Method Mag Issue 22.2

22.2

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COVER 222 .indd Wszystkie strony

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16.11.2021 13:46

Pic: Sani Alibabic | Blue Tomato Team Rider: Anna Gasser

Blue Tomato Book | blue-tomato.com/book instagram.com/bluetomato | #yourrideourmission

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METHOD 21 -----------

15.11.2021 16:26

GO LONG - TALKING WITH ARTHUR DIYX STRT JAM LUDVIG BILLTOFT DREAMS TWO VANS NO PLANS UNTITLED PAGE LOBSTER BOAT WEEK BRAIN BOWL SESSIONS SNOWBOARDERS WITH JOBS SPOT GOBLINS SONIA ON HOLIDAY

NILS ARVIDSSON PHOTO. ALEX ROBERTS

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15

CONTENT

15.11.2021 16:26

EDITOR IN CHIEF:

THEO ACWORTH theo@methodmag.com ONLINE EDITOR & SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER:

WILL RADULA-SCOTT will@methodmag.com

NORTHERN CORRESPONDENT:

CAITLIN MURRAY caitlin@methodmag.com ART DIRECTOR:

MACIEJ PRZĘŻAK

HELLO

reader. If you know me, maybe you’re reading these words in my voice. If you don’t, I guess you’re using whatever voice you read words with inside your head. Regardless, you and I are sharing a moment. These words originated in my brain, were typed out by my fingers, printed, boxed up, shipped around the world, and are now in your hands and entering your own brain via your eyeballs. This is a message from my past self that has travelled into the future, and is now being read by you. We are, at this moment, connected. Isn’t that insane? I think so. This must be what Morpheus feels like.

Or maybe Dumbledore, or Jesus. I could try to link these ramblings to some profound observations about how snowboarding is all about connecting and sharing moments with each other, but it ’s too early in the morning for that, and it sounds kind of wack when you say it out loud.

Instead, I’ll tell you about some last minute changes to the contents of this issue. Ethan Morgan’s DIYX STRT JAM just happened in Innsbruck, and it was just as insane as it looked. We’d planned to run a quick recap story in Method Mag 22.3, but we juggled some things around and moved it up to 22.2, along with a double cover of Zeb Powell and Joe Simpson. Does it count as a cover if it’s on the back? We’re not sure, but we did it anyway, and we’re stoked. I know that newspapers report daily news, but we’re not a newspaper, and this is about as close to live publishing as a snowboard magazine can get. Getting everything ready on time meant some last minute hustling, but that was true of the entire event, and also true to the nature of Method Mag, and we’re pretty hyped to bring you print coverage of this amazing gathering in real-ish time. Put a group of snowboarders together with a couple of trucks of snow, no rules and a little bit of gasoline, and you’re guaranteed to get some magic.

I think everyone in attendance would agree that we witnessed the start of something special, and we can’t wait for the next one. Watch this space.

THEO X After so long away from snowboarding in the UK I felt out of practice, but then I got to Innsbruck, and I was just alive.

STRT JAM really rejuvenated my juju. I was almost getting goosebumps telling my wife about how good the past few days were. Goddamn I love snowboarding. This cover is the icing on the cake. It’s a real honour, I feel really humbled, and I might need a bit of a cry. - James North Zeb Powell threading the needle. Photo. James North

There’s always that one person at a session. You know the type, they’ll find messed up transfers or climb things that weren’t meant to be climbed and then jump off them. On day one of DIYX STRT JAM, Joe Simpson was that guy. This is exactly the kind of thing I hoped someone would do, but until he started weaselling his way up the pilar, I didn’t even consider it possible. I still don’t quite understand how he did it, or how he was able to strap in without falling off the tiny strip of metal he was balancing on, but he figured it out. This whole event was street snowboarding at its rawest, at its loosest, and at its best. Yes Joe. - Theo Acworth Joe Simpson, bomb drop. Photo. Theo Acworth

16 PROOFED_EDITORIAL 22.indd 16

ONLINE GRAPHIC DESIGN:

AGATA SZKARŁAT

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS:

Silvano Zeiter, Iina Niskanen, Markus Rohrbacher, Fred Couderc, Sylvain Cochard, Federico Grego, Tatu Toivanen, Kristin Ludwig, Alex Roberts, Carlos Blanchard, Theo Acworth, Chris Baldry, Elli Thor Magnusson, Tim Zimmerman, Benjamin Littler, Dan Mullins, Phil McKenzie, Ryland West, Sebi Madlener, Bastien Sturma, Guillame Sturma, Gunnars Elmuts, Takuya ‘Nissy’ Nishinaka, Sonia, Marco Morandi, Tanner Manninen, Justin Kious, Will Radula-Scott, Joseph Roby, Mark Wiitanen, Thomas Bauman, James North, Michal Prouza, Myrion Moss CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Marcus Bartos, Sonia

SALES & ADVERTISING: Chris McAlpine chriso@methodmag.com Skype: chrisomcalpine +46 729 338 556 DISTRIBUTION: Steve Dowle steve@methodmag.com PRINTERS: TUIJTEL Industriestraat 10 | 3371 XD PO box 18 | 3370 AA Hardinxveld-Giessendam | NL DISTRIBUTION: Rhenus Logistics Eektestraat 2, 7575 AP Oldenzaal The Netherlands METHOD MEDIA LTD Method Media Pantiles Chambers 85 High St Royal Tunbridge Wells TN1 1XP England Tel:(+44) (0) 871-218-9978

Copyright 2021 Method Media Ltd. No liability is accepted for the accuracy of the information contained herein, nor are any guarantees given by the magazine. Copyright worldwide of original material is held by Method Media Ltd and permission must be obtained for any use, transmission, storage or reproduction. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily shared by the publisher. Method Media Ltd assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of unsolicited material. Thanks for choosing Method Mag. WE SURE HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

PHOTO

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PHOTO : CHAD UNGER

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GO LONG - TALKING WITH ARTHUR LONGO 22.2

INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH

PHOTO. SILVANO ZEITER INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH

ARTHUR LONGO DOESN’T NEED MUCH OF AN INTRODUCTION. HE’S ONE OF THE MOST BELOVED SNOWBOARDERS ON THE PLANET, AND ACCORDINGLY, HE HAS DONE A LOT OF INTERVIEWS AND HAD A LOT OF MAGAZINE COVERAGE. A LOT OF MAGAZINE COVERS TOO. NOT ONE OF OURS YET, BUT HE’LL PROBABLY FIND HIMSELF THERE EVENTUALLY IF HE KEEPS UP THE GOOD WORK. WE SPOKE A BIT ABOUT THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE, AND PEEING IN TUBES WHILE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR. LIKE ARTHUR, THIS CONVERSATION WAS QUIET AND UNDERSTATED. IT STANDS SLIGHTLY IN CONTRAST TO HIS SNOWBOARDING, BUT THAT’S OK. NOT EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD HAS TO MAKE PERFECT SENSE.

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14.11.2021 01:12

Is the future something that you think about? And do you worry about it?

That’s a good question. Yes. It’s hard to feel good in life when you don’t feel stability or trust or have security for the future. So yeah, I think for every human, it’s quite natural to worry about the future. Maybe even more so when you spend your life doing one thing that you know will not last forever. Professional snowboarding is naturally not made to last. When you’re a snowboarder, there’s this kind of thing in the back of your head that you will become something else at some point. Sometimes it’s really exciting and motivating, and you almost want to jump on something else as soon as possible. Then at other times, you might think, ok, this life is quite comfortable as well, and I want this to last, and I should invest my energy and time towards this without building up to something for the future. I think as soon as you feel good in your shoes, you don’t have to worry too much about the future because life is a ride, and there’s always something coming along. If you feel good, you’ll be able to catch these things. But maybe what I’m saying right now is a bit blurry and not too specific.

That’s all good, I don’t think it needs to be specific.

If we’re talking about a concrete plan about what’s next or if I’m going to be a real estate agent or something like this, I never found an answer like this for myself. It’s almost like the more I question things, the less precise it gets. I’ve gone through a lot of thinking, but I feel that it’s almost healthier not to think too much. The two extremes are bad. Once you start thinking too much, you might worry too much. But of course, you don’t want to not think at all, either.

So I am just trying to find the right

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balance somewhere in the middle.

Are you the kind of person that likes to have activities going on? Some people might stop snowboarding and chill out in the mountains, or someone like Dan Brisse retired and is now doing full-on investing and stuff. Are you going to sit in cafes and drink coffee and do watercolour paintings, or do you want to be busy doing things?

I think I’m not one or the other, but a little bit of both. I’ve tried doing the week in the sun with not much else, but it tended not to be enough for me. But then I’ve also caught myself doing too many things to the point where it doesn’t feel good anymore.

I think I generally need to be doing things just because it’s easier. If you have a task or if you have things to do, your head is filled with that, and when you’re done, you can enjoy your free time more. But I’m also trying to be someone who doesn’t need much.

But when I said I don’t do anything, I’m still playing tennis, going skating, trying to learn some programme to play music. I feel that I’m not wise enough to give up a lot of things yet.

So you’ve been in snowboarding for quite a while now, both competing and filming, and I wondered if you ever get bored of it?

I think I’m going to give you the same answer every time. I think it’s a matter of balance. If you do it too much, you’re probably going to have enough at some point, and when you get away from it, you’re just missing it. So bored is maybe not the right word. It’s not boring in any way…

Repetitive maybe?

Yeah, repetitive. But at the same time, snowboarding kind of gives your life a little bit of a rhythm. Winter ends, then you go on with the rest of your year without snowboarding,

then the new year is starting, and you get on your snowboard again. I don’t know. It gives this kind of cool rhythm to life. But if I ever got bored?

Yeah, in many ways, or tired, maybe.

You’ve done it enough that maybe the last trip on a season could feel like shit. When I was younger, I would have never imagined being like a snowboarder. And I’m 33 now, so it’s been super long. As I get older, I want to appreciate things for what they are, and it’s not bad at all.

I know that you’re flying a lot too. On your snowboard, you’re obviously flying more than most people, but you’re also paragliding. What does that feel like?

It feels amazing. When I was young, my dad was flying, so I kind of I grew up watching him. There’s a lot of pictures of me when I was a kid just laying on his glider on grassy fields, probably when he just landed, and then we had a family picnic all together or something. So that always left a strong impression on me. Even the smell of the glider, I still love it.

So I always knew I wanted to fly, and for me, there’s something incredibly beautiful about being able to fly just like birds. Going with the wind, the sun hits the mountain faces, and the air is rising. Then you’re in the sky, and you have the same view as the birds. It’s something that humans are not really supposed to get, so this is insanely incredible to me, and I’m very passionate about it as well.

Sounds magic. When’s the best time to do it?

The good season is spring and summer, so it’s outside of snowboarding. I never really mix up the two because when I snowboard, I snowboard, and I just start flying after the season.

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Where do you do it?

A lot around home in France, and I have gone to different places like Italy, Switzerland, or Austria.

Mostly in the alps. You can imagine a day in June, you know when there’s these mushroom clouds, the cumulus ones? When they form on top of a face, that means that all the warm air is rising there.

That’s what you’re looking for. Then when you’re high up, you just move to the next mountain and then climb again to the clouds. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but you can jump from one peak to another. I’m not an expert at this thing yet. But the best people fly for a full day, eight or nine hours, and they might travel 300 kilometres.

It’s super intense.

Wow, that’s mad. Are there any dream locations to visit and fly?

Home is insane. It’s Les Deux Alpes, and we’re bordering a national park called Parc des Ècrins.

It’s a huge area with a lot of really high mountains, around 3000m. It’s a really protected area with no roads going into it, so it’s super wild. To be in the middle of it is quite an adventure already because you’re really by yourself. Maybe you don’t have phone service, and rescue would be complicated.

But the landscapes are just insanely beautiful. So you don’t always have to go too far. I’d like to go to the Dolomites as well because I love that region.

But all the alps are beautiful.

What’s the longest you’ve flown for?

Four hours. I’ve always been limited by having a bad urge to pee. The good guys have these pee tubes so they can pee in the sky into a bag.

No way.

Yeah, and apparently that’s a game-changer.

Because normally, as soon as you want to pee, you really have to land because it’s so disturbing and your focus is not as good. But yeah, my maximum was four hours and something like 50 kilometres.

So I’d leave from home, do like a nice little tour around Les Deux Alpes, and come back again.

I wonder what they do if they have to take a shit.

Well, maybe a shit it is less urgent, you probably

don’t need to shit as many times as peeing, unless you’re sick. And if you’re sick, you probably shouldn’t fly at all. But, I don’t know, I could imagine that one day someone tried to poop from the sky.

Nice pictures in my mind right now... Ok, let’s move on from flying. I wanted to ask you about events because I know that you’ve done a few, and I was wondering what the process of putting them together is like and if you can see yourself doing more of them in the future?

Yeah, I love it. Events are really cool, they’re big projects with a lot to think about, and all this work is just for one or two days. But I think it’s cool because it’s pretty intense, and that’s it. And you can repeat it the year after. I think I had this dream when I was making the Muzelle festival, that’s a mini-event I’ve been doing in France. I thought maybe I could start something that people would want to be a part of that could grow by itself, maybe become a little bit of a community. But I’m away from home a little bit too often to really make this happen, and I wouldn’t say that it ended up happening like this. Events are great though. I’m going to a lot of concerts, festivals exhibitions. We had this soccer tournament for a while with snowboarders, the Atlantic Cup. For me, all these events or happenings that are a bit outside of your daily life always bring you something.

They’re something I really like.

Spot to Spot was also so much fun in Avoriaz two years ago. We were all so wet, but the vibes were really good.

Yeah. The atmosphere was amazing, and when it catches on like this, that’s exactly what you’re

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14.11.2021 01:12

looking for when you start to imagine events. It was pouring with rain, but we were still snowboarding all day. The spirits were high. I don’t know why. Another time it might have been icy, and it could have been really shitty. That’s what’s funny about events. Honestly though, Jeb and Vince and the guys at Volcom really do everything when it comes to organising it. I’m not really good at this, but you can always work on things. I’m going to do the Muzelle festival again next June. This is the one that I have to do a lot of stuff myself. If this one catches on, it’s one more good experience, and this is definitely something that I would want to keep on doing.

I think events are important.

There’s just a bit more connection to other people and more of an experience than just watching a video on a screen.

Yeah, totally. An event can include filming too, where you can screen projects. But I think you’re right.

There’s kind of a rule that every year there will be a new snowboard movie, even though you maybe didn’t think of a good idea, and just have to make something. A movie will always be a movie, with songs and snowboarding and a crew.

But you can be a bit more creative with events. It’s a really good way for kids to have good memories and experiences too. I grew up with an event called Mondial du Snowboard. It was created when I was 1. It went on for something like twenty years. It was an early-season thing in Les Deux Alpes where there was so many snowboarders, all the brands, a vert ramp, concerts and stuff. They are some of my best snowboard memories. People had a real experience and didn’t just watch a movie.

Yeah, I think that’s a really key point difference.

Exactly. Maybe what we like with making movies is that we have a bit more control of it, and we can showcase the best of a winter. But they’re a bit less spontaneous. Of course, one event is probably not going to have the same intensity as a movie that you make for a year, but it’s just a different experience.

I know what you mean.

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I should probably ask you something about your movie ‚Elles’. What is it?

What’s going on?

Tanner Pendleton and I were talking together for a long time, for three years maybe, about making something.

That was in 2019, before COVID. I’m not sure how much of a plan we’d made, but Vans wanted to make a movie with me sort of at the centre.

