I don’t even come close to the riders that I represent. They are on the road 200-250 days a year, but I try to be at most of the important events were both the riders and the “industry” are present. I think that it’s important to meet up with the industry, network and hear what’s going on to be able to give my clients the best service. Since the riders that I represent are predominately snowboarders, I’m going
to most of the TTR 6-star events. Now I’m in Aspen for the Winter X Games and next week I’m going SIA in Las Vegas and then straight to US Open in Freeskiing at Copper Mtn, so there is a bit of traveling involved. In a near future I’ll start working with a few new summer athletes so I guess there will be some more summer events added to my itinerary.

Haha, both yes and no. If you deduct all the travels, my job is a pretty average office job. Recently MTV UK wanted to do a version of “the model agency” with .INC and my sister company KAOS Ltd. When they got here and realized that our work consists of mailing, mailing, mailing and some phone calls or iChat. We never heard from them again…

I’ve been snowboarding for over 16 years. Since I grew up in southern Sweden, all my time was spent on to find how to be able to find money to snowboard more. I lived for snowboarding and my obsession ended up in me reading everything, all the magazines, catalogues, videos and TV-shows from all over the world. My friends used to call me catalogue-face, since I knew everything about snowboarding – haha.

I used to go up to Stryn and Folgefonna in the summers and later on I spent my seasons in Chamonix and Åre. Åre was good since I was able to start my studies at Mid University of Sweden.

Not at all! I ended up study a master degree studies in financial economics and a minor in marketing, I was all set to start to climb the traditional career ladder. But my friend Jakob Wilhelmsson started
to make money of snowboarding and kept asking me for advice about everything that involved contracts and financial stuff. We had a lot of discussions about the action sport industry and I told him that he should hook up with a management company that could help him out. He was skeptical since the only management companies dedicated action sports where based in the US and he didn’t trust them to do good work for him on a European level.

I gave it a good thought and three months later I called Jakob and Hampus and presented the idea of a management company. Later on that year I started working with Markku Koski and Kjersti Buaas as well.

Johan, Hampus and Chris are good examples of riders that are at three totally different stages of their career.

Johan has done it all, even quit snowboarding – haha. We are the same age and I looked up to him a lot and followed his career since day one. He knows what he wants and is really interested in giving input on all the companies that he’s working with. So with Johan it’s all about finding him a spot in the industry again with sponsors that are the perfect match. He doesn’t care about hype, he just wants the equipment to work and to work with people that he likes. So helping Johan to hook up with a company like The North Face was really cool. He’s given the opportunity to get in to the heli again and film full time again. He is also the spokesperson of Nissan’s freeriding program in Europe. It has been really easy to help him out getting coverage again, it seems like the entire industry has been waiting for a
comeback.

Hampus is at the top of his career and got everything going at the moment. With a rider like Hampus you face a lot of challenges and opportunities. He has been around for a long time, even though he is
still young (25). When you have traveled around for many years it’s harder to get motivated and you face a time where you need to find new motivation in your riding to continue to push it. The relationship
with your exciting sponsors is like at any work, either you find new motivation and challenges with your exciting employer, or you move on. Hampus found that motivation at Quiksilver, who also decided to help Hampus realize his dream project (Action Horse), I also helped Hampus partner up with his friend Todd Richards and become a part owner of Omatic snowboards, which is a new and interesting chapter in his career.

Chris is at a stage in his career that is the hardest. He is young and hasn’t made it all the way yet, he’s super talented and has so many options to choose between. He is on the Burton team who has one of the toughest and strongest teams in the world. The competition at his level is super hard since everyone is pretty much equally as good and knows almost every trick in the book. So apart from working on his progression as a snowboarder, he has to be more professional and profile himself to stand out from the rest.

It differs a lot. I would say that it is 50-50 at the moment. The management services in the action sport industry are still young and some team managers don’t want to hear from you until it is time
negotiate the new contract again, which is a shame. The team managers’ main job is to organize the team riders so the sponsor get them most out of their investment. If a rider has a lot of sponsors and team managers, there can be many different wills. I try to work with the riders to sort out their plans and priorities, to give both the company and the rider an added value. So most of the time I work parallel to the regular team manager, but I try to involve them as much as possible.

The market for management services is limited in Europe. At the moment there are two other pan European management companies, apart from .INC. Together we represents most of the European talents. Personally, I think that it is just enough to take care of the European market. We also face some competition from the US management companies that are starting to focus more and more on Europe.

