POW-WOW

So we finally got some snowfall in Zillertal last week and at the end of the week we got some really nice pow days. The first day we didn't expect much going up since the weather was super bad. It was raining alot but seemed like higher up it had been just cold enough to make the rain abit more fluffy. So on the first day I didn't film anything cos I didn't even have my camera with me but on the second day I got what I needed to make this edit.

Vide-Oh! Wow-POW from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

Last Saturday we actually moved to Tobadill. So this week we've been riding abit further west. So far I've been to Ischgl, See, Sölden and Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis.

Ischgl was really crowded. I felt like I was standing in line most of the time. Half of the lifts were closed due to strong winds so that was partly the reason. But from what i saw of Ischgl it wasn't to my liking. There's alot of potential to some really easy access BC lines but I felt like there were lifts everywhere. Some people like it cos you never really have to use transport trails but I felt like it was abit too much. Maybe I'll get a better impression next time.

See was really nice. I think there's like 6 lifts in See. Compared to the size of the place they have an insane amount of nice off-piste and even some really technical lines. Not much of any lift lines so you get alot of riding in one day. If See gets alot of snow I would say it's an excellent place to visit.

Sölden was ok, the glacier wasn't open so still waiting to see that part. The park was for some reason closed and under construction but it seemed like it was mostly super easy boxes and really small jumps. Got some nice powder runs in but can't say that I got that excited about the place. Have to go back to check out the glacier.

Today was Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. This place was amazing. From all the places I have been to so far if I would have to choose one for a one week holiday this is where I would go. There is something for everyone and it's widely spread out so the crowd of people just spreads out all over the place. Best pistes so far, profile and quality vise. The jib park was insane, I think it was 3 different lines side by side, each with at least 10 obstacles in one run. The kicker line was ok I guess. medium size jumps with low hangtime. On the plus side they have a big air bag which is always for. Offpiste for everyone from easy to gnarly. Cliff drops, tree lines and endless potential if you're up for some hiking. I was really amazed by this place.

Things that annoy me: What is the matter whit drivers in Austria? Even if you're speeding 10km/h some idiot will drive 2m behind you at all times. When he after 5km realizes you're not going to go any faster he passes you even if there isn't a clear view of what's ahead, just to end up behind the next car. Then, after a few more km he stops at a grocery store where he isn't in any kind of hurry. It's like most drivers here have a death wish.

Another thing that comes to mind is that coming from Finland I'm not used to having to deal with 1 & 2 cent coins. They keep stacking up and people seemed to just get annoyed when you use them to pay for something.

My mind just when completely blank so I guess I just try to post shorter posts abit more often.
Till next time.

Season is ON! Like really on.

So all of December I was in Levi as usual. It's always nice to see the people there since you barely see anyone during the summer. Weather was like it usually is around that time, some days you might have -1 and then a few days late the temperature drops to -25. A few days after I left Levi they got -34 I think, soo thankful I wasn't there working when it happened.



Most of the time I was just working. I did get to ride some park but mainly after a long day of working when it's too dark to film anything and on my days off the weather ended up being quite terrible. Only thing I ended up filming was some faceshots in the small amount of pow I could find on the side of the slope. It turned out so bad that I actually just deleted it. The base was way to weak to go ride in the trees.


So christmas and newyears passed by pretty quickly and on the 5th of Jan I left Levi, went to Helsinki, repacked, and headed towards Austria.


So I've been in Austria now for 2 weeks and it's been epic. The snow base is not that good but the last 4 days we've been getting so much snow that it's hard to stay away from the off-piste. This results in ruining the base of your boards real nicely. The service for my board ended up costing 40€ which was abit of a shock but they did a really nice job. If anyone is interested in where I took my board it was Moreboards in Mayrhofen.


We bought the Tirol Snow Card which is like a combo ski pass that is valid in something around 90 different resorts. During this first week we've been to 4 different ones. Around 7 I guess if you count the ones that are connected to eachother as different resorts.


The first weekend we tried going out. This ended up with us eventually just drinking at home since the taxi never picked us up. We called it like 3 times and the same driver confirmed that he would be on his way. I feel like he might have been one of those drivers who pick you up at the point when he happens go drop off another costumer close by.