Tanner is definitely one of my favourite filmers. We did a little clip in 2019 that we didn’t release yet, and I think that will be the teaser of my movie. This clip was amazing. I really love it. This is what we based the project on a little bit, the feel and the aesthetic. Then COVID hit, so we had to change our plans. Tanner couldn’t film, so Olivier Gittler came onto the project as the 16mm rookie. We were lucky to have Jake Price too. I wanted to ride with as many of the Vans team as I could, but

22 Proofed_GO LONG.indd 22

it didn’t happen because they were in the US, so I was mostly by myself in Europe. In the end, we wanted to do a modest movie and step away from backcountry perfection. You just don’t get that many perfect days! Also, I enjoy day-to-day riding. As a viewer of skateboarding or other things that I like, I enjoy them even when they’re not at an insane level of perfection. I like to see mistakes and spontaneity.

We wanted to do a project with resort riding and just see what happened.

Of course, it sounds good, but it might not look as impressive. It’s more spectacular to see a huge cliff, but that’s what we went for. It’s fifteen minutes, really modest, cool to watch.

It’s not a masterpiece, but we still love it.

go. We’ve spoken a lot about the future, and I thought about titling this interview ‚Go Long’. It’s not the smartest bit of wordplay, but I think it’s quite appropriate given what we’ve spoen about.

Yeah, it’s totally ok. Do you know what ‚verlan’ is?

Nice, we look forward to seeing it.

One last question, and I’ll let you

Very happy to hear that. Thanks Arthur!

I don’t.

It’s a thing in the French language where we reverse parts of words. So ‚Go Long’ is the verlan of my family name.

Ok, nice, that makes it seem more intelligent than I intended it to be.

Ok, cool. And congratulations on the mags. I think they always look super nice, and I always enjoy reading them.

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* ARTHUR LONGO ON THE SUPER D.O.A.

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ART PAGE 22.2

CHRISTINE LAMBERT INTERVIEW. CAITLIN MURRAY

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am originally from Pennsylvania, and both of my parents work at Big Boulder, so that’s where I started snowboarding. I then moved to New Hampshire, and I went to Plymouth State for art. Now I’m in Salt Lake in Utah and have been here for a little over a year. Apart from drawing, I like to go hiking with my dog Goblin and snowboard when I can.

Your style is really cool. What inspires your work?

It sounds really simple, but I like to just walk around and find random things that appeal to me. Even if it’s stupid, I just draw it. I think the best part is that through collaging random things together, you can kind of find a through-line of meaning. Even if it looks random and doesn’t have a meaning at all, it doesn’t matter. When I was a teenager, the two things I really cared about was snowboarding and art. Convinced I would go pro one day (dreaming big), I saw art as just a hobby. But in my senior year of High school, I shattered my shoulder pretty badly, so I chose to focus on art way more.

You have loads of nice tattoo flash on your Insta. Tell us more about that and how you got into it.

I taught myself how to draw through tracing traditional tattoo designs when I was 14. Shortly after that, I tried to give myself a stick and poke in my room because I was inherently fascinated by how tattoos work. As the years went on, I started doing more realistic drawings, but now I’m back drawing traditional tats again. I tried my first apprenticeship at 18 when I had nothing but a quarter-sized tattoo on my wrist, but that fell through for obvious reasons. So I went to school instead to make the parents happy, and I tattooed friends there on and

24 Proofed_ART PAGE.indd 24

off. I am currently tattooing part-time and hoping to be full time by the end of the year.

Do you have anyone that you particularly look up to in snowboarding and art?

When I was young, Desiree Melcancon showed me that you can be a girl who snowboards and not just be a token. Ed Templeton is a skateboarder but showed me you like a board sport and incorporate it into your art. Jamian Juliano-Villani is a New York painter and set me on a solid path art-wise. I watched her Art21 interview, and it was like she put into words what I’ve been trying to say for years. Her process is pretty much identical to mine as well, just on a sadder scale.

You recently won the Salomon Stay Inside the Lines design competition. Congrats! Can people buy the board?

Sadly people cannot purchase the board.. but hopefully a design of mine will be available for purchase soon. I have gotten some opportunities from it, though.

design some posters and things, so I did.

Any advice for other aspiring creatives out there?

If you’re trying to get into a creative activity, just do it. I mean this in a good way, but literally no one cares if you’re good or bad. Just that you’re doing it is enough. I am not kidding when I say no drawing is bad. I love seeing the bad stuff because it’s genuine and different.

Last words are yours.

Shoutout to Audrey and Rose for helping me word this out. And if you’re in the Salt Lake area and interested in getting a tat or if you like my art and need a commission, follow me on Instagram at @crusttine and shoot me a DM :)

Did you ride the board, or has it taken pride of place on your wall?

The board is currently safely on my wall! They sent me a 156 men’s board which is a little too big for my liking, but I might use it in the powder this winter.

H P

I also saw that you designed a poster for Seen Snowboarding.

How did you get involved with that?

For those who don’t know, Seen Snowboarding is a group that organises LGBTQ+ meetups for people in the snowboard community.

I got involved after going to one of their meetups at Woodward Park City last winter. After going, I was dying to

De co bu an

METHOD 21 ----------- 22.2 / ART PAGE

14.11.2021 01:14

Designed in collaboration with Jones team rider Victor De Le Rue, the completely redesigned Aviator 2.0 is a hard charging directional twin built for expert all-mountain riders who like to rail turns and stomp airs anywhere on the mountain.

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Victor De Le Rue Ahriel Povich

HIGH FLYING PERFORMANCE

Apollo

Aviator 2.0

14.11.2021 01:14

22.2

I NEED WOP YOU NEED WOP WE NEED WOP SWITCH BS WALLRIDE PHOTO. IINA NISKANEN

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14.11.2021 01:16

22.2

5 tips about management

YANNECK KONDA

1.

2.

3.

4.

PHOTO. MARKUS ROHRBACHER

5.

business

Don’t dress like a typical BM student.

Find friends who attend class while you go snowboarding.

Try to find old exams from other students and learn them instead of 200 pages of script.

Don’t trust students who pretend to truly like BM. If you hate math, don’t even think about it!

3.

4.

5.

Bolognese.

Kässpatzen.

Cheese Omelette.

Different kinds of cream sauce.

Risotto.

Improves your snowboard rail skills.

Better than going into the gym.

Mixture of snowboarding and surfing.

Underrated.

It’s so much fun!

5 things about YAS 1.

2.

3.

3.

4.

5.

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Suncream.

Jägermeister.

Dry boots.

Speed checks.

Bluebird.

5 favourite snowboarders 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Elias Elhardt.

Arthur Longo.

David Benedek.

Louif Paradis.

Alex Tank.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

2.

2.

totally

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.

Hey, my name’s Microsoft.

Can I crash at your place tonight?

Are you French? Because Eiffel for you.

Did your license get suspended for driving all these guys crazy?

When I text you goodnight later, what phone number should I use?

Don’t you just hate it when people try to use pickup lines on you?

are

5 things that make you happy

5 things about wakeboarding

1.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

that

5 things to cook

5.

5 cheesy pick up lines

5 things overrated

4.

5.

A group of friends with the same passion.

We got to know each other through snowboarding (German national team).

Combines snow, skate and wakeboarding.

Filmcrew.

Filmer: Felix Weise.

Sports.

Good food.

Friends.

Family.

Traveling.

5 favourite video parts 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Elias Elhardt - “Alive and Kickin” & Pirates “Distorted Reality”.

Alex Tank - Isenseven “Fools Gold”.

Sami Luthanen Pirates “Perceptions”.

Ender part (Gang Shred) of Nitro’s “The Bad Seeds”.

Louis Paradis - “Beacon”.

Halldor Helgason - “Future of Yesterday”.

[I know that’s 7 but I couldn’t decide which ones to take out!]

5 places to snowboard 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Allgäu! My favorite resort there is Nebelhorn. Perfect place to build jumps and have a sundowner BBQ session with the boys!

Hochgrat: This resort only has one slope - POWPOW Nesselwang Snowpark Crystal Ground Snowpark Arlberg

METHOD 21 ----------- 22.2 / 5 THINGS

14.11.2021 01:19

RIDE_PSY

SNOWBOARDS FOR EVERYBODY

RIDER: HANA BEAMAN PHOTO: ERIK HOFFMAN

RIDER: SEVERIN VAN DER MEER AS SEEN IN CHROMA PHOTO: SILVANO ZEITER

EQUALLY PSYCHO

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10/11/21 PM 14.11.20215:31 01:19

HAPPENINGS

22.2

INTERVIEW WITH MAX GLATZL PHOTO. THEO ACWORTH

SANE SPRING BREAK

What is Spring Break?

It’s a snowboard event at Nordkette Skyline Park at Seegrube, where we, the Sane! Crew, build our own park with Bjartne and Alex and the rest of the shapers and shred for the last three weeks of the season.

Why do you do it?

I just love everything about it. Designing your own park, building everything with my best friends. What we love most is when all the people come up and enjoy the setup. You find new lines every single day, and everyone has a blast. Seeing that, that’s the best feeling for us.

How much work is it?

Building, designing, getting everything ready, it’s a lot. But it totally pays off in the end.

What lessons have you learnt along the way?

Preparation is key.

How should people behave when they come up?

There are a lot of lines, so definitely take care of others. Be friendly, don’t leave your trash. And if you know how to reshape, then of course, a helping hand is always appreciated at the end of the day.

What’s the hardest thing about doing a park in this location?

For sure, it’s avalanches. We never know how much snow is coming from the ‘Nordstau’, which is when the snow comes from the North. Sometimes we have to dig the rails out and put them back in. It might snow a lot, or nothing, but you just never know.

Also the terrain is a mixture of steep and flat, which can be a struggle.

ALEX FISCHER

Last words are yours: I’m stoked about the event and how far it came. I’m happy that we can do it every year, and I hope we’ll do it for twenty more years.

I just love it!

MICHI SCHATZ

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07/10/2021 01:24 11:42 14.11.2021

FRED COUDERC PHOTO. SYLVAIN COCHARD

When did you start West?

We started the project in 2013, and the first boards were available in a few retailers in September 2014.

Where do you make the boards?

We create everything here in Western Switzerland and send to production at Meditec (Tunisia) for the boards and at Gara (Czeck Republic) for the splitboards.

DAVID LAMBERT PHOTO. FRED COUDERC

LITTLE LABELS

What’s the attitude behind the brand? #Fortheloveofsnowboarding - Doing what we love and what we want to do. Not asking ourselves too many questions about the market and having fun doing this business together. „For the love of snowboarding” is an excellent guideline.

Firstly, it makes us product-oriented, making a high standard product with fine attention to detail. Secondly, this mojo is also about creating our community around us. No matter if you are a street jibber or a lonely splitboarder in search of new horizons, we are all linked by this love of snowboarding. This is what we have aimed for since the beginning, to be an eclectic brand.

What lessons have you learned since you started the brand?

Think enough, but not too far. Listen more than you talk and, especially, keep having fun and a strong interest in what you do.

What’s the best thing about running a snowboard brand?

A dream come true - an achievement. Besides, it’s quite fun to be compared with some other brands which you have loved for a big part of your life.

What’s the worst thing about running a snowboard brand?

Running ;-) What’s coming up in the future for West?

We have such a freestyle approach to running the brand that we don’t even know what’s next ourselves. But certainly some more limited editions and exclusive products. Potentially more splitboards in the range.

22.2

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID LAMBERT WEST FOUNDER AND CEO

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Last words are yours: Thanks to everyone who’s supporting our project. Keep shredding as much as you can. Keep doing it with all the love you have for snowboarding and the environment you are playing in.

METHOD 21 ----------- 22.2 / LITTLE LABELS

17.11.2021 00:40

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17.11.2021 00:41

IT’S MID NOVEMBER, AND DIYX STRT JAM JUST HAPPENED. NOT ONLY DID IT HAPPEN, IT WENT OFF. THE LAST SESSION FINISHED YESTERDAY AND WE HAVE TO SEND THIS MAG TO THE PRINTERS IN TWO DAYS, SO HERE’S A VERY QUICK RECAP OF WHAT WENT DOWN. Joe Simpson can climb. There were Olympians in attendance, and they party hard. Jacco Bos briefly set himself on fire. The Rusty Toothbrush motorbike winch should be a permanent fixture at STRT JAM. Zak Hale shouted at all the movies during the Method Movie Night. Johnny O’Connor fell asleep and missed them all. Niels Schack is an amazing musician and will one day play at Coachella. Not even Sparrow Knox knows what he did this weekend. Joseph Roby sold 30 photos of swans to pay for his ticket here, and also shotgunned a Monster. Apparently Red Gerard said this was the best thing he’s ever seen. Zeb Powell is a beast and burned his eyebrows while lipsliding with a flaming torch. Montagu’s blueberry cocktails are delicious. Boards were broken but no one died, officially. Somene got a souvenier. All the volunteers, shapers and event organisers are awesome. Max Buri came. Ethan Morgan is a king. We needed this, and you’d better believe that we’re only getting started.

Photos. NORTHY, ZOO TAPES, MOJO, ACWORTH, BAUMAN, WILL RAD, ROBY, PROUZA

ZEB POWELL PHOTO. NORTHY

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METHOD 21 -----------

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RACHIDA AOULAD PHOTO. ACWORTH

KASPER DE ZOETE PHOTO. WILL RAD

ZEB POWELL PHOTO. ACWORTH

ETHAN MORGAN PHOTO. BAUMAN

LEN JØRGENSEN PHOTO. ACWORTH ---------- 22.3

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35

DIYX STRT JAM 17.11.2021 00:39

FABI FRAIDL PHOTO. ACWORTH

ZEB POWELL PHOTO. ZOO TAPES

LEN JØRGENSEN PHOTO. PROUZA

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MEES OOSTDIJK PHOTO. ACWORTH

METHOD 21 -----------

17.11.2021 00:39

“I’D OFFER YOU A LIFT TO THE AFTERPARTY, BUT ALL I HAVE IS A SKATEBOARD AND A MINIATURE PIANO.” SPARROW KNOX “I’M LIKE 14-YEAR-OLD STONED AGAIN.” WILL SMITH “IT’S SORT OF A MISFIT GATHERING OF SICK PEOPLE WHO JUST LIKE TO SNOWBOARD FOR THEMSELVES, AND NOT FOR SOMEONE ELSE.” LEN JØRGENSEN “I WAS TOO DRUNK FOR ANNA’S PREMIERE.” YLFA RÚNARSDÓTTIR “10 OUT OF 10 FOR ORGANISATION, 0 OUT OF 10 FOR EXECUTION.” MARCUS SKIN “BEST EVENT IN SNOWBOARDING, BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE.” ZAK HALE “I’M GETTING MARRIED TONIGHT SO I CAN GET MY AUSTRIAN CITIZENSHIP AND COME LIVE HERE.” JOSEPH ROBY “THANKS ETHAN FOR THE VODKA WELLNESS.” YUNGDOLI “WE NEED MORE OF THIS IN SNOWBOARDING.” ZEB POWELL “FUCK MATE, I FEEL LIKE I’M BACK IN 1998!”

GUMBY

“STRT JAM IS LIKE WHEN YOUR PANTS ARE OFF AND YOUR DICK IS OUT BEFORE YOUR SHIRT IS OFF. JUST STRAIGHT UP DIYX.” FRIDGE

SEB PICARD PHOTO. ACWORTH

---------- 22.3

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37

DIYX STRT JAM 17.11.2021 00:39

22.2

INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH PHOTO. TATU TOIVANEN

PRODUCTION VALUES

RENE RINNEKANGAS ‘SUGARED’ Hey Rene, how many people are there in Finland with the name Rinnekangas?

It’s pretty rare. I think anyone with that name is related. The Kangas part is more common. Rinne means a slope, and Kangas means canvas, or fabric.

Tell us what’s up with Sugared. Is it just you in the movie?

It’s pretty much only me riding, and some friends have a couple of tricks, like Tatu, who was taking the photos.

