Icelandic Insight - Page 1
May 15, 2008 @ 10:25 AM
Geiri hiking Iceland’s highest peak
Pia Kaipainen catches up with Icelandic local and Nikita Marketing co-ordinator Asgeir ‘Geiri’ Höskuldsson to get the lowdown on the shred scene on the isolateld island in the North Atlantic.
Think about Arctic wilderness, volcanoes and glaciers. Think about hot springs, scarce population, constantly changing weather conditions. Where’s your head at? My head is in Iceland, talking to Asgeir ‘Geiri’ Höskuldsson—a passionate snowboarder, Marketing Coordinator for Nikita Clothing and former Director of ISA (Icelandic Snowboard Association). It’s always cool to meet someone like Geiri—who truly is so dedicated, proud of his heritage and in this case, rooting for snowboarding from a small, but perhaps surprisingly versatile riding environment. Yeah, I must be the first to admit that I have never realized how much Iceland has to offer, and not only in snowboarding but surfing too. This place sounds amazing; let’s hear what the native has to say!
1. Heilsa Geiri! I hope I got that little bit of Icelandic right… your homeland is really unique from the language to the surrounding environment. You must be used to pretty extreme weather conditions over there too. Do trips to the sunny Alps feel like a picnic to you?
Hey Pia, I am proud of you for saluting me in my native language. Icelandic isnt exactly the easiest language to master. I don’t even know how to say “Hi” in Finnish back to you but I can tell you that Pía is slang in Icelandic for cool chick. Yeah, we have a saying here in Iceland: “if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute”. You just got to stick your head out the window and see what the weather is like, the weather is the weather and you can’t really do anything about it, just have to go with the flow of it. I have definitely had plenty of good days freeriding some remote locations around the island but I also like going to resorts outside of Iceland and checking on that scene and resting my hiking legs by riding “blinged out VIP” chairlifts. My first snowboard experience was at 11 in Val Cenis, France and since then I have tried to go to mainland Europe for riding at least once a year, if not more often.
2. So, could you tell us something about the local snowboarding scene in Iceland? By reading the ISA website it sounds as if it’s a fairly tight knit community that pulls together. I got a feeling of some kinda true brotherhood that is really superb.
The local scene is pretty local. Only 300.000 people live in Iceland and I would say the hardcore snowboard scene counts maybe 100-150 people so everybody knows everybody. A lot more people snowboard of course and on a regular day at the resorts snowboarders out number skiers roughly by a 60% to 40% ratio. Most events, sessions and days on the mountain are pretty relaxed and you can’t avoid meeting somebody you know, which is cool.
3. It says on the site that ISA acts as the voice for all snowboarders in Iceland and that you aim to develop the local parks and make sure the resorts listen to the riders when making decisions regarding them. How is the atmosphere in general, do the snowboarders have to fight for their rights or is the co-operation with resorts going peacefully and smooth?
The ISA was orignially founded in 2001 as a common ground for Icelandic snowboarders to get their opinions across, hold events etc. I took over as Director in 2003 and quit in 2007 due to lack of time and wanting to spend more time with my family. Linda is the new director now, she has got some good plans for the future of ISA and is doing a really good job. Some of the resorts here listen to riders and some don’t, it all depends on the people working there. There have been some shouting matches and guerilla park building. It can be frustrating sometimes, like banging your head against a big glacier over and over again. Sometimes it seems to be more about politics then actually wanting to do something to improve the overall conditions for snowboarders. That said I am really proud of the local snowboarders all around Iceland. They have to be really creative when it comes to jibbing and setting up jumps, nobody is going to do it for them and a lot of the time the weather is working against them. It´s really amazing that the local scene has already produced some world class snowboarders like the Helgasons brothers, Gulli Guðmundsson and Viktor Hjartarson. You will always be getting unique riders coming out of Iceland as the only way to progress up here is to be creative and face the elements head on.
