Since we have all been talking about are favorite shredheads recently, and Johan was mentioned quite a bit, i thought that you all might like to see this interview by Peter Hasselgreen that is in the latest edition of the UK magazine white lines:
Johan Oloffsons legacy to snowboarding is such that he really needs no surname. Like 'Terje' and 'Shaun', his skills are so legendary that its obvious to anybody which guy you meanwhen you talk about 'Johan'. His reputation was made with one groundbreaking part back in 1996 when, as a scrawny kid from the icy funparks of Sweden, he went on a trip to Alaska with Standard Films. What followed was nothing short of mindblowing, as Johan took his freesstyle skills to the backcountry in a way no other rider had done before. More than that, he tackled lines which vetrans of the Alaskan heli scene had only contemplated in their dreams, with a speed and fluidity that would change the concept of freeriding forever. As the current king of powder Jeremy Jones put it,"Johans part, TB5, was hands down the biggedt influence i've had in snowboarding.
The experiance had a big effect on Johan too. In the subsequent years he turned his back on the world of contests, parks and media hype, spending large parts of the winter living like a hermit in Alaska . . . waiting for that small window in the spring when the storms finally clear. It seemed that his eyes had been opened to a superior form of riding, and everything else fell short. Finally, as he went further underground, and a series of injuries interupted even thos fleeting appearances on video, the patience of his long term sponsors at Burton ran out; he was dropped from the team to make way for some younger riders. With a damaged knee that neeed time to heal, Johan decided the time was right to retire from professional snowboarding and return to Sweden, where he has embarked on a new project, building a funpark at Gallivara, called 'Thunderpark'. Is the prodigal son back for good ? We caught up to find out more.
Q: First i have to go back to the time when you were all over the media. About 96 you started to go do big mountains and were topping the bill in the videos.Then you seemed to fall off the radar-what were you doing?
A: Hmm . . basically i was just doing that: riding big mountains and filming for about 6 years.
Q: But at some point you kind of disapeared, and all these wild rumours started circulating about you. Can you tell us about that?
A: I was still filming alot, but all the early season footage was useless compoared to the stuff i was shooting later during the winter in Alaska. So i started to skip early seasons and just focus on enjoying riding Alaska during the Spring. I didnt do any promotion on competitions for a while, so that's the reason i didnt have any coverage in the media. Then i blew my knee out - i think it was 2002. It took about 7 months to get it fixed. Then i managed 4 months riding and it blew again. My doc said we could do an operation, but that it would be much better if i just took a 6 month vacation and took things real easy with it. I did that, but it still didnt help, so in the end i still had 2 further operations.
Q: A year is a long time to be stuck inside when youre in the snowboard industry!
A: That's true. It;s hell. I didnt even tell Burton about the operation - i didn't really care cos i'd heard that they wouldnt be giving me a new deal. I'd had a wonderfull eight years riding without any injuries, so overall i think iwas lucky.
Q: After you got dropped from Burton were you tempted to cash in on your naIme with some smaller company? Yo were a very respected rider!
A: I don't know . . . it may have crossed my mind! (laughs). I missed a couple of seasons, and this is the first one since tyhat i havent had any injuries. Now my knees have started to get strong enough to ride without a support. I still need to do a lot of training before i can go back to doing big mountains. Why dont i find a sponsor that would be fun to work with and take some money ? Well the awner is: if all the pieces fit i will !!
Q: So you still want to go back to a pro riders life ?
A:Well . . . . First of all i'm not in the same shape i was, so i dont think any sponsor would take me! (Laughs)But i am still getting calls from movie companies like Standard Films "What about this year? When are you coming too shoot ?" That would be great. But stuff like promotional tours and competitions every second day -no way! The last 5 years when i was riding, i flew only one route: Sweden-Vancouver-Alaska. So i wasn'ttravelling so many different places.
Q: At the time of your injury did you move back to your real home in Gallivara?
A: First i stayed in Stockholm for 3-4 months, and went to rehabilitation myself. Then imoved back here and shared an apartement with a friend. After my knee went the second time, i thought, "ok, now i have to live here." so i bought a cabin by the lake. There are too many distractions in Stockholm anyway . . . like the nightlife! (laughs)
Q: What have you been doing forn the last couple of years ?
A: Well, rehabilitation is an endless progress, so it was almost entirely that! You have to go to the gym 5 times a week, and every time you have to try to add to your weights. After the second time my knee went i was too fucking tired to start that process again!
Q: Did you think at that moment that you were gonna end here - no more snowboarding?
A:Not really.When i go riding i get so excited that i have to restraain myself! When the adrenaline starts to flow i'm stupid and i'll try anything ! Like the first time we were trying our park, everything was way too big. The plan was to be able to get Cats to fit beetween jumps and the landing. When we made the first step-up i was the first to try, but i landed way too short and heard a pretty nasty sound from my knee. Right then i thought my snowboarding days were over, but luckily there was only minor swelling.
Q: What about the snowboarding industry? I gather you've experianced the downside of it as well as the good times ?
A: Yeah that's right. Burton Snowboards had a pretty shitty attitude at the time. I dont really know what happened cos i didnt talk with them after i got dropped. I thought they were being idiots, so i didnt want to wastemy time thinking about it.
