MY PLAYGROUND

My Playground DAILY LIFE, FAR FROM THE EVERYDAY Text: Anna Kernell / Photo: Sofia Wester Sjöberg

The everyday life of our Addnature Family members Sofia Wester Sjöberg and Jacob Wester is far removed from most people’s day-to-day routines. They’re a bit like migratory birds, but they move towards colder instead of warmer climes in winter. They spend most of the year far from their Stockholm apartment, searching for fresh snow, big waves, dramatic landscapes and the right type of light.

He’s a professional extreme skier. She’s a professional extreme sports photographer. Together, they’ve turned their hobbies into careers, where their everyday life is a series of adventures.

At the young age of twelve, Jacob decided to make a living from skiing. The alpine world he grew up in was driven by performance (metrics). Seconds and minutes determined your place in the rankings and dictated whether you were in or out. To become someone, you had to compete – and win. Jacob understood that he might have to become one of the best skiers in the world to be able to make a living from his sport. But then the ’new’ wave of free skiing arrived from the US, and these riders seemed to be able to survive in other ways, through sponsorship, videos and more. – I decided there and then – this is what I’m going to do in the future. It took a mixture of hard work, ambition and pure luck to make it work out. – When I was 17, I got my first well-paid contract. It was then I began to realise that if I can stick to this, I can live off it. Since then, the industry has made me who I am in that it’s no longer just a matter of taking part in competitions. Today, the boundaries between athlete and influencer have become blurred – for better or worse. If you’re good enough at marketing yourself, you can have a career that doesn’t involve constantly needing to get on podiums.

For Sofia, the lifestyle they now live was far from an obvious option. Even though she had a long-term boyfriend who was a professional skier, and had been interested in photography since childhood, it never occurred to her that a photographer was something you could just become. – I never really thought that I could do anything else but get a ’real’ job in Stockholm. I was more focused on typically high performing roles, such as engineer or CEO. But during my final year at university, I started getting paid a little for the pictures I took of Jacob. That’s when I started to realise it might be possible to do this as a team. Also, it would be great to avoid a long-distance relationship and be able to spend more time with each other. Jacob was often away in the winters and we didn’t get to see each other much at all. So five years ago, I decided to try full-time photography. And since then we’ve been making a go of it.

And did it just work? – I think it’s worked well for us because we see ourselves as a team. As an outdoor photographer, it doesn’t always mean raking in the money, but I still feel that I help Jacob build his brand and vice versa. – Companies have a lot to gain from Sofia taking pictures or videos because they don’t have to send anyone out themselves, Jacob adds.

My Playground is a series of short films where we follow Addnature Family members as they combine their passions, their training and their daily lives. Each section is independent and shows why Addnature Family members have such a passion for what they do. The films can be seen on YouTube, and Sofia and Jacob’s episode will be uploaded in spring 2022.

Follow them on Instagram: @sofiasjoeberg / @jacobwester

WINTER

At the end of November, Sofia and Jacob gather up their things and head north. Towards Åre. Short days and an empty mountain make it a perfect, gentle start to the season. There aren’t many lifts open at this time, so it’s a good opportunity to start hiking and get some miles into your legs. It’s wise to be kind to yourself and not rush into things, for example, by rushing straight to the high mountains after six months down at sea level. When their bodies are warmed up and ready for adventure, they head towards Chamonix in France, which has everything from easier terrain to the world’s most extreme lines. After many years of competing, Jacob was fed up with travelling all the time. Now he prefers to stay in one place for a few months so that they can have a bit more normality. They can get to know the area and have a better idea of the snow and avalanche conditions. That’s why they spend most of the winter here, in Chamonix, pushing boundaries in everyday life, both behind and in front of the camera.

Can such an adventurous life ever become the dayto-day? – It becomes more ’day-to-day’ when the weeks look more or less the same, even if there’s an adventure every day, says Sofia. That’s what it feels like for me during the winter. We get up early several days a week, are up on the mountain during the day and do mostly the same things, day in, day out. Then you end up going to bed straight after dinner because you’re so tired. – For it to count as an adventure, I still think you have to define it as the opposite of everyday life. It has to contain uncertainty, some kind of risk or challenge, Jacob adds. – So, in the Alps, you probably don’t think there’s such a thing as day-to-day life? Sofia asks. – No. Or, rather, it depends on what you do in the Alps. Of course, there are everyday situations there as well. You go out and maybe do some photos of turns for a catalogue. But if you’re out really pushing the limits, it’ll never be a normal weekday. It’s the real deal.