Where were you shooting?

We had some big plans to go to Japan and ride some pow, but due to that thing in the world, we couldn’t really go anywhere. So we just went with what we had and filmed the whole thing in Finland.

In spring, we also went up to Riksgränsen in the north of Sweden. That will be one part, and then one street part.

How did you find the balance between competing and filming?

I always ask myself that, how I find the time to do both. I had two ankle surgeries before last winter, so I started the season a bit late and couldn’t do too much. But we started filming street pretty early.

Then there were a few contests after Christmas and in January. Whenever I was back home, I would film. It was a pretty busy schedule and it’s always hard to find time for both. There’s always a week here or there, but a week goes quick when you spend two days building a spot. But we have a small crew, and I’m pretty much the only rider, so we could get shots pretty fast.

Was it ever stressful switching from the filming environment to contests, or vice versa?

Sometimes. Right before the World Champs, I was filming street for three weeks straight. I didn’t ride resorts at all. I went from the streets straight to the US, and I didn’t even know if I could do a front 3 anymore! But I think shooting street helped a lot because when I got back to the resorts, everything just felt nice, and I was excited to do my tricks because I hadn’t done them for a while. Everything was kind of new again. So I actually loved mixing street and contest riding.

Have you ever made a movie before?

No, not really. Besides Real Street, this was the first real project. We wanted it to be longer and try to show a bit more of who I am and what I’m doing.

That was special for all of us, and I’m really grateful to have such nice people around me who support me doing the thing I love the most.

Have you learnt anything from the last year?

Yeah, a lot. We had to think about all the behind the scenes stuff and the story of the movie a bit more. I don’t have much experience with powder jumps, so I learned a lot about that and being in the backcountry with sleds and stuff. That was so nice.

Is the video a mixture of fun stuff and gnarly stuff?

It’s a mix of everything. We have this beautiful thing called snowboarding with no rules and no single right way to do it, so I think it’s nice to show people as much as you can. That’s the way that I ride. There is some small stuff and some bigger stuff. But I was stoked to bring some tricks from the slopes to the streets, and I hope people like what we got.

R

B

B

P

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14.11.2021 01:35

ALL WAYS DOWN ALL WAYS DOWN ALL WAYS DOWN

RIDER / RENE RINNEKANGAS

BOARD / STALE MOD

BINDINGS / 390 BOSS

PHOTO / TATU TOIVANEN

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@romesnowboards

14.11.2021 01:35

INTERVIEW WITH TEAM RIDER OSKAR FRITZSCHE PHOTO. KRISTIN LUDWIG

So what’s up with Canary Cartel?

It’s a brand that’s 100% snowboarder driven. Our goal is to do things our own way and make quality snowboards affordable for everyone.

What does the name mean?

Pretty much nonsense, and maybe that’s why we like it so much. The Cartel part of it is because it’s a just a real crew, and we love to spend time together.

OSKAR FRITZSCHE 22.2

LITTLE LABELS

What kind of boards do you make?

Mostly all-mountain freestyle boards. We love all types of snowboards, but that’s what we can do best. We want to make Freestyle Great Again!

What struggles do you face as a small brand?

Being recognised as a real brand and not a group of kids trying to make it happen.

From development to sales and retail, there’s a lot of experience in the business between all of us.

For you as a rider, how has the experience been of starting a brand and making boards?

Designing snowboards is pretty hard, especially getting everything done in time, but it’s a dream come true. I always wanted to share my ideas and get into the process of how that all works. Now I have the chance to do that with my best friends. It’s a huge pile of stuff to do and it doesn’t pay back yet, but we do for the love of it.

How has the sales season been going for you guys this year?

I would say really good. Despite COVID, we almost doubled the sales and new markets are opening for us, especially the Far East. We’re really inspired by Japanese snowboard culture, so we’re really stoked to be selling over there.

Where can people buy the boards?

On our web store, Moreboards, Blue Tomato and several core shops all over Europe.

Will Simon Houlind personally deliver them if people order online?

If it’s around Oslo, I hope so! We will personally deliver boards to some shops in Germany and Austria. We deeply believe in human contact. Deliver directly from the truck!

Who’s on the team right now?

Simon Houlind & Rasmus Nielsen, who are also the guys behind some of the motion design. Christian Kirsch is our Brand Manager and he’s doing most of the sales, and our Party Crasher (if you know you know).

PJ Ganz is our man overseas, and then there’s myself. I also help with sales and designs.

Behind the scenes we have Ross the Old Dog, he’s been in the industry for over 20 years and really knows how to make things work. We are looking forward to adding some new flavour to the team, but nothing official yet.

What’s coming up in the future for Canary Cartel?

Oh man, definitely a lot of noise! Kirschi & Me will have a part in the new Stay Basket movie which is Simon’s own project along with Ras and the Norwegian homies. We’re also about to restart our TNT Event tournament, a fun format with special features and the team to hype the crowd. Also we have the Innsbrooklyn Test Range so whenever somebody wants to test a board, hit us up on Instagram @canarycartel and pick your board!

Last words are yours: Thanks to everyone who supports us or wants to do that in the future! And much love to Method, thank you for the interview. Y’all are the Canary Cartel!

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14.11.2021 01:38

SEE NAI IN:

RIDER: NAIMA ANTOLIN PHOTO: NEIL DACOSTA

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14.11.2021 01:38

PHOTO & WORDS. THEO ACWORTH

GOT THE SHOT - MORITZ AMSÜSS

We started shooting this satellitelooking spot during the day and got a sick handplant pretty quickly, but I wanted to try a shot at night. The other riders on the session got their shots, darkness fell, and the winch stopped working. Typical.

We returned a few days later to find that most of the snow had gone, and what was left was solid ice. We also didn’t have lights, and last bit of the

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transition was bare stone. Luckily Moritz is an insane snowboarder, and he smashed out several perfect handplants for me. At least I think they were perfect. It was dark and I was quite far away, and couldn’t actually see him. So this shot was taken based on the sound of the in-run and what I guessed was the right moment, rather than the sight of the handplant itself. Some might call it luck, I call it... well, luck, I guess. So what?

Lorenz Holder shot a photo of Tobi Strauss on this spot about ten years ago, doing the same trick. He was also wearing red. Maybe you could see this shot as a tribute to the Isenseven days..? We’ll leave that one up to you, and you can go roast us online if you want. The angle of that photo was different to this one anyway, and you know what, I think Moritz’s handplant is nicer!

22.2

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SP ENCE 17.11.2021 00:21

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PH O T O: COLT MORGAN 17.11.2021 00:21

T

HROUGHOUT THE FILMING OF SCANDALNAVIANS II, LUDDE WENT ON A BIT OF A RAMPAGE. STREET, POW, HE PRETTY MUCH DESTROYED EVERYTHING IN HIS PATH, AND ENDED UP WITH A TWO-SONG ENDER. THEY WEREN’T TOO SHORT SONGS EITHER, AND IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW ALREADY, THE PART MARKED HIM AS A TRUE ATV. SOME PEOPLE MIGHT TAKE IT EASY AFTER DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT, BUT THIS YEAR HE’S BEEN OUT WITH BEYOND MEDALS AND HAS ONCE AGAIN STACKED ENOUGH FOOTAGE IN ‘RELAPSE’ TO FILL TWO BANGER PARTS, WITH SHOTS TO SPARE. IT MUST BE A VIKING THING. PHOTO. ALEX ROBERTS

INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH

Kuske [Kristoffer Fahlgren, Scandalnavians filmer] told me that you used to freak out at spots a lot, but you don’t anymore. Did you figure out some new techniques to stay calm?

I got older and grew up a little, got a bit more understanding. As a kid, I guess I was like that, freaking out a lot more and not controlling my anger as much. But now I can see through it, and I know that there’s always another day coming up. I also learned that it’s easier if you are more committed to a trick. If you decided to do something anyway, why wait for it?

You’re one of those ATV riders who crushes it in both street and pow. How do you balance them, and how do they compare?

I always wanted to do both and looked up to riders

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who did that. I guess when you from Sweden, it’s more obvious that you that you end up riding street.

But yeah, it’s nice doing both. Last winter, I was really hyped to go to Stockholm and ride street. It’s always nice to change scenery every now and then. It keeps me motivated.

Were you hitting new stuff in Stockholm or classic spots?

I guess a few of them have been hit before, we were stressing because there hasn’t been snow for a few years in Stockholm, and we’ve been lazy with scoping since we kind of gave up hoping that it would snow. But there’s so many new spots, I really hope we get another good winter here.

I always thought it was one of those places that METHOD 21 -----------

14.11.2021 01:44

Unless you’re Nils Arvidsson, then all you need is some frost to ride on.

Ah yeah, you mean the pump track and skatepark stuff? That’s so sick. That’s how it looks for a large part of the year in some areas of Sweden. We don’t always get that much snow. It might just be cold and grey.

SWITCH BACKSIDE TAILSLIDE

MONSTER FS 50-50

always had snow in the winter. I didn’t realise it hadn’t happened for a while.

We were hoping to hit it for Scandalnavians, but the snow just never really came. Or if it did, it was only for a couple of days. This year it stayed for about a month. Not loads, but enough snow to film with, at least.

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MONSTER FRONTBOARD

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FIRECRACKER 50-50 TO LIPSLIDE

Have you been riding street for longer than backcountry?

Not really, about the same time. I used to ride mostly park, so that’s where it all comes from. I guess I like both as much.

You were competing up until quite recently. When did you quit the Swedish national team?

It was the first year that we were filming for Scandalnavians. I hadn’t got any contest results in a long time and we all saw it coming. They said that if I didn’t come to the Swedish championships, then that was it for me. So I stayed in the alps since I had the chance to film for Scandalnavians that winter, I definitely knew I was doing the right thing for me.

Sounds like a natural ending.

I always wanted to film anyways. But coming from Sweden and going to the snowboard school it came natural

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that you started doing contests.

It’s definitely a more established way with a path and a schedule to follow.

You don’t have to do it like that, though. It’s so sick if you don’t and find another way, like filming.

Does doing filming street and pow give you double the opportunity to stack clips? Is that why you had so much footage? *Laughs* I guess it’s easier to get more shots in a way, but you’re still working with the same amount of time. I don’t know.

Did you know that you had the Scandalnavians II ender before you saw it?

No, I didn’t. It was so cool. It’s insane, actually. Now I’m riding with people that I looked up to as a kid, like Nils, Tor [Lundstrom] or Kevin

[Backstrom]. When we were at school in Stockholm, Nils was a god! Writing to him on Facebook or something because we didn’t know him then and freaking out if you saw him. They were like legends to us. Especially as a kid, you see these people as real heroes.

I still trip out at the people that I get to hang and shoot with, even though I consider them as my friends. I’ve heard that you have another twosong part in the Beyond Medals video ‚Relapse’?

Yeah, I guess so.

Back-to-back double song parts?

That’s nuts, what’s going on dude!?

I don’t know! It worked pretty good with the street footage we got in Stockholm. The first part is street from there, and then it’s backcountry from the Alps, and Riksgränsen.

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FRONTSIDE 720

DOUBLE CRIPPLER

Anything less than two songs might seem anticlimactic now. Do you ever worry that you’ve set the bar too high for yourself and that it will be hard to follow these parts up?

You just want to try and do better than you did the year before. It doesn’t really matter. It’s sick if everyone gets their best part for the movie. It all ends up together. Especially for Beyond Medals, we’re such a big group of friends who all want the best for everyone.

How does this part compare to your Scandalnavians ender?

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his winter with all these restrictions.

In Scandalnavians we travelled a bit more and did some trips with a smaller crew, so it was easier to do more natural stuff. Our crew this year was bigger on trips so it was easier to build jumps, so all of us could get shots. So we didn’t do as much natural stuff, but it was sick.

Have you filmed with those guys before?

A bit. I’d accidentally been on some trips with them in the same place.

Any good Kuske stories for us?

The one that always pops into my head is from Riksgränsen. We got home really late after shooting, and we’d had a few beers. He got completely fucked because we didn’t have any dinner. He was like a drunk teenager. We only had around five beers, and he was gone.

Who’s your favourite Scandalnavian to party with?

I really like to have a few beers with Kuske. Otherwise, the whole Beyond Medals crew.

I also heard that you’re trading stocks in your spare time. How long have you been doing that?

Not too long. I just think it’s interesting and want to learn more from it.

Have you made money or lost money?

I made a little bit.

How much have you made so far?

Couple grand this year. But I sold most of it because the market has been quite unstable.

Maybe you should buy some stocks in Methodmag. We’re always a safe bet.

Always :)

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LUDVIG BILLTOFT 14.11.2021 01:44

OUR FRIEND CARLOS BLANCHARD RECENTLY LAUNCHED A BOOK TITLED ‚DREAMS’ IN COLLABORATION WITH BURTON. THE BOOK FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHS OF ADAPTIVE ATHLETES CHRIS VOS, LISA BUNSCHOTEN AND RENSKE VAN BEEK AS THEY TRAINED IN FLACHAUWINKL, AUSTRIA, AND PYHÄ, FINLAND. THEY ALL COMPETE IN SBX AND BANKED SLALOM ON AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, RANGING FROM DEW TOUR TO THE PARALYMPICS. WE SHARED A FEW CONVERSATIONS WITH THEM IN HINTERTUX, AUSTRIA, AS WELL AS A FEW RUNS ON THE HILL. THEIR BALANCE AND STRENGTH AREN’T THE SAME AS NON-DISABLED SNOWBOARDERS, BUT THEIR FIRE FOR SLIDING SIDEWAYS BURNS JUST AS STRONG. CHRIS’ RIGHT LEG IS PARALYSED. LISA IS MISSING HER LEFT LEG BELOW THE PHOTO. KNEE. RENSKE SUFFERED A STROKE AGED TEN AND WAS RUN OVER BY A CARLOS BLANCHARD TRUCK AGED FIFTEEN. DESPITE THESE ENORMOUS SETBACKS, THEY ARE STILL INTERVIEWS. CHARGING OUT ON THE HILL AS HARD AS ANYONE ELSE, IF NOT HARDER. THESE THEO ACWORTH ARE THE KIND OF RIDERS WHO’VE LOOKED ADVERSITY IN THE FACE AND SAID, ‚GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY, I’M GOING SNOWBOARDING.’

Is there anyone else in the world that has an orthosis [external brace] like this?

No, I’m the only one. It’s made by BioDapt, who is actually my biggest competitor in snowboarding.

He made above the knee prosthetics and under the knee prosthetics. My leg is paralysed, but I still have my leg, so it’s much more complex to make the prosthetic fit around it and work. Getting to this stage has been a journey of ten years.

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That’s crazy that you compete against the guy who helped make it. It’s a friendly relationship, I hope..?

Yeah, for sure. I’ve known him for a long time.

He was a professional snowmobiler, racing in XGames, and he lost his leg while racing. He’s also a snowboarder and a mechanic. He wanted to get out riding again, so he built his own leg. Then he also thought he could help others with it, so he started his company. He won the Paralympics, and I got silver. The year after, he reached out and asked if he could help me with my leg.

22.2

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Have you always used this shock, or have you tried different ones?

I tried different ones. At first, I had dirt-bike suspension. It was pre-tuned for much heavier loads. Now I have this mountain bike shock. If you put this one on a mountain bike with these settings, it would probably be really sloppy. But the normal bike rebound is way too much for me. It needs to repeat what I do with my left leg and go with me when I’m riding. When it’s in full compression, I also have to be able to do little movements and steer.

Racing is a very physically testing discipline. Do you often break your orthosis?

I didn’t always have the shock. That helps a lot. But there is so much rotation and torsion involved that they would often break. I’ve broken my walking leg way more than this one.

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DREAMS 14.11.2021 01:47

You mentioned earlier that this prosthesis is a completely new one for you?