8. You said that you prefer to work “in the dark”, not taking away from the image that snowboarding is still just for fun and leaving the business stuff aside. Is it becoming more and more difficult these
days as the big sponsors are visibly involved and prize money in contests grow by the minute?

For me everything in snowboarding is about the rider, not about the suits. The consumers, the Onboard readers, should focus on the fun in snowboarding. So my job should not be high profile, I should work in the dark.

I don’t really think that it is harder to focus on the fun in snowboarding due to the prize money though. 8-10 years ago the Air & Style had $250k and an Audi in price money, so the golden years is gone now. Back in the golden days I saw the big money as an acceptance of snowboarding and that mainstream sponsors appreciated what the big names where doing.

Today it’s a bit different. Events like the X Games and the Olympic games turn many snowboarders into household names, which makes them more interesting for mainstream companies. So now guys like me work hard to make the mainstream companies understand how we (snowboarders) think, so they just don’t milk our culture and leave for the next big thing.

Doing deals, seeing how riders come out with smashing parts and being at contests is always fun, you feel like a proud parent – haha.

There are many achievements and it’s hard to pick favorites, but Hampus’ victory at the Air & Style was super cool.

When I landed at Münich airport Hampus called me and said that I better turn around and go home right away since he broke his arm the night before when he was trying to impress on a girl, super drunk. I
was soo bummed since it was a big deal and we had cool build up to the event. I was down in Münich with Anders Neuman from Transition Magazine that did a 72h story about Hampus and now everything was ruined. Hampus played around with me for a while before he admitted that he just fucked around. He can be really convincing and he loves to take the piss out of me!

Same day Hampus started to ride really good and started to do 540s with double shiftys at the training, which was something that we never had seen before. The longer we where at the event we started to realize that Hampus had something big in his plans and when the event started he just exploded. He knocked out guys like Andreas Wiig and Nicolas Müller and finally Mathieu Crepel, I was super stoked. It was a long day and the interviews, press conferences and people that wanted to celebrate him never stopped.

I was also super stoked on Markku’s and Kjersti’s bronze medals in Turino. The medals where unexpected, even though I claimed to everyone that they would make it to the podium. Especially Kjersti’s was heart warming since she wanted that medal so bad and she broke her ankle just before Christmas 2005. When she dropped into the pipe in Turino she had only been on snow for 10 days!

Definitely competitions held in a good resort so I get the opportunity to shred during office hours! Last week at BEO in Laax me and Eric (Dragon & Bataleon team manager) had an amazing day in the sunshine riding powder.

Check out the “Let it Ride” trailer

In the snowboarding biz the riders are the rock stars — and that’s
for a good cause fo sho. But there’s a lot happening on the other side
of the industry fence too. Not everyone who loves riding becomes a pro
but they still keep being involved with the sport somehow; whether
that is by shredding the slopes nonstop, working within the industry
or being a sunday cruiser. The point is that our kicks are originated
by the same cause — no matter how it’s done. If you are loving it
that makes you your own rock star!

Ah — this intro’s point is to represent you one of those people who
loves snowboarding without being a pro and gets to do pretty darn cool
things while doing so. Give it up for Martti “Mara” Hahtonen — a 30
yr old international snowboard judge who began riding in 1989; living
and loving it since!

1. Hi Mara; thanks for taking part in this short interview. You are
truly a veteran in snowboarding. Where and how did you get started
with it?

I got into anowboarding when a couple of friends got their own boards
and “lured” me into joining them. Our home hill was called
“Kokkolanmäki” and we were the first ones to practice our method
air’s around there.

2. Right; you come from a fairly small Finnish-Swedish city called
“Kokkola”. It’s located on the coast line of Finland and isn’t
really close to any hills. Besides Kokkolanmäki, was there a specific
resort you used to go, or did you always hit the north to catch some
snow?

Yeah, Kokkola is right in the flat land area, but fortunately there’s
a few hills around. A place called “Louekallio” in Sievi was the most
snowboarding friendly place at the time so that’s where we spent the
most weeknights and on the weekends we cruised around bigger resorts
like Ruka and Iso-Syöte which are located closer to the arctic circle.

3. You’ve been judging some of the biggest contests around throughout
the years (e.g. Burton European Open/Nippon Open/US Open, Toyota Big
Air, Freestyle.ch etc.) – did you always want to be on that side of
the industry fence or did you aim to be a pro rider in the earlier
days?

At first the riding was the main focus — the only thing on my mind
was to be on snow as much as possible as it was just so much fun. Many
years were passed by while just having a good time riding with
friends. At some point in the mid-90′s the judging circles came along
and I’m still on that road.

