Europe’s newest backcountry star on his new project with Arc’teryx, his bucket list in snowboarding and taking a unique approach to how he displays his riding.

T. Bird: Sevi! How are you, my man?

Severin van der Meer: Good! In Zurich, it’s finally summer. It wasn’t really summer for a while, but finally the sun came out. Yeah, it’s beautiful.

I want to start off by talking a little bit about what you got into this winter and what you have planned with Arc’teryx. What’s going on with that?

Yeah, I’m super excited about what’s coming. I had the opportunity to make another film this year for Arc’teryx, and there’s a bunch of my favorite riders involved. It’s Jared [Elston], Elena [Hight], Jake [LAST NAME], Danimals [Dan Liedahl] and me, basically. It’s all coming together right now. We’re in the middle of editing, and it’s going to be something different. I’m excited to see everything coming together. And yeah, we’re going to produce all the music ourselves, and we’re in the middle of getting everything together right now.

You have a really unique and interesting outlook in snowboarding in kind of this artistic way. What sparked that idea of presenting stuff a little bit differently than other people do?

What I mostly wanted is to bring a feeling into it, a feeling I experience every day, or we all experience every day, and make that feeling more valuable than just tricks, I think. And to put it together with a story that makes sense. Chroma was really a story that everybody could get into, even living in the city. Just make it more accessible for other people to experience what we experience every day.

And who’s the director and the filmers that you chose to make that vision for the new project?

It’s Willem Jones. It’s super amazing to work with him again. He knows my intuitive way of snowboarding really well, and I can’t really do it with somebody else. And the director is going to be Achille Mauri. He’s a friend from Italy.

And where did the winter take you? What were some memorable trips you went on, and who were some of the crew?

It started off in the Alps. It was really nice to finally have some snow again in the Alps after two dry seasons. And then the crew went to Japan. I didn’t go, because of an Arc’teryx Academy I had to go [to] in Whistler, so I couldn’t go on the Japan trip. But the guys went, and they had an amazing time there. And then it was kind of like a dream come true to go to Alaska with the crew, and we shot a lot. Just exploring and riding the terrain, getting used to the steeper stuff, all the transitions, the crazy snow formations to get creative in. That was a really nice ender of the whole project. And then we filmed a little more around Chamonix and Milano.

What’s on your bucket list of things to do in professional snowboarding? You’re going to have a project based around you. You’ve been to AK. What are some other things you’d like to accomplish?

Right now, I really want to take my time and snowboard again, really snowboard, and maybe not film for a whole season, because it takes a lot of time away from riding, getting better, learning new stuff and new zones around home. That is something I really want to focus on a bit more. And jump on little projects here and there. I’ve also been looking into India. I really want to do a trip there.

Hell yeah. Gulmarg?

I actually forgot the name. But Nico [Nicolas Müller] and Fredi [Kalbermatten] went there for…I think it was Neverland, maybe. Nico told me it’s some of the best terrain he’s ever ridden, and then I looked it up and it is crazy.

I feel like traveling to those exotic locations and snowboarding, it was so popular years ago and now it’s not quite as popular ’cause budgets aren’t what they used to be. I want it to come back, because I love learning about new places and new mountain towns and new terrain. 

Yeah, same. It’s refreshing to see different cultures. 

What’s the biggest benefit to the off-season in your region of Europe? It looks like such a beautiful place to just decompress and relax.

I love coming home to all my friends in Zurich. I really feel [at] home here. I started to get into music more and more—mixing music, playing music, all kinds of stuff. It’s a really nice way to stay creative, to keep yourself going. I love music. And also I go to the mountains and get into climbing. Paragliding is something I really like to do too. It’s nice to have some time off where you can focus on some other stuff than snowboarding and then get back into it with full energy.

Is your film going to be coming out this fall?

Yeah, it’s going to come out in fall. We’re going to do some exhibitions around the project in some bigger cities, and then the film is going to be on the Arc’teryx film tour—25 stops around the world.

Oh, that’s incredible. I’ll hit up [Justin] Sweeny and tell him he’s got to do a stop in Portland. Well, hey man, I really appreciate you taking the time to catch up with us. I can’t wait to see the film. I’m a huge fan of your snowboarding, so the more Severin I see on screen, the more stoked I am. And the roster you have is incredible too.

Thank you. Yeah, it’s really cool to see all these different riding styles together. Take care, man.