It is. I got it a week ago. I had a test version of it a year and a half ago, but the fit wasn’t too good.

I was getting so many cramps in my leg that I couldn’t actually tell if it was working too well, so I put it away. There’s a system in this one that means I can make it bigger or smaller. I tried it six days indoors and two days this week on the mountain, and it works really well. I’m really happy with it.

How did you develop it? Are you working with one person or multiple people?

I work with one main person, but together with coaches and other people looking at different angles. The brace on it is made by different people than the prosthetic. There’s a Dutch guy who makes the prosthetics for most Paralympic athletes from the Netherlands.

Has the design of it changed much since you first started?

Four years ago, I didn’t need the same thing that I need now. I got stronger, my riding improved.

It’s like if you start on a beginner board and then progress. There was a point where the old brace wasn’t strong enough. But this one now wouldn’t have worked for me five years ago.

I never would have thought about it like that, but of course that makes complete sense. When did you first start snowboarding?

When I was thirteen, I started because of my brother.

I started racing when I was sixteen or seventeen.

Do you enjoy the competitive environment?

I do. I really like racing and progressing. Especially SBX when you’re on the course altogether. Riding together as fast as you can, passing, the tactical side of it, I love it. But I also love just riding with friends without any pressure.

What’s your proudest competitive moment?

Probably winning the Dew Tour banked slalom.

That’s rad! Banked slaloms are definitely a real test of a snowboarder’s skills.

I am also double World Champion in SBX and Banked Slaom, which I have to defend in January.

I’m excited about it because the contest was cancelled last year.

What is the biggest challenge for you when it comes to riding?

From the physical side, it’s not having ankle movement. I want to do everything 100%, so I have a hard time accepting the circumstances not being as good. I always want to have the perfect

22.2

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time to train. Maybe we don’t need full-time jobs anymore to support us doing this. This is really my job.

It’s not the same in every country, but we have really good support in the Netherlands. I can put my time into training and getting better. A lot more countries have good support for adaptive snowboarders now, and that’s really pushing the level up.

turn, but you just can’t. So that’s a big challenge for me. But trying to reach that perfection will always make you better. It’s something I face and have to deal with, but it helps me to get better and still progress.

To turn with style is a very difficult thing, but I saw you ride, and you definitely turn with style. Are you doing the next Paralympics?

I hope so. I’ve done two already, Sochi and Korea. I got silver in SBX and bronze in Banked Slalom. So the gold is still missing!

Fingers crossed for you! How did you find the experience of Russia compared to Korea?

In Sochi, I was pretty young, and the sport was also pretty new. So it was smaller, and there was less pressure on me. Korea was way more pressure, but I enjoyed them both.

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I already had the experience from Sochi, so I knew what was going to come in Pyeongchang. It wasn’t such a surprise, but there was more pressure to win. The big difference was that in Sochi, we had SBX, but it was done as a time trial. You did three runs, and your best two counted. But in Korea, we had Banked Slalom and SBX, which was done with heats. I think it was way better. So the sport has developed so much over four years, it was a totally different world.

And now in Beijing, we do heats with four riders instead of two.

It sounds like the sport is growing pretty rapidly?

The level has definitely grown. It’s still not a huge field. We really need more people in the sport to keep it going, which is one of the reasons I’m so excited about this project with Burton. I don’t want to see the sport dying. I want to see other people coming into it and enjoying it as much as I do. I think the level has been going crazy. Courses have improved, federations are investing, we have

How much did your prosthesis cost, and do the Dutch federation help pay for it?

They raised money to help me get the leg. But I can’t just ask for whatever I want. We have to pay for them ourselves. My snowboard leg cost around 6000€. I always have spare parts with me when I travel.

You don’t want to invest four years of training and then get to the Games, be in the gate, and not be able to do your best because something goes wrong and breaks, and you can’t replace it. The cost definitely makes it harder to get into. You need to be riding a lot to progress yourself, but on the other hand, it’s super expensive if you’re breaking your prosthetic. The costs don’t motivate people to start moving. I always travel with my legs as hand luggage.

Boots and boards are replaceable, but I always take the legs with me.

Is the adaptive community very connected? Do you feel like you’re pushing things collectively?

Yes. It’s like a family. People are coming in and out, but even the ones who aren’t competing anymore are still a part of it and still pushing it. When you’re on the course, you’re competitors, but next to that, we all try to push it together. Everyone brings something special. If I tell non-disabled people I’m racing snowboards, they don’t believe I can do it. That’s something we all experience in the para snowboard community. That’s why we want to push it together.

I think you’re definitely proving that.

But we can’t do it alone, so we’re stoked that Burton are invested in it as well. It doesn’t matter if you have a disability or not. We’re all just snowboarding together.

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So you’re from the Netherlands.

How did you get into snowboarding?

We were a winter sports family, so I started to ski when I was growing up.

Then was I was ten, I had a stroke that left me paralysed on the left side of my body and put me in a wheelchair.

Holy shit. How long was it until you got the feeling back after the stroke?

I immediately went to the rehab centre, where I actually work now.

I’m their ambassador for sports, and my mission is to motivate and inspire people to move. That’s what I missed in my own recovery. So I was there for a year, and then one year in a polyclinic every day. At one point, I could walk again. My left arm didn’t develop anymore, though. I was at physio every week, but at one point, I couldn’t recover further.

For a ten-year-old, I don’t even know how you’d begin to process that.

What are your memories of that time?

Dark. Really dark. I have two brothers and one sister, I’m the oldest, so I got really jealous that I had to deal with this, and they didn’t. I was really mad.

Before the stroke, I was the strongest, the smartest, and after it, I was the worst. In my school, I went from being the cool kid to the disabled kid. It was a really hard time.

At what point did winter sports enter the conversation again for you?

When I was eleven. When I started to move again, winter was coming, so my parents brought me to the snow and set me on skis. But I couldn’t keep my left ski going straight. I saw a snowboard contest, and I thought it was so cool, so I wanted to try it.

It was also much easier having my feet on one thing instead of two. And it’s way cooler anyway! Suddenly, I was the fastest again. Even with my handicap, I could do it. I also had friends who were riding in domes, so I went with them. They were doing rainbow rails and jumps and stuff. I was super scared of them, but I was there too. Then when I was fifteen, I was hit by a truck. I was in its blind

spot, and it ran me over. My upper leg was broken, and my knee ligaments were torn.

Holy fuck.

It happened in November, so winter was close. Snowboarding was the week of the year that I was living for, and I couldn’t do it. When I was snowboarding, I felt that I could be just as good as my brothers and sisters. So it was really tough. When the accident happened, I set the holiday next year as my goal. I did everything I could, training two times a week, and I made it. I got there.

That’s a hell of a journey.

By moving and getting out of your comfort zone, you can achieve so much. I think a lot of people aren’t doing that. In the rehabilitation centre I work in, people sit on the couch and don’t do anything. Movement is a way to develop. In the years when I was only snowboarding, it was super fun. But when you only do that, you also don’t develop other areas of life.

I really wanted to be able to share my story and help other people. So I started to do that at the rehabilitation centre. It’s hard, though. The paralysis is also in my brain. Some cells on the right side are damaged, so my short term memory is gone. My logic is gone, and my planning skills and some other things are less strong.

That makes working really difficult.

This year I arranged that I could be free from November to April, so I could fully focus on snowboarding.

I would often progress but have to catch back up to my level after not riding for some time, but now my level isn’t dropping back anymore.

Cool to hear that you get a full winter on snow! What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to snowboarding?

The mental side of it. I have a lot of fear, and I get stressed about the course or a jump within it. My body tenses and spasms. That’s because of my brain. So I get stiff, and then I can’t bend my leg and turn properly.

So I use mindfulness tricks and things to help me.

Did you figure those out yourself?

No, I had help with it. There’s someone near where I live. She helped me with the mental side of things in my life.

Now I have a sport-specific coach from the Dutch federation who helps

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me with the competitions.

Could you explain one of your techniques?

I just visualise the course. Talking about it with the coach. Sometimes it’s worse in my head than it actually is. I can do it. My body knows how to do it. I just have to clear my head.

Making sure I don’t have anything from work to think about, that things at home are ok. Stuff like that. When everything is right, I can focus more.

When you were younger, did you have any help from family or friends about dealing with emotion?

Not really. I was feeling really alone in my journey. No one could understand what was happening to me. My mother told me that everyone had something and that I needed to be tough. Not quite like that, but she didn’t have too much pity for me. It was hard.

We have a good relationship, though.

But when I got in contact with other young people with the same brain injury as me, I realised that I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t crazy. I always thought I was. But that also made me hard. It is what it is. You can’t mess around.

Just go. I wanted to prove that I could snowboard and show other people that it was possible.

big accidents and just decide to sit it out. But you don’t have to. It’s really important to reprogram these people’s way of thinking. Because when they leave the centre and go back home, it won’t be long before they’re back in the health system because they just sit around, drinking and smoking.

How did the connection to Burton happen?

It all started at this training camp that Lisa and I organised in Snoworld Landgraaf. It was a week-long camp for girls. Jake and Donna just happened to be there at the same time, and we went snowboarding together. Hanna Mayer was there too.

I was in the lift line with Donna, and I was talking to her about the problems we have doing up our bindings. She was really inspired by what we were doing. The camp had such a great vibe with all the girls, and she was the one pushing to create a program and do something. It’s really cool that Burton is picking it up and giving us this platform. Claudia [Almendros],

Hasi, Patrick [Allegritti], everyone is really supportive.

That’s great to hear. Are you riding with Step On bindings?

Yeah, it’s so much easier. When I strap in, I used to have to bend over to my left leg, which would unbalance me.

Now, it’s so fast. Also, when you’re in the gate at a competition, it’s a pretty intense moment. Strapping in would already leave me tense, and I wasn’t even racing yet. I’d be offbalance, with no chance. Now, it’s easy. Maggie Leon helped move the handle from the left to the inside for me, so it’s even easier.

I think they’re doing some amazing things with R&D for the industry.

What’s coming up for you this year?

We have some camps, and also competitions in Europe and Canada.

I hope I can do the Paralympics. But I’ve progressed and grown so much.

A medal wouldn’t be the end of my journey. There’s much more to my dream than that.

You mentioned earlier that you want to encourage people to move. Are you doing this already with your work at the rehab centre?

Yes. After the Games, a program will start called ‚Movement.’ The idea is to get people moving as soon as they come into the centre. If they just want to sit on their beds, they won’t progress. You have to move from the beginning. I also want to go more into coaching, talking to people about my experience. My disability used to be my biggest enemy. Now it’s my best friend.

That’s an amazing way to look at it.

Do you know Cees Wille?

Yeah, he was at the rehab centre with me. I met him when he was filming the clips of him walking for the first time.

Oh, nice! He’s another seriously inspiring human. He told me that there was a lot of negative energy in that place, people who’d just given up, and he had to isolate himself a bit in order to stay positive.

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Let’s start off by talking about the motorbike winch. What’s the deal with that thing?

Alex: Me and Brad [Smith] always wanted to do the winch bike concept, it’s been in our mind for five years, and I finally bought a bike and made it happen.

I FIRST MET ALEX STEWART WHEN WE WERE FIFTEEN. WE WERE NEIGHBOURS AND MET IN THE FIELD BETWEEN OUR HOUSES, WHERE HE WAS RIDING A PIT BIKE, AND I WAS RIDING A MOUNTAINBOARD. HE WAS ALSO ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE I WENT SNOWBOARDING WITH AND BLEW MY MIND SINCE DAY ONE. HE HASN’T CHANGED TOO MUCH SINCE THEN. HIS PASSION FOR SNOWBOARDING IS JUST AS STRONG, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT HE NOW SPEAKS ITALIAN. HE’S MADE A LOT OF VIDEOS OVER THE YEARS, BUT THIS ONE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL. IT’S NOT JUST HIS, THOUGH. THIS BELONGS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED. TWO VANS NO PLANS FOLLOWS A GROUP OF FRIENDS ON THE ROAD, CHASING SNOW AND GETTING AFTER IT HOWEVER THEY CAN. IT’S THE SORT OF FILM THAT GETS PEOPLE INTO SNOWBOARDING, AND IS AS GENUINE AS IT GETS. INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH. PHOTO. FEDERICO GREGO DUSAN KRIS

Were you going off any plans, or just using your Kiwi bodging skills?

Alex: It took a while to figure out how to do it. We just used a spare hub, put some rope around it, did some welding and adapted a stand from another bike. You needed to be able to drive it to the spot, jack it up quickly enough, change the wheel, ride the spot, and then move on. After some practice, we got it down to ten minutes.

How many spots did you use it on?

Alex: In the end, only one!

But still, you drove your winch to the spot. That’s pretty rad.

Alex: That was the most psycho week ever. I really wanted to make the winch work. but it’s kind of ‚my’ thing, and no one else really wanted to use it. We started losing the snow, so I had to say sorry guys, we’re dedicating a week to this thing. We went to Agardo, just below the Dolomites. It was full lockdown, and we’d seen this old iron-ore mine. All the wood had rotted away, but the stone structure was still there. There was this sick window that we’d always seen from the road and wanted to ride. We’d never tried the bike and didn’t know if it would work. 3rd gear was way too crazy. You couldn’t even hold onto the rope. Even 2nd is pretty crazy. Nicholas [Bridgeman] was super hyped and really wanted to try it first. He’d never used a winch before. Dusan said, ‚I bet 10€ he overshoots it’. Just saying it for the camera because it was a good lifestyle clip. Of course, he completely overshoots to flat. He thought we did it on purpose!

Did he get his shot in the end?

Alex: Not that day, he hurt his neck pretty bad.

The next day he got it, then this cop came in out of nowhere and told us that we couldn’t have motorbikes in there because it was a national park.

We told him it wasn’t a bike, it was a winch! He definitely didn’t get it. We’d also taken the muffler off the bike, so it was making loads of noise. He told us we had to leave, but he wouldn’t fine us. We tried to explain that we were filming a movie and asked how we could get permission. We had to go to the local council and send emails to the national park committee. We didn’t say anything about the motorbike. It took five or six days to get the permission. We kept trying to film while we were waiting, but every day something would happen.

The snow was melting, the bike wasn’t working. We got three shots in the whole week, but they were three of the sickest shots.

So you got the permission in the end?

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nothing else going on and nothing else for them to do. All the campsites were closed, so where the fuck do you want us to go? Our vans were our houses. It’s where we live.

You never got any fines or anything?

Alex: Nope. Dusan is now a pro with his van too, he figured it out.

So he’s a full-on van convert now?

Alex: Oh yeah, he’s going to buy the other one from me.

Dusan, how was it adapting to life in the van?

Dusan: The whole winter, I was just learning as I went. I really know it well now, but every day I was freaking out and trying to figure out how everything worked. One day something worked, the next day it didn’t. At one point, my clutch broke while I was driving downhill. From one moment to the next, the cable just broke.

Alex: It was the miller flip spot where they jumped off the roof of the van to get speed. morning the cops would come to where we were parked. Different cops and Carabiniere each time, always asking for our IDs and papers and stuff. It got to the point where we had to tell them to talk to each other because it was the same shit every day for seven days in a row.

They thought we were gipsies or something.

All you sketchy people with your long hair. How was it travelling in vans during lockdown?

Alex: I was expecting it to be way harder. I think people were so scared because of how it was presented in the media that no one was trying to travel. The border people probably just thought that anyone who actually was travelling must have been legit.

If I was a border guard, that’s definitely what I would think when I saw your two vans rolling through.

Alex: Yeah, he’s keen!

Did you get kicked out of any other places? All the resorts were closed in Italy, right?

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Dusan: So Alex had already left ahead of me. It was a real zig-zag road down, loads of switchback corners.

Suddenly I heard something snap.

