Toni Kerkela Full Part + Interview
Spatziba thinks that Toni Kerkela is THE MAN. After following him for the last years, we decided to ask him a few questions in conjunction with the release of his new full part, which is right here and really dope! Click!
Toni Kerkelä, how are you doing?
All good man! I came to home from Ruka yesterday. Thats the only place where you can shred in Finland right now.
Nice! Did you invent some new tricks?
Hahah, maybe something or maybe not! Just tried to get the feeling back on the board and enjoy the snow.
photo: Teemu Heljo
Who are you anyway? You just kind of came from nowhere last year and since then you been doing some pretty rad stuff in my opinion. Where you from? Age? How tall are you? Favorite food? Girlfriend?
I'm just a street kid from Finland! Everybody maybe thinks that im from Helsinki, but yeah im not from Helsinki. I came from a town called Jyväskylä, it's about 300km up to north from Helsinki. Sweet town for a snowboarder. FACTS: 21 years-old boy, 177cm, reindeer with mashed potatoes, single...
How is it snowboarding up there?
Quite small scene. Everyone knows each other. Its good place to snowboard if you like to do urban stuff! And yeah the local resort is 5km away from the centre of the town!
Are most of the tricks in your part filmed in your hometown area? Seems like you have a shitload of good rails around there?
Yeah most of the tricks are from here. About 70% of my part is filmed here. Here is so much spots which you dont see in the US and Euro movies because everybody stays in Helsinki. It's just easy for us to do shit here because you can go first to shred in the local hill and after that It's just easy for us to do shit here because you can go first to shred in the local hill and after that just go to do a spot if you want. Thats how we roll at here haha.
You have some really heavy stuff in your part. Which trick was your biggest struggle?
oh man hah, usually i just dont leave from the spot if I dont get the shot which i want, (sounds cocky hahah). That bs 1 ss bs 360 off was definitely the biggest struggle for me. It was a 2 day job. First day i almost got the trick like 10 times but I bummed the landing everytime. Then dark came and my muscles were sooo fuckd up after that session. I bought a tube of ice gel, waxed my whole body and decided to go there on the next day. Then i finally got the trick like in an hour. So glad that I got it, huhh...
photo: Teemu Heljo
Haha, waxing your whole body with ice gel? How does that even work?
It’s pretty icy for some places of your body, but it definitely works.
You mentioned earlier to me that you guys didn’t have drivers licenses while shooting rails, so you often had to take the bus to spots. How was that? Did you ever miss the last bus because you really had to get that 270 out or something?
Hahah, that was the time when we just went to try how the street spots really work. I guess we were in the age of sweet 16 or something. It was FUN, just went over to the spots in the daytime and tried to film and shred. Because we did only those daytime spots, we didnt miss the bus at anytime ! Good times...
Who do you look up to in snowboarding?
Ettala and Paradis. Right now its more Paradis for me because he does more stuff which i like to do as well.
I see a lot of Ettala in you. Is your ambition to one day be where he’s at? And do you want to make it out to the backcountry and hit jumps and stuff?
Oh, thats sick to hear man! I dont know, lets see how the things start rolling. I really want to go to ride some real pow and stuff but I dont know about filming that stuff hahah it could be seem awful hah... Just want to do stuff which feels "good" for me and be healthy.
photo: Teemu Heljo
What is your plan for this upcoming season?
Im going to do few rail events more and then I just start filming. Maybe some photoshoots and some filming trips outside Finland. Im still having quite open plans for the season!
KBR productions and you have been kind enough to let us show your part today. What is KBR and what are the future plans for KBR? And what does it stand for??
KBR comes from a word, KOBRA, which means COBRA. Me and Petrus "founded" it on 2004 or something?! It just came up when we started to film in the slopes and then we made a movie of the footage after the season. We got like 150 downloads for the first movie and now the latest, KBR MEETS YOU, is having around 20k views. I guess its now the biggest finnish snowboarding movie production. KBR keeps going, man! Petrus has been tried to get some budget for the next movie and he has already done some good deals for it! Good job Pete!
photo: Teemu Heljo
That is rad. Love to see you guys keep making movies.
I think people should really watch your part now. Do you have any famous last words?
Stay healthy and ride fast hahhah!
Sponsors: Rome, Junkyard.com, Thirtytwo, Etnies, Ashbury, Airblaster, Hoppipolla, Level
Here is the part you have been waiting for. WATCH.
Banger time!
Toni is the man
soooo sick!