Jonas Hagstrom interview
HUCK chats to the Protest team rider about chasing snow, his 25-piece folk band and Sweden's progressive snowboarding scene.
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In a tiny village calledGräftåvallenthousands of kilometres north of Sweden's populous capital, Stockholm, before the internet or cable TV, two kids took snowboards out on the mountains. They had no clue what they were doing but it was a move that would change the life of the elder brother, Jonas Hagstrom, forever. Twenty years later, the Protest and Nitro team rider is still charging but now he's searching for new challenges; fresh snow and big mountains. And he doesn't plan to leave his remote home any time soon.
HUCK: What was it like growing up in Gräftåvallen?
Jonas Hagstrom: It’s extremely tiny. We were ten people living there including my family of four and the next town was thirty kilometres away. It was cool though because my parents were running a ski resort so I could go snowboarding every day after school… It was lonely as well of course. I didn't have too many friends around but I had my brother to run around playing with. So that was okay.
Were you the first to snowboard in your village?
Yeah we had a friend come up from Stockholm one day and then he brought a snowboard with him so we convinced our dad to buy two snowboards for the rentals, so that we could try them out. He never really got to rent the boards that’s for sure! We liked it so much and we just kept doing it. I was nine years old or something.
Had you heard about snowboarding before that?
Never. You couldn’t get hold of anything basically. It was 1991 I think. You couldn’t really see snowboarding. There was no internet, you know? And we didn’t have Eurosports or anything like that. We just had Swedish TV channels. It was different from skiing and we were the only ones doing it. Everyone would turn their heads around to see what the hell that was passing by. We instantly started making jumps and kickers, which we hadn’t been doing with skis. It was more fun. There was more variety.
Did you come up against any opposition?
No, no, no. It was accepted straight away in Sweden. It was not like in the States when it was forbidden for a while. It was even the opposite, when they started building parks there were only snowboarders allowed. Skiers were not allowed in the beginning. I think the first time they allowed skiers in the halfpipe was like 1999 or even later.
In the centre of Sweden, some 300 kilometres north east of the thriving capital of Stockholm, lies a resort called Sälen. Despite being home to only a couple thousand permanent residents, the area is bombarded by ten times that amount of snowsport enthusiasts in the winter months. It is also home to a snowboard school The Alpine Gymnasium in Malung. Here, the country’s top potential athletes huck it out (in between academic lessons approved by the board of education) to join the Scandinavian snowboarding cognoscenti. The alumni include Ingemar Backmann, Hampus Mosesson and Jonas himself.
What was attending the snowboard school like?
To me it was a huge difference it was like moving to a huge city but actually it’s a really tiny village with maybe a couple of thousand people living there. It was cool we could go snowboarding four days a week. In fall we would do five days full study and try to be ahead once the winter came.
Do you think it’s a good way to start snowboarding?
Every Swedish snowboarder ever who’s gotten somewhere in the business has gone to this school more or less. So it’s definitely a good thing. To go snowboarding four days a week when you’re in school – that’s not bad. And all the sponsors keep an eye on the students in the school. And you get to go to the junior world championships and stuff if the coaches in the school decide that you can go. It’s a good way to get somewhere that’s for sure.
What’s the snowboarding scene like in Sweden?
Well we used to have a national team but now that’s kind of dead. Ten years ago we had a really successful national team that was doing well but now there’s not really much going on. From that point of view it’s not that great actually but people like snowboarding and support snowboarders although the bigger names don’t get famous in Sweden. Like in Norway Terje Haakonsen and all those guys, they’re huge, they’re on TV every week but in Sweden we love our downhill skiing and cross-country skiing and ice hockey and stuff like that. Snowboarding is a bit hidden in the back somewhere.
Are you still based in Sweden?
Yeah I live close to the biggest ski resort in Sweden it’s called Are. But I’m not doing much snowboarding in Sweden at all actually. I’m travelling with Mikka [Hast] in the Alps the whole season long. We’re freestylers but we’re more into the backcountry; building kickers, riding cliffs and wind lips and that kind of stuff. And you can’t really find that up here. Especially not in Finland where Mikka lives because it’s totally flat! And also Sweden the mountains aren’t that good actually.
Can you tell us a bit about the Protest Snow Tour?
Mikka and I have known each other for maybe three years now. We came up with the idea together. The whole thing is based on us two travelling together, going wherever the snow is falling, no matter where it is or how far it is, we just drive there. As long as it's in Europe.
Do you guys film it yourselves?
We were more or less alone all the time. We had some photographers joining the trip once in a while but we were filming everything ourselves. We did a video blog with helmet cams and small handheld cameras. It was a road trip with a bit of documentary too... We are already planning it for next year, well we can’t plan it because we’re going where it’s snowing! But the only plan we have is after New Years we’re going down to the Alps. We have no idea where to start and we have no idea where we will go. The plan is actually, ‘there is no plan'. Wherever it snows, we will go there.
Music is another one of your passions?
Yeah totally. I’ve been playing guitar and string instruments for 20 years or something. We have a few bands. I’m in a 25-man band that plays folk music and we’re between 25 and 85 years old. It’s inspired by Bruce Springsteen and The Seeger Session Band. And I have something called The Almost Pretty Good Band together with the owners of Nitro [Snowboards]. We never rehearse we just email each other the songs we want to play, practise at home and then go straight on stage. But it works out really good.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to continue doing the Protest Snow Tour with Mikka and develop our riding and learn more about bigger mountains. And really try to become a better freerider. There are few people doing that nowadays. Not too many people going off piste anymore.
Who do you admire in the big mountain world?
Well, Travis Rice, of course. He’s really taking freestyle into the backcountry. Big mountain riding including freestyle. And then there’s Jeremy Jones and Xavier De La Rue. Those guys are maybe a bit too extreme. They are crazy! But I really like Travis Rice. He’s maybe not taking as steep lines as Jeremy and Xavier but he’s adding kickers and tricks into it.
Do you think you’ll ever leave Sweden?
Nah, I don’t think so. I always thought so when I was younger I always thought I’d move somewhere warm but I’m pretty sure I will stay here actually. Where I live now is quite close to where I grew up and I have a lot of friends here and a lot of good connections. It’s a good place to raise a family and start a business.
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Jonas Hagstrom interview (text) by Shelley Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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