STRT Jam | Innsbruck 2022

Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. First of all, thank you for an absolutely amazing week, not sure how but you managed to outdo yourself from last year’s one – which was already such a success. Have you had time to recover from all the madness or are the STRT Jam blues still strong?

My pleasure Stella. I actually haven’t had time to recover, and to be honest, things are pretty full on at the moment but all good. I heard a bunch of people got sick (maybe the Covid) down in Innsbruck, happy I didn’t get stung. However, still buzzing and just enjoying all the social content that has been blasted all over the internet for the three days of the event makes me feel better.

Would you mind telling us a bit about to concept of the event and how it all came together?

It came about with Ethan Morgan and Thomas Baumann (Monster Energy Snow/Skate TM) wanting to do a rad event like they do in skateboarding, similar to the Copenhagen Open, and they asked us if we were interested in helping.

“We invited about 70 riders all up and basically every media platform involved in snowboarding globally, we wanted this event to be inclusive”

I was definitely down and knew this is exactly what snowboarding is missing right now. Everything seems so polished and structured at the moment, way too many FIS events, perfect tricks landed on everyone’s IG feed, everyone too conscious, bores the shit out of us. Where is the anarchy, the mayhem, the looseness? So yeah I guess we are on the right track judging by the feedback from the riders, brands and general public after this event

It’s amazing to see creative events like this become such a hit. How do you see that events like these affect the industry as a whole?

I’m not sure it affects the industry per se but we got a lot of great feedback from brands all wanting to get involved and have the feeling of shit, we really need to be in this space. For us it’s pretty simple, this is how we like to snowboard, how we started snowboarding and we will continue to snowboard. And who doesn’t like burning shit on fire?

Any personal highlights from the event?

There were plenty of highlights from the event. Stoked no one got injured (on the spots, that is), nobody burnt alive and the fact we actually pulled this event off. It was pretty damn hard and not sure how many people know the effort that goes into making something like this happen and I can tell you it ain’t easy. From having to deal with mother nature and no snow to the logistics of spots, permits, weather, and security… the list is endless.

“From an outside perspective I am sure it looks like total mayhem but believe me it’s controlled chaos (well most of it is…)”

From an outside perspective I am sure it looks like total mayhem but believe me it’s controlled chaos (well most of it is…) And honestly, the people that made this happen don’t get enough credit so I got to send a big shout-out to Jacco Bos, Tom Baumann, Kristiin, Agata, Theo, Will Rad Scott, Flo, Kaz, Kuno and especially all the volunteers, monumental effort from those guys. And obviously, the brands that supported this and are as stoked as us with the outcome. And then all the filmers and photogs capturing all these moments (and posting them) it’s all so insane!

But my personal highlight was seeing Fred Perry about to drop in and calling out to one of the shapers to fix his landing. I looked over at the shaper and it was Louif Paradis holding a shovel, saying “Yeah I got you Freddy.” – Hell yeah that’s what DIYX is all about. Everyone is chipping in, hanging and ripping.

We’re stoked to see the event take place at a new location next March. Anything you can share about STRT Jam Helsinki 2023 or will we just have to sit back and wait to see what you’ve got in store for that?

Yep Helsinki next up. We have teamed up with the Hell Ride guys (Skate event in Helsinki) and these guys rule! They are helping us with logistics and we think this one is going to be special. Probably can’t burn shit (this year) but so many legit street spots up there and we have got some pretty sick plans. I think it will be a tighter invite list next year – until Ethan gets ahold of it. Just DM him if ya keen. LOL!

Thank you!!

Thanks for coming out and see you in Finland in 2023.