It’s tough to find a top-caliber ripper without a blog or dot com of his own these days. Contest jocks and film pros, big mountain shredders and street dawgs, every type of professional stunt sticker has turned to the world wide web to self-promote, share original content and give the kids a look at their seasons from start to finish. METHOD caught up with 10 riders who have popular and regularly updated sites to find out what inspired the Rise of the Rider Blog.
Eiki and Halldor Helgason
helgasons.com
Views: 5,170 views/day
The Helgasons, Eiki and Halldor, launched their website in the fall of 2009, and it quickly gained a following. Ironically, the Helgasons believe that their method –to not worry about what other people want to see and just do what they feel like –has contributed to the popularity of their site. If an idea sounds fun, they run with it. Eiki credits their filmer Johannes Brenning for coming up with an “endless stream of crazy ideas” for videos like Angry Birds and Riding Pow on Crack. Expect regularly updated edits with a focus on fun (the kind of clip that makes you want to get out there yourself) and lots of laughs, often at the Helgasons' expense. The wunder brothers also post videos produced by their sponsors and random amusing clips pulled from the Internet.
TJ Schneider
The Snowboard Realms
Views: 1,000 views/day
If you have yet to see an episode of The Snowboard Realms, you’ve been living under a rock. The five-minute-long webisodes have showcased TJ and his friends’ entire seasons over the last four years. Hot lapping parks, filming video parts and hitting up tradeshows are among the activities captured in The Realms. This season’s episodes have followed TJ and crew as they globetrot from the interior of British Columbia to Japan and Korea as they filmed for the upcoming CAPiTA movie, Defenders of Awesome. The Realms site also features journal-style blog posts with words and photos, contests, music and advice. A rarity on the intarwebz, TJ actually gets back to kids that contact him via the site. Why is having open dialogue important to him? “Because they are the kids that buy the products that allow me to do this,” he says. “Also, when I was younger there was no way to really talk to pro snowboarders where I was from. I would have been so stoked to be able to ask the questions that I answer everyday. I owe a lot to the kids, and so I think it’s cool to give them some of your time." How awesome is that?
Simon Chamberlain
Simon Sayz
Views: 300 views/day
As a regular user of skate sites like The Berrics and Crailtap, Simon decided to start his own blog to show kids what goes on in the life of a snowboard pro. Through words, photos and video, Simon shows different aspects of his world. The photos depict scenarios like getting busted by cops at a rail spot, skating on down days and shredding that extra gooey mountain mozzarella when it’s too cloudy to film for the upcoming People movie, Good Look. Simon also shows all the funny things that go on behind the scenes on a film mission (read: getting sleds stuck) and other parts of the job like catalog shoots. There’s very little self- or sponsor-promotion on the blog, it’s more about showing Simon and his shred buddies having fun.
Seth Huot
The Seth Spot
Views: “I’ve looked a few times, it’s not many, under 100 a day. From time to time I check my blog to see if I have posted anything new!”
Seth was pretty resistant to the idea of having his own blog at first but eventually “folded and dropped in.” He’s one of the few riders with original series' that he’s created and written himself, like First Kills and Don’s Knowledge. Seth spends a lot of time filming with the Don [JP Walker] so naturally he’d share some of the “amazing things that come out of JP’s mouth on a regular basis.” Seth created First Kills to find out things you normally wouldn’t know about someone. He usually features a rider he’s been traveling and shredding with, so far dudes like Heikki Sorsa and Cale Zima. Proof that he is pretty good behind the lens can also be found on the blog. Check out Seth’s photos from his Japan trip with Giro for evidence.
JP Walker
The Real JP
Views: Setting up analytics is on his to-do list
Seeing JP snowboard makes you wonder if there’s anything he’s not good at. Seeing the photos on his blog makes you realize there’s not. The Real JP is regularly updated with photo blasts from spots around the world like Stockholm, Helsinki and Camp of Champions. Things to look out for on JP’s blog are old school video clips, food reviews, a new-ish hard-hitting investigative interview series Don Patrol, a rather disgusting toe updates and a regular feature he writes called Real In the Field. The video clips date back to the 90's, when JP was on Rev Snowboards with OG Utah shreds Mitch Nelson and Tim Ostler. As an aspiring food critic, JP peppers his site with culinary reviews from time to time. He loves food and eats at different establishments around the globe (from gas stations to fine dining), so he considers himself something of an authority on the subject. In Real In the Field, he talks to industry insiders like photographers Andy Wright and Pasi Salminen. This column is at its best when the interviewee doesn’t get back to JP on time, so he writes fake answers on their behalf. Though the blog is written in English, it can be tough to decipher the meaning of some of the words he uses, but JP informs us he’s been thinking about adding a glossary. Keep an eye on The Real JP to learn how to use words like "sadats" and "grizzly", or you can always just click here.
