(from issue 25.1)

The good ol’ video part. A vital weapon in any street snowboarder’s arsenal of ‘staying relevant’. Instagram clips will come and go, but the ‘full part’ will live on forever! 

Not only showing the world your latest bangers and battles but also laying down your legacy in the history of snowboarding. Are you a Rail Wizard, a Death-Defying Stuntman, a Creative Jibber, or an All-Terrain-Vehicle? Video parts are a culmination of blood, sweat, and tears from a group of single-minded people hell-bent on creating the best video they can. 

They also contain something fascinating, almost indescribable. They get us thinking about what we like to see in snowboarding. What trends do we love, what fad do we hate, what music do we love riding to, or who do we pretend to be when doing floaty Back one’s off side-hits? They are essential to our community, a constant in an ever-evolving landscape.

Kas Lemmens, Will Smith, Ivika Jürgenson, and Dominik Wagner are no strangers to this practice. They have all been filming in the streets for over a decade, putting out some of the best footage to grace our screens. Over the last two years, they have been working together to bring us Transparent.

But what happens in their minds and to their bodies when going through this process? Their dedication to filming street is unparalleled, so we thought they were the perfect candidates for a bit of brain-picking. What does it take to create some of the most beautiful and boundary-pushing videos? How do they keep it together through difficult times? We also asked them about the importance of the crew, how they find unique spots, the meaning of transparency, and how far is too far when it comes to their mental health. To set the scene, all of these conversations were punctuated by belly-laughs and grins, and here is what they shared with us.

PHOTOS: THEO ACWORTH & TIM SCHIPHORST

WORDS: JOE SIMPSON, KAS LEMMENS, IVIKA JÜRGENSON, WILL SMITH, DOMINIK WAGNER

Kas Lemmens

"I’ve been thinking about this a lot this winter; are we pushing it a little bit too much? Willingly sacrificing your mental health for your passion, I guess, is an outlet, but at what point does it go a bit too far? I mean, we love to do it, and that's why we do it, but we also want to make progress. Then, we end up trying to do our absolute best, which is scary sometimes and takes a lot of effort. A lot of stuff maybe shouldn't work, but we somehow make it work. A two-year project is quite long for that because you look at the footage you got in the first year, and it feels like it doesn't count anymore. You want to step it up again. I already have that feeling from this season's footage as well. It’s floating somewhere still and I already feel like I could do better. I guess it never ends. 

The thing that reassures me is that we really tried our best. That is a nice sentiment. I think we all did this year. Of course, you always try to do your best, but I think this time, we really, really did push ourselves as hard as we could. I wanted to make a project that showcased the best of ourselves. Of course, it never really ends up the way you want it to, but we all tried every day. I think that's the only thing you can do. Everyone had that motivation, and everyone kept that motivation. If we didn't have that, it probably wouldn't have worked.

Whilst riding spots, I’d say I usually stay pretty calm. I try to keep it positive, not only for myself but also for the rest of the crew. They are going to be the ones standing there all day.*laughs* I’m never satisfied with how I do something, so I usually keep going till the sun goes down and sometimes come back for some more. At some point, though, I try to find the things that make me not do it or make me do it better. I guess I look more at what I'm doing wrong rather than what the spot is doing. I’m the same as Will. I don't touch the takeoff. It fucks with my head. I do lose it, though. Not often, but it happens. A spot comes to mind, the one in Oslo. I don’t really know what to call it, but all sorts of situations were going on: ledges, rails, fences. I slammed so badly and got broken off multiple times. I think I went to it three days over a twelve-day period to try and get it. There was a busy road on the landing and Ivika and Dom were down there watching cars, Tim and Theo were doing their thing, and Will was filming in the bushes. I’m up top, waiting for a gap in traffic every two minutes, sometimes five. *laughs*. There was so much traffic: buses, lorries, and about every thirty seconds, a Tesla drove by. Norway, right? I was trying to focus and believe I could do it, but I had too much time to think up there. I’m standing on the drop-in of probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and I can’t help but wonder what the fuck I’m doing. At some point, you just want to get it out of the way. What made it extra scary was that I kept coming back every three days, knowing what I was getting myself into again. And why? I don’t even know why. I think when I get into something, and I get the feeling that it will work, I have to prove to myself that I can do it. It worked in the end. Obviously, it was not the way I wanted it to be, but it worked. What a relief. I think that was week three, with us being in Oslo. The cold had drained all the energy out of our bodies by then. The LED lights in our two-by-four hostel room kept us asleep in the morning and awake in the evening. Perfect! That was January, the beginning of the filming season. I don’t think we recovered from that trip throughout the rest of the winter, but we kept going.

