Red Bull Skiing: April 2008 Archives

Day 1

There’s just no other way to put it…Day 1 of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions went off. The sun was out in full force in Are, Sweden this morning and throughout the day. With five beyond massive features to choose from, including The Floater (a 30-meter stepdown), The Trip Buster (a JOI-style gap jump), The Rhythm Section (three bmx-style jumps, tranny-to-tranny), The Launcher (a 30-foot tall hip, with a 70-foot gap in the middle to a 50-foot tall landing) and The Experiment (a tabletop with an old-school freestyle take-off), a difficult decision had to be made on what to hit first. After briefly considering testing out the hip to kick things off, Jon made the call to hit the JOI jump, mainly due to the lack of wind that was making the day that much more perfect.

The hospitality of the event is at all an all-time high courtesy of Jon, who has really outdone himself this year by first transporting the athletes to Are from the local airport by helicopter, and then putting the crew up in the beautiful Tott hotel, complete with Cadillac shuttles taking everyone wherever they need to go. The happiest man in the hotel this morning was Peter Olenick, who’s gift bag included 70 tins of snuss and more chocolate and condoms than you could shake a stick at.

As everyone got ready to head up the hill, the excitement was at an all-time high for everyone involved, particularly after the bad weather that has plagued most of the events this year. But no one was quite aware of just how much things were about to go off until they approached the jump. The Trip Buster, according to Jon, “is by far the biggest jump I’ll probably ever build.” And it was no joke.

A 26-meter gap monster with a buttery smooth landing complete with sunshine, a large crowd of spectators and a heli follow-cam made for a day filled with an epic level of skiing that went right until sunset and was just too amazing for words.

Day 2

Day 2 of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions in Are, Sweden started and finished early. After the forecast called for bad weather in the afternoon Jon made the call for an early morning start today on the step-up hip (aka The Launcher). So after a late night many for many at last night’s old school hip-hop party, the athletes and media made their way up the tram at 6am and got set up.

Unfortunately, there were some speed issues for most of the athletes on the feature (only Jon, Sammy and Andreas seemed to be feeling it), so the mission was aborted in favor of a possible return session on the JOI-style jump later in the afternoon, so the jump crew could begin modifications on the hip.

Day 3

Day 3 was a busy one at the Jon Olsson Super Sessions. The day began with the first annual Swedish Open, which saw a large contingency of up-and-coming Scandinavians duke it out for the ultimate prize, an invite to the next JOI, which will be taking place in Monaco, New York or Dubai, possibly as early as this fall.

Much like the North American Open, the qualifiers were jam format with Jon, along with Philou Poirier, judging the event. The course was comprised of three jumps that were a tad on the small side (likely because most of the jump builders’ energy has gone into the features for the Super Sessions), but the level of skiing was high, proving that the Scandinavian invasion isn’t on its way…it’s here.

After the field was narrowed down to 22 riders after the qualifiers, the finals started and finished with a bang, as Oscar Scherlin, the early favorite to win the event, was in second place for most of the finals behind Kim Boberg. After a host of Swedes and Norwegians strutted their stuff for Jon and Philou, Kim and Oscar remained neck-and-neck until the bitter end, when Oscar, who qualified first, had the last run in finals and one more chance to beat out Kim for the invite to JOI. As Luke Van Valin built the suspense on the mic in only the way he can, Oscar dropped in and unfortunately bobbled the landing on his switch 10 off the top hit, giving Kim the win, an invite to JOI, and much to his delight, access to all the Super Session features. Right behind the top two was Tom-Oliver Hedwall in third.

A few hours later, the Super Sessions continued and next on the list was the Rhythm Section, which was three bmx-style jumps in a row, tranny-to-tranny. The shoot began at dusk and went well into the night under the lights in front of a modest crowd that hiked up to watch the festivities. The session itself took a bit to get going as due to the close proximity of the jumps, the athletes had to take some time to get use to the triple line, and many skipped the third jump for the better part of the night.

And last but not least, Simon Dumont continued to prove how bad he wants to win this competition by working his ass off all night and seemingly getting more jumps in than anyone else. Simon brought the rain with a variety of tricks, including some switch and regular cork 5’s with unique grabs and perhaps the ballsiest line of the night, a superman front flip off the top hit to a double front off the second.

Unfortunately, the host with the most Jon Olsson couldn’t participate in tonight’s session after tweaking his knee earlier today. His knee is beginning to feel better but he says it may be a day or two before he can jump again. Here’s hoping he heals up quick. So after a busy day here in Are, another huge party is just a few hours away where the shenanigans will surely be as high as they’ve been all week, especially considering tomorrow’s session (which will be on the old school freestyle jump, aka The Experiment, which looks insane by the way) will also take place at night.

