projectDETOUR

What was it like spending two months with that crew?
It was really mellow. You’re not waking up at 5am to go snowmobile and race to some jumps. It’s just cruising to the mountain every day, meeting up with all the locals, taking some laps then hit a zone where you can build jumps or freeride. Then we would cruise back to David’s place every night for all of the crazy Swiss meals. We had a good time for sure.

On a scoping mission in Airolo, another resort in the southern Alps of Switzerland, we bumped into Marco Smolla and Fips Strauss who were doing a little “car-danchi” mission with their van to catch the goods in Switzerland.

Let’s talk about this type of project. I think the Internet makes things really disposable. One day this big story drops, it’s there for maybe 24 hours then it’s on to the next. I think that projectDETOUR will be one of those things that will have longevity and hopefully appeal to people that don’t snowboard. That’s the ultimate goal. What do you think about doing a project like this as compared to say an online part?
I like how the project is not just for snowboarders. People that don’t know what snowboarding is can watch this; it’s going to be a mix of a lot of different things. A lot of sightseeing, a lot of travel, just a lot of the things that we do behind the scenes for our living. On our trips to Greece and California we didn’t really do much snowboarding; it was just cruising and traveling together. I’ve seen a bunch of David’s videos, he has really cool editing style. It’s going to be a good thing for people who don’t snowboard to check out, and I hope people will be stoked to watch it more than just once. It’s not like an online video part or normal snowboard video.

I’ve been really excited about the vision behind this. I believe that snowboarding needs something quality like this; everything feels so scattered.
Yeah. In surfing there’s this show/video called The Drive Thru, it’s a crew of dudes in a van that would go different countries and just film everything for a week or two, then put out a short movie. I always thought that was such a cool idea. It was always fun to watch because they would have my favorite surfers on the trips too. It’s cool to do something like that with snowboarding instead of filming for the craziest tricks. It’s definitely quality over quantity.

When somebody watches this, how do you want people to feel?
I hope it opens up their eyes to travel, to go to these places that we visited. The trip to Europe, to the Alps was the most beautiful, crazy trip I’ve been on. I took the train all over the place, got to drive to a few different resorts, the whole scenery was really beautiful. I was only supposed to stay for a month and I ended up staying two months. It was definitely the best two months I’ve ever had in the winter. Same with Greece; it was my first time going there. The locals were really stoked when we went there because they love it so much and no one really knows there is snowboarding in Greece. I hope it opens people’s eyes to travel and to explore different places.

The crew used down days like this one to prepare spots for the days when the clouds were clear. This photo was taken way after last light during a long shape session at Hoch-Ybrig. It’s hard to motivate yourself to go out sometimes when the weather is shit, but the reward is mostly not far away when it clears up.

I studied abroad in New Zealand and a lot of the Kiwis that I met would take a year off after graduation and just go travel. Thinking about my friends and the people I graduated with, I don’t think anyone did that. So to take the idea of a detour and try putting yourself in situations you wouldn’t find yourself in.
Yeah it’s a cool experience. With a lot of the trips we were on, the plans changed so fast. We would plan to go one place and the next thing we’d know, we’re going to another and freestyle it. We never really had plans in Europe or to have a specific agenda the whole time we were there. We just went to places. It worked out really well.

Is there a story that sticks out in your mind from your time in Switzerland?
Leaving for France was pretty random. I told the guys to drop me off in Geneva and I just jumped on a train to do my own private detour. Headed to Italy for a few days, met up with my girlfriend and took the craziest train ride from Milan to Zurich, it was probably one of the coolest trains I’ve ever been on. Spent a couple days in Zurich and took the train to David’s house; his place is literally across the street from the train station, he was yelling out the window to me. That was a pretty funny detour of the trip.

What’s the plan for the rest of your summer?
I’ve been on a crazy road trip for the past month and a half. Went down to Mexico for a six day surf trip with a few of my buddies, scored some insane waves. The day I got back I started the projectDETOUR California trip so I met up with David, Markus Keller, Silvano Zeiter, and Lorenz the filmer in San Diego to start that trip. Now the plan is to head back East, spend some time with the family, my girlfriend, Jake Blauvelt, a few people up there. Maybe go out to Mt. Hood for the Rat Race in July. Then be back East for a few months to figure out the plan for next season. Probably be doing some part-time work for my construction company. Hopefully we’ll get waves, the surf get so flat in New Jersey during June and July. We’ll see.

Any closing thoughts?
I just want to thank Bataleon and DBK for making this project happen. Really stoked that it all worked out and had pretty much one of the best winters of my life. I’m glad that I got to experience projectDETOUR, hopefully we can continue it next year.

Read also: Creating projectDETOUR: A David Bertschinger Karg interview