By now, if you are a fan of snowboarding you have heard of Luke Winkelmann. North Carolina raised, Winkelmann has been making a name for himself on the contest circuit while simultaneously dipping his boots in the video part realm the past few years. One of the most stylish riders on the Burton squad and beyond, the 22-year-old is set to take center stage as his latest offering premieres tomorrow night in Denver alongside a stacked crew. Battling through injury this past season, all is still pointing to quite the impressive stack of clips in his third major project offering. If you aren’t close to any of the stops for Burton’s Blooom premiere tour, keep an eye out for when the project drops later this Fall right here and on every other website that talks about snowboarding. Enjoy a few words below from Luke. – Mark Clavin

What’s the meaning behind Blooom? Where did the title come from? 
I think it really stems from the Blossom. Niels came up with the idea to start this board called Blossom in Burton and we have a little crew that rides it. It’s not a standard Burton board, I would say, with the “Burton” spread out all over it and lots of logos. The whole vision is to have all the different Blossoms–you can have them on your wall as art pieces, like Brushies or Kelly’s boards. Also along with the concept that the crew riding it are the younger ones starting to blossom into what we’ll be in our snowboard career.

And everyone in the movie is riding those boards.
Yep, I think everyone but Jesse.

Why didn’t Jesse ride one?
No reason. It’s kind of aggressive for him and he just has another board he likes, I reckon. 

This is not your first film project.
No, I did that Wingspan and One World and other little things. Wingspan was more of like a little side passion project, but this one is sick because it really brings the Burton street team together, which really is what we’re looking for. Being relevant in that aspect with such a strong street team, we all get along super well. I was really trying to make this happen with Niels, so I was trying to plan trips when I could in between contests all season.

Who’s all in this project? 
So we got Zeb, Grace Warner, Ylfa, Rob Roethler, and Jesse Augustinus. Ylfa is kinda the vet. She’s the shit. Always on a mission. When she’s filming or looking for spots, she’s super particular, which I look up to. 

When do you feel the most pressure, filming or competing?
It’s tough to say. I would say I feel more pressure filming, honestly, because that is really what lasts in your snowboarding. You know, it’s something that’s there forever, really. You can win awards or trophies or whatever at contests, which is awesome and a huge accomplishment, but I guess since I was a kid, I’ve just always thought showing what you really want your snowboarding to be to the world is through film. I love competing and don’t want to stop, but I guess how I want my boarding to be seen is through video parts

Any trouble traveling from film trip to contests or vice versa?
Let me look through some photos…I don’t remember. It’s been the most hectic year, probably, in my life. Oh YEAH! Grace and I had to go straight from Heavy Metal to Japan. I can’t really remember much, but it got lit that night and we had to wake up by like 6, get to the Detroit airport, and literally fly to Japan that day. I rode the contest then went straight to hotel to pack to then go to the after party and then get a couple hours of sleep and hit the airport. Then was all of a sudden in Japan for the first time. I show up and it’s the crew and Blotto, who is just a straight veteran there. He has been there like twenty-five times or something wild like that. 

Any secret spots that he took you to?
We definitely hit some onsen which was sick–and strange, just walking around nude with a bunch of older Japanese men. Culture shock, for sure. Four European and American dudes, everyone’s staring at you and it’s just wild. I’ve been in bathhouses in Europe, but it’s way different there. 

Yeah. What was the best snack in Japan? Rob told me to ask you that.
Damn. That’s the hardest question I’ve been asked. I would say the syrup-filled pancakes. Insane. 

Why would Rob say, “I wouldn’t go back to Japan to film street for any less than $100,000”?
Filming street in Japan is a battle. First off, uncovering spots that you find on Google Maps. You show up to a spot that you saw on Google Maps or something, and then you just don’t see it because it’s literally completely buried in snow. Every single spot or anything you go to is pretty much buried. Every rail. So that was really tough, having to dig and get every spot to bare to make it look kind of sick. I guess the second reason would be the cops. Nothing against the Japanese people, but they will definitely report if they think a crime is going down or somebody’s doing something wrong. Understandable that’s just the culture–report things to keep everybody safe, but that was kind of tough. We had a lot of police interaction and people just not stoked on what we were doing.

Maybe they should change Japanese Google Maps images to all winter so you couldn’t see any of the street spots buried under the snow.
Haha. It’s like uncovering buried treasure. 

I saw some photos from the project, looked like you guys dropped off a ton of roofs.
Yeah, we definitely hit a couple roof spots. Those were some of the easier clips to get because of how troublesome filming rails was. We had to go find abandoned buildings and places that are out of reach to the public to get clips really. 

What’s, what do you think is more dangerous, competing in slope or filming in the streets?
Dude, both are dangerous.

I know, that’s why I asked.
It’s tough to say because on one side, you’re flinging your carcass three times upside down on a jump at high speeds, trying to land into the next and try to do the same thing and on and on. Then in the street, you could be jumping down a roof or a rail with a death-defying drop. It can definitely result in a pretty gnarly injury or fall as well. 