4. Seems that you are getting the best of both world’s. So what kinda
road has it been; getting to be a judge on such high scale contests?

In the early says I did the Suomi Cup (Finnish Cup) and some
commercial contests in Finland. Between 1997 – 1998 I was an exchange
student in Munich/Germany so I took the advantage to do an
international judging course in Davos/Switzerland. That way I got into
small international events and it grew from there.

5. What would be the hardest part of judging – any examples from real
life situations?

The most difficult thing is to get the so called “hockey dad’s” to
understand that their kid did not ride as good as they think. Getting
that through their thick skulls can be really hard sometimes.

6. I hear you there — I think every sport is cursed with that kinda
parents. But fortunately you’ve had the priviledge to see the good
sides too like travel a lot, meet a lot of talented snowboarders,
participate a lot of events while doing your job – what experiences
would rise above the others or are you even able to compare?

The travel part has probably contributed the most into my life and
what could be better than doing that with great, same spirited people.
I have had the priviledge to see awesome events in some of the coolest
places on earth within good company. So I can’t really complain!

7. Doesn’t sound bad at all to me. How does all this go along with
your life at home in Oulu? You are building a “normal career” in your
family business. How often do you still go on judging trips?

Unfortunately I don’t really have the time to judge Finnish events
anymore, but I try to do them as often as possible. The past winter I
spent about 5 weeks abroad, doing international events, but this
becoming winter I won’t be able to do as much despite the invitations,
because of my work at home.

8. You have seen the sport develop over the years – how crazy do you
think the level is right now, say compared to 10 yrs ago?

The level in park and pipe riding is pretty wild compared to what it
was 10 yrs ago. The parks have grown size-wise a lot and I think that
the laws of physics will create a natural limit, no matter how much
the riders keep pushing them. The pipes and kickers can only grow so
much, you know.

9. Right you are; I think it’ll be interesting to see when that limit
really becomes reality… Well, as you have been holding the best
seats in many huge events, you must have seen some of those riders who
keep pushing the limit higher and higher. Can you give us your all
time TOP 3 trick list — if possible?

1. Kevin Pearce, SUPER BIG Fr 3 from a corner, Nippon Open Slope Style 2007
2. Eero Ettala, Switch Double Back Flip, TBA 2007
3. Andy Finch, Method air, Europen open 2006

Thanks Mara — we’ll be seeing you on that judging chair for many yrs
to come, I think! Keep it real!

I’m proud to introduce you to a young ripper called Niki Korpela who just got into the European Forum Youngblood team; getting his gear from Forum & Foursquare. Union Five snowboard shop in Helsinki/FI supports him with some VonZipper eyewear and other stuff. He’s already had his own ad in Slammer (a Finnish snowboard mag) — climbing out of a trashcan in the pic. So you can already guess that this guy is not made out of sugar, huh! He’s already been riding for 11 yrs (!) and began with the smallest board in the market at the time; a Nidecker frog board. Those days are long gone; this dude already knows how to impress the ladies and destroy hotelrooms — not to mention how to ride. Check him out!

1. Booyaka-sha Niki! Or should I call you “niG$on” or perhaps “Naali Niki” (naali=arctic fox) Who comes up with all these pet names for you?

UGH just like the indians say! Those names are written in the book of history. Hehe.. just kidding, I think my hockey-dad Rauli gave me those.

2. The first time I met you it was last Spring in Laax, when you were finishing a Forum photoshoot camp in Diedamskopf. How was that?

It was awesome! My first shoot ever… I’m sure you will see me there next year also…

3. Once leaving Laax we drove together to Innsbruck and had a good chat together. I must say that you are an extremely mature little dude and you come up with the funniest stuff to say! It was a blast to hang out with you even if I’m double your age. Have you always been this easygoing ?

Thanks to mom and dad… you guys rock! Well I always try to be as nice as possible to other people.

4. That’s a good attitude! You told me that when you were 15 yrs old, you and your friend took off to Sölden for a week, to ride? I think your mom said that if you get your grades up in school, you can go -and so you did. Tell us about that adventure? Anything funny happened?

Yeah, we had so much luck cuz I really suck in school (mom, I promise I will do my homework next year!). It was one of the best things in that year, because it was my first trip alone with my best friend Teemu. It was soooooo sick! And yeah one funny thing I have to say was that one day when we were building a backcountry kicker, one dude just popped out from nowhere and he started to speak very good english. When we had talked a while it figured out that he could speak over seven different languages (including finnish and chinese). He taught us some naughty words and then we yelled those to some local girls!

