Paul Cotton lets his hair down (top left) to catch images of extreme skiiers getting big air (top right), and ties the mane back at home in his role as video editor. Photos Gordon Bazzana

By Glenna Turnbull, Showcase contributor

Sometimes, when you have a hobby you’re passionate enough about, it can grow into a career. For Paul Cotton, who now finds himself getting paid to fly in helicopters to the tops of glaciers to film some of the best skiers in the world one month, then soaring in a glider plane the next, it all started with Playdough and a Handy Cam.

“About 11 years ago, I bought my first video camera and made a  “claymation” video,” says Cotton, sitting in his studio that doubles as a bedroom up on Dilworth Mountain.

“After that, I just started taking the camera out with me when I was out with my friends. They’re all pretty active guys, so we were always at all the major events competing. I started making movies of them, just cut from my camera to the VCR, editing like that, and I’d give it to them. It went from there. I got more and more into it as a hobby.”

As a former Western Star employee, when the company shut down, Cotton decided to take his hobby one step further and hooked up with former Kelowna resident Mike Falcon who was doing segments for Global TV of the coolest things you can do in summer and profiling elite athletes in world-class destinations in the winter. “Mike has a thing going with Global TV where we do little two minute news segments in the News Hour called Mike Falcon’s Adventure Zone on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings on the news. We cruise around and do the coolest things you can do.”

The two met up several years earlier when Falcon was part of the Events Team here in the valley. “They’d always see us out filming at all the events and when Mike got the thing with Global going and found out I was coming available, it was just being in the right place at the right time,” says Cotton.

While he is having a great time going to places like Mike Wiegele’s resort for heli-flyfishing and mountain biking, Cotton admits to preferring the winter segments. “In the winter, we profile elite athletes at the hottest destinations. It’s more up my alley because I can combine it with my 2track work.”

2trackproductions is the movie company Cotton shoots for. As the name suggests—two track—they focus on extreme skiing.

When I first met Cotton, it was up at Kicking Horse as he and his crew were preparing to head off into the glaciers around us to shoot scenes for their first film, The Playground. It was released last year to rave reviews, earning Cotton a nomination for Powder magazine as best “chase cam” of the year. The Playground was also listed by Midwestern Skier magazine as “one of, if not the, best video of the year,” when it was released in 2002.

Cotton just finished editing 2trackproductions’ second movie, Versys, which premiered in Montreal last week.

What makes 2track’s movies different? Cotton explains, “we’re taking it more to the new school side of things with the big jumps and skiing around urban areas.

“We have a set list of athletes. Generally, we use pro’s but there’s also a segment for the ‘groms,’ the up-and-comers, and we also have a friend segment where they’re not pro riders but they’re all super strong, just to give them recognition.”

Cotton was born in Kelowna in 1972, but did all his schooling in Summerland. He’s self-taught with both the camera and editing side of his work. He laughs as he recalls, “four years ago, when I bought my first computer, I hadn’t been on a computer for any length of time since grade four!”

So far, 2trackproductions isn’t a moneymaker. Cotton says the first movie was done just to get their names out there. They’re hoping this time around, with the release of their second film, Versys, to start seeing a return. In the meantime, the work with Mike Falcon is keeping him busy and very entertained.

So what is the coolest thing he’s got to do so far? Cotton doesn’t even hesitate in answering and clicks a video onto the three screens that surround his computer to reveal a shot of a glider. “That was even cooler than skydiving” says Cotton as the picture on the screen starts spinning upside down, doing what he terms “spiraling 1080s” straight towards the earth.

“The front of the glider is at the foot of your toes. It’s like you’re in a tin can and you can hear the air just whooshing past you at 250 kilometres an hour in a dive,” he exclaims, “it’s so cool.”

But like anyone still new to the business, Cotton still has to rely on the more mundane videoing jobs to survive. In between jumping into helicopters, he’s off filming weddings, and next week he’s shooting a children’s birthday party. Hopefully he won’t have the kids grinding “grom” style or doing back flips off the fence.

2trackproductions hold its Kelowna premiere of Versys on Nov. 15 at Baxters Bar and Grill, sponsored by Fresh Air Experience. 

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