The standard of professional snowboarding has always been extremely high in Scandinavia. In Finland, young Rene looked up to guys like Peetu Piiroinen, Eero Ettala, and Sami Luthanen. So, how did Rene surpass his masters and become such a boss? His surroundings have also influenced his trajectory alongside his skills, creative mind, energy, and drive. With Anton Kiosk and Tatu Toivanen behind the cameras, what started as a group of friends became an ultra-efficient media production crew. After “Sugared'' they started a new chapter with an ambitious two-year project and seemed unstoppable until Rene blew his ankle. He took a serious beating, and everything stopped midway through the process. But Rene stood up again and as he would loudly sing on the chairlift: ‘It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.’
Hey Rene, tell us how it all started for you, growing up in Iisalmi, Finland, and who were your early influences?
I started snowboarding here in Iisalmi – where I still live – when I was around four years old. My older brother Riko started snowboarding first when he was around nine or ten. Back then, I felt like whatever he was doing was so cool, and that's how I got into snowboarding. Big shout out to Riko!
Did you also have some old-school snowboard movies in the house growing up?
The first snowboard movies were Nitro films because Riko was sponsored. Of course, around that time, you were doing the Tracking Eero series as well. That was a big thing for me. Also, we watched the Frontti 3 TV show every Friday. Before going to shred, we went to Paloisvuori, where they showed the TV show, and then we went snowboarding after that.
That was pretty old-school, actually waiting to watch snowboarding on the TV. Having that one time slot on Fridays is also pretty funny. You ride powder, street, park competitions, and big mountains in AK. How important is it for you to keep riding everything?
My favourite snowboarders have always been those who can ride everything. That inspires me. You have always been riding street as well as backcountry, and I feel like that's how snowboarding was in the past but now more people are just doing one thing, either filming or doing contests. I feel like I will be better off if I snowboard on all kinds of terrain. I really enjoy learning new things, I feel like it pushes my snowboarding for the better. For example, lately, I’ve been really getting into riding pipe.
Riding halfpipe is really technical, and it's one of the hardest things to master. However, it helps a lot with everything else you do in snowboarding.
Riding halfpipe is just so cool. I don't need to learn double corks and everything, just some basic, nice airs. Of course, the McTwist is the dream trick and I wish I could do them better and feel more comfortable going bigger.
When filming for a movie or a video part, is there one aspect of snowboarding that you would prioritize more than the others?
For this new movie, I've been focusing on filming street and backcountry, and a little bit of mini pipe as well. My goal and my dream for a video part is that it includes everything. We're from Finland, the best place for riding street, and it's always been a big part of my snowboarding since I was ten years old. So I feel like filming street is what we can do the best, as it’s pretty standard for us. But then backcountry is an entirely new thing for me, and I would love to learn a lot more about it and get better.
It's not easy. It takes time, just like surfing. You can't learn it if you just hang out in Finland, so you have to travel abroad and hang out with people who are experienced with it. Can you tell us more about your new movie?
We started right after the Olympics in 2022, filming some street stuff at first. Then I got injured, so we had to take a break and pretty much missed a whole season. We finished the movie last season. It will be a mixtape of street and backcountry, but a bit more street and then a little bit of mini pipe. So it's the same concept as Sugared but a bit longer.
Why is it so important for you to film video parts or make your own movie? I feel like a lot of the pros your age don't really care about filming parts and just focus on Instagram, views, and likes.
I just think it's always been my way of snowboarding. I started filming streets when I was ten years old. My brother started first. He actually started filming with Anton and Tatu, who I film with these days. I feel like it's always been kind of automatic for me and for a lot of Finnish people to go out there and film some street and make their own movies. That's how I grew up snowboarding as well, watching snowboard videos. So it's a big thing for me and a big part of the snowboarding culture. So it feels right.
I think it's cool that you respect the roots and are not really following the mainstream. It's cool to maintain snowboarding the way it was. We need more people like you.
Thank you. When I spent a season mainly doing contests, I remember it didn’t feel too good because I was doing the same tricks over and over again every week. When I’m filming, it feels like I’m stepping outside of the contest bubble to somewhere else where I can do completely different tricks. Then, when I return to the contest circuit, it feels like, “Okay, this is kind of a new thing again.” It's good to mix it up a little bit. I feel like I need a little bit of change here and there to ride better.
That makes total sense. Let's talk about social media a little bit. If I look at your Instagram, I feel like you don't post that often, but when you post something, it’s pretty fucking crazy, something that you could actually put in your video parts.
Thank you. I don't post too much on social media, but when I do, I really want to be sure that I'm stoked about the clip or photo. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence or something, but if it's not something special – if I'm not 100% stoked, then I'm probably not putting it out there.
Yeah, I totally understand. So do you like Instagram, or would your life be easier without it?
I really like it, and I think it's a good thing these days that you can show your snowboarding a lot on social media if you want to. It's good for the sponsors, too. Of course, they like it when you post, and it's how it works these days. So I think it's good, but it's not a good thing to stress too much about it as well. When you're comparing yourself to other people, it's not good.