So last night we were successful because of better planning. We took the train to town. Only "problem" is that the last train leaves at 20:20 or something so you end up starting the evening quite early. So today was kinda just about regaining my strength, which is an idiotic way to spend your day away from the slopes. But, it had to be done.



This week we actually got a super fun day in Hintertux. The weather was abit terrible but it had it's upsides. The few who were there mainly spent the day on the slopes further down where it was less windy and better visibility. This left us with some super easy-access powder areas. I think we spent like 3/4 of the day riding this area between two slopes that for some reason had really good snow. I filmed abit even if the visibility wasn't too good but it turned out ok. Was planning on putting a clip together tomorrow night. Our internet connection is the most unreliable you can get so let's just hope I can get it uploaded.



Hintertux in general to me seems like a place that has good riding as long as they have alot of snow and it's a bluebird day. The clouds seem to almost stick to the mountain and since it's a really high mountain the top part has been really windy. The wind combined with the snow and clouds played tricks on us real bad, there was no way of knowing what is up and what is down or if it was ice or powder in front of you. It was super funny going on the t-bar to the top. The lift trail was covered in 20cm of fresh, coming half way up i suddenly hit a wall of snow. With the back foot unstrapped i didn't get very far at the point where I was waist deep in snow. I think all of us fell off the lift at that point. You really don't expect that much snow on the lift trail.


Even if this isn't that far away from home there are so many things that make you feel like you're somewhere super far away. First of all I would say that it's about as easy to get your point trough to someone in Thailand as it is here. Surprisingly often you end up in a situation where you end up getting service in german even if you tell them you only speak english, no matter how polite you are.

There seem to be alot of stores that don't accept Visa which to me is weird. Yesterday I was in a grocery store that would only accept AMEX and Maestro. No Visa, no MasterCard. So basically you get used to always having to carry abit of cash with you. Up on the slopes they only take cash in the restaurants and bars.

On the slopes people have no respect what so ever when it comes to standing in line. everyone cut in line, alot of people even cut in line even when there is no free space anywhere. Too many seem to have no idea what so ever how to pick a spot where you wait for your friends. You get people going trough the ticket gate at the lift and then just stop in the small area in between the ticket gate and the lif to wait for the rest of the group. You get large groups who block all of the gates while waiting for the seasons to change. After 2 weeks I'm still completely amazed by this chaos around the lifts. One day I girl in her 20s started complaining to me because I wouldn't let her cut in front of me in the lift line. She most def got the babe of the day price for that one.


Oh yeah, they use 2&1 cent coins here so you end up having alot of those small annoying barbie coins that are worth more in the material they are made of than the actual value of the coin.


There alot of stuff to write about but I will leave something for later. I need to put up some pictures and edit some pow riding to make this blog abit more interesting. Hoping to get it done tomorrow.

While writing this the damn internet shut down again so might be that I'll get this posted tomorrow morning if someone wonders how some of the stuff I've writted don't add up.

Goooooooooood Night!

Winter just came! Or something...

At least we're getting closer. I have no clue when I will get my season started but I'm beginning to realize that it's not going to be that long.

 I'm actually super hyped, more than usual. It's fun when you start the season checking out and buying gear. And checking out clips and movies. Insights - Peetu Piiroinen Full Part Is one part that I found interesting a nice to watch. I've actually seen Peetu several times riding. It's insane how big he goes, on everything. In Talma he hit almost every obstacle so hard I was scared that he was going to miss the landing. That's one thing I haven't seen him do. 

 Seems like it's been snowing abit in the alps, just looking at this makes me excited about the upcoming season. 

 

 Since it's still almost summer or something I want to add a few clips from another sport. Just insanely cool footage from Nine Knights MTB, enjoy!

That moneyroll.....

Close to a perfect summer day!

First of all. I haven't been blogging or anything like that lately because I've been at our summerhouse where you just constantly end up doing stuff. It's where I am right now as well but for the first time in a long time I'm here all alone, which means it's easier to concentrate on writing.

So ye, today was a pretty epic day. I've been out to sea. I made a nice BBQ dinner for myself, feels weird to bbq for only yourself. I enjoyed a really cool sunset, while heating up the sauna.

