One day at Alpine Meadows with Andreas Gidlund....

One day with Andreas Gidlund from brett butcher on Vimeo.

Andreas Gidlund Interview

Andreas Gidlund interview on Snowrev.com. Click the link above or check it out below!

Why are Scandinavian riders so damn smooth that they make snowboarding look easy? Can’t tell you that answer but Andreas Gidlund, from Sweden, is definitely in the smooth category. While sessioning he was just blasting off tricks like no one’s business; cab 9, cab 10, switch back 9 and so it went for a few hours. Then after lunch he started to do some tweaking. His airs before lunch were sick so more tweaking was nutty, all just like he was crossing the street. Felt lucky to witness the riding on his first ever snowboard trip to the US. Hopefully we see more of riding here soon. We sat down with Andreas and Brett Butcher next to the Truckee river in Tahoe and asked him a few questions.

From: Mora, Sweden Lives: Sweden Home Mountain: Salen, Sweden 

Sponsors: Sessions, Bataleon, Union, Celsius, Dragon, Skullcandy DOB: 6/20/1988 Stance: Regular

SR: Is there a rivalry between Sweden and Norway do you guys fight?

AG: (laughter) No not really, Norwegians kind of come over to Sweden to buy cheap stuff because their stuff is kind of expensive

SR: So you guys are ok with Terje and other riders from Norway?
AG: Yea for sure

SR: So how long have you been snowboarding?
AG: Nine or Ten years?

SR: What motivated you to start snowboarding?
AG: My friends, because I was skiing and everybody started snowboarding. I was playing hockey and my parents wanted me to keep doing that but I switched over to snowboarding

SR: Is snowboarding more prevalent in Sweden than here in the US?
AG: There’s way more people here that snowboard. Yea, like the guy Jon Olsson, the skier, there are way more skiers than snowboarders in Sweden.

SR: You have smooth style and strong riding, obviously progressing quite a bit in the past 9 years, who influenced you when started getting better?

AG: I think my biggest influence would be Heiki Sorsa. I love his style, tweaks and everything he does. It’s not like throwing madness but he has style

SR: A lot of the Scandinavian guys like Heiki, Hampus, and Jakob and so on have a very smooth style. Growing up in Scandinavia, you seem to have that style, did growing up there help you?
AG: I think it helped quite a bit. I think tweaks are cool but it is hard to tweak your airs and do spin

SR: Exactly, that is why it is so sick! That is where snowboarding should go
AG: That’s true because now it’s kind of ridiculous

SR: Now 900’s, 1080’s are mandatory but where is it going to go, 1260’s, 1440’s, 1620, 1800? No, like a tweaked out 900 is radder than a 1440 and the guys tweaking their airs and adding style are kind of the guys that win as opposed to the straight up huckers. Whether they are from Scandinavia or the US like Danny Davis and stuff. Do you think I am full of it or no?
AG: (laughter)

BB: Top 5 American riders versus top 5 Scandinavian riders, whose going to win overall
AG: I think Scandinavia (laughter)

SR: So how many times have you been to the USA?
AG: This is my second time

SR: How long have you been here?
AG: About two weeks

SR: Do you think it is helpful to come to the USA for your snowboard career?
AG: Yea, for sure, I really want to come here more but customs kind of kills me with questions and give me a hard time

SR: Why, because there are so many terrorists from Sweden?
(Laughter)
Is it possible they would turn you away? Are you a criminal?
AG: No, but riding for an American company…

SR: Is that bad, I don’t get it
AG: (laughter) I can’t come here for work

SR: So you actually are a criminal
AG: Kind of

SR: That seems kind of weird, you live and work in Sweden, come over here to ride and basically help promote American companies, seems like it should be cool. You are not taking American jobs or our women. When was the first time you came to the USA?
AG: This past fall

SR: For the previously mentioned fall sales meeting, so it was not a snowboard trip?
AG: No

SR: What did the 2008-09 snowboarding season bring you?
AG: Mostly shooting photos and filming. Went to a few contests but I have been having a little bad luck, been to the United States a few times

SR: You are only 20 so you will figure out how the contest strategy works.
AG: Yea

SR: What were you filming for?
AG: I am filming for Autumn Line this winter

SR: and shooting photos for…
AG:..Random magazines

SR: So what do you hope to get out of snowboarding?
AG: Having fun and being able to live on it for a while

SR: Is this living a dream?
AG: The sunshine and the river, it’s pretty nice

SR: When you were growing up did you see yourself doing this?
AG: No, I saw myself as a hockey player

SR: Who gets more chicks in Sweden, hockey players or snowboarders?
AG: Don’t know (laughter)

SR: Is it better to be from Sweden and come to America to get girls or be from America and go to Sweden to get girls?
AG: I don’t know

BB: Your girlfriend is American right?
AG: Yea

SR: Ah, you got a girlfriend so you don’t want to answer
(laughter)

SR: What kind of music do you listen to?
AG: Euro disco, at least while riding?

