Most would not think of Iceland as a snowboarding destination. The Iceland many people know is through the film efforts of Eiki and Halldor Helgason, who have thoroughly documented their efforts of scouring the streets of Akureyri for shots in their Sexual Snowboarding series. But just north of the Helgasons’ hometown is true backcountry access and legitimate powder turns, as Scotty Lago and Greg Bretz of Team America, and Antti Autti and Levi Luggen of Team Europe discovered during the Iceland Winter Games.
Here is where it gets interesting. You can win a trip for two to have your own Icelandic snowboarding experience, all you have to do is vote for your favorite video and you will be entered to win.
Get all of the details below:
Team Europe Antti Autti, Levi Luggen and filmer Teemu Lahtinen (Northlight Pictures) claim the top honors over Team America Scotty Lago, Greg Bretz and filmer Rich Goodwin. After a week of intense action in and around the North Icelandic town of Akureyri, the videos are now online.
During the week the teams have been accessing the Troll Peninsula’s backcountry with snowmobiles, cat, heli, sailboat and good old hiking. With four full filming days each of the teams were scrambling together footage and racking days as long as 12 hours. After the taxing action the incredible filmers were still left with the task of logging footage and editing.
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Halldor Oli Kjartansson from North Iceland Marketing was impressed by the teams efforts:
“It was incredible how much they were able to experience and capture in such a short period of time. The whole jury was amazed by the quality of the films and how they portrayed North Iceland in such a well rounded way.”
While in Iceland the riders were greeted with 3 days of bluebird and powder, before the warm and strong wind set in and created a curve ball to be worked on, but with the help of tireless tour operators and local knowledge the teams were able to make the most out of every day.
The event jury was faced with a tough choice between the two very different approaches, but in the end the cinematic and well rounded approach from Team Europe convinced the jury of its worthiness.
Antti Autti comments: “We worked really hard all week to get the shots and actually we have a lot of footage that we didn’t even put in the edit, so more clips from this trip will be dropping for sure! It was a great week. We are super thankful for all the tour operators for helping us out to get this edit done!”
Levi Luggen chimes in: “It was all-time! We were on the same page with Antti and Teemu from day one, so there was no hassle on that side. Also the tour operators were super rad, we could pretty much do what ever we wanted!”
The Iceland Winter Games was much more than just the video battle. The event is solidifying the growing snowboard scene in Iceland, creating the stepping stones for riders to follow their idols: the Helgasons. Birkir Georgsson and Hrund Hanna Hansdottir were crowned the first male and female National Slopestyle Champions at Mt. Hlidarfjall on Saturday.
Even if the contest is done for the riders it has just started for everyone else!