Why call our video Transparent? The idea was to have only glass spots in my part, hence that title. But you only find so many. I think it has been in my head for the last five years, and I’ve maybe done five transparent spots in 5 years. *laughs* It was always going to have a double meaning, as in being a more open person in life. Something I've struggled with in the past, that I’m way better at now, is just being myself. The spots didn’t all work out so great, but being more open about my emotions is definitely working for me.I think that is also what I was trying to strive for with this group: to be as comfortable with each other as we could and be able to be ourselves. I have known everyone for so long. Will has been doing his own thing after the Postland years, so I was really happy to be able to go on trips with him again. Dominik and I got on Vans around the same time and have spent way more time on trips together the last few years. It seemed to work out really well, personality-wise and also snowboard-wise. And not to forget the power couple I have been spending whole winters with for many years, Tim and Ivika. They will make anything work, no matter what it is. I’m so happy I got to do this with my friends. We went up and above and also deep and down. I love them all."

Ivika Jürgenson

"I'm hyped about last year. It was the coolest season I've had so far. It was more mentally than physically tiring for me, as I felt double the stress. Basically, for every trip that happened with this crew, I also got invited to do a Vans shoot and an Ashbury one. I was often flying in and out so it felt like the guys were always on full trips, and I didn't have enough time to film a part. Being on other trips felt nice, though. I needed a change of scenery. I was very burnt out when it came to filming this project. I put a lot of pressure on myself, filming for Vitamin, and it being a solo project meant I was in my head a lot. Having a crew around me put less pressure on me because then it did not all just depend on me. But by no means have I put less pressure on my own riding. I’m always highly critical of myself and pressure is my second nature when it comes to filming something. *laughs* 

I'm also a perfectionist with everything that I do, so everything has to be the way I have it in my mind. Normally, if I watch my footage back, I always wish it was a little bit better, a little bit different. I haven't watched this year's footage yet, so I can't discuss it, but when I watch Vitamin now, I'm pretty proud of what we did, which is a first for me. It feels good.

Oslo was a busy place to be when we were all there, everything I wanted to ride got ridden pretty quickly. That's how it works, but it is frustrating sometimes. There were so many crews around that it was hard to beat everyone to all the spots. We stayed in a hostel, and all of us shared the same room. It had three bunk beds, one table, a little corridor to the bathroom, and a little kitchen in the corner. I was stoked I had my noise-canceling headphones for sleeping because there was some snoring going on. And the smell inside! Everyone's boots and wet gear were drying everywhere. We cooked there as well, so it always smelled funky. But, at least we stayed within our budget range. Dom, a vegan as well, handles all the cooking, which I love. He's just the best guy to have on a trip with you: Vegan dinners, street knowledge, and spot engineering master. What more do you want? 

It can be hard to ride in a crew like this one sometimes. You watch Dom get a perfect clip, and you think he's done. There is no way anyone could do it better, but he won't be satisfied, and he will keep going. He might end up using the first one he landed or the last one before the light went. That's the thing though, when you have in your mind exactly how you want it to look, and you haven't got it like that, then how can you stop? There are also tons of factors that come into street snowboarding, so why not settle for that try if you made it out alive? But no one cares about the factors. They just remember the clip. We all have those thoughts in our heads. That's why it can be tricky filming together; we keep on going with no end in sight. It will never be how we want it, and we won't stop until we are forced to. With Will, it was different. Will’s riding days were really nice. He gets his stuff quickly and is often happy pretty quickly. I guess he knows exactly what he’s looking for. It was really nice to have a mixture of mindsets."