SR: Euro disco!?
AG: Yea (laughter)

SR: Band names?
AG: Hathaway (band), What Is Love (song title), Hasselhoff style, stuff like that
(laughter). Some pop music, depends on what mood you’re in

SR: No Swedish death metal?
AG: No Swedish death metal but Swedish party music

BB: Do you have country music in Sweden
AG: Yea we do have country music

SR: Wait, Swedish country music or American?
AG: Yea, they have Swedish country music but mostly American

SR: What about ABBA or is that what your Grandparents listen too?
AG: No (laughter) Yea, they are from Sweden, they have such cool songs

SR: Summer plans?
AG: Not sure, over here to US or Canada, Camp of Champions, Superpark later in May. Maybe New Zealand but that is such a long travel day. You travel from Sweden to maybe London, maybe Hong Kong, Melbourne and then to New Zealand

SR: Wow, when do go you home to Sweden from the US?
AG: May 10

SR: Is the girlfriend here or in Sweden?
AG: Sweden

SR: So you got good motivation to go home
AG: Yea and it will be summer when I get home so it will be nice

SR: Nice, so you can go to all the outdoor European discos. Where is society more tolerant, here or Sweden?
AG: I think Sweden has way less rules

SR: Between here and Germany?
AG: Germany? Germany has less rules

SR: Like no rules?
AG: Like alcohol, you can buy as strong as you want when you are like 16

SR: There are some crazy people in Germany so that may not be an argument in favor of tolerance
(Laughter)

SR: Back to the subject, Brett, define his riding style
Brett: Yea, I would put it in there with Heikki Sorsa, Torstein, makes all the US riders really jealous

SR: You ride all terrain or just parks?
AG: No, I ride backcountry and rails too but I have not been riding that much backcountry anymore

SR: Do they have good backcountry in Sweden or do you have to go to Switzerland or something?
AG: Yea, there are few, few good spots in Sweden, in the North and of course Austria and Switzerland

Cool Thanks Andreas, as this story posts on May 10, he is probably on a plane somewhere over the Eastern US or Atlantic Ocean on his way back home, listening to Euro Disco on Skullcandy headphones

Huge thanks to Alpine Meadows and North Star at Tahoe!!!

Drew goes up to the Hut

After a bit of a party last night (Saturday, May 2nd) we woke up to clear skies and no wind. With a medium head ache I dragged my bags to the supply lift that takes everything up to the mountain hut we will be staying in for the next few days. The Hut is high above Maso Corto at 2485 meters. After dropping my bags I went to meet up with the rest of the crew only to roll up to a broken door/window. Clemont, one of the filmers was talking to a police man and explained to me later that he broke the window because he forgot his key inside and was cold. Good move at 6 AM and wasted I guess. 460 euros later the crew made it on the tram and up to the park. We didnt film because the park was open to the public and their was to many people cruising around and to be honest my motivation level was low. This Italian kid named Simon (See-mon) was killing it and I was content with watching him. We did ended up having a bit of a after noon session in the good light and stayed on at the park till 7:30. Then we made our way over to our hut to set up shop for the next week and with clouds in the forecast cabin fever could set in big time.




Nice move Clemont

A view of the park, with pretty ok looking lines above for May.



Looking down on Maso Corto... I feel like the Grinch.

Me and the Italians in the crew, Filippo and Lukas.


Simon on the hip

Super Park, day 2 and 3

Everyone woke up after day one super sore, tired and sunburnt. Andreas's back was sore from knuckling the beast, Tim's heal was hurting from overshooting a jump, Kyle Miller was still recovering from a ankle sprain and Peter found out he needed surgery on his shoulder from a previous fall. So broken and battered we headed to the mountain with high hopes for less wind and new features to hit. The wind actually got worse on day two and it was more of a fun relaxing day. 

Around 4 there was roomers that the giant hip was going to open up. Everyone commuted over and the session got under way. The 20 foot mark was hit by a few and Nate Farrell reminded everyone that he is a tranny master sending it over the gatorade banner. 

