Interview: Max Tokunaga
We caught wind of a contest/shred event from our Norwegian friends that had recently occurred called Høvdingen av Høgevarde. That doesn’t compute to me as an American, so I had to reach out to the Mushroom crew’s spokesman, Len Jorgensen, to find out more. Peep the following images from Chris Baldry, Simon Fossheim and Even Brekke, and video recap by the Mushroom Crew. If you don’t live in Norway, you might not know who this crew is, but Len will fill you in, the video will get you hyped, and you’ll hope that these vaccines allow us to travel abroad by next year...
Max Tokunaga: Yo Len, got some words about Høgevarde?
Len Jorgensen: Dope place with sick terrain. Single lift, no big bazooka resort. Keep it small, keep it loose :)
Sup with the contest and custom snow build?
They asked us (Mushroom Crew) if we wanted to come build something. Seven years ago we had a contest called Mushroom Invitational. Those were some really good times so we wanted to upgrade that idea. Mushroom Invitational 2.0, aka Høvdingen av Høgevarde.
Emil Fossheim (@backpackface) and I invited 20 of our friends to come dig, camp and snowboard. (20 people was the legal limit for a private outdoor gathering in Norway. Hopefully we can triple that number next year. Yes, it’s all about triples in snowboarding). The two of us went up on Tuesday, rigged our camps and started scoping and digging. At the end of the week the parking lot was full of homies and the mountain was full of features and sidehits.
The competition is a loose day of boarding. At the end of the day you write down the name of whoever you thought rode best and cast it in the voting pot. Photogs' and videogs' votes count double.
When the votes are counted, the top 2 go into a duel. The duel consists of beer chugging, followed by axe throwing, straight into a snowskate race and finished off with an arm wrestle and a staring contest. The winner of the votes by a landslide was @krishtlmth, second place was @kristianskjomming and third on the votes was yours truly @sirframeface. Krish might have dominated the snowboarding but when the duel started he didn’t stand a chance against the almighty Skjomming, who crushed him in all the events. All Hail Chief Skjomming.
Sounds like a bomb way to end the season. Axe throwing part of the contest? And who is the Mushroom Crew?
Yaaapp. Pretty all time, but you know, the season never ends in Norway. Fonna and glacier boarding coming up. Axe throwing was the best part. But since only the top two get to throw axes, they both sucked big time at it. Honorary mention to Big Sam (Samuel Ærø) lacing it first try after the two “contenders” gave up.
Mushroom crew is a Norwegian snowboard/building crew that tries to do sick shit. Big boss dog Emil (legend) gathered up the throwaways of the Norwegian competition scene, and helps us board as much as we can. Krish and myself are products of Emil’s huge will to help and support the homies who don’t really fit the contest scene in Norway. 
Those guys have a long summer to toss axes, and snowboard, it sounds like. Major shouts to Emil. Any Mushroom Crew events going down this summer?We got our Banked Shalom. It’s like a banked slalom, but with a twist. Probably in the middle of June. Gotta check snow levels and all that jazz. Pretty similar setup to the Høgevarde event. Go camping, start building, homies start coming and when the weekend comes, it’s go time!
You guys welcoming Americans yet? Banked Shalom sounds right up my alley... Appreciate you taking the time, Len! Any last thank yous or shout outs?
We welcome everyone. But there’s still some quarantine, or I think so at least. Not really sure. Big shout out to everyone who came! And big thanks to Høgevarde and Revir! And thank you Max :)