You mentioned you’re still working with Anton and Tatu, your OG crew. Can you tell us a bit more about the guys and how you connected again? How is that working?
Yeah, it's amazing. I think it's the Dream Team for us. We've been doing this for a long time together since we were young kids. I’m just grateful to those guys that they asked me to film with them when I was young, and it's so nice that we are still together. We're like best friends, so it feels normal and safe when we're travelling and filming. I'm grateful to work with these guys, and I think it works best when you have the right people around you.
“I'm grateful to work with these guys. It works best when you have the right people around you.”
Snowboarding is a team sport in a way. You need people who want exactly the same thing as you. Even if one's a filmer, a photographer, or a rider, they all get the same feeling of achievement when a trick is landed and they get the right footage. It's a team effort. If I go to a spot with the homies, we always talk about how we should film it.
Exactly. It's also nice that the three of us all have the same vision for the project. Before we film the clip, we're all on the same page and know exactly what we're trying to get. It's not like, “Okay, I'm gonna ride this, and you guys film it.” When you're trying a harder trick, if you're nervous or something, you trust those people you know. Like this is gonna look really sick because we have already been going through the angles and how they're gonna film it, then how I’m gonna ride it. So it's also good for the mind when you know if you get the clip, the shot is gonna be good.
What's next for you? Will you concentrate a bit more on competitions and aim for the Olympics again?
That is a very good question. I've been thinking about it for a while, as this was a pretty long project, but we haven't talked about what's happening next season yet. We're gonna film something, but probably something smaller. I'm still deciding if I'm gonna try to get to the next Olympics because it would probably be my last one. It would probably feel like training, practicing old and new tricks. I was out for one year, and then last year at X Games was the only place where I did the bigger tricks. So I would need to do a lot of those if I wanted to go to the next Olympics. I don't really want to go to a contest when I don't feel comfortable, or I don't feel like I have something to give, or if I know that I don't have the tricks to do well, then I’d rather not go.
Should we talk about your board graphic a bit? You have a picture from your grandma’s place as part of your new board graphic? Why is that?
Well, our grandmother passed away around two years ago. She was always a big part of my and Rico’s snowboarding because she lived pretty close to the local ski resort here in Iisalmi. I just felt like I had this opportunity to put something on the board that I could think about later, something special. She had a similar picture where she lived, so I got the inspiration from that and wanted to put it on the board. There are also smaller things, for example, ‘Hellan Dura’. Nobody knows what it means or what language it is, but she used to call my brother and me that name, kind of like a nickname. I also put some small things on the board, I'm very happy about it, and now she's always riding with me, so it's nice. If someone asked, “What does this mean?” then I wanted to be able to explain the story but for it not to be too obvious that it's something personal when someone first sees the board.
That's cool. It makes sense to make it a bit more personal if you get to design your own board. Where do you see your creativity in snowboarding at right now? Is it going in a new direction? I feel like you snowboard very differently than other people, so it would be nice to understand where that comes from.
When I got my first chance to ride at a bigger contest, the World Cup in Mammoth, I didn't have the big tricks to win, so I was thinking, what would get people stoked about my snowboarding if I wasn’t doing exactly the same or harder tricks? I thought it would be a good idea to ride the course differently. I remember a lot of people liked the way I rode that park. It was my first Grand Prix, and I got 20th, but people were still stoked about my run. That matters a lot to me when the snowboarders are stoked about your riding. It’s always nice to push yourself to try some random things.
“Those jumps weren’t insanely big, but they were pretty scary even in daylight, so when it was dark, they were even crazier.”
What was it like to hit some backcountry jumps at night while it was dumping with only a couple of lights and a headlamp?
Yeah, that was a crazy experience, for sure. When we were filming that project, I didn't have too much experience riding in the backcountry. Those jumps weren’t insanely big, but it was pretty scary even in the daylight so then when it was dark, it was even crazier. The challenge with the project was to film under the northern lights, and the first year it was just Ståle and I riding, and we got a lot of footage in the dark with the headlamps, but we didn't get too many northern lights clips. So the crew went back and filmed those shots for the project last season. It was a sick experience. I would love to spend more time in Norway, I didn't know that there are insane mountains so close to Finland.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy that Finland is so flat, but when you go to Sweden or Norway, you have the goods. You also went to Alaska for the first time. How was that? Will you be going back again?
I would love to if I get another chance. The whole point of the project by Monster was to bring people who had never been there before. We also had Sage and Torgeir, who had ridden there, but like a lot of the others, it was my first time riding AK. For the first time in my life snowboarding, I wasn’t really scared of getting injured, but more concerned that if things go wrong, they could go really bad. But it was an amazing experience, they’re such a good crew as well. A lot of riders that I have always been a big fan of, and it's just so nice to see those guys riding AK. They have a lot of experience in the backcountry, and it's a completely different world than filming streets in Finland.
This is kind of off-topic. We have seen you riding a bit without a helmet lately. What's up with that?
It just happened randomly. I still ride a lot with a helmet and a lot without one. I am still wearing a helmet when filming street, but I just like the feeling of riding without it sometimes. For example, in the springtime, it's so nice just wearing a hat. But when it's icy, I feel very uncomfortable riding without a helmet, and in the backcountry, you never know what's under the snow—it could be a rock or something.
