Some of the riders and crew from Absinthe Films stopped on their way to Haines. They were awestruck by what we had going and decided to stay a few weeks, and it snowed almost non-stop.

The world's top snowboarders had a chance to get to know Juneau, ride and film at Eaglecrest and explore the backcountry.

Kurt Wastell and Marc Frank Montoya have been in Juneau before. It was the first time for Romain de Marchi, JP Solberg, Nicolas Müller and Danny Davis, who all said they liked what was going on.

Before leaving town, they donated snowboard boots, jackets, snow pants, stickers and skate shoes to Juneau kids who don't have money for gear. One boy I know is running around in Nicolas Müller's Audio skate shoes feeling pretty sassy.

Besides getting to hang out and ride with the boys, it was great to hear music from their collections.

Blusbueb stood out with his groove-oriented, clever a cappella mouth-sound songs. His name translates as "kid who gets in trouble" and his Swiss-German lyrics reflect that sentiment.

Another Swiss performer, Seelen Luft, has an unusual style that in one song juxtaposes a sultry man's voice with a girl's high-pitched singing, followed by a punchy, staccato syntho-rhythm. Very unusual and catchy.

Good music shows up in their snowboarding films as well. Behind the huge inverted tricks, grabs, carving and dropping off mountain peaks, the filmmakers carefully choose the music that will complement each rider's sequence in the film.

Everyone has a personal style: the way they grab their boards, pause just before the apex of an arc, tweak it just a little with a head tuck or a back arch before landing. It's great when the music matches the style and personality of the rider.

In one of my all-time favorite sequences, Tina Bacich rides to the music of The Pharcyde. Smooth and sophisticated, just like her riding ("Absinthe" 1997).

In Dave Seone's "Subjekt: Haakonsen," one sequence features a particularly hard-driving punk song as snowboarding legend Terje Haakonsen rips it up in the fast-cut, park-riding section.

"Pledge of Allegiance" by Louis XIV is primal and evocative. It accompanies Romain de Marchi's riding in "Futureproof" (Absinthe Films, 2005). "Ah, little Stacy Q, when she doesn't have a thing to do, she comes to my house, well, let's keep that between me and you." Say no more.

"Community Project" (1242 Productions, 2005), put out by Travis Rice and friends, uses hard-pounding drums and screaming rock guitar to highlight the cliff-dropping and hand plants on ice formations.

Another sequence starts and ends with helicopter blades chopping the air in time to DJ Shadow's "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt." Later, the riders fly to New York and jib rails in Central Park, gliding over cement staircases and skinny handrails to the pop-sounding "New York," by The Crash.

You can discover a lot of good music hanging out with snowboarders. Edgy, like the lifestyle itself.