Day 4

Day 4 of the JOSS started late today with another nighttime session, this time on the Experiment, the old school freestyle jump with three take-offs. The jump was one of the most anticipated features by the athletes and spectators alike, as all were curious how the best freeskiers in the world would take to the aerials-like take-off and landing.

The late start was more than a blessing for everyone involved, as the other major aspect of this event, the partying, was in full effect last night with the biggest party so far. With a seemingly endless amount of bottle service courtesy of Jon, everyone and their dog was in full-blown rockstar mode till the early hours of the morning, and the scores of beautiful Swedish women didn’t hurt things either. So after a much needed and well-deserved sleep in, the boys made their way up the hill at dusk to begin the session.The three take-offs got taller and steeper left to right, and while the jump crew made some final preparations on the tranny of the big take-off, the athletes began getting a feel for things on the smaller side.

Oscar Scherlin was the first person to hit the jump tonight with some stalled out 3’s before quickly moving onto some big cork 7 mutes. Simon Dumont continued his reign on terror of the features tonight, with his super slow and motionless cork 3’s and later threw in a huge variety of his extremely unique and tweaked out grabs.
All the athletes are grinning ear-to-ear after the session, with some calling it one of the funnest features so far. Also adding to their grin is the bowling contest/party that is about to go down, because really…who doesn’t love bowling?

Day 5

Day 5 of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions saw a return session on the JOI-style jump, aka the Trick Buster. After another beautiful day of sun and no wind Jon called for another sunset shoot on the biggest feature we’ve seen so far. While the initial session saw many of the athletes just getting warmed up on the features, today absolutely went off.

Simon Dumont continued to rip every feature a new asshole, mixing up nearly every hit with a variety of tricks from slow and motionless cork 3’s to huge corked 1080’s with tweaked out grabs. However some of today’s biggest highlights were the plethora of doubles that inevitably went down. With Jon Olsson also back in action after tweaking his knee a few days ago, the mastermind set the standard early with a huge kangaroo flip, which he proceeded to throw continuously with different grabs on nearly every single attempt along with a few double cork 12’s thrown in for good measure.

Oscar Scherlin skipped today courtesy of some serious shin bang and Mike Clarke was also out of action after slicing his hand open last night on the uber sharp edges of his new skis. He needed to get a few stitches and decided to sit today out and prepare himself for tonight’s pool party in the awesome Tott hotel where everyone is staying. Tomorrow will reportedly see a repeat session on the newly modified hip jump or perhaps the first crack at the 30-meter stepdown…the only feature that has yet to be hit.

Day 6

With more bad weather threatening to appear later today, Day 6 of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions began early with another morning shoot.Due to the amazing weather that has been blessing the event all week, many of the athletes are starting to feel the burn after sessioning the massive features for five days in a row. Because of this, Jon made today’s outing an optional session and a few of the boys gladly rose for the task, which of course was no easy one after another long night of partying.

Today’s mission…to test out the only feature yet to be hit, the Floater. The jump is a 90-foot stepdown perched right at the top of the mountain and will surely be hit again after the couple of hours of sessioning that went down today. Simon Dumont, Sammy Carlson, Andreas Hatveit, Colby West, Henrik Harlaut and Oscar Scherlin were all in attendance getting a feel for the new challenge, and much like all week, they did not disappoint.
Some of the highlights included Sammy Carlson’s switch right 10’s (before unfortunately tweaking his bad ankle, which may force him to sit the next day or two out), Andreas Hatveit’s huge double backflips with his brother Jon in tow, Henrik Harlaut and Oscar Scherlin’s effortless spins and perhaps the sickest tricks of the session, Colby West’s ridiculous zero spin and Simon Dumont throwing down what MC Luke Van Valin called the biggest cork 1080 ever.

Although the early rise was difficult for many, it will surely be a blessing in disguise by giving everyone an opportunity to enjoy the sun and rest up for tonight’s annual rock party, which according to Jon is by far the wildest and most notorious party of the week. With six solid days of skiing under the athletes’ belts and every feature checked off the list, the level of skiing is surely going to get even bigger and better now that the boys have the jumps figured out. The forecast is calling for rain over the next day or two but it seems hard to believe looking outside at the endlessly bluebird spring sky. If the sun decides to stick around, hold onto your keyboards and prepare yourself for some of the sickest skiing in the history of the sport.


Words by Jeff Schmuck (Newschoolers.com)
Photos by Jeff Schmuck, Felix Rioux, Dan McClung, and Charles Spina

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