Had a long relaxing sauna session. It's sooo chill to just sit there in the warm sauna looking at the flames behind the glass. Skinny dipping/swimming in the sea where the water was just perfect. I had some cold beers in the sauna, and one of the times I was sitting outside cooling off with my beer and owl flew straight over me. Owls are badass, like the birdversion of ninjas. They have insanely good and precise hearing (in the winter they hunt mice trough layers of snow), they are completely silent in the air and when they sit up in the tree you can barely see them cos they sit freakishly still.

Now it's completely dark outside so might go practice some astrophotography, loads of fun and really challenging. At least with my gear and skills. But you gotta start somewhere right?

My sister and her boyfriend just left today so kinda weird not having them here since the evenings are usually the time we sit at the kitchen table socialising or watch series. I think they spent like 6 or 7 weeks here and were kinda bummed out about leaving. Got to go sailing with them on sunday (damn this week has gone by fast). Tomorrow I'm off to Turku on new adventures.

Last but not least!!!!!!!! The frikin edit that took me FOREVER to get done. SKDÄÄÄM!!!

Vide-Oh! Season 3 Finale from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

Shitty weather but spring is here!

We have gotten close to nothing filmed the past few months. The weather has been absolutely terrible. With a few sunny day that have been so windy it's hopeless to do anything on the jumps. Riding rails is beginning to feel abit boring almost because it's the only option on the super windy day. The wind also destroys all the soft snow so no pow to be found.
On the upside I've been out abit more than usual. For me it's a good thing because I might not go out at all for a few months and it gets sort of antisocial. The busy weeks for example are usually so exhausting the alot of the day you just can't find the power to get your ass of the couch once you get home. I've started going to the gym again on a more weekly basis, always a good way to get more energy.
I think everyone know we've had a few really good nights with some amazing northern lights. The were so strong that even if it was abit cloudy that radiant light pushed trouhgt the clouds.
I grabbed my camera and the tripod but was too late once I got everything in place. Another time I guess...
I've been home from work trying to get my knees in better shape which means I've been watching alot of stupid stuff but yesterday I found some gems from the past. The best snowboarding movies ever. Movies that get you more hyped on snowboarding than any other.

Some of the great
Mack Dawg Productions movies I found on youtube.




The quality is poor but it doesn't really matter. Still awesome.

Quick reminder if you order anything from www.myboard.fi add the LEVI code at the checkout for a small discount.

I got a new edit done. Had some problems with the resolution so I had to render it 4 times and upload it twice before I got it to work and look the way I wanted.

Vide-Oh! s3ep2 Out in the sun! from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

Things I've seen and places I go!

Almost 4 months since my last post. This has to be a new record. I don't really know why I haven't posted anything, just had a really hard time getting around to do it. So where to start?
The end of the season at Levi was alot of sitting around waiting for good weather, we did film alot but Kaarle has all the footage since he filmed on the 7D most of the time. And he is on the other side of the world right now so won't be getting that footage any day soon. I still made a miniedit of what I had on the GoPro. It's far from quality footage but I felt like editing so whatever.


Vide-Oh! s2ep6 from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

As usual during the springtime at Levi there was alot of days with bad vis and we got new snow that was super sticky so you could barely get enough speed for the small jumps. This was the case during Levi Camp351 which kinda takes the fun out of riding. But that's how it has to be on Levi Camp, at least one day has to suck.

Just before Levi Camp we went to Riksgränsen for som Powhunting, and we actually got some really nice runs in the 3 days we were there. Editing the footage from that trip is next on my to do list.
I would have been nice to stay at Levi for a bit longer, not that the lifts were open but you could still ride in July if I remember correctly. If you don't have anything against hiking that is.
On the last week I started skateboarding which is great fun and a fast way to move around. It's funny how stoked you get when you manage to do a small Ollie over a six by four.

From Levi I headed straight to Helsinki, this was around mid May.
It's always nice to see family and friends. And the weather was awesome, it seems like it generally was a really good summer in the southern parts of Finland.
2 weeks later I headed to Norway to work. Basically driving back to Levi and then 900km or so past Levi. I've been driving in my car alot lately.

I was in Norway for 2 months working in a kitchen/grill and my whole stay is really simple to sum up. Most of the time was spent at work, and the only other things I did was sleep, go hiking a few times and go fishing.
My workstation:

I can tell you, it was hot as f!
Met alot of new people and made some new friends. Basically the people working at the restaurant is a really random bunch, it's so awesome when you have a big group of people that are all so different still getting alot really well. Miss you all!
But as I mentioned I mostly worked so I'm just gonna post alot of pics that a took while I was there.
Click on the picture for original size!