I didn’t know if it was the brakes or clutch or what. I stopped with the handbrake straight away, then figured out that it was the clutch. So what now? At least I had brakes and could still stop myself on the way down. Our camping spot was 3 or 4 km from the bottom of the switchbacks, and there was only one crossroads on the way where I would have to stop. I knew I could make it all the way there in second gear. I was coming to the crossroad and just praying that there were no cars coming because I’d stall the van if I stopped and would be stuck there. Two cars crossed as I was rolling up, they passed, could see it was clear on one side, so I just went for it.

How much time are we talking to analyse the crossing situation?

Dusan: The van isn’t too fast, so maybe 20 seconds. I made it to the parking spot, but it was full of other cars and vans!

Alex: It was hilarious. I was already back and making dinner, and I hear him honking his horn. I come outside, and it was the funniest shit I’ve ever seen. The door was open, and he was just screaming, ‚I have no clutch!’.

I ran back inside and tried to grab the camera to film while he was just driving around in circles. He was driving pretty fast too.

Dusan: The van is seven meters long!

Alex: He was screaming, ‚Move the cars!’ While I was just cracking up.

He was super stressed but just about managed to park it.

Dusan: Total cowboy experience. I parked like an idiot, and all the guys were just laughing so hard at me. I was so stressed and pissed off. When you’re going downhill, and something goes bang in your car, that’s gnarly.

That is gnarly. I remember always listening for weird noises in my old van that would announce new problems.

Alex: He also broke down the day before. We were on Passo Giau, one of the highest passes into Cortina, with three-meter snowbanks everywhere.

We were trying to find a place to

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park because there’s a cool kicker spot there, but we couldn’t really find anything. On corner 18, there was a spot where you could just fit two vans.

In the morning, we saw that there was a huge avalanche above us, and there was another slab that was just about hanging on. If it broke, it would have totally taken out the vans.

Dusan: We parked in the middle of an avalanche field.

Alex: We had to get out of there. I packed up my shit, turned on the van and drove up the road and told Dusan that I would meet him up there. I was looking back, and I could see that he wasn’t moving.

Dusan: The van wouldn’t start. The glow plugs just didn’t show anything, no light, and they weren’t heating.

We tried for half an hour, and were getting stressed about the snow getting warm and dangerous. Fuck it, we just went riding. We were hitting a spot across the valley, and we could see the van from the spot, checking if it was still here. We finished riding, and it had got pretty cold, so we thought the snow would be safe and decided to stay there one more night.

The next morning Simon [Gruber] managed to find the cable for the plugs, and it was completely rusted.

Alex managed to melt them together with a soldering iron that he had in his van, but it still wouldn’t start. The diesel had run out in the engine, but I remembered that there was a pump to put more diesel in there, which is pretty smart, actually. We did that, and it still wouldn’t start. We were getting ready to pull it out with a rope and just send it. I tried the key one last time, and it started! Everybody was so hyped. Then the day after was when the clutch broke. I just wanted to go home for two or three weeks rest.

Daily breakdowns definitely take their toll.

Dusan: It would either be the engine, or if not, the electrics, or something like finding gas or water or whatever. You woke up and didn’t know what was going to happen that day. Seriously though, it was -25C in Cortina. Heavy cold.

Do you have good heating in the van?

Dusan: Yeah, but I never had to crank it to the max. I wasn’t cold at all. Even

if we were wet, stuff still dried, even in really cold temperatures. It’s still leaking oil and stuff. There’s always something, but it was made in 1984, so if something doesn’t work, you just replace it, and it works again. It’s simple. Sometimes it’s a mission, but I love it.

Alex: It had only had one owner.

It would have been the Ferrari of camper vans back in the day. When I was looking for the second van for this project, I didn’t want to get the boys anything newer or faster than our own van! But it ended up being way sicker than our van.

Dusan: I was surprised. It climbed up everything that we wanted to. I had one problem with my cam belt that I managed to fix completely by myself and I was so stoked! When things are going shit shit shit, and you figure out one thing, and then it’s just yeah yeah yeah! I started to like it, the ‚Alex style’ of making it work. Just don’t freak out and figure it out. We always had loads of space too, we could have our zones. And Fede [Grego] also had his spot.

He’s the man. Does he still have his huge Technine jacket?

Dusan: Yeah, he still has it! He’s such a G. He’s hilarious. He lowkey became a legit snowboard filmer without ever intending to. He was sleeping near the windows and was using boot boxes to insulate the van. The next morning he said that it helped so much.

Alex: Having him on the project was so good. We’ve never just had him on his own as the main filmer. I love that guy. He likes snowboarding, but he joined us mostly because he likes hanging out and he wanted to get away from Milan! We could have been filming anything, and he still would have been down to join.

Dusan: He was always wearing these Moroccan flip-flops, and I was wearing full-on winter shoes.

Whenever I was upset or angry, he would always save me.

Chiara: He was one of the key people for sure. He shot photos and filmed two angles at all times, and was always smoking cigs, vapes, everything. He’s also a paparazzi photographer in Milan. That’s his main job.

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Dusan: When you spend that much time in a small space, you end up talking about so much random shit.

We had some great conversations.

Sometimes you need your space and have to wander off for a bit, but not much. This was also my first season completely sober, no drinking or smoking.

Because you just wanted to focus on the filming?

Dusan: Not only that. Also for me. I got to the point where I would come to a spot, and the first thing I would do was roll a spliff or roll one straight away after a trick. I was looking forward more to what would happen afterwards, instead of the trick. It was sick, though. After you land something, you’re just stoked. Maybe you hug the crew, then go up again and get another trick or hit another spot. You have so much more time to do other stuff! It’s different, but it works pretty good. Not doing it also helped me be calmer in stressful situations with the van. It was cool.

Nice mate, happy to hear that. So this turned into a pretty heavy pow project. Was that kind of a new area for you?

Dusan: I’m actually more of a jumper than a street guy. We just happened to do a lot of street over the last few years. Before we started filming this winter, I knew I wanted to film more backcountry. Nicholas and Simon joined us, and they can both jump really well. Alex too.

Alex: Dusan has always been the most loyal guy with Rusty Toothbrush.

Since he joined, he’s always been in for the full thing. He sacrificed what he wanted to do for everyone else.

Some people might have come in and ridden the wave for a bit and then moved on to something else.

And they’re all still homies, but Dusan was always riding spots that weren’t his priority, and I knew he wanted to film a backcountry part and see what he could do. I wanted to make that happen for him, so it ended up being more of a backcountry movie.

That’s rad. It looks like you found some pretty good zones?

Dusan: You remember Halldor’s backflip in The Future of Yesterday on the fucked up step-down? We were camping and shooting around there, about 800m from that spot and right

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next to the road.

Alex: We never even made it to that zone. We had this 40-50cm storm, cold temps, bluebird and no wind for a week. It was perfect. One landing slipped, but they kept hitting it anyway. Simon killed it. Bridgeman too, he got a front double ten into a completely bombed out landing. He’d been talking about filming a part with us for three years or something, and we managed to make it happen.

How was it shooting pow with Simon? He always seems to stack heavy clips.

Alex: We stacked so much. He’s built so many jumps, and he knows what’s up. He might be an asshole and tell you not to stand in certain spots, but they were the best jumps I’d ever hit in my life. For the last two hours of building, you can pretty much sit down because he’s putting the final touches on it and he doesn’t want us anywhere near it.

Dusan: I thought I knew some things, but there was so much other stuff I learned like reading terrain and weather and stuff. Simon knows how to get shit done. You’d wake up, hit the jump you built yesterday, then go and build another two. At one point, I was just dead. Going back to the van when you don’t even have a hot shower. I took a shower once a week or every two weeks.

Chiara, you were also filming for the first time, right? How was that for you?

Chiara: Yeah, a little bit. I guess it was my first time. Alex made it easier by buying a Panasonic HVX, which is amazing. It was so sick. In Cortina, when it was snowing and raining sideways, and I was also pregnant, there were times where I was thinking, do I really have to do this?

Chiara: It was brutal. Super cool, though. As an Italian, I loved being in Cortina.

Dusan: Alex tried to ride a spot on an actual police station in the middle of Cortina.

Alex: That definitely got stressful for a little bit. It was a sick line, and it would have worked. I tried to stealth shape it, wearing a high vis jacket and stuff. I went up and strapped in, and this cop sticks his head out and says, ‚Cosa stai facendo?’ Which means what are you doing. I told him that I was snowboarding. ‚You’re not gonna snowboard down from there!’.

Yeah, I am. ‚No, you’re not. You’re gonna get down from there!’ Yeah, I am. I’m gonna get down from there.

I’m gonna ride down! Chiara started walking away, and I was yelling at her to start filming!

Chiara: To be honest, I was so scared.

I think I got better at understanding how that stuff works with street.

Ask for forgiveness, not for permission. What happened in the end?

Dusan: We ran away!

Alex: I dropped in, ragdolled off the roof, jumped in the van, and then left.

Dusan: A homie of ours had gone and got the van ready while this was happening. He pulled up, we opened the doors, jumped in and bailed. I’ve never left a spot so quickly before.

Amazing.

Alex: You didn’t know you were pregnant though.

Chiara: No, I didn’t, but I was definitely pretty emotional. Up and down.

Alex: And shovelling spots in the backcountry!

Dusan: Not just spots. It was dumping like fuck and we always had to shovel out the vans too.

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Chiara: There was another spot where Alex was riding next to a church during a really religious holiday. This lady came up and was talking on the phone and asked Alex what he was doing there. She said he was talking to bishop someone-someone who was coming to do the mass. Alex just said, ‚Oh, I’m a Christian volunteer’.

No fucking way, I couldn’t believe he said that. So the lady told this bishop what Alex said, and he just replied, ‚Oh, great!’.

Shovelling for Christ.

Alex: I don’t think she bought it, so she said that if we were doing it, we could at least shovel out some more stairs for the bishop.

That’s so good. At what point did you guys find out you were pregnant? That’s kind of a huge thing to discover while filming for a project, let alone living in a camper van during the winter.

Chiara: We found out at Christmas, and we’d already been filming for about six weeks. Funny story, his sister called us earlier on the same day and told us she was pregnant.

Alex: That was crazy. I went from brother, to uncle, to father in two hours.

Chiara: We were with my family at the time, and they’re Italian, so there was lots of crying and celebrating, and then we told them that we were leaving and going back on the road!

I guess everyone reacts to finding out they’re pregnant in different ways, but jumping back in the van and going shovelling, filming, and snowboarding is a pretty badass way to do it.

Chiara: Alex was pretty chill about it.

He just said that he’d bring the van as close to the spot as possible and that I could just chill there whenever I needed. That’s kind of what he’s like.

SIMON GRUBER FEDERICO GREGO

Alex: You didn’t have to shovel, but you could still film us!

What a gentleman.

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DUSAN KRIS

ALEX STEWART

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CHIARA GRISORIO

You’re literally watching people shit and shower.

Dusan: Some people like it, though, like Simon. He would always open the door and make a lot of eye contact.

Alex: There were definitely some moments where it was snowing sideways, and I just wanted to get the shot, and she told me, ‚Fuck you, Alex, I’m going home!’. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that she was pregnant and still doing this for me. It took me a while to figure it out.

Chiara: Not just doing it for you, but for all of us three.

Dusan: At one point, you guys left Prato Nevoso to get a checkup, and I was alone in this zone, preparing a jump. I saw these two animals running over the snow and was wondering what the fuck they were.

Then I realised that they were wolves!

So sick! Then I realised I was alone, and there were wolves 600 meters away from me. What should I do? I ducked down and prayed they weren’t hungry, and they kept going their way.

Sometimes we’d just set a plan and would do things solo like that. Simon would build things, and then we’d come to ride them. We were a small crew, only really five of us, and one was pregnant!

Paula Benito and Klaus [Sophia Schroll] also joined you guys for a bit? They both rip.

Yeah, they came for a little mission and also got some sick shots.

Did they jump into the vans with you?

Alex: No we rented a place for them.

You don’t have much privacy in a van.

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That’s definitely a lot to jump straight into. Were they with you for long?

Alex: Unfortunately, Paula tore her ACL and meniscus on a roof drop into a tight landing. I felt pretty responsible for that as I’d was kind of guiding her in streets and scoped it out and told her it would be mellow. She’s super talented, but I’m used to riding street, and she’s more of a park rider. Klaus did it first but also tweaked her knee a bit. Paula did it once, rode out and was so hyped. She went up again, but her front knee bent inwards when she landed.

don’t feel like I’m changed in any sort of way. When we were talking earlier about going home for a few weeks for a checkup, that was the worst for me. I thought I was going to be good there, but no. Our thing is living in the moment, being in the van and being content. I don’t think it will change a lot. Will it?

Alex: Who knows. The intention is not to do the stereotypical thing of getting a serious job and buying a house.

We’re lucky that snowboarding pays for our lifestyle. A modest lifestyle, we live in a 2000€ van, but a lifestyle.

It’s fucking great. India will get to join that. I was thinking about making a

Ah damn, sorry to hear that. Still, it’s rad that you got them both out there and involved in the project.

Alex: We’re really trying to push the women’s side of the Drake and Northwave team. Having those two join was a gesture, but it definitely wasn’t enough.

Now I’m going to have a daughter, there’s no bullshit now. I have to make as much space for women in snowboarding as I can.

Chiara: The women’s side of the team is getting bigger, and we’re hopefully going to have other projects going on in the future. I’m not saying it because I did it, it could have been anyone, but having a woman involved who said she’d give it a go, makes it way more accessible to other people. Some girls at the premieres would trip out on it, just seeing me as a ‚normal’ snowboarder doing this stuff with cameras. You can do it. Just do it! You need people that believe in you. That’s the key thing.

So now you’ve finished the movie, how are you feeling about becoming parents?

Chiara: India hasn’t been born, but I’m already a parent. I have been since I found out I was pregnant. I

SOPHIA ‚KLAUS’ SCHROLL

stroller cam for her.

Putting her to work already, and she hasn’t even been born!

Dusan: That was my first question when they found out. Were they going to stop doing the van thing? He told me that nothing was going to change, except maybe buying a bigger van!

Alex: We always spoke about it. For the first five years, we’re doing the house on wheels. Maybe we’ll change METHOD 21 -----------

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our minds, but who knows.

You can literally just roll with it and figure that out as you go.

Chiara: Living in a van isn’t for everyone though, it’s intense. People ask us if we want a house, and we just don’t right now.

It’s cool to hear how stoked you are with what you’re doing.

Chiara: Who knows what we’re doing!

I guess not even you! So you premiered the movie a couple of days ago, how did it go?

Dusan: It was crazy. I’d forgotten so many shots because I don’t usually watch them, and it was almost too much to take in. People were stoked that we were there and sharing what we did with them. It seemed like more than a movie. We remembered all the fucked up situations that we managed to get through and survive.

It was just us outside, having really close connections and so many good stories. It was something more than going on a trip and staying in a hotel and then leaving.

Alex: This is definitely the best movie we’ve ever done. After filming, we went to Fuerteventura and just started editing. Chiara was with me the whole time, helping with music and everything. She’d show me the things that I’d missed, and we just had this beautiful energy. For so long, I’d pictured being in these vans with my best friends and my girlfriend, the winch bike, clips in the computer, beers. And it happened. Three or four years in the making. I was so hyped and in the moment, just living it. To see it come to the end, for sure it’s the best thing we’ve ever done.

Chiara: And all of it with our friends. *Since this interview, Chiara has given birth to a healthy girl named India. She sleeps in a bed connected to theirs in the van, which is held together with love and heaps of screws.*

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takes between three to five days from where the road ends on each side if you hike in. It’s one of the most remote places in Iceland and even Europe. My grandmother was born up there in the 1930s and lived there until she was 8. So this place has links to my family’s history. I also lived there for a couple of years. There’s just something about the place. I feel at home there. There are also massive amounts of wildlife, arctic foxes and birds.

