Can you explain how the film came about?

Personally, I always felt like something needs to be done about the environment, but I never thought I was capable [of helping], or could find the motivation, because the idea of saving our home planet just made me feel sick to my stomach – it’s so overwhelming.

I went to this ‘Tools for Ambassadors’ summit [organised by Patagonia], and I saw so many inspirational people doing a lot of different projects, and they were basically just looking at what they’re passionate about and trying to do something. It made me think, ‘how can I use psychology to find that drive that these guys have?’ The idea then came to make a film about it, which might inspire people to go on that same journey.

And how does that help? What do you do with that information at the end of the process?

It’s not really about the information, it’s about how the experience changes you. Being there, spending time there and looking at it. Giving it the platform that it wants to have. If you bury those feelings then they’re gonna haunt you at some point. You’ll start to get panic attacks, maybe, or chronic pains that nobody can really explain. If you focus on the emotions and stay there – instead of pushing them aside, as we tend to do – then you feel more connected to who you really are.

When you’re hiking, you kinda suck up the surroundings, and what feeling they’re evoking in you. Being really open to them and realising this is really giving me something”

Bringing it back to the environment, I came across [the work of] Arne Næss and Theodore Rosack, and the idea there was that if people are truly connected to nature, they feel grief and pain for nature and they’re acting from a different mental state. They’re so much more motivated, it’s like caring for a family member. It’s so much closer.

I know that journey in therapy, and I think it’s also possible to do it in relation to nature. It’s a giant organism, I think, and we can build that relationship with it and care for it. Then it’s not just a moral obligation, it’s something you want to do. It felt like the people I met [through Patagonia] were really happy, they were doing something from the heart. The film is a little bit about that journey, and a little bit of a self experiment, focusing on the topic when we’re splitboarding.

It sounds a lot like meditation?

Yeah. When you’re hiking, you kinda suck up the surroundings, and what feeling they’re evoking in you. Being really open to them and realising this is really giving me something. If you’re just running up the hill to get fit you tend to overlook that stuff.

It’s a beautiful film. Who shot it?

Christoph Weber. We helped him carry all the gear up to a hut that we used as a base, using two big sleds we borrowed from a friend of mine.

“What we can do is inspire people to think differently and put pressure on politicians, go out on the streets and reach our community. That’s where we have the reach”

And who else is riding in it?

Luca Albrisi and James Niderberger. They’re both friends of mine, and very invested in ecology. Luca is also really strong in philosophy.

So on a slightly less deep note, what was your favourite line? Was there any special moment? 

[Laughs] Snowboarding wise, the last line in the movie was the best for me. Also the build-up – we all walked back there together. We’d already spent three days in the hut together and it was a really fun time – end of season, not too much stress anymore. It made it special.

Do you think we CAN turn around the climate crisis? 

I think there is a possibility, but it’s pretty hard. We’ve certainly gotta try.

Is splitboarding the future of snowboarding with that in mind?

We could all be super green and live behind a rock, but I think it needs a big system change. What we can do is inspire people to think differently and put pressure on politicians, go out on the streets and reach our community. That’s where we have the reach. I can’t turn off big oil. But if we do that, then we might touch into other spheres, and other people might do the same and so on. 

There have been revolutions in the past, where big things have changed through pressure starting from the bottom. And it feels like something’s happening at the moment. Luca was telling me how he’s been speaking out for a long time, but the reaction has changed. People were shocked before. Now it’s become a normal topic, which means it’s something real. And they’re starting to relate it to their lives. Before it was like “OK – big companies, big pollution sucks”; now it’s something that depends on us.

Turn of Mind is released online on Monday 23rd December