You're still young at 24, but you have already filmed a few parts, made your own movies, and won contests. So, what's next on the bucket list? What do you still want to achieve in snowboarding?
Yeah, there are a lot of things to achieve. But it's difficult to set yourself one big goal, for example, it's really hard to set a goal to win “Rider of the Year,” I feel like when you're riding well, then it just happens, you can't really plan it. I really want to get better at riding backcountry, I still feel like I have a lot to learn there, like what is my way to ride it? Because there are so many different ways to ride, and you don't want to be riding exactly like a lot of other people. I have been a big fan of Nicolas Müller and Terje riding backcountry. I would like to ride that way, plus put something extra, my own spice, in there as well.
For sure, you are at the forefront of snowboarding’s progression. So, what direction would you like to see snowboarding take?
It would be nice to see snowboarding going in a different direction than just spinning a lot. I respect that someone can do an insanely big trick, like a 2160, but I think when it comes to competitions, I would like to see the courses change. I would like to see a small section of halfpipe that you need to hit, or there could be smaller jumps, and then there could be a big jump at the bottom. It doesn't need to be three big jumps in a row and not only aiming for the biggest spins. It would be nice to see some smaller tricks, and then riders would probably start doing different tricks, rodeos, and more creative stuff.
This is also a problem for the judges; they have to score the person who spins an extra 180 degrees higher.
I understand the judges' side. It's so hard when there's an 1800 versus some weird rodeo 900 or whatever, even if the smaller spin might be harder to do. Markus Kleveland is doing insanely creative tricks. Sometimes he does a 1080 and still gets a good score, that’s cool to see in the contests. It's nice that it doesn't have to be the biggest spin on all three jumps. We are going in a better direction now, and that's what snowboarding needs. I also like to see when people are actually pushing themselves. Even if you touch the ground with your hand, it could still look better than just another standard trick.
Sometimes it can look even cooler when you have to struggle a little bit in the landing because that also shows board control.
Yeah, exactly. And I'm a big fan of that kind of snowboarding when the rider is going 100% all out. I remember when Ben Ferguson was riding halfpipe (I'm a big fan of his). You can see whatever he does, he's full throttle. It's so cool, and it’s very exciting to see what's coming next.
Okay, this one is from Henna Ikola; What do you think is the key to a successful evening, aka “nappi ilta”?
Well, ‘nappi ilta’, that probably includes a couple of pineapple long drinks and good people. Last year we were in Levi for mid-summer because they opened a slope at the resort. Henna, Roope, and Snibudi were there, it was the first time really snowboarding again after my injury, and that was kind of like the test to see how it felt. We were riding pretty much the whole day, having a few pineapple long drinks, and we kept saying, “Oh, this is a ‘nappi ilta”. I don't know why we were saying it so many times, but we were saying it when things went well. That was the saying of the trip.
All right, now we have one more question from Ståle Sandbech. He's asking about your first X Games experience, where you competed in pretty much every discipline during the event and got a podium, right?
It was the best day of my life. That was the first year I got a chance to ride at the X Games. I had just started riding for Monster, and Austin Hodges, the team manager, called and asked if I still play in a band and if we could come to the X Games. It was an insane phone call because I had never talked with Austin on the phone before, and I was so nervous to answer that call. Back then, I could hardly speak English. I only understood half of what he was saying. But yeah, he got all of us over there. My first event was big air, and I got 4th. I learned the 1620 during the contest that night, and then the following day was slopestyle. I didn't land my first two runs, then on the way back up to the top, I remember looking at the second jump that I had bailed on twice, and randomly I got the feeling like, “Dude, I got this.” I don't know what happened, but I just knew what I needed to do differently. I went up and said to Ståle, “Now I know what I'm doing. Can you pull me in for the speed for the first rail? Let's do this”. I landed the run, including the 1620 that I had just learned the night before. It was my first time on the podium at a big event. Then the same night, we had the concert on top of the mountain at the Monster after party, good times!
“I remember I spent more time stage diving than playing during that gig. It was such an amazing experience, the best day of my life.”
How special was it to you to get your brother to the US and play together at the X Games?
Having him there meant so much. Our band was watching the contest from the bottom of the course, and I remember Riko was crying. It was such a great day, and then we played the gig later that night, and people were super stoked on it. We were stressed about what people would think of our music because Riko was singing in Finnish, so nobody understood what he was singing about. But everybody was hyped. I remember I spent more time stage diving than playing during that gig. It was just an amazing experience, the best day of my life.
That's perfect to hear. Do you have any thank yous?
This is always hard. Of course, I want to thank you, Eero, for being a huge inspiration and for everything you've done for snowboarding. I know it's not just me saying this; there are a lot of people who have been big fans of your snowboarding and what you've been doing. Also, thanks to Method Mag for this opportunity. And big thanks to Anton and Tatu for the project. Hopefully, people will like what we've been doing during the past three years.
And yeah, of course, all the partners for being part of this project. Monster, Oakley, Vans, Rome. Keep rocking in the free world!
