Stockholm Pre Season Syndrome
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The snow arrived a lot earlier than usual in the north of Sweden this year and some resorts even opened a few slopes early, but that didn’t help us in Stockholm, we get our snow from the ice-rink leftovers as usual. The weather was still hot and sunny and people were skating around like always, with the knowledge that this is it, fall and a lot of rain is just around the corner. That’s when the Forum team (JP Walker, Pat Moore, Ikka Backstrom, and Lauri Heksari) dropped by to have a few beers and to show us their new film That, and officially start our pre season…
Last year the guys spent more than a month in Sweden, going back and forward between Stockholm and Helsinki killing everything around town. A really big part of the film was filmed in Stockholm and it’s quite nice to see the likes of JP Walker and Eddy Wall playing around in your own backyard. After that, all the different films crews kept coming to town to give us a good time. There’s nothing better than watching the new films in a real big comfortable cinema, drinking beer and getting all fired up.

All the movies help to start a good season off, but there needs to be a few competitions and a taste of snow to, and we had it all this year…

The first competition out this year was The Frontline rail jam, smack in the middle of Stockholm. Thousands of people pass by the spot everyday, so there were a lot of people there just watching for a bit as they passed by on their way home from their Saturday shopping spree. There were also a bunch of surprised horse junkies and alcoholics, enjoying the show on their favourite bunch of stairs.
The line up was mainly Swedish and Norwegians, Finns, Islanders, Dutch and Austrians. The rail jam started of a little slow, but it picked up real quick. All the riders did their best to take it to the next level, but metal hero of the day was Nicky Wieveg.



To finish the pre season off, there was the Stockholm Winterjam, part of the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup big air tour. Every single rider in town was stoked. It had been a few years since we had an event of this size in town. You could see the massive ramp rising higher and higher above the old 1912 Olympic stadium. On entering the arena you were greeted by a 30 meters high, 100 meters long ramp, covered by 200 tonnes of snow, with a jump designed by the Swedish super shaper David Ny. The Olympic stadium is a great venue but for one small detail, there are no alcoholic beverages aloud inside. The beer tent was placed rather inconveniently just outside the stadium walls. Bringing beer in could normally earn you a nice little fine, but all the guards walking around the place were cool and just informed you that it was illegal and asked you to finish it (in your own time, no big rush). Since it was a cold evening most spectators planned it all well and brought Whisky or Jaigermaister hot coffee drinks to stay extra warm watching all the riders battling it out.
The biggest names didn’t make it all the way to the top and the big favourite Hampus Mosseson ended up way way down the line. Hampus wasn’t surprised over the result. He say’s he’s jinxed when it comes to competitions back home and he might be right. We know he can win just about anything (like the Air & Style last year), as long as it’s not in Sweden. It was left to Petek Matevz, Peetu Piiroinen, and Risto Mattila to take the top three prizes.

No snowboard contest finishes without a party, so we headed to downtown Stockholm. It felt like every European rider was there, drinking like there was no tomorrow. The bars constantly ran out of beer all night. Apparently the reason that the club organisers misjudged the whole thing was the skiing competition afterparty had been there the night before. Even though there had been a lot more people at the competition the day before, it seemed the skiers still didn't get through as much beer at the party. So there you have proof that snowboarders can and always will outdrink their hard-booted buddies.

Hangovers aside, it has been a good pre season in Stockholm this year and now we're all waiting and hoping for the winter to arrive here with massive amounts of snow that will keep us happy and entertained all winter long.

SPK