wet suits for snow fruits

With 10 days in the Arctic under our belt, our crew is now fully adjusted to the “Riks” time table.  Since you can shred (or surf) at almost any hour of the day during the late spring and summer, things tend to happen on a different schedule.  It’s easy to come in from shredding at 11pm and not have dinner until midnight or later.  
Björn and I traveled together from Austria, and after one night in Stockholm, we hopped the night train on an 18hr mission north to Riksgransen.  The landscapes and surrounding scenery here are amazing.  Bjoern has been killing it with his point and shoot. The weather and snow have not exactly been cooperating for our filming mission, but we did manage to get out in the backcountry on Hans’ old snowmobiles for long enough to drop one in a river, and to have another one break down.
After the sled drama we decided to pack up the vintage Volvo (again one of Hans’ old school toys) and chase stories of roadside snowboarding and a magical surf spot into the Lofoten Islands of Norway.  On narrow, windy roads we passed jagged peaks with insane lines that dropped straight into the sea.  We crossed fjords on epic bridges and drove under mountains in tunnels. Finally we reached a small sheep farming village on the Atlantic coast where fast breaking lefts pounded rocks on the shore.  After two days of getting smashed by salt water, we set off in the Volvo again to see if the snow conditions in Sweden had improved.
As of now, the warm spring weather has left us and winter has come back for a visit.  Snow fell yesterday and the ground is cold and frozen, but the forecast looks good. With a little luck we’ll finish up this trip with good goggle tans and some of the epic spring shots that “Riks” can provide!


Pictures: Bjorn Hartweger, Justin Hare