Day three saw the wind die down and after a mellow day two, the guys where excited to get after it. Big Bear built a pretty unique feature. It was a giant table that had a bowl enclosed in it. Hip on the right side, that you could hit right like a normal hip or left witch put you into the bowl. There were two entrances into the bowl on either side of the lip that if hit sent you over the whole feature. This thing was only limited to the imagination. Nate Farrell and Greg Bokencamp where coming into the bowl from opposite sides, wiping around the bowl and slapping hi fives. Tim was airing into the bowl, shooting across and hand planting the other side. Andreas and Kyle where playing on the outside hip. Everyone was having a blast with this thing. 

There was a lot of creative stuff pushed up at Super Park 13. One of the more popular features was a 40 foot gap through a few trees. Drift right or left and you are coming face to face with a tree. Come up short and you are stacking into a wall of snow boulders. Miller threw some methods and backside 180s through the gap. Humphreys was doing some frontside 180s and Taylor got a pretty frontside 360 taping the top of a tree halfway through his rotation. 

Day three finished off with another session on the big hip. Andreas, Nate, Tim and Miller all got in on the action each hitting the 15 foot mark. 

Today is the last day of Super Park but we had to depart early to get Andreas to the airport. Hats off to Snowbaorder, Mammoth, Big Bear and Loon for putting on one of the best Super Parks ever!

4 dudes, one room... living the life!
Andreas recharging the batteries and facebooking....
Right before i pushed Andreas off the chair....
The hip. This thing was bigger than most homes. Nate getting up there....
Humphreys sending one through the tree gap....
Andreas and Tim probably talking about their Macs....
Zak Hale, BS 180 over a table....
No caption needed....
There was a bunch of features to hand plant. Kyle kicking one out....
Until next year.......

Drew goes from Innsbruck to Italy

I have been living in a mountain hut (with no internet) high atop Val Senales for the last week so we are just going to back track to Friday, May 1st.





After 4 days of thunder clouds and wind, the sun came out. We made our way up Seegrube to the jump I talked about in the last post. Getting off the tram at the top with the rays from the sun blazing the jump looked pretty good. A few speed tests and some skimmer straight airs would tell us otherwise. The filmer Flo, told us that we wernt getting the pop we needed to make the jump worth filming and with the speed issues Filippo and I packed it up and headed for Italy.

Maso Corto is the village at the bottom of the resort Val Senales and it was only about 2 hours drive from Innsbruck. This weekend Val Senales is hosting a special park shoot for the Italian "Snowboard" mag and Italy's top snowboardrers. Filippo invited me to check it out and because this is where our Pirate shoot starts on Monday I though I could get a little warm up in. Today (saturday) we woke up bright and early to head up to the glacier but before I even got out of bed we got the word that the lift that accesses the park was closed due to high winds. Better luck tomorrow I guess...
Small car... even for Europe


Wasnt meant to be

Italy

Italy and Austria

Maso Corto

Super Park Day 1

Super park 13 started out with a bang today with nice weather and great friends. Most of the Sessions team is down here for a full on reunion and as usual where throwing down. A few highlights where, Kyle Miller, Peter Benchetler and Zak Hale destroying the moto/BMX section. Andreas Gidlund and Nate Farrell stepping up to the 90 footer, Andreas got a front 9 and 10 over the beast. Billy and Brett throwing some sweet moves over the industry jump. Early in the day Billy hit this channel gap and completely over shot the thing, didn't catch an inch of trany. He came away with a smile on his face. Later in the day, Bridges opened the BIG boy. Its about a 100 feet to the knuckle with a 30 foot tall lip. This thing is a beast. Only a select few were giving the OK to hit it today and Andreas got the nod. After watching Jonas Carlson go deep, Andreas took one to many speed checks and came up a board length short. We were all sitting up top and it looked pretty bad. Andy came away unscathed but broke his headphones in the fall. Check back tomorrow for more photos and story's about day 2!

Andreas, Billy and Kyle Miller....
The lip of the beast.... Im still a good 20 feet from the knuckle!
Tim Has a bruised heel but is fighting through the pain and killing it....
Nasty Nate....
Taylor Carlton and Miller.... first chair of the day
Peter Benchetler stoked that the sun is finally out....
Zak Hale and Miller.... 
two thirds of the marketing team, Brett and Billy....
Gidlund....
Andreas with a shifty back 360

Antti "Naku" Piirainen at it again!

Antti Autti's Shredbangers Ball hip-contest took place this past saturday. "Naku" took 1st place and took the highest air title!

How The Northwest Was One

Check out the the new Soundstrait movie featuring Sessions regional riders; Andy Bergin Sperry, Nick Ennen, and Kurt Jensen!

"How The Northwest Was One" teaser from kurt Jenson on Vimeo.