If you had to pick one, though.
Gosh, if I were to pick one, I guess I would find slopestyle safer, to be honest, just because the courses are mathematically–or at least supposedly–built to work. It’s all supposed to be perfectly dialed, versus the streets where you don’t know if you built it right or good enough, or if the landing is gonna hold. There are really just a lot more variables when you’re filming in the streets versus competing. But in slope, you’re going way faster usually and higher in the air… So it’s really up in the air.

But more of a chance for you currently in the streets. Weren’t you kind of injured this season, too?
Yeah, I got hurt in Japan, actually.

Haha, so that’s why it’s more dangerous right now.
Yeah, haha. Rob was making this kink rail spot probably look chiller than it really was and I remember he laced one good backlip and I was just thinking, I’m just sitting on my ass. I was in Japan for a reason. Like if there’s a spot to hit, I should probably try to hit it. Anyway, I started to try gap it as well, and then I just went a little too fast, went front one from the top, missed the rail, took a full deep squat–pretty much ass to high backs–and felt my knee pop. I remember just unstrapping immediately, getting up, running around like, Fuck fuck fuck. It was a gnarly bone bruise and ended up spraining my ACL. It caught on my bone and basically stretched as far as it could without tearing, thank goodness. So I was pretty much just battling the bone bruise for seven months, not really being able to ride without pain. Never took them too seriously before, but they are no joke.

Explain a bone bruise.
What happened was my femur actually hit my patella, it kinda clacked it. Pretty much punched it. It damages blood vessels and causes a bunch of blood and fluid to leak in the tissues around the bone. Once I heard that, I was like, Oh dude, bone bruises are serious. I’m definitely guilty of thinking they were mellow and that it sounds chill like a regular bruise…but no, it took forever to heal.

And you went to Finland, as well? 
Yeah, I think most of my clips are from Finland. We had a large squad in Japan, so I think I only got two or three clips in like seven days. I liked Japan more for the experience, and Finland is amazing and probably was better for me on the filming end. Really wish I had more time to get clips in the sidecountry in Japan, though. Just the couple days in it was so dreamy. 

Didn’t it rain a lot there this year in Finland? Yeah, first day we got there. Zeb, Colt, and me. It just started pouring. It was spooky. But I mean, we made it happen. It snowed a couple small storms and we made those days work and got some stuff done, which is sick. 

Did you and Zeb get recognized at all in Finland or nobody cares?
Uh, no one gave a shit about us in Helsinki. Zeb for sure got recognized at Sveitsi, a hill near Helsinki. Bunch of rad people there! Haha. Finland is also sick because they have really good snacks.

Which country had better snacks overall, Finland or Japan?
Japan has better snacks, but I would say Finland has the better drinks. Their drink selection is ridiculous, whether it’s crazy waters or beers or seltzers…they got all the long drinks and shit in there.

What’s it like what’s it like riding with Niels?
Dude, Niels is the best. I love his vision. He’s just different, really. I’ve never really met or been around anyone like him with such a clear vision on how they want something to turn out. He’s a true artist in so many ways of life. 

And what about filming with Colton Morgan?
I have filmed a couple park shoots and stuff with Colton, but not in the streets. I love Colt’s filming and his vision, and his editing is really sick. He’s also just such a great genuine human. He’s also an artist. Those two together are incredible. Other than I’d have liked to get some more footy and time, no stress on how the movie will turn out with those two working on it. 

Oh, Rob also wanted me to ask how did you learn more French than Japanese while in Japan?
Haha. Niels and his really good homie Arthur, who was in Japan with us filming super8, would just start arguing and joking with each other in French. Just going at it, talking shit in French while we were in the van. It was hilarious. The whole time we were just dying. Then we noticed a lot of the words would repeat, so we would start repeating some back. It was just funny. Big thanks to Arthur for helping us with the film and providing the laughs in Japan!

Do you remember any saying in French that you learned?
Oui, oui. Haha. I wish I could remember more, but it was truly too fast for me to comprehend. 

Why should we all go watch this movie when it comes out? 
It’s a street movie with the whole Burton team together. It’s not very often that that happens, so it’s pretty neat. And Colt and Niels produced it and they are awesome. 

Yeah, is that the plan you guys want to keep this rolling into this year?
Yeah, I think that’s at least in the talks right now, so we really hope so because of how fun it was and how well we all work together. Hopefully this film blossoms into more of an every-year thing. The crew has all the potential in the world. 

You going to make a run in the contest circuit next year?
Oh, yeah. I’m in full comp mode still. But that never stops, as well as my passion to film and do projects. So I always do whatever I can in my power to do the comps and then go right to doing a project that I can be in or help film for, you know? I love snowboarding and I’m trying to do as much as I can while I have the opportunities to do so. 🙂