The all-around-adored Finnish rider talks movies, medals and the inspiration behind his popular pro model with Rome.

Mark Clavin: You just finished up a two-year project. You’re done. How does it feel?

Rene Rinnekangas: Actually, it took us, like, three years because I was injured, so we didn’t film too much last year. Just finished a couple of weeks ago. We were up north in Sweden, [in] Riksgränsen, doing the last bit for that project. But now we’re done with the project and I’m back home. Feels good!

Who’s all involved in it?

There’s going to be some clips from Ylfa Rúnarsdóttir, Sven Thorgren…and Ethan Morgan was part of it as well!

And who’s behind the camera on it?

Anton Kiiski, the same guy I’ve worked with pretty much my whole life.

Do you think two-year projects are more manageable?

Since I’ve been trying to do, like, contests and film at the same time, it helps a lot with the schedule. We normally just film for the season and see how much footage we have. We decided to do another year [because] we wanted to film a bit more backcountry. It will be similar to the last project. 

What is it like working with one filmer for most of your career?

I’m just so happy that we are filming together, and we’ve been filming since we were pretty young. I met Anton and Tatu (who takes photos and is another big part of the crew) when they were filming with my big brother [Riko]. I was probably 10 years old, and [I] am forever grateful for those guys for giving this opportunity [to] such a young kid back then. It is amazing to be still doing it with them—like, in snowboarding and outside of snowboarding, too. We stay in contact every week.

When you get injured, are you more bummed you can’t film or can’t compete?

Oh, that’s a good question. Right now, I’ve been turning more [toward] filming than before, but I just feel like I missed a lot of snowboarding. And that’s the thing: I just want to snowboard and do both. I progress more when I’m doing all kind[s] of things together and ride whatever it is—halfpipe, slopestyle filming…

How does it feel to finally make it through a season without injury?

You just enjoy the smaller things coming out of [an] injury. It’s a pretty classic answer, but that’s true. But what isn’t true is how nice it feels—so nice—to be back at first. To be honest, when I went snowboarding for the first time [after TK INJURY], I had still so much pain. I was able to do, like, turns but couldn’t do bigger things. I took another month off after I came back—for more rehab stuff, to get at least closer to 100%—but that really didn’t work for me. After all that, when snowboarding felt nice again… But yeah, I’m happy that it was [an] injury-free season.

At least in your downtime you have come up with one of my favorite boards in a long time. What’s the inspiration behind the Rene-Gade?

It was trying to be old school but still a snowboard for today. I’m a big fan of Subjekt: Haakonsen. They were killing it back [then], so I thought the boards must have been really good. I just looked online at the specs, shape and camber and started designing from there. It’s a directional camber board from, like, ’94 to ’96. My sauna inspired the first graphic—pretty Finnish. [Laughs.] The water and sun with a small swan swimming…the swan is our national bird. And then the colors, white and blue, were from the Finnish flag. 

But the newer one is a one-line drawing with different flowers, and not everybody can see it, but there’s actually a face. That’s in memory of my grandmother, who passed away a bit over two years ago. She was a big part of me and my brother’s snowboarding. She lived, like, right next to the ski resort, and the lily of the valley were her favorite flowers, which are also our national flower. We’re doing a third one right now, so I’m really stoked about it.

Where do you see your career in the next five years?

I still enjoy doing contests. Maybe the one coming up could be the last Olympics for me, and then focus more on the filming side. My passion in snowboarding is to give a bit more time for learning the backcountry side of snowboarding. But, like I said, I like both. 

Alaska, Whistler or Europe?

I mean, the dream would be to go out there [to Alaska] as well and learn a lot. We were planning to film this season with Sage [LAST NAME HERE], but the weather didn’t line up and the snow safety was not the greatest, so I would love to spend time with Sage and Ståle [Sandbech]. They really want to help people; you can just call them and ask, whatever it is, even outside of snowboarding. 

Which contest holds the most weight to you out of all the major ones?

I grew up with X Games, watching Ståle and Sage. It just looked bigger than any of the other contests, and now, being a part of it, it’s just…only 10 or 15 get the invite. So it’s pretty hard to even get to that contest. So I think that is the main one of the season right now. 

You ever think about Natural Selection now that you are riding more backcountry?

That would be really sick. But I feel like right now it’s probably not the right time. I would like to get better riding backcountry and feel more comfortable.

What do you do with your contest winnings?

I spend it all on new instruments! [Laughs.] No, I’m not the best guy to spend money on things, but I’m very happy about my apartment in Finland. Nowhere near the prices in the U.S. It’s a pretty chill place, and I have a lot of friends here. I really love playing ice hockey, and there’s always a hockey practice going on pretty much every day. So you can just jump in whenever. 

Would you ever move?

I don’t really see myself moving out [of] this town, at least very soon, because yeah, it just feels right to be here.

Do you think your creativity on a slope course is just how you see the course, or are you just trying to differentiate yourself from everyone else’s lines?

It’s a big part of my snowboarding, doing something a bit different, but after the first practice you normally see what everyone is going to do, so I try to change that. I didn’t have the tricks to win the big contests back when I started, like triple corks and stuff, so I always thought of what else I could do to get a bit noticed. A lot of riders were very stoked [on] what I was doing, and the judges started liking a bit different approach, so it just felt natural.

How does it feel to have so many people rooting for you and your riding when you show up to a contest?

I don’t know how to say it, but it feels like I’ve done something right if people are happy about what I’m doing. And it’s always nice when people are stoked and want to see more snowboarding. So it feels just so awesome. I’m honored.