude to get hooked up with Rome through a sponsor-me video?
I guess I'm the only one to get hooked up like that. That was probably five or six years ago, and I had read a TWS where they had all these new companies, and Rome was one of them. At that time, I was always filming and I had a bunch of CDs with quicktime edits of me, so I sent my CD to Rome and gave one to the Rome rep here in QC to try to get some free stuff. I got an email two weeks later from Josh Reid at Rome and a phone call from Nic [the QC rep].
How'd you get hooked up with Mikey LeBlanc?
I used to get hooked up by Bobby G, the Québec Holden rep. Mikey called Bobby, then he called me and I got a huge box from Holden. Then I met Mikey and he's the funniest man alive. He rules. Last year we worked on a denim jacket and I'm so hyped on it. It's the first time I've had my name on clothing, and it's what I wear -- no one had to convince me to wear it! Now we're working on a pair of jeans that are real denim but waterproof and warm.
You've been rocking the tight pants longer than almost anyone in snowboarding. Are you bummed that every rail kid in a thousand rail movies is jacking that style?
It's not my style, I got that from Nima [Jalali] back in the days. You know how, skateboarding, you just grab your skate and you're all good? I wanted that feeling. It looked cooler than the bad snowboard pants that existed back then. Now, every company makes tight pants. I think it's cool. I also think the war between tight and baggy in the kid-world is funny.
About all those movies ... Do you think the saturation of snowboard flicks on the market takes away from the value of the the 'bigger' videos?
I don't know ... I wonder if it's going to be like skateboarding, where the younger dudes will film parts and put them on the Internet for $9.99. I like DVDs. I love filming. I never want to stop filming, or just film a bit and put it on the Internet. Having a part is the best feeling: most of the time I'll hate it, and it makes me want to go film new s--- right away.
What do you think makes a good shred flick? Is it okay to put a cab 5 park booter shot in a part just because it's the only non-rail shot you have?
It all depends. I like to see three different things: all-rail guy, all-powder guy and all-around guy. I won't put a s----y small 7 in the backcountry, just like someone like Travis Rice won't put a noseslide on a 10-stair (I'm not hating). Someone like Phil Jacques can kill both -- his part in the Capita movie made me smile cause I've known him for a long time, [watched him] grow in snowboarding and he worked so hard for it. Now he pulls a two-song part with sick backcountry shots. But you know what? Who cares? Do whatever you want. If the movie is well edited, it can look sick, so I say f--- it.
Is using the bungee cheating?
No. Snowboarding is not a game so the word ''cheating'' does not exist.
Three-part question: Favorite video out this year, favorite of all-time and favorite part ever?
This year I like the Burton one ['Standing Sideways'] a lot and the 'Givin' vid. All time is 'Love/Hate' [KidsKnow, 2004]. Favorite part is hard, man. Mikey LeBlanc: 'Destroyer' [Kingpin Productions, 2000], Scotty Wittlake: 'Brainstorm,' [Kingpin Productions, 2002], Darrell Mathes: 'Burning Bridges' [KidsKnow, 2005], Louif Paradis: 'Shoot the Moon' [Videograss, 2011] or any of his parts and Frank April: 'Tabarnack' [Brothers Factory, 2011].
What would you do with a $2 million film budget?
Get my friends that don't have travel budget in it, go to sick places, get some sick backcountry dude in it, pay my friends Will and Charles to film, get some homies from the US and Europe to film, get really good people to edit it, make it raw, like it used to be. Just like Kevin Jones said, 'It was better when you hated us.'
Think you'll live in Québec forever?
Maybe. I like it here. All my friends are here; I could buy a house and stay here. I'm waiting for the right girl, and I'll buy a house with a huge backyard and build a mini ramp.