SPRING

Sofia and Jacob don’t get that ’spring feeling’.’ They barely have time to catch a glimpse of spring at the end of their stay in Chamonix before they return to Stockholm at the end of April. Then it’s just a quick stopover in the capital before they continue to follow the snow and light up north towards the Arctic Circle. Destination Riksgränsen, Tromsö or Lofoten. Although the days can hardly be separated from the nights in early June up there, there’s hardly a bud on any tree as far as the eye can see. But missing the spring doesn’t seem to be a big deal for them. If you ask Jacob, northern Norway is where you can create the absolute best outdoor and van-living memories. There are both mountains and sea there, which means he gets to combine skiing with his other big interest: surfing. The day after a storm, they can wake up in their van to a perfect wave fifty meters in front of them and a 1000-metre-high mountain covered in fresh snow just behind them.

How much pure skiing is there in one season? – I think ordinary seasonal skiers ski twice as much, Jacob says. They go out every day regardless of the weather. We’re more fussy. If the weather’s bad, we have to think about whether we’ll get something good done. Sometimes it makes more sense to let your body recover and catch up on some computer work. It’s more preparation, waiting and repetition than you might think. Less active skiing, but more time on the mountain. It can take a whole day to get a single movie sequence. And if it doesn’t work on the first or second try, it can take as long as three days, says Sofia. What people see on Instagram or in ski videos, these are really just the best five minutes from a whole winter, Jacob continues. It’s really compressed, you don’t see all the hard work that went into it.

Do you ever go out without a camera and just enjoy yourselves? – You feel a sort of ’fomo’ when you don’t have a camera with you, says Jacob. I get out on the snow quite a lot just to train. But then I usually ski quite conservatively, I don’t go out and immediately jump off a cliff. It would feel a little silly to do that without someone filming it. You also have to start remembering that you’re over 30, your body can’t take everything you throw at it anymore. So, I try to choose my days when I really go for it and I like these to be photographed! – And I’m out there to take the photos, says Sofia. A few times I didn’t have the camera with me and almost always regretted it. Maybe it would’ve been different if I was really a skier, then I probably would’ve appreciated being able to ski in peace more. But I’m more of a photographer than a skier. – Skiing, for you, is more like a way to get the photo, Jacob adds. – Yes, maybe…can I say that? wonders Sophie, laughing.

SUMMER

For six months, their lives revolve around snow, but when the Swedish summer is in full bloom, they go back to Stockholm. And then it’s no wonder they’re both a little done with all that skiing; tired of living out of bags. Jacob is usually exhausted at the end of the season. Being out there working hard in the mountains for several months straight takes its toll on the body. It means long days one after another with food that isn’t always the most nutritious. One’s condition may be at its peak but it’s easy to lose muscle mass and energy and these take time to get back. It’s time to take care of that #1 tool – the body. For Sofia, it’s about taking advantage of the heat and summer that she misses so much in the cold winter. Hanging out with friends. Maybe working one day and skipping work the next. Taking the days as they come and taking breaks.

AUTUMN

You can split Sofia and Jacob’s lives into two parts. During the winter, they get a lot of footage, but don’t have time to work on it. That’s why it’s important to do that during other parts of the year. The donkey work is usually done in the autumn. They head off to Fårö and do their office work in a cabin in the woods. Editing movies and photos. Planning for next season. Writing articles and delivering more long-form content. Running, strength training and surfing. And maybe it’s on Fårö that they come closest to a traditional life. The days roll along calmly and flow into one another. But only for a short time. One thing’s for sure: winter’s coming, and with it an everyday life outside the norm.

Is there something that always gives you a boost, even if it’s part of your everyday life? – Every time I get a good photo or good shot. That’s what I live for, and it can happen all year round. For you, maybe it depends a little more on where we are? Sofia says, turning to Jacob. – It can be quite subtle, getting a kick out of something. I can sometimes stop and smell the flowers, as they say. It doesn’t have to be a special day at all. Maybe we’re just up there, taking some lifestyle pictures and doing a few turns. But then on the way down from the mountain it’s sunset and incredibly beautiful. Then you just stop and say: ’Shit, this is my life now!’ How cool is that? You did the same thing yesterday and will do it again tomorrow as well. That’s a kick in itself. It’s in-the-moment happiness every day. That’s how you want life to be.