Jukka Eratuli: INTERVIEW

JUKKA ERATULI is a modest but intense rider from FINLAND. I've was lucky enough to travel around Alberta and British Columbia CANADA with him and get to know him as well as ride everything from heli to park.

Full Name: Jukka Eratuli (yoou-kaa? air-a-too-lee)

Where are you from: Sipoo Finland

Home ski resort: Talma

Years riding pro: 6

Where has the snowboard taken you this season and where are you now?

Jukka: I'm in Japan right now somewhere on the main island. It?s great here. We got some powder days and I?m really enjoying this culture. I came here straight from Tahoe and the difference between U.S and Japan is crazy. You can?t even see any fat people here, they eat really healthy. For me the season started pretty late after my knee surgery and I?m so stoked to go riding again.

Click HERE for all the photos!

What's the scene like where you are at the moment?

Jukka: We had some nice powder days in some ski resorts and one day we went cat boarding (snow cat drove us up to the top couple of times) and that was awesome?even thought the snow was already pretty baked. But that place was sick. It?s an old big ski resort that went to bankruptcy and is all empty with four big hotels and everything. Sony owns it and we were able to get some cat lifts there now. Anyway, what a great place.

Have you spent much time at home?

Jukka: I was home for ten months after my knee surgery. As much as I love traveling, I love being home with my kids and my wife as well. It was weird summer though without skateboarding because of my knee surgery though.

Europe has had bad luck with the snow.... is it like that up in FINLAND as well?

Jukka: It was weird winter in Finland as well. It was really warm for long, until the end of January and then all the sudden it was so cold for couple of weeks that it was insane. And then really warm again.

What country has had the best snow so far?

Jukka: I think you guys in BC had a best season. Whistler has been really good this season I heard.

Click HERE for all the photos!

Where do you wish you were riding right now?

Jukka: Here it is good. It?s been warm now for the past days but it?s really fun here. I?ve learned to enjoy the present where ever I am.

Have you done many contests this season?

Jukka: I haven?t done any contests this year. Normally I do a lot of comps but now that I started my season so late I wanted to work on our videoproject called Storbis and some photoshoots.

Click HERE for all the photos!

A lot of people seem to go to FINLAND to ride rails, why is that?

Jukka: There is so many good rails in Finland and it is pretty mellow. Cops are really chill as well, normally they are just watching there.

Do you hit up the rails much when your home?

Jukka: I haven't done any rails this season but normally yes. It is so cool to be home riding my local resort Talma and then go shooting rails on the night time and go to sleep back home and get shots on the video.

Click HERE for all the photos!

What make the Finnish snowboard scene different then the rest of the world?

Jukka: There are only parks and rails. Everybody is killing it in the park. Kids know all the tricks and are gnarly on the street rails. If there would be chance to go riding powder and backcountry it would be all different. And the other thing is there are those three or four ski resorts everybody is riding at. For example at my local hill Talma there is always so many finnish pros riding there and you can watch other guys riding from the lift. So you see all the sick riding all the time so the kids kind of compare themselves to the pros and learn tricks quickly.

What's your favourite area of North America that you've been to and why?

Jukka: I really like Whistler and that Mica heli ski place somewhere close to Revelstoke is so sick. We went there last year with you and the Nike ACG team and that was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

What kind of riding are you into this season?

Jukka: The plan was to ride a lot powder beginning of the season and then some park stuff in Finland now on spring. I got some fun powder days in Tahoe and now here in Japan.

Click HERE for all the photos!

Are you working on any movie projects?

Jukka: We have our own movie project Storbis that comes out with the Onboard magazine. It?s really fun project and this year it?s going to be a 7th Storbis movie already. There is some good finnish and norwegian riders on it.

Who do you ride with the most?

Jukka: With the Storbis posse and with my team mates from Head and Nike ACG. I do lot of contests with all the finnish buddies as well.

What's the newest trick you've learned?

Jukka: Michelchuck flips in pipe. I wanted to learn that trick for so long and finally I got it. Super funny trick.

SF: What kind of riding to you see yourself getting into in the future?

Jukka: More powder. I like riding powder kickers and some lines more and more every year.

Click HERE for all the photos!

What's the one thing they have in North America that you love, that they don't have in Europe?

Jukka: Pita Pit and Jamba Juice

What else keeps you busy besides snowboarding?

Jukka: My family and studying. I have 5 years old son and 2 years old daughter. It is so cool to hang out with them. I build a tiny jib park at my house now and all the kids from the neighborhood is getting into snowboarding now. I am also studying economics now and most of the studying happens in internet. I?m psyched to be studying again after a while. I am also really into photography and that takes some time as well.

Click HERE for all the photos!

When's the last time you went snowboarding by yourself?

Jukka: Just before I went to this trip I went to Talma everyday with my buddies and that is the best.

Is there anything happening in snowboarding right now that you just don't like?

Jukka: I don"t like that everything has to be so gnarly. I"m more into doing fun and technical stuff.

What music have you been listening to lately?

Jukka: I just realized that my taste of music is so weird. I listen to rock, pop, jazz, rap, reggae, funk and even techno sometimes. So I am listening to all kinds of different music depending on a day.

Click HERE for all the photos!

Where will you snowboard next?

Jukka: Inside ski resort in Tokyo. It is going to be interesting.

Have any plans for the summer?

Jukka: Go riding maybe to Norway and enjoy the summer in our new house. So stoked we moved out from our too small apartment and now we have more space and own garden and a big bank loan.

Click HERE for all the photos!

If you aren't snowboarding......you're?

Jukka: Hanging out with my kids and my wife, taking photos, studying, skateboarding, writing e-mails and decorating our house?

Thanks go out to...

Jukka: My wife, kids, sister and my parents, Head snowboards, Nike ACG, Nokia, Anon, Storbis, Aleksi Litovaara, Espen Lystad, Sami Tuoriniemi, Pat Vermeulen, Sami Hyry,Henning Marthinsen, Thomas harstad, Rasmus Tikkanen, Eero Ettala, Per Loken,?Toyota, Ingrid gasser, Pike, Alex Rieger, Jimmy Goodrich, Graham MacVoy,? Pul Knipe, Thierry Pichot, Erwin Rooselaar, Jari Salo, Roger Hjelmstadstuen, Boris Benedek, Dave Oshana, Hasi, Cyril, Stefanie

Click HERE for all the photos!

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