back east to norway...

i had written this article for East Coast Snowboarding Magazine.. just figured i would post it on my own blog for my friends to be able to see..


Sometimes we do things in life because we have a passion, other times we do things and just don’t know why. When you want something so bad, there is a chance it can turn out to be less fulfilling then you expected, but when you do something random and spontaneous, with no real reason or expectations, it can end up being something so amazing that it changes your life altogether. Well, the latter example is just what happened to me.

Competing at the Burton US Open this year, I learned some of the glamour’s of snowboarding, as well as seeing the really negative side that can come along with being involved with that level of the sport. People aren’t always as they seem, and I learned that first hand. It was because of all this, that on a whim, looking at a mutual friends profile picture on Facebook, I decided that I wanted to get out of the states and see what snowboarding was like somewhere else in the world. Zoom in: Folgefonna, Norway.

My friend Lexie and I flew into Oslo, Norway and there we met another American friend, Elin. Right from the first few hours in Norway, we realized it was going to be quite an adventure. After lugging suitcases, backpacks, skateboards and boardbags through congested downtown Oslo, we attempted to locate the flat we were staying at. This is an interesting situation in itself; the flat we were staying in belonged to a guy we met on Facebook, but who was away in a different part of Norway for a month. He told us we could use his flat and he would put the key in the mailbox for us, all without ever knowing us! After barging in to the wrong house, on a woman who was babysitting (who slammed and locked the door behind us) and bothering some people in tennis lessons, we finally located the flat. Exhausted and thinking we had hours before it was time to go out, we realized it was nearly 11 at night. You see, Norway in the summer can mess with you; the sun begins to set around 11pm, and comes up again about 3am. It is never actually dark, reaching only a deep dusk around 1:30 am. As we tried to adjust to that, and the crazy Norwegian drinking habits, the next 2 nights in Oslo went as a blur. And so began my trip to Norway.

After staying out all night our last night in Oslo, we traveled 8 hours through glassy lakes and bright green forests, glaciers covered in feet of snow and massive breathtaking Norwegian fjords. We arrived on the west coast of Norway in the city of Bergen. We spent the day climbing, skating, falling, and realizing it was nearly midnight, when we thought it was really 7pm. As we went back to our hostel in a room of 26 beds, noting how uneventful it was, we took that as our cue to get a good rest before the upcoming 12 days of snowboarding.

Enter: Arrival at the campsite Espeland where we would be staying for the remainder of our trip. Lexie and I were campers at the summer camp for the first 5 days, and Elin was coaching. At Espeland, there was also a campsite where people unaffiliated with the camp stayed (whom we joined after 5 days of camp); this group of people consisted of about 150 14-25 year olds, with no adults in site, decked out in the tallest tall tees I have ever seen, drinking at 3pm, skating, playing volleyball and snusing constantly. (Snusing is a Scandinavian way of using tobacco, originating from Sweden. It is a steamed form of tobacco, with nicotine and some other ingredients that make it really strong, in a little baggie that looks like a tea bag that you put in your upper lip. No spitting, no smoking, no chewing. It’s much like a body high and pretty relaxing, and consequently pretty addicting, haha.)

To retell the adventures of each day and night spent at Folgefonna would take me hours, so I will save you the headache and try to sum it all up for you. Each day was spent at the glacier riding, each afternoon was spent trampolining, skating, swimming and exploring, and each night was spent in a blurry haze of drunkness and snusing and watching the sunrise. There was no tv, no internet, no real electricity, just skiers, snowboarders, alcohol, the sunlight and the land. This leads to a plethora of crazy stories, but we had a phrase that we stick to: “what happens at Fonna, stays at Fonna,” and that’s how I’ll leave it.

But to put it that simply just wouldn’t be fair. The people, the landscape, the scene, just the whole vibe, are unlike anywhere or anything else. Normally when you go to a place to ride in the summer you are around hundreds of kids just trying to make it, doing the sport that is their life. At Folgefonna, it is the same, but it lacks a certain fakeness and negativity that can be found so often surrounding skiing and snowboarding. Five film crews, dozens of pro skiers and riders, reps, diggers, coaches, and campers alike, there was no real way aside from actual tricks to distinguish a difference. Everyone was friends with everyone, and no one flaunted their ability, fame or status. People weren’t there to see who they could beat or which pro they could hookup with or get a photo with, it was simply about being there, enjoying the snow and pushing one another to have a great day and get better. For once, it didn’t matter who you were friends with and everyone was stoked on each other’s tricks..not jealous that they couldn’t do them. The park crew listened when anyone wanted something set up, and they threw rave techno parties in the lodge. If the weather wasn’t great, no one was inside bitching; they were enjoying Norwegian waffles and finding fun stuff to jib and play around on. When the riding day ended, you never wondered who liked you and who didn’t, and you never worried about who might talk shit about you when you walked away. They had other things to do then talk shit, like play a game of volleyball, skate, build human pyramids, drink, push lawnmowers into fires, teach the Americans dirty phrases in Norwegian, and aside from that, you knew if they didn’t like you because they never pretended to in the first place. To share a common passion like the snow, is one thing, but to share it with people that are real, genuine and still absolutely out of their heads is another. It changes the vibe, the level of skills you learn and the experience altogether.

I can safely say that if anyone has ever forgotten why they fell in love with skiing or snowboarding, and anything that surrounds the lifestyle, a trip to Norway would rekindle that spark. It’s not about a scene, or a sponsor, or a cab 9, it’s about enjoying each moment, laughing with friends, riding because you love it, 11pm sunset and 3am sunrise shoots, and spraying that crazy German skier wearing a blue Speedo on the slopes. Even if you haven’t forgotten why you love it, there is still more to be found, enjoyed, learned and experienced; all of which Norway will give you in a way that fully consumes you and changes you. In Norway, I learned there is no such thing as a bad day, only bad attitudes. Each moment on that snow and even the moments off, is an instant that you can’t get back, so you might as well live it up and appreciate it. So when you don’t know if you should do something, or you haven’t even thought about it, simply take the chance. Get out there and experience it. It might just change your life and give you a new perspective and enjoyment that you never realized was possible. It can rekindle a spark, create amazing friendships, give you a new passion, inspire, and at the very least it will teach you a few new tricks. Norway, at least in my experience, is a good place to start. Of course nowhere is perfect, but Norway comes pretty damn close.