Q:Burton were your only sponsor, it must have been tough?
A: Yeah it was. After Jake Burton went on his year long vacation around the world, it was like an army style power struggle in his absence. They try to make young riders who haven't formed their own opinions do crazy jumps "Hey that guy did that jump - lets mark it down in the black book !" I felt the spirit of snowboarding had been lost somewhere.
Q; You were good friends with Jake, did you talk to him about it?
A: Yeah i was,but i haven't talked with him since then. I didn't really want to argue with him. And on the other hand, it was a big relief that i got time to deal with my injuries, and nobody was breathing behind my back. I could have had surgery and continued riding but i'd probably have been using crutches bby the time i was 40.
Q: Did the dream of Thunderpark come while you were recovering ?
A: My friend and i had the idea of opening a snowboard shop in Gallivara. I thought it would be a good idea to bring more snowboarding to this town so i bought a 50% partnership. To begin with we just wanted to improve on this 1 jump they had at the local Dundret ski resort. We started with one park, but feedback was so good that we ended up making a pipe and 2 parks.
Q:So there wasn't any park at Gallivara before yours ?
A: Nothing. Actually these hills are pretty good but the ski resort was stuck in the 80's. They thought that some skiing worl cup eventmight come here, with big exposure, and that it would change everything. Teenagers with snowboards were not welcome here before us (laughs) !
Q; Was the idea to run a buisness that would pay the bills, or to give the local kids something to do ?
A: A bit of both really. I had no sponsor deal so it started from a buisness perspective, but it is still important to make some positive changes in town. This is an ideal place for a park - the local snow means it can be fully ready for opening on the 1st November and continue into late May. In other areas it starts to rain and get really warm in May, but nothere.
Q: Have you invested alot of money in this project?
A: Yeah, and were spending more every day without any profit ! (laughs)
Q: Lets hope all the hard work pays off then !
A: Yes, lets hope we dont go bankrupt !
Q; Did you negotiate with Gallivara town / Have they been part of the project in any way ?
A: This is a big thing for the town, We've had meeetings with Swedish ministers and risk investors. This kind of project needs a lot of money and we cant guarentee anyone that its gonna work. So we needed high political influence to persuade them that it might this town. It took a year of fighting a paper war before we could even think about the park, but it had to be done. Nobody wants to spend that much money out of their own pockets! So far things have been going as planned, with just a few minor problems. The biggest hurdle is that those buisness guys seem to speak a different language to me. Luckily Jorgen my buisness partner takes care of those things- i'm the guy who sprays colour edges on the pipe, ha ha! i like it so much more.
Q: Jorgen says that local snowboarders have been helping alot with the construction of the park?
A: Everybody has been stoked to help. Gallivara is a nice town but there is not alot to do round here. The ski resort has been stuck in the ice age, so its nice to have somethiong else to do. Actiually not everyone has helped - alot of the faces are the same every day and others are sitting at home in front of their playstations waiting for the park to be finished! (laughs)
Q: So are you going to stay here and run Thunderpark if your knee doesnt heal or you dont get a new sponsor?
A: I hope that i can ride seriously for a couple more years and dont have to do anything else for a living. Still, Thunderpark is my first priority - i cant just run away to canada before we get things going smooth. Jorgen and i have a deal that i make the park and after that i can go as i want. Everytime there's something important happening i come back to make sure everything is ok. We have a guy whos job is to upkeep the park. This guy came straight from the job centre but luckilly he knows his job! (laughs)
Q: How does the buisness side work, since you dont really own anything of Dundret resort ?
A: We've rented the park from the owner for as long as we want to. Because Thunderpark has to be on the same lift ticket as Dundret we get a share of the profits so if the number of people visiting starts to grow. We offerd Dundret a pretty good deal and they took it.
Q: It'll be an important thing for the town if you get more tourisim here.
A: Yes, we tried to think about this from every angle and we couldnt find a reason why it wont work. The biggest problem is the town only has accomadation for 1200 people - that aint much!
Q: So the next big thing must be a hotel ?
A: Yeah, and there must be a wave machine for indoor surfing in the basement ! (laughs)
Q: After last nights opening party do you feel a sense of relief ?
A: Yes, so much . . . because we only just got that park before the party. It would have been so much easier to work if we had had all the right tools We dont have money to buy everything at the start so we have been cutting trees by hand which doesnt make any sense!
Q: You had a pretty wild opening party ( Johan is sporting a black eye) and i've heard some pretty wild rumours about you. Is there any truth in them ?
A:Yeah right ! In Gallivara there's a pretty hard atmosphere. There are alot of harcore rednecks up here, so thats all i have to say.
Q; What othe plans do you have now?
A: I have some. I would like to go back to Canada. There i would like to get a job as some sort of advisor to a ski resort - but thats just a dream. Here in Gallivara we've been planning luxury heliski packages for exploring the local areas. Trips were you can ride off piste all week, with accomadation andsnowmobiles included. There are some good mountains here, comparable to any area in the world. First we plan to get a few wealthy people here, then if the concept works we can drop prices to make it affordable to normal people too.
Q: So are you still planning to mspend time in Canada?
A: Well i try to spend as much time as i can in Canada. They still have better mountains and snow pver there.
Thats it, you can check out Thunderpark at: www.thunderpark.se
