YES! Photo: Screenshot
Street skiing and street snowboarding are technically illegal in some parts of the world. You may not be thrown in jail for it in parts of Japan or Germany, for example, where the activity is considered a hazard to pedestrians or local traffic in urban areas. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, street skiing and street snowboarding culture runs deep in places like Jyväskylä, Finland.
Juho Kilkki is a product of that street skiing culture in Finland, and he has some thoughts about how important it is to the fabric of the local community.
“It’s not the snow or the mountains that make Jyväskylä special. Honestly, this place shouldn’t be a skiing destination. But it sort of is,” he admits, crediting the city’s rails for some historic street-skiing moments.
The segment featuring Kilkki and the Real Skifi crew in Warren Miller’s SNO-CIETY highlights those urban locations, where he gives a tour of spots throughout the city. He visits a rail Simon Dumont caught an edge on and the stairs that broke his fall. He points out other stairs from a video that came out 20 years ago. A kink rail Tanner Hall took on in 2005. He even visits the first rail he ever hit. And he does it all with a toddler by his side.
“It’s not about the spots,” he says. “Ultimately, I think it’s the communal approval or even appreciation of street skiing we have here. I mean, in some places around the world, street skiing is basically a crime. But here, it can be an actual family activity.”