22.2

INTERVIEW WITH ASGEIR ‘GEIRI’ HOSKULDSSON PHOTO. ELLI THOR MAGNUSSON INTERVIEW. THEO ACWORTH CAPTION LANGUAGE. ICELANDIC

Hey Geiri, give us the lowdown on the trip.

I’ve been talking with Halldor for the longest time about doing this, but obviously he has commitments all over the world, and it never fitted in. Then COVID came along, which was a blessing in disguise for this trip.

My friends run the boat company which is called Aurora Arktika, and they obviously had massive cancellations with no tourists.

So they contacted me, and I told Halldor we should just book it and do a Lobster boat week with whoever was free at the time.

We ended up with a pretty interesting crew of people from Iceland’s snowboard history.

Good friends and legends, and some of the old crew that I used to film with back in the day. It was a really good mix. Not your typical snowboard trip. Just a group of friends doing random stuff. So it fitted perfectly with Halldor and Lobster.

How long does the journey out there take?

It took two or three hours from Ísafjörður, which is the main town in the region. There are only 3600 people living there. Going by boat means you can get the best of both worlds. We would go ashore during the day and come back to the boat in the evening. So you can go out and play around all day, but then you have somewhere warm to go back to in the evening, instead of having to camp while wet and hungry.

Had anyone in the crew done that kind of trip before?

Some of them had. But for most, it was their first time on the boat and also the first time going into this region. 99% of Icelanders have never been to this region. It’s pretty unique.

It sounds like you know it pretty well.

I’ve been taking people out to that area since 2006, but usually hardcore freeriders and splitboarders. So it was fun to take a group of people who looked at the terrain differently and just wanted to play around with these features. I knew that if I was able to convince Halldor and those guys to come that they’d be able to do so much. We were so lucky with the weather. It was 15 and bluebird for two days in a row. That just doesn’t happen there. We also had snow from the peaks all the way down to the sea. The usual window for these trips is late February to late May, so we were right at the end of the winter season, but we hit the jackpot.

There are some tropical vibes in the photos. Not so much the landscape, but definitely the atmosphere.

The boys were jumping into the ocean, it’s about 3-4oC, but it does almost looks tropical in the photos. I had sunscreen on, but I was massively burnt after the trip. My lips were so swollen. It looked like I’d had botox.

Gnarly! I love the photo of you floating in the rubber ring.

That’s the Party Captain. He has to come out on the trip to keep people entertained.

If the weather is bad on these trips, you can get cabin fever, so the role of Party Captain often falls into my lap.

Whereabouts is it?

It’s in the Vestfirðir region, in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. The area has been protected since the 1980s. No roads are going into it, and it hasn’t been inhabited year-round since the 1960s. It

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EIKI MEÐ RÉTTU AÐFERÐINA YFIR JÖKULFIRÐINA

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JUHO SÝNIR AÐ NÆSTA KYNSLÓÐ HUMARLIÐSINS ER Á RÉTTRI LEIÐ

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Did you join in any of the sessions with the guys?

I had a knee operation in December, so my doctor and physiotherapist were not too happy that I was doing these trips this winter. I’ve never really been any good at that stuff anyway.

I’m usually behind the camera or producing things, and just riding in my own way. I leave the tricks to the kids.

Was there anything that the guys did that surprised you? I guess you’ve known them for so long that maybe it’s hard to be surprised.

I was really excited to take these guys because they have such a beautiful mind when it comes to snowboarding.

They see stuff in features that other people or I wouldn’t necessarily see, like building an in-run through a marsh for a random boulder down

by the ocean. They’re so dedicated.

I still call them kids because, in my eyes, they still are. The amount of time that Eiki and Halldor put into setting up spots and nailing the trick perfectly, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they’ve achieved what they’ve achieved in life. They work really hard and always have. It’s fun that they can now pass the same thing on to Juho and Baldur and bring them along for the ride. Show them how it’s done. A lot of kids grow up with aspirations to do what they love.

For some, that’s snowboarding or skateboarding or surfing. But I think a lot of people don’t realise the amount of work that goes into it. You obviously have to have a shitload of talent, but that’s maybe 40% of it. You also have to fucking work at it. Halldor and Eiki have been working at it since day one.

I knew they were going places as soon as I met them.

How old were they when you met them?

Halldor was 9, and Eiki was 14 or 15.

Was this the era with his pink hair?

Yeah.

What were your first meetings with them like?

I lived in France, England and Spain until I was 16, so my first experience of snowboarding was in the alps in the late 80s, and I fell in love with it.

I moved back to Iceland in ‚94, and that’s when I got into the Icelandic scene. Fast forward a bit to the early 2000s, I was just partying and snowboarding and doing what I wanted to do. I was freeriding a lot and doing my thing, and I’d always see these kids up on the mountain.

Eiki and Halldor, Gulli, Victor and Ingo.

They were always filming and building stuff. Somehow me, this 25-year-old, ended up riding and filming with them.

Suddenly I was the adult in charge, so to speak. I don’t know who put me in charge, that was interesting. We just ended up making and producing these snowboard movies together.

It happened really naturally. They’ve always been super easy and mellow people, just really humble. If they’re at a big contest or a tradeshow, Halldor will always give time and a genuine moment to everyone who approaches him. There’s no stardom of fakeness to him.

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Í TAKT VIÐ HORNSTRANDIR MEÐ HALLDÓRI

Did you ever feel responsible for them as kids?

Oh yeah, definitely. I still feel responsible for them, like they’re my brother’s sons.

And now they have kids of their own! What’s the snowboard scene like in Iceland these days?

It’s grown since I first came back, but the population is small here.

It’s got the same trends as most places. The older snowboarders have got more into splitboarding, so that scene has grown the most. It’s hard to maintain decent parks and jumps here because the weather is ever-changing. You might build something, and it would rain the next day. Iceland has become more sporty, there are clubs that have

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snowboarding within them, and you can ‚train’ snowboarding with national coaches. I think it’s the same everywhere. There definitely used to be more mayhem back in the day. There were also fewer people, so everybody knew everybody. The scene is decent though, it’s still close-knit, but there’s more diversity, which is good.

You’ve obviously been it for a long time, both as a rider and someone who’s worked in the industry.

How do you feel about where snowboarding is at the moment?

It’s always easy to be nostalgic and look at the good old times, but now is the best time to do anything.

Now is an amazing time to be alive.

There’s so much happening. There

are so many technological advances, especially when it comes to backcountry stuff and splitboarding.

That’s come along in leaps over the last ten years. There’s also more diversity. Snowboarding is more open. We all used to think that we were very open and inclusive, but it was actually quite a closed group of people that were doing what we were doing. Women really had to fight for parts in movies. So I’d say it’s all moving in a positive direction.

As long as we’re all just out there chasing what we love doing and having fun, that’s what matters the most. I have four kids now, so going snowboarding with them is my thing.

It doesn’t have to be the biggest or baddest conditions for it to be fun.

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BALDUR SVÍFUR YFIR HEIMSKAUTASÓLINNI

GÓÐ ÍÞRÓTT GULLI BETRI

HALLDÓR VEIT NÁKVÆMLEGA HVAÐ OKKUR LÍKAR

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That’s it, just going outside and moving.

Exactly. I’ve been guilty myself of being too into the scene. Worried about what I was wearing and how I was acting. I don’t know if it’s me being more mature and more secure with myself, but I just love the people that go out there and charge and don’t really care what anyone is doing or thinking - just doing things with their own style. Even if they’re not sticking the tricks but are just going at it, that’s what drew me to Eiki and Halldor. They were riding broken foam boards, and Eiki had his toe sticking out of his boot. I had all the newest Burton gear on, and they were leaps ahead in style and talent and just having so much fun. I’m not exaggerating. His toe was actually sticking out of his boot.

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JUHO TEKUR ÞAÐ AFTUR TIL GÖMLU GÓÐU DAGANNA

That’s so good. It seems like they’ve really managed to put all of that attitude into everything they do, especially with Lobster. All of their riders are really unique and just love snowboarding.

Yeah. It’s hard to keep it real and organic, but they’ve been able to do that. They have good people around them at the brand. They’re all fantastic guys.

I think Halldor and Eiki have just made a lot of right decisions over the years, without sacrificing any of their identity.

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GIOVANNI RIZZI [ SNOWPARK LAAX ]

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NORA BECK

22.2

WORDS. MAX WARBINGTON PHOTO. TIM ZIMMERMAN

OMING INTO THE COVID C SEASON, NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE FUTURE HELD FOR SNOWBOARDING OR IF RESORTS WOULD BE SHUT DOWN. IT WAS A WILD TIME TO BE TRYING TO PLAN ANYTHING. WHAT I LANDED ON WAS THE IDEA OF MAKING ANOTHER BRAIN BOWL VIDEO, BUT TAKING IT TO A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL AND DOING IT IN A WAY THAT WE INVITE THE PUBLIC TO COME TOO. EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO COME AND FILM WITH US. WE WANTED TO DO SOMETHING SIMPLE, FUN, AND REALLY INCLUSIVE. THE COMMUNITY ASPECT OF BRAIN BOWL HAS BEEN REALLY RAD AND ANOTHER REALLY FULFILLING PART OF THIS ADVENTURE. WE USED THE IG ACCOUNT TO TELL PEOPLE WHERE WE WOULD MEET AND WHEN WE WERE BUILDING. THERE’S SUCH A CORE GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW US, AND THEY’RE ALL READY TO GO, SHOWING UP WITH SHOVELS, MUSIC, READY TO BUILD AND RIDE.

NGTON

MAX WAR BI

ONE OF THE GOALS WITH THESE SETUPS IS THAT WE CHOOSE THE LOCATION, PROVIDE THE SPARK AND THE HYPE, AND BY THE TIME WE LEAVE, THERE’S AN AMAZING LITTLE SNOWBOARD PARK JUST SITTING THERE. SO WHOEVER THE LOCALS ARE CAN SHRED IT WITH US, BUT THEN KEEP RIDING IT AFTERWARDS. WE WANT TO PICK LOCATIONS THAT AREN’T IN PRIVATE AREAS SO ANYONE CAN GO FOR FREE AND DO WHAT THEY WANT. WE JUST MOVE THE SNOW AROUND, USE OUR SNOWBOARDS TO SHRED, AND THEN WE’RE OUT. -MAX WARBINGTON

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DATE: LATE NOVEMBER BUILD TIME: 2 DAYS We did the first two sessions around Bachelor before the mountain had even opened. There were just a few features, and it was kind of a trial.

We were super cautious about COVID and didn’t really broadcast that it was going on too strongly, just word of mouth. The goal for this was to just get some good clips and a good photo to blast off the series. We had these double tree rides, and they were both buried a foot under the snow. I had a crew of people working with hard shovels just chipping ice to unbury these logs so we could slappy them. It got to the point that we were unburying dirt and rocks! I couldn’t believe how much we accomplished. One morning these kids had turned a pile of snow into this spine feature with a log on top. That just popped up, and it was so fun. We ended up with some really rad stuff.

BEN H AY EDITION DEN

+

MANRA MP

WINTER

MAX WARBINGTON

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JEFF HOLCE

OS MATTE

OLTANE

DATE: EARLY DECEMBER BUILD TIME: 1 DAY This was in Government Camp on the campus of Mt Hood summer ski camp. We were there for four days. They hooked us up. We had Jeff Holce up there too, he’s our Hood connection, and we stayed with him. The miniramp was the central piece, and it was the most successful snowboard miniramp I’ve ever seen. You could ride it continuously, just pumping back and forth. We kept adding hits around it too. It was so much fun, just full mini-shred at its finest. It definitely rained a bunch. In the photo, you can see our Brella-Tech in action. I’ve spent so much time up there over the years, and it’s been raining for most of that time, but no one was bummed. It was perfect. We had the pond at the end too. It was actually the trampoline pit, and Logan Beaulieu was the one who said we should put the rail over it. We had a serious session, and they were in the water for at least an hour. Matteo Soltane fell fully into it about seven different times.

One of the major highlights for me was Scott Stevens coming up. We shredded all day and into the night with lights. He was tripping on the setup, and the reason I like miniramps is from watching him in Think Thank videos. It’s so inspired by him. So that was a totally surreal moment for me. If I was just out trying to film a rail or whatever, this wouldn’t happen, but because we have these sessions, we have epic people pulling up for a day just to check it out.

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IN ANTOL NAIMA

& LOGY B

-TECH BRELLA

FOREST BAILEY

SCOTT STEVENS

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JESSE BURTNER

GUS WARBINGTON

DATE: EARLY JANUARY BUILD TIME: WE FORGOT TO ASK By the time we were here we were much more comfortable with COVID and were able to say come one, come all. That was the real goal. Resorts were crazy with lift lines, so we felt that were doing fine, all wearing masks and keeping distance. I have a long history of coming here to just have fun. There’s a really good crew of people here too, and it was by far the most requested location. One of my favourite jibs is this water tower that’s up there on the opposite side from Alpental in the snowpark area, and I knew I wanted to do it there. This was also the first session where we had endless amounts of snow to build with. We made this crazy bowl corner wave thing. The way that naturally shaped up was crazy.

It turned into one of those slopestyle quarterpipe jumps. We met this kid up there called Jalen, just a little build wizard.

He’s super hyped on making crazy shit and always tries to build loops and sends me photos. He’s awesome. One night he and this other kid Josh Gnuici stayed up there well into the night and carved out the TRE letters from Tre Squad. We came up and saw it the next day, and it was so sick. Those kids are the best. They just did it because they wanted to, and that’s exactly what we want to happen with these sessions.

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TUCKER ANDREWS

MATTEO SOLTANE

MAX WARBINGTON

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EETIN AUSTEN SW

MAX WARBINGTON

DATE: APRIL BUILD TIME: 3 DAYS We committed twice as much time to this one. The goal was to start the build and show people how crazy we were going and get them hyped to come up and join. We had a big crew. My brother Gus, Logan and I were the base, and then people like Jake Aaronson and a lot of local Baker people were just ready to make it happen.

We did three days in a row of building, then a riding day. At that point, it was just the upper bowl. Then we had three days of full-on blizzard. We shredded pow, dug the bowl out, then did the same thing again. There was so much snow. It was at this old house in Baker, and we had an epic snow fort under the house. Everyone just hanging with snacks and music. We had it pretty dialled.

The entire time I was also secretly working with Will Mayo from TowPro about bringing one out. It was at least a mile to the zone, uphill, cat track, going through powder and slush. The rope tow is portable, but it’s heavy. We also had a massive generator. I had to tell everyone because we needed their help to move it, and they were losing their minds when they found out it was coming. We strapped the gear onto these kids sleds with six people on each one and pushed it up there. It took us about two hours, and then we were shredding. We had the full bowl, butter pads, a big jump down below with a pow landing, and you could lap on the rope tow. It was a complete success, and we had so much fun. Seeing it all come together was so sick. It all looked like another world.

The whole thing was epic. We were there for fifteen days and totally on cloud nine after leaving. For sure, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. Next year I want to do a pro-level contest at Baker. Make the bowl a bit bigger, then a rhythm section with two big jumps in a row and run it like a slopestyle contest with a full judged run.

Like a combination of XGames, QP Campout and Natural Selection. I also want to film it all with drones. Like Natural Selection, but way sketchier.

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GUS WARBINGTON

JAKE AARONSON

MAX WARBINGTON

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PHOTO. BENJAMIN LITTLER

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INTRO AND INTERVIEW THEO ACWORTH

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How long have you worked there?