5. Uh, well good for you and the girls! You are off to The Netherlands soon to visit your friends that you’ve made through snowboarding.
That’s cool, huh? Making friends from all over the world while doing the dopest things like riding and skating?

That’s one of the best things in snowboarding I think!! But yeah I will go to meet Jesse Augustinus, the crazyest little guy I know in the whole planet!! I’m sure I will have some awsome time there.

6. What are your plans — you are only 16 yrs now — but where would you like to see yourself, snowboarding wise, in a few years?

My dream has always been to become a professional lapdancer! Sorry I ment snowboarder. So I hope maybe one day…

7. And finally — what’s most fun that you’ve done while on a snowboarding trip?

RUNNING NAKED AND throwing some rotten mandarines all over our fancy hotel room, making the great white walls turning orange!! PEACE OUT fellas!

Well — as you can see, this little gangsta seems to have it all and possibly more, what it takes to become that lapdancer — oops, sorry, pro rider…!

Photo creds: all by Niki’s best friend Teemu Terttunen besides the corner shot.

This time I asked a Finnish raggar rider Joonas Mustonen how he is kicking. Joonas is sponsored by Forum & Special Blend and has a riding style that leaves you speechless. Not to mention the mustache your uncle would be jealous of… so enjoy!

Wordemup Joonas; how’s your summer going?

Joonas: My homebase at the moment is in Turku and that’s where I’m enjoying the summer as much as I can – besides working loads. Gotta save up for next winter. No plan is the best plan so I haven’t got much scheduled up for the summer – expect 3 days in Ruisrock in July.

How was your riding season?

Joonas: Last winter wasn’t that good in many ways. First there was no snow and when the snow finally came – I began getting injured. There was something constantly wrong: my face got stiched up, my wrist was twisted, my ribs got fractured and my ankle was sprained. But I still had a good time riding for a month in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. I was working on the Snakesessions tour and took part of one contest in Italy that was pretty dope.

What do you think about the Finnish riding scene at the mo?

Joonas: Well everyone knows that the Finnish riding level is really high. That’s why it’s always fun to go riding here as there is always someone who can challenge you to ride better. There’s plenty of great riders in Finland at the mo, but my biggest respect goes to Antti Autti cause he’s got good style. The Roistola dudes rocks too!

So what’s up with this Roistola crew?

Joonas: I’ve been involved with them for about 4 seasons now. The main purpose is to have fun and make snowboard films that step outside the mainstream. The welcome has been good and new material is being produced every season.

Quote from Roistola’s MySpace page:

“Roots of Roistola are deep in Central Finland. Back in the seventies, the Raggars in Jämsänkoski had their rumble with guitars, drums and rock’n roll. Drinking, rock music and own gigs in front of a gas station were common things to them.”

Check more: www.myspace.com/roistola & www.roistola.com

Any plans for next winter?

Joonas: Pretty much no. Hopefully lots of riding, new places and travels. And not as many injuries as last winter. I’ve never known about any riding trip before max. 2 weeks ahead, and I think I have more than 2 weeks before the next one…

Next update will be coming from or after my return from CalifornIA & Mexico! Hasta luego!

So the Forum crew headed down to Alpe di Siusi last weekend – to check the how the Italians are ripping. And no contest would be a contest without at least one Dutsch kid, and this one was no exception either: Tamor Roos rocked up and collected the jackpot of the day: a brand new Forum board plus some goodies. Well; not to get too much ahead of the actual Alpe di Siusi Snakessions, here’s how it looked before we got into deciding who the winner would be…

The weather was fantastic; with blue skies and non-stop sunshine. This meant no good news to the park though as it got super soft, super fast. But we all did our best of shaping it and managed to still have a fun day under the southern sun. Especially the kids who had the opportunity to ride with – according to himself: European at heart- Mr. Stevie Bell.

The day started with the kids hitting all the obstacles in their on phase but because the park was pretty big, it was kinda hard to keep the group shredding together. So after lunch all the riders and the Forum posse with Stevie, Jon and Joonas as the front men – hit the park in a true jam session style; everyone going up and coming down together while throwing sick tricks after another. I think everyone can agree that it was the perfect ending for a great contest.

After the celebrations of the winners were done, “Terje” Weaver, Joonas and Stevie build a sweet step up hip and threw backflips of it, like never before. The Italians (and the Dutsch of course) were in the spirits (cause of the good riding and possibly cause of the amounts of Monte Negro –a local herb liquor- consumed, to ermm, help digest the BBQ) and cheering the guys to go even bigger. No doubt that the show they gave was primetime material!

