This is what it’s like when worlds collide, specifically in Finland. Eero Ettala, Antti Jussila, and Sami Luhtanen came together to make WIZARD, a street video that is guaranteed to make you want to get on your board. Whether it’s a concrete takeoff or a rock lip, the Wizard is always present, and he leads you to the best spots. We chatted with Eero a little bit to see what was different about filming for this video, and much more.
Filmed by: Meddis, Lauri Ojanen and Aleksi Kemilainen
Edited by: Petrus Koskinen
Photos By: Keke Leppala
Who all was involved in this project?
The main crew was myself, Dr. Luti (Sami Luhtanen) and Antti Jussila. In the past Tobbe has been the main filmer & editor behind all the WOP videos, but this season he was out with us only for few days, so we had Meddis, Lauri Ojanen and Aleksi Kemilainen as filmers and Petrus Koskinen ended up helping us edit the film. So this time it is not a WOP movie, but definitely has some of that same flavor to it.
I watched your part in MDP “Follow Me Around,” like 500 times. When you were on some high-budget filming projects, did you ever think you’d be in the streets in your 40’s filming a video project like this?
Definitely not, haha. When I was filming for “Follow Me Around” I remember thinking, my career will be over by the time I turn 30. But I really feel like my snowboarding and my approach to snowboarding has taken a step back to the good old days to where it all started for me. Going out with the homies with a camera and no solid plan nor a real budget. It has been really refreshing for me to work with a tight group of homies with no pressure from the outside.
Over the years, you've continued to put out footage and it’s always sick. Is it still as much fun as it has always been? Is it more fun now that you're older and it’s less serious?
Thanks so much. I think it is actually way more fun now, than what it has been the past 15 years. Filming with this crew kind of opened my eyes to different kinds of spots and creativity. Most of the stuff I ended up filming for this movie I don't think I would have ever filmed for any of my other parts in the past. I think the freedom of filming something more random was inspired by the crew.
The vibe of this video is what makes it. It’s got a fun, pure feeling to it; the type of video that makes you want to go out and ride your board. The snowboarding is awesome, but the video is not trying to take itself too seriously. How much fun is it being out on the session with this crew?
Hyped to hear you feel that way. I think the movie really captures the vibes we had really well. In the end snowboarding is such a small part of the season when you are making a film. You are mostly just driving around, building spots or talking shit with your homies. So this was for sure a perfect crew for that. It was mostly comedy central 24/7, but there were moments of course when things get a bit more serious when someone is trying a trick for a long time or eats shit. But, in those cases the crew was all time and always so supportive and ready to hype up the rider getting after it.
I noticed him as a constant star of the show, so I gotta ask; What’s up with the wizard?
Hahah. The wizard was so random. The first time I saw the wizard was at the spot where I did a nosebonk bs 180 on the tree. I was waiting to get winched into the spot and then I saw Luti doing something random by the tree. He was setting up this little wizard on the branch of the tree. Luti's girlfriend Matleena made the wizard for him for his birthday and he started bringing the wizard on all the sessions. On the last road trip of the season the wizard forgot his hat at home…so he was going bald for those sessions. I think the wizard made the atmosphere on the sessions always a bit more laidback. It became our spirit animal, haha.
The first clip in the video you jam a rock in what appears to be the middle of summer over a river. Was that first try? How’d you come up with that?
That actually wasn't the first try. On the first go I landed a bit short, but still luckily went over the gap. For the second try I turned the rock the other way around to make the jam a bit longer, that it made it easier for me to get the pop. The whole season Luti would drive around with a couple different perfectly shaped rocks in his van that could be used as “kickers.” So after the season was done, I kind of felt bad that I didn't use his rocks even once during the season. So I decided to get one more clip in the summer. We imported snow from the hockey rink and gave it a go. The clip came out pretty funny, but as I said before. I would have never filmed something like this for any other project. This was more like a joke, but that really made the clip.
One of my favorite clips is Luti's rock jam back tail on the flat down ledge. Who started the rockjam lip theme?
Hell yes! That is one of my favorite clips of the video as well. Luti 100% started the rock jam theme. The first spot we hit for the project was that ledge spot and I got my nose bonk to front board first out of the way and when it was Luti’s turn to do something he just picked up this rock from his van and set it up. I didn't really think it would work as well as it did. But to be honest that clip is actually pretty crazy. The rock is tiny and that ledge is really damn high.
Luti is an underground hero and seems elusive. What’s it like boarding with him, and watching him in person?
It is really entertaining to say the least. You never know what is going to happen next. But when he straps in it is always magic. His board control and pop is out of this world. I always admired his riding and it was an honor to spend a season with him.
Antti seems to have a really good eye for spot selection. How much are you guys traveling to find these spots? Or is everything relatively close to home?
Well, Antti is a true spot hunter. I don't even want to know how many kilometers he ended up driving last winter for spots. We had such a horrible snow season last winter, that most of the spots we hit were kind of far away from Helsinki where we live. Most of the time we would just look at the weather forecast and if it would snow in another city, that we would know even one spot from, we would go there to hit it and hope we would find something else along the way. And it actually worked out pretty nice. The season felt less structured and planned out than I'm used to and that is a good thing.
What’s your favorite trick in the video?
Two of my favorite clips in the video are Luti's frontside powerslide on the ice to nollie bs 270 on the ledge and Antti's wallride under the bridge landed on the concrete. And out of my own footage I kind of like the front board to front board over that little green dome with a mushroom on top. It wasn't even that hard, but it just looks pretty fun.
Can we expect more from you, Antti, and Luti?
I will be moving to Ruka next winter and Antti is working on another project, so we won't be filming anything together next winter. But hopefully one day again we will!