Five years, and I just signed a contract for another five years. I love it. There’s a skatepark next to the youth centre, and I also teach the kids to skate. You can see them grow with it, and they’re always thankful that we show them this other world they didn’t know about.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

Trying to be someone they respect, but also a person they can really trust and rely on. I’m not their parents, I don’t tell them what to do, but I give them advice. We help them if they’re looking for jobs, sending applications and stuff. Most of them aren’t good at that stuff. We also help them with any legal troubles they might have or if they have to go to court.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

That the kids come back to this place knowing there’s a stable person here.

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PHOTO. THEO ACWORTH

PHOTO. THEO ACWORTH

Where do you work?

I work in a youth centre, sort of being a second parent for kids with shitty parents. Or maybe more like a good friend who can help and advise them through difficult situations that they don’t know how to handle themselves.

want to be their buddies because their parents just don’t give a shit.

understand and respect that I’m also in their world, you know?

Is your job ever a struggle for you?

I used to be a nurse and kind of learnt to deal with that then. You see a lot of shit when you do that job, a lot of misery. When you get tired, it can come up to you, but if you’re a steady person and you know how to deal with it, it’s pretty easy. I never take anything with me. When I leave my job, I go out the door, and that’s it. One year we had the police there almost every day. At one point, I was standing between two guys with knives in their hands. You have to step in and calm them down, tell them it’s not worth it. We also have lots of kids who take drugs, and one 13-year-old girl overdosed and died. She was there every day, and it still happened.

Sometimes you try to help, and they just don’t want it.

Are there any skills you learnt from snowboarding that relate to your job?

Dealing with diverse people from different countries who handle their lives in different ways. Everybody does their own thing, and that’s the same in my work. People might act a bit different depending on where and how they grew up, but at the end of the day, everyone is the same. With snowboarding, we’re all like kids just playing around in the snow. I still want to keep that feeling in my work.

How many people are there working with you?

I have such a great team. I also work with Jonel Fricke, and we’re eight people in total. If situations get close to us, we have a mediator and therapy that we can use, but I never had to use it. I never take anything with me.

I was a bit of a shitty person when I was that age, so I can relate to them.

They think of me like an adult who never drinks or smokes. But if they get to know this side of me, they

Are there any parts of your job that relate to snowboarding?

Snowboarding is so free, and that’s such a big part of being young. I’m 32. Why am I hanging out with kids?

I like it because of that. We just hang out. We don’t worry about what’s going on tomorrow. I think that’s the mindset a lot of snowboarders and skateboarders have. It’s not really work for me, and I’m just around my own. Being rebels, listening to gangster rap, smoking cigs and then going back to hang with the same group the next day and doing the same stuff. This isn’t a job for me, it’s more like a hobby, but I get paid for it.

It’s just hanging out with the homies.

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„WE ALSO FED THEM BLENDED FLIES IN A SMOOTHIE. WE JUST PUT FLIES IN A BLENDER AND TURNED IT ON.” PHOTO. DAN MULLINS

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METHOD 21 -----------

What do you do for work?

Outside of snowboarding, I work in the film and television industry.

Primarily in the art department as Standby, but also doing construction and set dressing. I’ll help the camera or lighting or sound guys if they need a hole drilling for a mic cable or some paint touching up somewhere.

You’re also occasionally in front of the camera?

Only on one show that I work on, which is I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

It’s like a combination of Survivor and Big Brother. I help the contestants run through the challenges they’re about to do, putting harnesses on them and stuff like that. I also bring them the gross food that they have to eat and pour fish guts on them and stuff like that.

What sort of stuff do they have to eat?

One time they had to eat these fermented duck eggs. I don’t know old they were, but they were literally black. You could smell them through a sealed Tupperware container from fifteen meters away. We also fed them blended flies as a smoothie. We just put flies in a blender and turned it on.

It was fucking disgusting. And the person drank that shit right next to me.

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Have you ever gagged on camera?

Never, but in my mind, I am. The whole part of being the Ranger is that I have to be there with a blank face.

It’s hilarious when they fuck it up. I’m cracking up internally.

Does your character have a name?

I’m known as Roly Ranger. It’s not official, but I’ve been working on that show for eight years now, and over the last four or five, I’ve become more of a familiar face to the crew. So Ant and Dec [the presenters] started calling me Roly Ranger when they got a bit more chummy with me, and that name got around the crew.

How did you get this job?

I kind of fell into it. In 2011 I started as a runner through my girlfriend at the time who worked in production, and graduated up the ranks in the art department. I’ve been Standby for the last three or four years. It’s the best job in the whole jungle.

Where do you film it?

On the New South Wales side of the Tweed River, on the Gold Coast of Australia. Near a place called Murwillumbah.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

The hours and length of time that

you work. I work seven days a week, between twelve and fourteen hours per day, for about eighty days in a row.

What’s the most fun thing?

Just being in a jungle and playing with obstacle courses and stuff.

Every day there’s something different happening. It has a routine, but it’s always entertaining.

Have there been any memorable guests?

We had Kendra Wilkinson. She was one of the girls from the Playboy Mansion and was Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend or something. A lot of them can be quite stuck up to the crew, but she was really cool. We also had Caitlyn Jenner, and she was pretty fun. She was actually on the show in 2003 when she still identified as a man. Then she came back on again in 2019.

What’s the balance between snowboarding and work like?

We shoot from the end of September until the middle of December. So I can come off a Southern Hemisphere winter, go straight into working, earn good money, then go straight into a Northern Hemisphere winter. So there isn’t too much of a conflict. I can just get cashed up and then do another winter. It’s pretty perfect.

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PHOTO. PHIL MCKENZIE PHOTO. RYLAND WEST

“IF YOU LOOK AT OUR FLIGHT TRACK, IT’S LIKE MOWING THE LAWN.”

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14.11.2021 02:11

What’s your job?

Hi I’m Grant Giller, and I’m an aerial mapping pilot.

How long have you done it for?

About a year and a half.

Was this a long-term dream?

My Grandpa was an airforce pilot, so flying was always something I wanted to do as a kid. Not so much aerial mapping, but it’s one of the more common jobs you can get when you don’t have a tonne of experience.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

Preparedness for emergencies.

Have you been in any emergencies?

One time when I was learning to fly, we vapour-locked the engine and weren’t getting enough power to climb out of a dangerous situation.

Did you have to climb out on the wing or anything like that?

No, we just messed with the fuel/air mixture a little bit, and it worked.

Was there ever a chance that the plane might have exploded?

No, it just wouldn’t have provided enough power. We were super low to the ground and heading towards a mountain.

Did it feel sketchy?

Yeah, super sketchy! And I was still learning to fly, so I didn’t really know what was going on.

How long were you in flight school?

I did four different certificates, which took me nine months. I started right after I won Superpark Standout, within the same week. That was a real gear change.

What’s the work/snowboarding balance like for you?

I thought when I started that I wouldn’t be able to ride as much, but the survey job is nice because it’s difficult to do it in the winter. You need good weather with minimal clouds, otherwise they create shadows. Also, people don’t want pictures of snow on the ground. So I was off from late December until early April, and I was able to ride at Kings & Queens of Corbets and also filmed a bunch What does an aerial mapping pilot actually do?

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Most pilots fly from A to B. My job is taking the plane up and following these pre-plotted lines, so the camera or lidar in the back can survey the ground. You have to get to the right height and stay with 100ft of the route, you record it, and then you move to the next one. If you look at our flight track, it’s like mowing the lawn.

How long does a flight last?

It depends on the amount of fuel. The planes we use have about five and a half hours, but I wouldn’t push it that far. You come down a bit earlier in case there’s a crashed plane on the runway or some kind of other crazy scenario that means you can’t land.

So we usually fly for about five hours.

Is there someone else with you in the plane?

Sometimes you do it by yourself, but usually, it’s with another pilot.

Sometimes I do the recording while the other person flies, or vice versa.

What are the aerial images actually used for?

A lot of it is farm planning or watershed management. There are a lot of government contracts that come through other subcontractors.

Most of the time, I don’t even know.

We just get told to fly to Oklahoma or wherever.

So nothing illegal or sketchy?

Oh no. Sometimes we fly over areas that you have to get permission for.

Like later tonight, I have to fly over Mexico. It’s not that big of a deal because we’re not landing, but the Mexican air traffic control could just straight up tell us no.

What’s the most fun part of your job?

The most fun part is just having an aeroplane and the freedom from my boss to get the job done however we want. I got to fly over New York City recently. Taking off next to the skyline every day and flying up the Hudson River was epic. We also flew over it at night. So I’d say the journey is the most fun part.

What kind of planes do you fly?

I only fly piston-engined propellor planes. Mostly a Cessna 206, which is single-engined, and a Cessna 401 and Cessna 310, which are multiengined.

Are there any skills you’ve learnt from snowboarding that apply to your job?

Oh yeah, big time. I really like to hit jumps on my snowboard, and that’s a lot of energy management. It’s exactly the same as flying a plane and goes hand in hand with piloting. On the runway or coming in to land, you have to check where you need to be, what movements are gonna give me more or less speed to do what I need to do.

A lot has to happen before you can put the plane on the ground. So it’s good if you’re able to subconsciously focus on a lot of different things and make sure you’re not off the track that you’re supposed to be on.

Are there any skills you’ve learnt from piloting that apply to your snowboarding?

For better or worse, I got a bit more risk-sensitive. In snowboarding, you might not be sure that you can make something, but you just say screw it, I’ll try. Whereas in a plane, if you do that, you might die.

Have you had any particularly memorable moments in the air?

The first time I ever flew the line. I thought it was going to be way hard.

You need precise movements, but once I figured it out, it was just cool.

When I was a kid and wanted to be a pro snowboarder and seeing huge jumps for the first time, I couldn’t imagine myself ever doing them.

Eventually, it just happened. I don’t remember when I stopped being scared of them, but it just happened.

Same with flying.

Conquering your dreams!

For real. My grandpa died when I was living in Austria a few years ago, and I went home for the funeral. I was still loving snowboarding, but being there made me remember that I’d always wanted to be a pilot, but I never thought I was smart enough, and snowboarding sidetracked me.

So I thought that there was no better opportunity than now, and I signed up for flight school right after his funeral.

I went back to Austria, finished the season, then went straight to fight school. Shoutout to my grandpa for inspiring me to get here.

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PHOTO. THEO ACWORTH

What’s your job?

I’m a crane operator. But no one believes me when I tell them that.

How long have you been a crane operator?

For two or three years. After my accident in Kappl where I fell down the cliff, my boss was scared that I wouldn’t come back to work, so he came straight to the hospital and asked if I wanted to get my crane licence.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

Not freaking out when people don’t understand you and what you’re doing. Also starting the day at 5am.

What do the people at your work think about you?

They all put on their hardhats when I drive the crane. They know I can drive it good, but not that good. Sketchy, but on the safe side.

Was it difficult to get the licence?

No, you pay 500€ and do a week in school, and that’s it.

So it’s sort of like your snowboarding?

Yes, that’s what I think. I get it done.

And no one died.

What did you do before that?

I was making concrete forms and moulds on the building site.

Are there any snowboard skills that help you with your work?

Learning to be chilled and not getting

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stressed, and working together in a team with people.

Are there any parts of your job that help with snowboarding?

Yes, it helped me a lot with building jumps. I can build big walls, and then I just fill them up. I save a lot of time because I make the blocks out of ice.

So it’s the same as doing concrete in the summer. It’s just bricklaying.

Any funny stories from work?

One day I was sitting in the crane and I fell asleep, and the guys hit it really hard with a sledgehammer. That woke me up pretty quick.

METHOD 21 -----------

14.11.2021 02:11

PHOTO. SEBI MADLENER

What do you do for work?

I run a bar together in Innsbruck with two of my friends, Sebi Madlener and Didi Kienle. It’s called Brooks ODB. Brooks is a reference to Innsbruck, and ODB stands for Old Dirty Bar. It’s not actually dirty, but it has a nice bar/ pub feeling to it.

Have any of you had experience running a bar before?

Just Didi. Sebi and I didn’t know shit.

I’d poured a couple of beers, but I’d never even heard of half of the drinks we have now. I’m definitely not the best barkeeper, but I can make a good whiskey sour.

Was it difficult to get any of the permits to do it?

There was another bar here before us, so the permits were already there.

But when I went to the city to ask about a new sound system, they knew who we were and already had a thick folder of complaints about us! If I’d known that, I probably wouldn’t have gone. Sometimes there might be sixty or seventy people outside, and the ---------- 22.2

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neighbour would call the cops, but now they have Didi’s number, so she calls him instead.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Being able to run a business with your friends. Everything is pretty uncomplicated, and it’s always fun.

There are always loads of homies in here. It’s small, but that’s what makes the vibe really special.

How’s the balance between work and snowboarding?

It’s super flexible. We have three other people who can support us in the winter, so work and snowboarding go pretty well together.

Are there any snowboard skills that also apply to your job?

Just being patient. It might take a while to get a clip, and sometimes it takes a while to close the bar. You might have to tell people five times to leave, but you just have to be patient with them.

So usually you’d be the one getting kicked out of spots, but now you have to kick people out of your own spot!

I never thought about it like that, but yeah. I try to do it as nicely as possible.

Sometimes people might be mad, but you just have to be empathetic and feel their vibe.

Are there skills you’ve learnt on this job that also apply to snowboarding?

Working with ice.

Got any good bar stories for us?

A recent one that comes to my mind was about Tun [Kintzelé, local skater and regular nudist]. He was in the bar, and he very politely said, ‚Excuse me, would it be ok if I removed my clothes and did a nollie heelflip in here?’. We don’t have a lot of space, but I said of course. So he ripped them off, and did a nollie heelflip. It wasn’t the cleanest, but he did it.

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“PEOPLE THINK IT’S REALLY COMPLICATED, BUT THE SOLUTIONS ARE ACTUALLY REALLY FUCKING SIMPLE, WITH THE RIGHT MINDSET, OF COURSE.”

PHOTO. THEO ACWORTH

What is your job?

I guess you could say I’m an architect who works on humanitarian type projects. But I call myself an architectural activist. By activist, I mean someone who’s an advocate for change. So I’m working on prototype building projects that I believe are solutions for the future. They tap into the circular economy and use wastederived materials/systems that are just better for the environment. I’m also working on a startup company called Nu Cycle.

How did you get into doing what

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you’re doing?

I worked on some big sky-scraper kind of projects in the city but realised that they weren’t great for the environment or the world overall.

Snowboarding kept me on the fringes a bit, so in the end, I naturally avoided the status-quo jobs that usually entail being an architect, and that’s what led me to where I am now.

What project are you working on at the moment?

It’s a prototype of a new school building in Brazil, and we’re working with both the public and private

school systems. The initiative that we are working under is called Recycle Build. We’re prototyping new materials, spaces and installing IoT devices in some waste-water gardens that are fed by the building. The waste-water systems deal with toilet waste so that it doesn’t go into rivers and pollute them. It’s a closed-loop system. It’s so simple, and a lot of the time, people actually aren’t convinced that it will work so well. I didn’t either until I literally stuck my head into a few of them.

METHOD 21 -----------

14.11.2021 02:11

How many people are there in your team?

Recycle Build has overall, 25. There are more, as in any build project, but this is our core team.

What’s your specific role within this team and this project?

I’m the project architect, and I also do a bunch of other things. We don’t run like a normal architecture firm that get paid by clients and do as they ask. We don’t have clients in that traditional sense. Our strategy has been to find solutions to those problems that we feel need to be addressed and find a feasible strategy to fund and implement those solutions.

What sort of stuff does Nu Cycle do?

Nu Cycle implements waste-to-value technologies, materials and systems through analysing and offsetting a company’s waste impact. There’s a company that’s on the Nu Cycle’s network with a pyrolysis machine in Indonesia, which is where I am right now, so I’ll be seeing it soon.

What exactly is pyrolysis, and what does this machine do?

