9 toes in sweden
Everything started when I went back to Paris for the wedding of one of my best buddies. Lot of fun …
Till the morning after when I woke up lil hangover, and decided to open my cupboard. while slidin the door to the left, from the 3rd floor, a little 2 kgs barbell (weightlift) fall straight on my right foot! One toe is already changing colour…And I’ve 300kms to drive to bring my old car back to north of France!
Not good! Specially not good for the 3 weeks of backcountry that are comin next to that trip!
A few days later, I’m back in Innsbruck, with the Xray of the broken toe, impossible to ride for me, specially with a heavy back pack… At the same time Mike Casanova is ready to drop in from the States to Sweden, and join Hans Ahlund for a couple of spots together.
That sounds perfect for my wooden leg…City jibs, mostly rails, no need for me to ride. So Basti Balser and me hurry to pack up the car with the lights, tripods, travelling rails, dollie, our bags, two 16mm cameras, the super8, and the P2HD, the car is full packed!
Captain Basti made a good call to leave in the middle of the night, to have a long day drivin and avoid traffic jams in Munich. 2000KMS later…Our first target was Marsta, a city close to Stockholm, located next to the Arlanda Airport. There is a flat where Petter Grimborgs and the Ruff Riders live, where Hans had just moved in.
Mike arrived one day before we did. And had already spent a heavy friday evening with the “Gallivare fellows”…On the way to Marsta, we had pick photographer Roger Baumer up. Hans and Mike took Johan “double-toaster” Wennerström at the airport and also “the Grinch” from Anders Neumann. Everyone headed up to Falun, where Kalle was taking a legitimate rest. But for one rail, he joined the boys, just before leavin back to Austria.
Finally, we saw that Hans had forgot Mike’s boardbagged in Marsta…
Bummer Bummer! Kalle had to ride alone! Mike and Hans got a few tricks the day after, (thanks Basti for some golden talking with the locals), that you have to check on next Pirate movie…That was a good start!
We stayed in a cheap hotel that had been a prison few years before, rooms were old cells, parking was in the front yard, guarded by high walls...it was a bit weird!
Then we moved on to Ràttvik, to set up a down bar with lights and install the travelling rails, build a tower with speed bumps, dealed with the police, that it was ok (even gave them a movie), and then they showed up 20min later and kicked us out…Looks like it’s almost easier in big cities than in the country side where there’s barely no-one!
We sneaked a few tries with Hans and Mike, before packing all our stuff, frustrated from the evening… If one of the boys gets a trick out of those few trys, it was worth it!
Would have been pointless to stay in Ràttvik with the unfriendly cops, too much chance to get stopped again in the middle of a session, so the crew hit the road direction Sundsvall.
Jowe, Hasse and Nova crashed Hampuses flat for a few days (thx buddy by the way) while Basti, Hannu and me were stayin at Scandic Sundsvall.
We did a night mission on the hills, where Jowe helped a lot with all the electricity, cables and power equations, both Mike and Hans were hittin a curved rail, got a few tricks. But Mike hurt his arms after a crazy slam.
Was the last spot with Roger that flew back to Zurich!
Then we did a day mission, in the centre of Sundsvall, a double kink to close out, that Hans and Mike killed pretty much. Police cars passin by 20 times during the session, saying nothing!
From there on, it was still 10 days workin…
Check part 2 to know about the party in Sundsvall and the rest of the trip!!
Clement Maillet
