Is this your first-ever Slush interview?
Yeah, it is. I only had a few interviews in the US during my career: one in Transworld after my part in MDP's Follow Me Around came out in 2006 and another after the first season of the Cooking with Gas web series aired back in 2012. I never had a Snowboarder mag interview, so this kind of feels like a second chance. I'm super honored!
Last time you came out with a video, Ender, it was supposed to be your last. What motivated you to film another video project, Milestone, at the age of 40? Yeah, I was supposed to be done filming video parts after Ender was released, but I was randomly on the phone with Rene Rinnekangas a few years back, and he told me he had this cool idea for my next project. I was all ears since I had nothing planned for the season. He told me it would be sick if I started filming for another part and released it on my 40th birthday. At first, I wasn't too excited about the idea since I had already claimed I was done. But then I just said, "Fuck it," and wanted to give it a try. But pressure-free. I didn't tell anyone I was filming a part. I would go on missions to see if I was still enjoying it on that level. And if I wasn't getting any shots I was really hyped on, I would have just posted those on the gram and never told anyone I was even trying to film another part. But once I got some shots, I was getting that "clip high" again and just wanted to get more and more until I realized I already had enough footage for a part. It was a nice personal challenge to see how far I was still willing to push it. It was fun and refreshing to return to the streets with a real goal instead of just filming some goofing around for the gram.
How did the knees hold up during the filming process of Milestone?
My knees are still fucked, but I'm trying to be smart with the way I ride. I'm riding less, but once I ride, I'm trying to be as productive as possible. Honestly, riding resorts is way tougher for my knees than hitting spots. At the spots, you usually end up getting the tricks semi-fast, and you are not riding too much. It's more about preparing the spot to make it as good to ride as possible.
What was the biggest difference filming for Milestone compared to your legendary Mack Dawg Follow Me Around video part?
Maybe the biggest difference was that I filmed every clip back home in Finland. And when I was filming for MDP, I had a lot of pressure to prove to everyone that I was good enough to be part of that crew. This time I was just trying to prove to myself that I still have what it takes to film a good part.
Did you invent any new tricks that will forever change snowboarding in Milestone like you did in Follow Me Around?
Haha, I'm not sure if the double BS Rodeo 10 forever changed snowboarding, and I don't know if it changed it for the better. I have some tricks in the new part that I haven't seen others do, but they’re more like little jib variations that maybe are not considered as groundbreaking as inventing a new flip on a jump.
Looking through your past video parts, you have literally done it all, from big backcountry jumps, long street rails, stunt gaps, and winning X Games gold medals. So, what was your main goal with Milestone? What keeps you motivated after basically accomplishing everything there is to do in snowboarding already?
Looking back on my career, it is for sure nice to have some of these accomplishments, but honestly, what I'm most stoked about is the fact that I have been able to snowboard professionally for this long. As an up-and-coming snowboarder, I always thought that snowboarding on a professional level would be done when you turn 30, and I have been preparing myself for this moment ever since my Follow Me Around part came out. After the part was released, I thought this was the highlight of my career, and it was only going to be downhill from there. So, my main goal with Milestone was to remind myself and others that things you enjoy in life don't need to have this imaginary age limit. I will be enjoying this ride as long as my body allows me.
Be honest—how hard is it to film a snowboard part with a family?
It’s different from what it used to be. Life gets so much more structured that there is zero room to improvise. Filming this part felt more like a nine-to-five job. My time to go out and film would be the time that my kids were in daycare, as my wife has a day job as well. I would literally have snowboarding days marked in the calendar, and on those days, whether it was raining or sunny, I would go out and try to do something. But once you have a family, your own free time gets pretty limited, and you don't take anything for granted anymore. So, once I had my days to ride, I was enjoying it more than ever!
As you are getting older and having kids now, does your perspective on how you present yourself to your fans and the community change? Do you take it a little more seriously and think of yourself as more of a "role model," or are you still just "Eero"—this is what I am, take it or leave it?
Of course, I try to be as good of a role model as possible, and I think I always have tried to. But the fact is that you can't please everybody; there are always people that are bummed about something you represent or do. So, I'd rather just be me instead of trying to please everybody and lose my own voice.
Do you have any "hacks" to get stuff done that maybe younger aspiring snowboarders could use to help be more efficient and productive?
Just try to be as well-planned ahead as possible. If I was going to hit a spot the next day, I would go there the night before to start setting it up and visualizing how everything would work out. So the next day at the spot would be less stressful, and I had already done the job of mentally convincing myself that I had what it takes at the spot.
What is it that keeps you so hyped to get clips? I mean, most people, when they get older, just lose that fire and don’t really care about it (or maybe that is just me)...
That is a good question, and I don't know. Of course, the main reason is that I love snowboarding so much, but it also has always been really fun for me to challenge myself. Getting ideas for something and then getting it done has always been a really rewarding process for me. And I feel like the older I get, the more fired up I get about doing something that might even make me doubt myself. I guess it is just my addictive personality toward snowboarding in the end that makes me do things the way I do...
