short trip to lofoten

nice sunset at one of the most scenic surf beaches in the world!

shooting in riks is very productive, yet the weather is a bit unpredictable. as the forecast looked super shitty for friday and saturday, we decided to do a spontaneous short trip to lofoten! everybody was up for a change in the daily schedule, so michi and I got up early morning and took the train to narvik (which is only a 45 minutes ride), got a small rental car there, picked up botner an justin (we barely could fit in all the gear) and drove down to lofoten 5 hours straight!

goPro fun during the drive!

arriving in unstad (the most famous surf spot), we booked us into a nice and spacious cabin (it even had a small sauna!) and went straight for the beach. waves were a bit chaotic, but erik, justin and michi tried anyway. i knew that erik & justin were good surfers and still they were struggeling with the changing conditions. michi impressed me, he didn't surf too much in his life before and just went for it... he even managed some stand ups after justin gave him some tips... stoked!

cabin #05... that's what's up!

of course, we needed some fitting dinner that evening, so we went to leknes (to the biggest supermarket north of oslo i guess) and bought some nice salmon and pasta... fatøl for sure! :)

Erik, checking the surf

yummy lofoten fish!

the day was topped off by a relaxing sauna session and due to the never ending light, it was once again well beyond 2 a.m. before we went to bed...


next morning, the waves looked much cleaner, so michi and justin went to the beach to get some shots... erik and I had other plans: we had spotted a small patch of snow right behing unstad that looked like a giant banana and I asked eric, if he could hike it and do one spray on it... 
didn't work out perfect, as the snow was crusty and frozen on the top layer, but we got a shot anyways.

Erik on the way back from 'the banana'...

we left erik and justin behind, they wanted to get some more surfing days. michi and I drove back up to narvik again, where we met arthur, who was taking a day off as well and he also had to take care of a small infection in his eye.

so now, the last days in riks have come. we were able to do two more spots with arthur. two gnarly rock landings, but being a brave frenchman, he killed both spots!


after some victory beers, our ways finally parted, as flo and arthur were already leaving a day before us. 


big shout out to the pirates (especially flo)... it was a pleasure working with you! what a nice & productive trip!!!

riksgränsen!

riks train station (pic: michi lehmann)

my last 'real snow' trip for this season is bringing me up high above the arctic circle. michi an i flew to stockholm and took the night train from there to riksgränsen. i never been up here, so i'm super stoked on that trip. its also our first trip with the pirates crew!


the train ride was easy, we slept very well in our bunk beds. its for sure a nice way to travel. we arrived relaxed in riksgränsen. flo had already checked a room for us, nice!


the first night was a bit strange, as the sun goes down at 10:30 and rises again at 3:30, but it never gets dark. of course, we didn't bring sleeping masks, but a black beanie is doing a great job, too! :)


we were shooting alot now the first couple of days, as the weather was almost perfect and we tried to catch every possible minute.






we started shooting on friday 13th. not the best omen for the first day in the backcountry on sleds again, especially whan you have to cross several water ponds that grow bigger and bigger every day from the melting snow. the guys had found a nice spot for a quarterpipe and we were able to do a complete tooltime feature that very first day with danny larsen and arthur longo!

michi, finetuning the quarter...

the next couple of days were a mix of good and bad luck, but we can not complain, as we got shots every day and the crew is really motivated to be as productive as possible.

walking on water... :)

one highlight for sure was a quarterpipe session, that gigi rüf and björn lindgren organized. the spot was close to ingemar's quarter at the border right on the backside of the resort. we got some BBQ stuff and took the last chair only to find a big crew already waiting for us. the nike crew had already been shooting in riks for a couple of days with gigi, nicolas and justin bennee. danny kass also brought his posse with eddie wall, eero niemela and dustin craven!

gigi testing the quarter, while we fired up the grill!

we had a nice session up on the mountain with a tasty barbecue (bennee, the name of the cheese is 'haloumi' :D). 

what a crew!

as we came back late and the bar aready closed due to sweden loosing the hockey finals, we went to a small secret bar in a cave. 12 guys, 2 bottles of whiskey, eddie wall and his guitar. what a night!

the sickest location for a bar!

yesterday, erik botner joined the crew and danny had to leave us. we did a nice kicker to rocklanding spot in the resort. gnarly shizzle, arthur backflipped it!

sick shit!

stay tuned for mor coming up the next couple of days!