Will Smith

"I'd gotten used to the rhythm of a small crew, strapping in every other day, and getting more comfy on my board, so it was quite a big adjustment having a four-person crew and waiting three days to strap in. That can be hard, but it has its positives and negatives and I was just so hyped Kas got me involved. He's had some of the ideas for a long time so I really wanted to help make them happen. The level of riding was really sick to witness and made you want to try harder. With a bigger crew, you obviously have more people for building, which is important with this lot. I'm down to build, though. It's part of it. You're making someone else's vision happen, and the reward is seeing them do it. As for the time, it takes as long as it takes. We put in the work until it's ready to go, til it's safe and it works. Then, you don't have to change things mid-session. I'm not about that. When you ride spots that big, it has to be safe for your own longevity and you have to make sure you're gonna walk away from it.

It's nice to meet people that are more mental than you. For example, we iced this down-flat-down ledge near a tram station for Dom. We froze it the night before, and in the morning, it looked so clear Dom was calling it crystal gold or something. We watched this woman walk down the steps with her hand on the ledge, steadying herself. The ledge obviously caught her eye because she stopped, stared at it for a minute, then started stroking it, admiring how beautiful it looked. She was mesmerised by how smooth the ice was. We looked at each other and thought, we've made it. I think Dom is even more of a perfectionist than I am.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm kind of a maniac with everything. I get quite obsessed with things. Whatever I'm doing, until it's how I want it, I'm not satisfied, and I'll keep going. Last night, I was editing until two in the morning for no reason. Trying a manual at the park the other day, and I'm always like, three more, three more, and then I'll go till it's dark, or I can't walk.

Anyways, the Oslo trip was cold, fucked my knee at the end, flew out to meet them in February, and thought my knee was okay. It wasn't. It hurt as I got off the plane and I hit one spot and decided to fly home. First time I've ever bailed on a trip. While on that trip, I saw a rail that I had always wanted to hit but had never looked at for some reason. No way I could have hit it at the time, so I knew I would have to come back for it.

I flew back out to Finland in March to meet Kas, and I've never witnessed anything like it. No snow anywhere, just ice. Everything was sheet ice. Normally, you've got an ice layer with snow underneath but it was frozen the whole way through. We drove to the city to check out this rail, hoping the ice would have melted a bit, but it was much worse. I nearly cried. This rail is basically why I came back. We didn't know what to do but we had two hours till we picked Dom up at the airport, so we tried getting the stairs out. We got a metre-wide strip cleared in two hours of non-stop ice-hacking. We went to pick Dom up and see what he thought, which means you're probably gonna do it. So we go back, and he's like, 'yeah, we'll get up early and smash it out. Fuck it.' I felt guilty making them do it, but I reckon I'd earned a few tokens by then. Chopping ice is a shit job, though.

Eight hours of ice-breaking, pretty much non-stop, and we didn't even clear the whole stair-set. Hate on me all you want, there's no way we were clearing all those stairs. I started riding and threw up on the drop in between my legs. I was that exhausted. Honestly, if they weren't there, I wouldn't have carried on. They kept nudging me, 'Come on, not long till it's dark; you can try until it's dark.’ All of a sudden, I'm riding away. I don't even remember doing it. I was done. That was probably the best feeling I have had riding away from a trick in a long time. It was crazy, the disbelief in myself, even though I knew I could do it. I didn't think I had the energy, and the fact that they kept me going, and kept pushing me, that's amazing. That's probably the closest to a mental breakdown I got. But we did it. Fuck it.

It sounds corny, but it's a weird bond you can't put into words. I think we all get that feeling. There aren't many points in life when you're connected to other human beings that closely through a non-physical thing. Kas is sitting on an ice bank, cold as fuck under a bridge and Dom's stood next to a busy motorway having to film me from the top. No one's having a good time. Always keep going back for more, though."