Oh; and the multitalented pro rider that Stevie is, he even guided his board onto a speed track on the slope and blasted the result of 84,– km/hour (89, — according to Stevie…hmm!). Could this be the new direction of snowboarding? You decide…

Big thanks to Stevie, Fakie, Magda, Alessandro, Massimo, Alex, Eli… and everyone else in the King Laurin park – it was a blast!

Rok, rok!

The third installment of the European Forum Snake Sessions crew found itself at Fellhorn, the biggest mountain in Germany. International Forum rider Kareem El Rafie took some time out of his shred schedule to come out and host/judge the event for all the German shredders. The local park crew and especially Boogie were super helpful with everything and even organized a radio interview for Kareem and himself to promote the event over the airwaves. After a mouth full of mints he approached the mic, and being the smooth talker that he is, made sure that every listener out there knew what was going down in Fellhorn the next day.

The contest day opened up with heavy snowfall and grey skies. Part of the crew decided to take the first staff gondola up at 7:15 (which evetually left at 8:15 instead) and make sure the park was in dope condition. That it was and besides the bad weather, the day was a success! There was a DJ spinning on the decks, kids constantly hiking and hitting the rails with style and grace, Kareem lurking around, and Bavarian style BBQ (read: 30 kilograms of MEAT). Everyone had fun and the kids were stoked about the day. One kid; Cees Wille, even came all the way from The Netherlands with his mom to ride in the contest. Now that’s what we call dedication to a cause! He didn’t have to leave emptyhanded either as his shredding skills entitled him to a 2nd place in the Snakesessions.

Thanks again for the Fellhorn park crew, our hardworking Forum crew of Hanna-Leena, Joonas & Marcel, + Jagge, Michi and Jörg… + a big shout out to Kareem for coming over for the weekend!

The city of Innsbrooklyn witnessed the second Forum Youngblood contest for 06 – 07, last weekend at Nordpark. The snakes were out; throwing sick tricks and filling up their stomachs with some tasty BBQ. The sun appeared in the morning as well; giving us light into an otherwise shady day. But the spirits of the competitors and the Forum crew were far from shady! The day was dope and we are already looking forward to the next tour stop in Germany. Kareem ElRafie, the man from Sweden, is coming over to host the event there. Surely he will also be seen in action, riding the super fun park they have in Fellhorn, so if you are around – come and join us!

Next update shall come after we visit our neighbouring country of Deutschland. Read the full contest reports with the winners’ interview along with more pics from: www.forumsnowboards.com!

Räyh!

Yes- we’ve all been there and probably done that – snaked on the lift line, shop line or any other line for that matter. It’s a jungle out there and well; sometimes you just gotta bend the rules a bit. I guess snaking is a state of art in a way, as you definitely don’t wanna get caught doing it or piss someone off BY doing it. So if you are under 18 and consider yourself as the king of snakes – check out where your nearest Forum Youngblood tourstop will be at – and come show your skills. We would love to see some good riding too, which is absolutely part of being a king in this snake biz.

I won’t touch the subject of snow, or better said the lack of it, but will say that the Forum team is making the most out of it, and some of them – like Peter König and Daniel Ek – are heading to the States for the white stuff. The rumour says that e.g. Whistler & Colorado areas are swamped with snow. Peter is actually already in Breckeridge, filming with the Isenseven crew. Daniel just did the Pleasure mag’s “Friends & Fondue” set in Switzerland and apparently was killing it! Now he plans to follow Peter to the US as currently Europe is not really the most ideal place to be at, if you are a pro snowboarder.

So see you again soon, my snake mates – on the pics attached you can find some of Forum’s absolute fav snakes. Laters!

Gotta agree with Huggy bear – the A & S event last weekend was pure ecstasy! Why? The riding was amazing, the atmosphere was off the roof, the air wintery crispy and the party fun with a capital F. Oh; and staying in Sheraton wasn’t too bad either. So this year was finished off with both big Air and Style.

Next we have a Global Sales Meeting here in IBK which means that most of our distributors and reps around the world will fly out to Innsbruck and we will get to explore the new product ranges for 07-08. I have seen some and must say that the new stuff is sick. You will love them, kids!

And let’s finish off with a little piece of Trivial Pursuit knowledge for ya’ll -> wishing Happy Birthday to Finland – cause today we are celebrating our 89th independence day!

So be good and behave, eh! Enjoy the holidays and catch you later.