So we hiked a few nice peaks and got some fish, and spent quality time at work ofc.
Then, at the end of July, it was time for a change of scenery.

So once again it was time for the nearly 2000km drive home. On the way close to Kiruna, Sweden I took this picture. I think the colors in the picture are awesome. I took it when I was taking a snackbreak and just a few moment later it was gone.

Once I got back to Helsinki I had one week to repack and meet family and friends. Took a short trip to our summerplace since everyone was there. Saw my sister and her boyfriend for the first time in like 7 months and taught their dog to realize she can swim. I actually got some GoPro footage of the dog swimming, maybe I'll use it in some random edit.
Having spent the previous 2 summers there it felt abit hard to leave. It is prolly the most relaxing place I know, and traveling alot that is just what you need. Waking up wheneve you feel like it. Take a swim in the ocean. Sit by the sea. Maybe go for a daytrip in the sailboat.
I actually managed to squeeze all of that into 2 days so it was a success.

Then back to Helsinki to pack everything and off to New Zealand.

Believe it or not but I'm actually not even here on holiday. I got a job as a ski instructor here. I arrived in Auckland a week ago and stayed there for a few nights. Really felt like resting after the 25h trip, 30h actually if you count the time from door to door.

Auckland seemed nice, I didn't really do that much. Mostly just skated around town.
I can't remember what the name of the park is but in one of the central parks I cut abit too close to the curb on my skateboard and took quite a nasty looking fall. At least judging from the guys reaction that was a few meters away from me. I will master that sport some day! :D
Only touristy thing I did was to visit SkyTower which is 328 meters. I just bought the cheapest ticket (28$) that takes you to level 51 (186 meters) but it was still kinda cool to have such a nice view over the whole town. I had a beer at the cafe and managed to get the picture of a guy "bungee" jumping outside the window.
There are a few random pictures at the bottom that I just taught look cool. And then there's The White Lady, I just had to take a picture of it. It was by far the best thing anyone told me about Auckland, cos those burgers are just amazing. If I lived there I would most likely eat at The White Lady every day.

The quality of my pictures isn't the best but I should get my real camera in a few weeks. All pictures above are taken with my phone or my GoPro.

On Monday I took the 6,5h busride to where I am now, Ohakune! It was like riding a rollercoaster, the roads felt like it was just one tight turn after another. On top of that the road felt quite bumpy and there's like a million hills to climb. For the first time in a long time I was close to getting carsick. Would prolly have gotten carsick if it wasn't for the awesome landscapes.

I haven't really been taking any pictures here because it's been raining alot and I haven't been up the mountain yet. Tomorrow is my first day so I think that during the following week I'll have something to show and/or write about. Time to get the gear ready for tomorrow and go to bed.
I hope this post wasn't too long.

A new clip out of nothing!

The weather here hasn't really improved lately. If the sun is shining, it's really windy. If it isn't windy the light is prolly really flat, and so on.
Got no more work this season which makes it slightly easier to try getting something filmed if the weather is good for even a few hours. However we filmed on a bad day and I think the footage is entertaining. The snow is melting faster that ever but we should get 15cm of snow this night.
Lately there has been alot of pro boarders riding at Levi such as Eero Ettala and Heikki Sorsa, so who knows, maybe we'll see something filmed over here in the next episode of CWG.

Vide-Oh! Season2 Episode 5 from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

Kaarle's revenge! (NEW EDIT)

Episode 4 is out! We got some really nice sunny days but the wind was still bothering so we only got a few jumps filmed on the big ones before it got too windy. Still nice to have some contrast once in a while!


Vide-Oh! Season2 Episode 4 from Vide-Oh! on Vimeo.

"Picture issue"

One month since the last post. I've been working and the weather has been terrible. Prolly the worst season so fr when it come to the weather. It's been super foggy and when it's clear enough to ride the park it's too windy. On some days we got some footage off the bigger jumps but it always ended up with wind blowing up making it really sketchy to hit the bigger ones. Here are some pictures from the past month(s?)
Theese pictures are not edited in any way and are mostly taken with my phone!