Through it all, he has some pretty strong views about skiing.
including an incident on NS and generally has a really refreshing take on where things are going.
Im from a small town called Ivalo, which is super far north.
Its a small-ass town, I think there are like 3000 people living there.
Thats what he meant because Im not from where most people come to the sport.
We have good slopes and everything.
Its just so far away from everything else in Finland.
Other people in the freeski academy were from the south, where there are more resorts and parks.
In that way, I was a bit of an outsider.
You must have still seen edits and stuff of other skiers?
Id definitely already seen a lot of Finnish skiing and I was super inspired by it.
So, who was your biggest inspiration?
Either Finnish or anywhere else…
Anywhere in the world is easy: Tom Wallisch.
I would watch that guy every day.
Just the same YouTube videos over and over again.
I was just so hyped on him.
From the Finnish crew, I mainly watched all the Keeshlife boys.
Like I said, the Nipwitz were also a big inspiration.
How did you get into the academy?
Do you sign up, did you get spotted, how did you get on the team?
They do like a trial thing, where we go and ski in Ruka.
Theres like a point test thing and the physical test too.
You got 1 point for a 540, 1.5 for a 720 and so on.
They wanted to see how you ski.
It was pretty much a week of us just skiing, hanging around, and doing some testing.
Ok, then you didSuperunknown?
Well, Ive never made it to the Superunknown competition.
No one from Europe went that year, because of quarantines and stuff.
The following year I did my knee.
They invited me, not to compete but just to ski all week.
That was like a dream.
Just skiing without any nerves or pressure.
This year is my fourth or fifth year in the actual team.
First, I got invited to the Armada week at Absolut Park.
This is the worst time for this to happen!
Theyre not going to sign me now.
Its a huge risk to sign someone who cant even ski at the moment.
They never even made it an issue, which told me a lot about the company.
Im just super stoked that they gave me the benefit of the doubt in that situation.
Yeah, yeah sometimes!
I dont see them in person that much, just because everyones doing their own thing.
People are filming and some people are in the States or whatever.
I met most of the guys in Absolut Park when we filmed for a week.
Im such a big fanboy of everyone on the team.
For him, it was probably just two people talking normally but I was just fanboying so hard!
I tried to play it cool but Im sure that they all saw right through me!
Im pretty sure at Chur, I saw an interview with a judge talking about progression andjudgingnewtricks.
Do you thinkthatjudging always keep up with progression?
Judging nowadays is so hard.
Even the skiers, who actually do the tricks, cant really tell what should score higher.
How can you score a trick that only one person is doing?
What do they think about my skiing and tricks compared to the others.
I was just in China; I did the switch double overflip again.
Thats super fair and if I was a judge Id probably do a way worse job!
Its a tough question and its always hard to choose the tricks.
Our sport isnt really a real sport in a way.
In running, the fastest person wins and theres no question about it.
In our sport, everyone does their own thing and some other people rank the tricks.
So, its not a real sport in that way.
Ive noticed that people well at least Iadapt to other peoples styles without ever even.
I thought maybe it was that?
But I thought probably not.
It was a good wakeup call and I had to hear it.
Yeah, it was wack actually, what am I doing?!
I didnt take it to heart at all.
Skiing isnt that serious and sometimes you do ugly sh*t!
In Jib League we just ski and they just post the videos.
I would have just instantly deleted that clip, but they decided to post it and someone clipped that.
People were like whats happening here?!
I never take it to heart.
Some of these accounts post kids skiing and those kids might not actually want to ski anymore after that.
If someone posts them, when theyre just learning.
Thats the dark side of it, but for me; yeah, go for it!
I dont get that much hate but I think its funny and I usually agree with it.
I love how passionate people get about this goofy-ass sport we do.
Its cool to see.
You pretty much covered everything there!
I was going to say; do you think that your unique style might provoke discussion/hate?
Last season was the first time that my skiing got any hate.
Not even hate, people criticizing my style or my skiing and I fully agreed with it.
I tried my best to make that go away, because if I disagreed I wouldnt change my skiing.
I got some hate for doing the pencil 21 but I agreed with everyone there as well.
Like I didnt even want to post it at first.
To answer your question; maybe, if someone looks unique then its maybe not for everyone.
I like seeing people talk about everyones skiing and mine too.
It makes me think about it.
The infamous 21
These are good answers!
What are your views on the contest and just the general freeski scene now?
Theres so much to say here!
I think freeskiing is in a really good place.
People are so goddamn good these days!
Its insane how good people are.
I just think that theres more and more skiing to be seen, when the fall comes.
I feel like we have great people in.
Youre just doing your thing and someone else is giving a score.
Its not like let’s see whos faster or whatever.
I just feels like our sport is the friendliest sport.
Everyones rooting for each other and were all friends anyway.
Is making the next Olympics the big dream after missing out?
Yeah, for sure.
Im trying not to make it a huge deal in my head though.
I was thinking about comp skiing in a simple way and I started thinking about what would score higher.
I made that my priority and thats not what I want to do in contests.
I ski better when Im not stressed or if I dont think about it too much.
Im trying to learn from the last time.
Im just skiing for myself.
Just another comp in the season.
Of course, its a big dream of mine though and Im hopefully heading there this time!
Let’s finish up with your plans forhis winter…
This year we have a bunch of competitions, for Olympic qualification, thats a big priority.
Im also filming for two different movies.
Armadas also making a team movie and I filmed for that last year.
Street in Finland, then we went to Riksgransen and Mt Hood.
I just want to keep doing what Ive been doing for the last couple of years.
I dont want to worry about it too much.
Just looking forward to the season mainly.