It’s a system that, through the process of pyrolysis, turns un-recyclable plastics or similar materials into a usable form of bio-diesel. Indonesia is an archipelago of islands and doesn’t have a centrally based wastemanagement system, and there is an abundance of plastic waste. So pyrolysis is perfect for Indo.

From your perspective, what good things are going on in the world that people might not know about?

Climate change, the global waste problem, problems with the fertility of our soil, the acidification of our oceans. People think that all these complex problems need complex solutions, but the solutions are actually quite simple. Take biowaste as an example. Pair that with the declining fertility of our soils, and you have a solution. We have the waste to fix the soil. It just needs to be structured, systemised and implemented. People think it’s really complicated, but it’s actually really fucking simple, with the right mindset, of course. Composting, agroforestry, I mean that’s just one example. The new-earth can be super sci-fi and tech. It just needs to be paired with these really simple and earthy and grass-roots systems to work, I think.

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So there is hope for the future of humanity?

Oh, for sure there’s hope.

That’s good. So are you dealing with things on a governmental level?

How does that play out?

Yeah, that’s what we’re doing right now in Brazil, a public-private partnership. There are investors pairing up with the government who are asking to implement our Recycle Build concept to a larger low-income housing scheme. We won’t be building isolated low-income housing schemes. We believe that these separated socio-economic classes or hubs are not a successful toolbox to design to. This circles back to what I said before about having more control with what projects you work on. Ideally, I want to avoid working on projects that create more problems rather than solutions. Working at a government level can give you the leverage to make a lasting positive impact. It’s just really overwhelming sometimes to make it happen. My project partner Pedro [Oliva] is in Brazil, and he’s in so many meetings convincing people on the private and government level to get involved. You need the money, and you need the resources, which is just as important as the money in the end. What we’re doing is being well received, it just takes time and lots of energy.

That’s rad to hear. So you’re seeing people changing what they’re doing, even if it’s slowly?

Yeah, one step at a time. Companies are having to adopt new business structures and practices in order to survive and be more sustainable for the future. There’s a lot of traction in the snowboard industry to prototype and even swap out their resins to one of Nu Cycle network’s wastederived BPA free bio-epoxy resins [Change Climate]. I’m working on a green-up campaign with Protest right now, which I’m positive will end in an impactful collaboration. I’m literally doing the storyboards for it now. I also have companies in the snowboarding industry approaching me and asking all the right questions around how to better evolve their practices to be more sustainable. So it’s becoming clear that it’s not a choice for them to change. They just have to if they want to survive because the consumer mindsets are changing quickly.

Can the technologies and systems you’re working with be implemented in hard-good production as well as soft-goods?

Yes, Nu Cycle and Nu Cycle’s network of companies and systems are pioneering this stuff. We’re evolving, growing and implementing step by step. We’ve been talking to a handful of different snowboard companies.

We’re looking at boards, surfboards, bindings and also doing waste impact assessments at the factory level - right at the source. We can make an impact right at the material development and production side of hard-goods by harvesting waste from the environment and putting it into our products instead of spitting products out into the environment that are virgin waste themselves.

An elegant solution, giving value to something that’s considered waste and using what’s already there instead of creating something new.

Exactly. It’s all already there. One step at a time, we’re slowly convincing companies and people that it can be done and asking them to please get involved.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

Implementation and execution.

Going from having an idea, finding a team, implementing and executing it, that’s definitely the hardest thing.

It takes time and energy, especially during COVID, which has just slowed everything down. That’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing, though.

What are the best things about your job?

If you listen to the news or you’re clued in about what’s happening to the environment and these ecological disasters that we’re living through, it can be quite depressing, and it definitely gets to me sometimes.

I like to think, though, that I’m just focusing on the solutions. So the best thing about my ‚job’ is that I guess it feels like there is some sort of overall purpose to it all. I’m trying to build projects and implement solutions in an attempt to help the environment and people’s connection with nature.

In the process, I’m also snowboarding and surfing. So that helps with the overall anxiety levels.

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PHOTO. BASTIEN STURMA

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14.11.2021 02:08

PHOTO. GUILLAUME STURMA

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GALLERY

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14.11.2021 02:13

JOHN CAMP

I IMAGINE THESE C H A R A C T E R S TO BE THE VIBE GOBLINS LURKING AROUND SPOTS. THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVISIBLE VIBRATIONS AND ENERGIES OF A SESSION. THEY ARE FICTITIOUS VISUALIZATIONS OF WHAT I THINK OF AS GUARDIAN SPIRITS AND DEMONS, FEEDING ON THE VARIOUS ENERGIES YOU BRING INTO A SESSION OR A PARTICULAR TRICK YOU’RE TRYING – THE ANGER, THE STOKE, THE DARING, THE INSECURITIES, THE LOVE, THE HATE, THE FRUSTRATION, THE FEAR OF CATCHING AN EDGE OR LANDING SHORT - THE FORCES AT WORK COLLUDING TO MAKE YOU EITHER GLORIOUSLY RIDE AWAY FROM YOUR TRICK OR GET CRUSHED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SPOT. PHOTO. GUNARS ELMUTS ARTWORK. MARCUS BARTOS

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METHOD 21 -----------

14.11.2021 02:15

THE VINTAGE SHOTS BY GUNARS ELMUTS I’VE CHOSEN TO DRAW ON ARE ALL FROM THE ‚GOLDEN ERA’ AROUND ‚93 - ‚94. A YOUNG KID THE AT THE TIME - LIKE A LOT OF US BACK THEN - I SPENT A LOT OF TIME RELIGIOUSLY SOAKING UP SKATE AND SNOWBOARD CULTURE, STUDYING THE FEW MAGS I COULD GET HOLD OF UNTIL I KNEW EVERY SINGLE LINE AND EVERY SINGLE PICTURE BY HEART. YOU DIDN’T SEE ENDLESS INSTA CLIPS OF THE CRAZIEST SHIT EVERY DAY. YOU LOOKED AT THE SHOTS IN A MAG OVER AND OVER AGAIN, PORING OVER EVERY DETAIL. THOSE PICTURES ARE PERMANENTLY ENGRAINED IN MY BRAIN, THE STYLE OF THAT ERA SOMETHING LIKE MY AESTHETIC DNA. MOST OF THE RIDERS YOU SEE IN THESE PHOTOGRAPHS REMAIN HEROS OF MINE TO THIS DAY. SO WHEN I RE-ENCOUNTERED SOME OF THOSE VERY PHOTOS THAT I HAD SEEN IN MAGS ALMOST 30 YEARS PRIOR ON GUNARS’ INSTA A FEW YEARS AGO, NATURALLY, I WAS SUPER STOKED. WE BEGAN TALKING A BIT. I ORDERED SOME PRINTS, AND STARTED DOODLING.

JASON FORD

RUSSELL WINFIELD

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HAROLD HUNTER

SETH NEARY

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, I HAD LOST INTEREST IN TRADITIONAL SNOWBOARDING A BIT IN FAVOUR OF EXPLORING RIDING WITHOUT BINDINGS ON SNOWSKATES AND POWSURFERS. THE PICTURE BY TAKUYA „NISSY” NISHINAKA OF ATSUSHI GOMYO DOING A LIEN AIR ON A YUKIITA [OR SNOWTOY AS THEY SOMETIMES CALL THEM] HAND-SHAPED BY HIMSELF, FOR ME, EXEMPLIFIES THE ABSOLUTE ESSENCE OF BOARDING ON SNOW. IT BRINGS BACK THE PURE STOKE OF THAT GOLDEN ERA. THAT’S WHY I INCLUDED IT TO KIND OF COMPLETE THE CIRCLE. MARCUS BARTOS AKA @RAVINGINDIAN

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JIM GAGNE ATSUSHI GOMYO PHOTO. TAKUYA ‘NISSY’ NISHINAKA

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LEN JØRGENSEN. PHOTO. CHRIS BALDRY

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CELIA PETRIG PHOTO. MARKUS ROHRBACHER

GALLERY 22.2 PAGE 04 AND 05

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107

GALLERY

14.11.2021 02:08

*LET ME START BY SAYING THAT I THOUGHT I’D BEEN INVITED ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY. YOU KNOW, SUN SEA AND SAND? INSTEAD WE’RE GOING TO THE MOUNTAINS, WTF? OH, AND MY NAME IS SONIA. THAT FAB GUY WITH THE BOW ON HIS HEAD NAMED ME ON THE DRIVE TO LES DEUX ALPES.

*THESE CHEAPSKATE ASSHOLES STUFFED ME INTO THE SIDE OF A BAG AND TOLD ME TO KEEP QUIET BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE A LIFT PASS FOR ME. WHAT THE HELL? THIS IS A BULLSHIT START TO A HOLIDAY IF EVER I SAW ONE.

ON

SONIA *THEY LET ME OUT HALFWAY UP. AT LEAST THE VIEW IS NICE.

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SEVEY

HOLIDAY *BARBIE DOES LOVE BRUNO

*LET ME GIVE YOU SOME BACKGROUND INFO ABOUT MYSELF. I’M STACKED WITH A 0.3 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA, 4MB OF INTERNAL MEMORY AND 30 FILTER EFFECTS. I THOUGHT I WAS HOT SHIT FOR A MINUTE WITH THOSE SPECS, BUT NOW EVERY KID HAS A 4K IPHONE, SO I OBVIOUSLY WASN’T POPULAR FOR TOO LONG. IF YOU THINK I SOUND JADED, I AM. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOU HAD AN OUTDATED PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY BUILT INTO YOUR BODY WHICH MADE YOU LOOK LIKE THE LOVECHILD OF PARIS HILTON AND A GODDAMN TELLYTUBBY?

DOM

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SONIA ON HOLIDAY 14.11.2021 02:17

SONIA

*ONE DAY WE WATCHED SOME FOOTBALL AT A BAR. THE SWISS GUYS THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO WIN, THEN THEY LOST, THEN THEY GOT DRUNK. A BUNCH OF PEOPLE CHASING A BALL AROUND A FIELD? WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. AT LEAST WHEN THE SNOWBOARDERS FALL OVER THEY GET BACK UP AGAIN WITHOUT CRYING ABOUT IT.

ON

GIAN

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14.11.2021 02:17

BENNY

*ALL THIS SNOW, AND THEY SPEND THEIR TIME JUMPING ONTO THE FEW THINGS MADE OF METAL UP HERE? I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE.

*IN THEIR DOWNTIME, THEY RACED GO-KARTS AND PLAYED MINIGOLF. NOT EXACTLY THE HIGH-FLYING LIFESTYLE THAT I’M USED TO, BUT THEY SEEMED TO ENJOY IT.

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HOLIDAY 111

NORA BECK SONIA ON HOLIDAY 14.11.2021 02:18

*THIS DUTCH KID WITH THE REALLY RED EYES DIDN’T RIDE HIS SNOWBOARD MUCH, BUT HE GOT EXCITED ABOUT THIS THING AND KEPT “WALLRIDING” IT. SEEMS LIKE A LONG WAY TO TRAVEL JUST TO CRASH INTO SOMETHING YOU’D FIND ON A BUILDING SITE, BUT I’M PAST THE POINT OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE.

KAS

SONIA

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SEBI

METHOD 21 -----------

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ON

*WE STAYED WITH ITALIANS AT GARAGE CAMP, AND ONE NIGHT LUCA PUKED IN HIS CAR. WE SMELT IT FOR DAYS. EVEN IF THE SNOWBOARDERS WERE IDIOTS, AT LEAST THE HOSPITALITY WAS ON POINT FOR THIS HOLIDAY. HERE’S A SHOT OF ME IN THE CAMP PASTA BAG.

SEVEY, SEBI, BENNY.

HOLIDAY WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS. SONIA ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS. THEO ACWORTH & MARCO MORANDI RIDERS. SEVERIN VAN DER MEER, BENNY URBAN, GIAN SUTTER, KAS LEMMENS, SEBI SPRINGETH, DOMINIK WAGNER ---------- 22.2

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113

SONIA ON HOLIDAY 14.11.2021 02:18

TANNER MANNINEN PHOTO. ADAM JUNIO

114 Proofed_GALLERY 222.indd 114

METHOD 21 -----------

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RYAN PATTERSON, METHOD PHOTO. JUSTIN KIOUS

---------- 22.2

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GALLERY 22.2 PAGE 06 AND 07

115

GALLERY

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22.2

Proofed_GOODBYE.indd 116

JAKE SIMPSON IN P2 HEAVEN. PHOTO. GUILLAME STURMA

14.11.2021 02:19

ALEX FISCHER

JEREMY JENSEN

NAOTO KOTSUGAI NATE HAUST

ALINE BOCK

JONAS JUNKER

ALJOSA KRIVEC

JOONA SAIKKONEN

NIAL ROMANEK

AYA SATO

JOONAS ELORANTA

ØIVIND FYKSE ENGELSCHIØN

BEN DIETERMANN

JORIS DOORN

PETER BAUER

BRANDON COCARD

KAEDE YASUNAGA

PETER LOTZ

DAN BRISSE

KALEAH OPAL

PETER WALCHHOFER

DENIZ CINEK

KASIA RUSIN

ROOPE RAUTIAINEN

DOMINIK BRUNNER

KEIJIRO KASAHARA AKA DOGGY

SAM HULBERT SAMY KAUTNER

DOMI TAUBER

KEVIN BACKSTROM

EIKI HELGASON

LAURENZ HAUNSCHMIDT

SIMON PIRCHER

EIRIK NESSE

LEA BAUMSCHLAGER

STEFAN ZELLNITZ

ELENA KÖNZ

LEANDER GREITEMANN

STEWART ORR

ELIAS ELHARDT

LENNY FENNING

SVETKO BALTIC

EMIL FREY

LEO FREY

TADASHI FUSE

FABIAN FRAIDL

LUKAS BEHENSKY

TADEJ VALENTAN

FLO ORLEY

LUKAS ELLENSOHN

TAKASHI TAMAMURA

FRANK BOURGEOIS

MADISON BLACKLEY

TAYLOR ELLIOTT

FRIEDL KOLAR

MANUELA MANDL

THOMAS FEURSTEIN

GEOFF BROWN

MARCO FEICHTNER

TINI GRUBER

GRANT GILLER

MARK GOODALL

TOM TRAMNITZ

GUSTAF LUNDSTRÖM

MARKUS OLIMSTAD

TOMMI OLLIKAINEN

HAVEN KENNEDY

MARKUS RUSTAD

WERNI STOCK

HAYATE YASUNAGA

MARY LUGGEN

WILL BROMMELSIEK

HENRY JACKSON

MATHIAS WEISSENBACHER

XAVIER DE LE RUE

HIMARI TAKAMORI

MAX GLATZL

YOKO NAKAMURA

JACK HERALD

MICHI SCHATZ

YUTO TOTSUKA

JAY SCHERZINGER

MIEI YAMAGUCHI AKA MIYON 34

ZHANG JIAHAO

JED SKY

MORITZ AMSUESS

ZOLTÁN STRCUĽA

NO BULLSH** — THIS IS THE DEELUXE TEAM!

Apologies to all the local heroes that we could not mention here.

We really appreciate each and every one of you!

@ D E E L U X E B O O T S / / W W W. D E E L U X E . C O M

Proofed_GOODBYE.indd 117

14.11.2021 02:19

ADS BACK.indd 162

14.11.2021 19:26

Pic: Sani Alibabic | Blue Tomato Team Rider: Anna Gasser

Pic: Sani Alibabic | Blue Tomato Team Rider: Anna Gasser

Blue Tomato Book | blue-tomato.com/book instagram.com/bluetomato | #yourrideourmission

COVER 222 inside.indd Wszystkie strony Vans_Method_01_Longo_Infuse.indd 1-2

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22.2

FREE

COVER 222 .indd Wszystkie strony

FREE

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