Dominik Wagner

"For starters, I think I was the only one waking up at six. I need my time in the morning. Those guys filmed the season before and I was committed to something else, so I knew I needed to hustle. I don't care if I have to wake up at five or six, whatever it takes. The first couple of days I think Tim woke up, got dressed, and left the building. We tried to make the most out of the little sunlight we'd get. Waking up early wasn't the tiring part. Being outside from eight till eight, that's hard. 

Everybody played their part, though. We had a good thing going. I would be the morning motivator, getting everybody out of the house and Will was the hype man. I had filmed with Will before, but this was the first time we hung out that much. He's the funniest person I've ever met. Tim brings the looseness because Kas and I are often on edge with: 'Is it good enough?', so you need someone to bounce that energy off. Then Ivika kept providing us with her car and all the tools, getting all the shit together, pushing us forwards, and taking care of booking places to stay. Everybody played their role. It was amazing. 

We've all been doing it for a while, so we try to find spots that are unique or unseen. There are so many crews that film in the streets these days, and since Google Maps got easier to use, they all know every spot in every city so we got into this mode where it either has to be something new or something really fucking exciting. Most of the time, the things that fit into these categories are things that are definitely not in plain sight, or they’re crazy to approach, bust-wise, or setup-wise. It takes more time and effort to find new and unique spots, so even if it is a multiple-day setup, we’ll do it. Getting the clip after a lot of preparation and effort is a great feeling. If I can do something that I haven't done before or something that I envisioned doing for a very long time, there isn't much I won't do to get it ready. That is why we end up doing lots of setting up spots. 

In all honesty, there aren't too many people who are down to go the extra mile to get something ready. With this crew, the energy was very much: 'What will it take to do this?' That was the main reason I wanted to film with Kas. We already had that vibe going when we filmed for Hexagon and it's nice when somebody has your back 100% of the time. Nothing's too far, too much, or too crazy. I flew to Stockholm to drive six hours to a spot because that's what I wanted to do. There was no question of if we should do it. The only question was: 'When do you want to leave, four or five in the morning?'

Have I been naive my whole life? Yes, I have. "It's only a two-hour setup" turns into an entire day of shoveling. I've always been like this. I've always been a perfectionist and always doubted myself. That's why it's so nice to have the people around you thinking the same way. Otherwise, it would be such a pain in the ass! Everybody else says, 'Yo, that was it.' Tim says, 'I'm gonna use this', but if I'm not satisfied, I don't fucking care. I'm gonna go again until the lights go out or I can't keep going. At some point, though, if no one ever tells you to stop, it can only end in you breaking yourself. It's a fine line. 

That's pretty much what it comes down to or what this article is about. After the last trip, I came home with a migraine and I couldn't concentrate for a couple of weeks. I was DONE. My body, for the first time ever, shut down on me. I was like: 'Holy fucking shit, what's going on?' It was kinda scary. I could push myself to go on forever, but that was the closest I got to my body telling me to stop. It was the same with Kas. We were catching up on the phone and he said, 'It's been a month since the last trip, and I've still not recovered.'

This is how I've always been. It's always been one more try, and it's always been until the lights go out. I would keep going until I would collapse. I don't know where it comes from, but it's with everything I do. Nothing's ever good enough. I can't do anything normal. If I like doing something, it has to be a little extreme. It's a blessing and a curse."

As a fellow street rider (who has looked up to these riders for a long time), hearing them be honest and transparent about how this mad shit makes them feel is inspiring. Street snowboarding is a small world, and ‘meeting your heroes’ has become a regular for me, but not everyone is as open or willing to talk about the harder side of what we do. Having the bigger names talk openly about their feelings can only lead to a better world for us all to live in, and I am here for it.

I also experienced those -27 degrees in Oslo and saw some of these spots with my own eyes. The stuff they were chucking themselves down is mind-boggling. Honestly, some of these spots were absolutely mental, and no wonder it took them all a few months to recover after this season. 

I want to say thank you to Kas, Will, Ivika, and Dom for taking the time to share your thoughts and feelings, for shedding some light onto the side of street snowboarding people don’t get to see, and for inspiring us all, on and off our snowboards. I can’t wait to see what Transparent has in store for us.

You can watch "Transparent" by Tim Schiphorst right here