Iikka Backstrom Web Interview

This year you may have caught a glimpse of Iikka Backstrom somewhere between the Hollywood party scene, the D.C. Mtn. Lab and the hills of British Columbia. All to be seen though is what insiders call ‘the Finnish blur’. Iikka and his Trulli Clan are known for their heavy partying, quick location changes and, of course, their fantastic snowboarding. When there is no snow in North America Iikka recharges in San Clemente, California, which happens to be close to the Snowboarder offices.

DS: So your living in Southern California now?
Ya, I live in San Clemente with Lauri (Heiskari) and Eero Niemela. It’s awesome. We have tons of stuff to do, you know. We go skating, we go surfing. Surfing mostly. But it’s pretty fun to live with a couple of your best friends.

How many summers have you been down here?
This is my third year. I like it here. I’ve always lived with Lauri and Eero .

Did you guys grow up together?
We didn’t grow up together but we kind of started riding together when we were 13 or 14.

As kids in Finland, did you ever imagine you’d be where you’re at now?
No, never, I remember talking one day like, “Dude, you think you’ll ever turn pro?” All of us were like, “F*ck, I wish. That would be sick to turn pro one day.” We got a lot further than that. It’s pretty rad.

Any crazy stories from your SoCal house?
Not really. In the living room we have a Playstation. We have GuitarHero and then we have SingStar. We’ve been rocking that lately quite a bit. Lauri’s really good at GuitarHero, I’m a little bit better at SingStar. And Eero is pretty good at both. I’m not that good at GuitarHero.

Do a lot of people come and stay at your house?
Ya, a lot of people. Eddie (Wall) is staying there right now with us. Last summer it felt like it was a hotel. Paavo (Tikkanen) was staying there for like two months. Everyone just stops by and stays on the couch but it’s fine.

Why did you decide to live here?
Surfing and just seeing the sun, for the most of it. For the winter time I live in Whistler and I see the sun once in a while, but then we’re filming of course. I just love to have a place to come and enjoy the summer and the warm weather. Southern California is pretty much a guarantee for that

Word around the office is that you absolutely love women. Is this true?
Ya, why not? Of course.

How do women in America compare to women in Finland?
I don’t know. Finnish women are really beautiful too, like really beautiful. But I don’t know. I just love women in general.(Laughs) I like to see hot chicks and apparently you see them a lot here in South California.

Do you miss home?
Ya I do miss home for sure. I wish I had more time to go there and see my parents and friends.

Anything specific you miss?
A little bit of summer, just hanging out, going to lakes and whatever. Riding Talma, I miss that. I wish I could ride there a little more. I don’t get to ride it much these days.

What’s the Trulli clan? (Trulli is Finnish for troll)
When we started riding together we started this thing called the Trulli Clan. And it was all our friends together just riding and doing whatever we did, you know, skating, snowboarding, partying, house parties and what not. It was just a fun thing to do, pretty much just friends together. It’s like the Wildcats, you know.

And the pink, rubber bracelets that said Trulli Love on them?
First we made these crew neck sweatshirts that said Trulli.C… and they were super ghetto. But we all wore them and it was pretty rad. We made another order of crew neck sweatshirts and then we made t-shirts. Someone told us about making bracelets and we were like, “Oh f*ck ya, let’s do it.” We all pitched in a little bit of money and got tons of them done. It was pretty cheap and it was pretty rad. We give them out to people and take them places.

How was last season?
I started riding for DC. Early season we had all these things we had to go to. We had to go to Vegas, we had to go to all these different things, Zumiez 100k and whatnot. So my early season was pretty much just doing that stuff and switching over to DC and getting ready for the season, really got a late start for filming. So, I was running around all of January, pretty much in different places, snowboarding here and there. And then I went to Finland to try and film some rails a little bit, for like five days. It was a little bit of a hectic trip. Then, I came back to the States. I went to Utah, to the Mtn. Lab, and tried to film there as much as I could. Then I drove to Canada and I pretty much spent my whole season there. I did a few trips coming back to Utah. I had a meeting in SoCal once but pretty much just stayed in Whistler all season.

What was you favorite place to ride last year?
It’s always Whistler. Actually Park City. Oh well, Mtn. Lab of course, cause it’s such a private park for yourself. But like Pow-wise it was definitely Whistler like it is every year. I love it there.

Favorite place to party?
Hollywood (laughs). No, I think the Vegas party was pretty good for the trade show. Zumiez 100K was super sick cause there was a lot of skaters and snowboarders. It was pretty sick. That party was sick!

Was riding at D.C. Mtn. Lab super-fun?
The Mtn. Lab is the sickest place in the whole entire world. You show up, they got the park groomed for you. They open a lift and you’re just there with your friends. Whoever’s there is just shredding. There’s boxes, rails, little jumps, little bonks, tree jibs, whatever you want.

Any new tricks this year?
Not really, I got a little better at riding boxes.

What videos will you be in this year?
DC Mtn. Lab 2 and Whiteout Films Season 4 or whatever it’s called and I’m gonna have some stuff in the Wildcats’ Still Bastards.

How did your video parts turn out this year?
The season was kind of hard. In Canada we had a lot of sun but no weather. The sun barely came out. It came out a few days. We had a lot of sucker-hole days, which are days it is cloudy but the sun is going to break for a little bit. Then you build a jump and you wait up there and you’re like, “OK hows the light?” and then if the light’s good you drop in. Those days are kind of annoying but you have to go through them to get your video part, this year at least, because we didn’t have too many fully sunny days. I’m pretty stoked actually on my backcountry stuff this year.

Is your part mostly backcountry?
My part this year for Whiteout Films is going to be mostly backcountry and park jumps. Not too many rails this year. I didn’t have time for that this year because of all the change. And I didn’t really know what was going on at the beginning of the season so next year I’ll try to do that stuff a little more. I had a lot of rails last year so I don’t mind taking a year off on rails.

A couple of years ago you were filmed being really drunk. The footage was put in that video Happy Hour. Any of those scenes this year?
No, I’ve been trying to keep it mellow. Well, not really but I’ve been trying to avoid video footage of me being that drunk. There’s been big parties but no video cameras luckily. I think there might be one from last year when me and J.F. duct-taped our knees together and went to the bar. It was pretty funny. We got kicked out.

What video will that be in?
Probably Wildcats, Still Bastards it’s called.

Are you going to ride this summer?
Ya, I’m actually going to ride a lot this summer. I didn’t know I am going to ride this much. I’m actually pretty stoked though. It’s going to be a different summer. I’m going to Hood for a contest in the beginning of July. I’ll there for a week or so. Then I’m coming back here for a week and then I’m leaving for Chile. I’ll be in Chile for two weeks or so. Then I’m going to Finland for my friend’s wedding then I’m coming back here for a week, then I’m leaving for New Zealand.

What are your plans for next year?
A lot of snowboarding for sure. Movie-wise it’s pretty open still. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. We’ll see. I’m, for sure, going to be shredding. I’ll try to do a couple contests here and there.