Words // Bruno Rivoire
Photos // Matt Georges
It’s literally pouring down with rain, and we’re at what looks like a motorway services area. The ground is covered in wet snow, and a drunk man shouts at us before collapsing in the mud. A group of Japanese tourists walk out of a fast-food restaurant, all wearing blue suits with Lapland North Expedition on the front. They remind us that this isn’t just another suburb.
A few weeks before that, we had the idea to do a bit of snowboarding during December, obviously without taking into account the global warming effect, which pushed us above the Arctic Circle to Lapland, in the North of Finland. Therefore, we can say that it’s by accident that the crème de la crème of jibbers from the Vans team landed in Rovaniemi, the ‘official town of Santa Claus’…
Arriving in the town, you wonder why it’s how come to be known as this… No tinsel, no Christmas tree, no decorations at all really – and it’s already mid-December, two weeks away from D-Day!