Torstein Horgmo
torstein.net
Views: unknown
Torstein’s site is predominately made up of amazingly creative mini-shred edits. The lifestyle segments of these clips show how seriously Torstein takes himself. If for some reason you don’t find faux French accents and Harry Potter spoofs amusing, you may prefer the kind of entertainment found in the Game of In Your Face videos, featuring some of your favorite pro bros. User comments are to the right of the videos and can be pretty comedic too. There is a healthy dose of contest footage and some not-so-mini park shredding to balance out the site. Other sections of the site worth taking a look at are Embuddies and the Mailing List. Embuddies has a collection of photos and videos featuring other pros and friends of Torstein. The mailing list section is more than just a place to sign up for email alerts, it’s also where you’ll find Torstein’s Loved Tracks. Check out Torstein’s favorite tracks, ranging from Enrique Iglesias to The Dodos.
Hampus Mosesson
Holy Moses
Views: Varies based on the time of year
The success of the downloadable snow flick Pony Tale, which features Hampus and his friends, inspired him to start Holy Moses. Unlike Pony Tale, the clips posted on Hampus’ site are meant to show every aspect of snowboarding, not just the bangers filmed in bluebird skies and sunshine. Beyond straight up shredding, Hampus’ videos show him DJing and all the other fun stuff he gets up to, and no, parting the Red Sea is not one of them (but driving in the Gumball Rally, DJing at ISPO, getting tattooed and poledancing apparently are). "Getting personal without getting too personal" is an important element of the site says Hampus because he thinks viewers want to know more about the riders than just what they do on a board. Apparently he’s right because he gets tons of comments from kids all over Europe and North America.
Marko Grilc
grilo.si
Views: 1166 views/day. This varies depending on the season and the extent to which he promotes it on social media sites
Considering his own habit, Grilo felt that having a site would be the best way to reach the snowboarders in internet-land. Plus, with all of the time he spends online, he knew it would be easy to keep the site updated. Having complete creative control was another motive for starting his site, “No sponsors allowed on the page,” Grilo jokes. Of course, his sponsors are represented, but it’s not forced; he only posts photos and videos he’s stoked on. As calculated as his decision to launch grilo.si seems, it’s clear that Marko loves to snowboard (and party) and wants to share that love with whoever visits the site. The blog has a good mix of contests, park riding, lifestyle images and video clips. There’s also a section for giveaways because who doesn’t love free stuff, right?
Jeremy Jones
Jones Snowboards blog
Views: The Jones blog and social media sites combined get an average of 20,000 views/day
This is the go-to blog for riders interested in the big mountain, backcountry type of snowboarding that has consumed the Jones Snowboard family. The Jones’ blog is also targeted towards a slightly older, more experienced snowboarder. The site features a mix of original content and content from snowboard media, but the subject matter is the same –riding lines and slashing powder. You’ll see off-the-beaten-path zones, splitboards and lots of POV filming. Jones’ goal with the blog is to “inspire people to get into the mountains, and to teach them how to do it safely.” One of our personal favorites at the METHOD office!
Lauri Heiskari
Lauri Good Times
Views: “I haven’t kept track so far, but I’ve had a lot of good feedback… from my mom.”
Lauri grew up watching extras from videos that featured the original Forum 8. Jump over a decade into the future, and checking out your favorite rider’s site is this era’s equivalent of watching bonus and behind the scenes footage. This, combined with his recent foray into the world of snowboard writing (he did a regular column in a Finnish magazine called Snow Extreme), spurred Lauri to launch his site. Lauri does all of the filming, shooting, editing and writing himself and sees it as a “digital diary.” But the diary isn’t for his eyes only, he hopes that kids who like to watch him and his friends snowboard will find some entertainment while they wait for the coming year’s video parts.
Words by Sara Tollestrup