Heliboarding is whole lotta FUN! To people who have never tried it, I can tell you from experience that normal holiday can be one the best days on snowboard and you most likely get hooked on it. But when you go to the mountains and your plan is to make a snowboarding film then it becomes whole different game. First of all it costs a lot of money and sometimes conditions are not worth of the payment that you put down. However this post is about when mother nature let us be as free as possible in the mountains. Sometimes she can be a bitch but on this particular day in New Zealand everything was just PERFECT. photo: Rami Hanafi

The question that always pops in my mind before the first run, ¨It sure looks nice but I wonder if it is?¨ photo: Rami Hanafi

Funny thing about getting dropped on top of the mountain is that you actually do not know how the snow is before your first run. You can check all you want on the top but ultimately the first run always tells whether ¨shit is gonna go down or not¨. photo: Rami Hanafi

Warm up run, first turn and I can control my riding perfectly. I ride down as fast as I can so that I could be on the top and get on the stuff that I really wanna ride. photo: Rami Hanafi

Once you are on the top, lines do look a little bit different than from where you scoped it. You know it is gonna be whole different ride than the first one you did. Sylvain Bourbousson checking his entry point. photo: Rami Hanafi

This is why you came up here! Lines like this make you stoked for days after! rider: Sylvain Bourbousson photo: Rami Hanafi

Prober tranny finder in the mountains feels always good because you know that after you land there is still long downhill ahead of you! To me this was one the best natural airs I have done. photo: Rami Hanafi

¨We just rode lines with perfect snow so should we do a kicker?¨ ¨Why not, after all we can lap it with the helicopter¨ photo: Rami Hanafi

Days like this when you are able to ride lines and hit jumps in perfect snow do not come often. But when that day arrives it most likely can be one of the pinnacle days that you will experience in snowboarding. At least to me this particular one was like that. I can´t wait to go back to New Zealand this fall and try to score some more days like this! photo: Rami Hanafi

All thought summer in northern hemisphere just begun Im already planning trip back to one of my favorite playgrounds in the world, New Zealand (NZ). I have visited NZ every year since 2005 and It is still nice to realize that every time I go there I find new stuff to ride. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen Location: McKerrow Mountains

Almost each heli run in New Nealand ends up in a bowl that has rollers like this. These spots are perfect for setting quick jumps before getting lift up for another line. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen Location: Mt. Turner

When conditions are good terrain in New Zealand can be one the best in the world. But to be able to make your riding day really good you need local knowledge! Past couple seasons I have been fortunate enough to shred with Will Jackways. He knows spots really well and is such a strong freerider! photo: Teemu Lahtinen location: McKerrow Mountains

It is hard to describe the beauty of this country! Staying in town of Wanaka feels like home to me. It is such a nice place. photo: Teemu Lahtinen location: Wanaka

In my opinion New Zealand heli operators are best in the world. Their low-key but still really professional approach to our needs as a film crew makes me wanna go back there and explore more of their amazing terrain. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen Location: Up in The Air

This was my first run of the day that ended up being one the best ones I had last season in NZ. Getting lift up with my own private heli was pretty much dream come true experience on it´s own. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen Location: Minaret Mountains

Even the most epic place can be dangerous so making calm and right decisions is really important. Before this run I backed out of riding steep line since I was afraid of snow stability. Backing out proved to be a good call since even on this mellow run I ended up releasing small slab avalanche. Even thought backcountry can be dangerous it is still best way to experience riding in New Zealand. Having yourself surrounded with good guides and friends will help you to get lot of cool stuff done. That is one the main reasons why I keep going back to Kiwi Land! I just love to snowboard down there! Photo: Teemu Lahtinen Location: Minaret Mountains

When it comes to history of snowboarding Riksgransen can not be overlooked. This is where Ingemar Backman did the most legendary backside air ever and where so many film crews spend last weeks of their season. Our plan was no different! We drove up and got lost in one of the best resorts in Scandinavia! photo: Jani Kärppä

Weather can sometimes be a pain in Riks but if you have right attitude and approach you can be productive during cloudy days too. Little air over rock while filmer Matti Ollila gets creative photo: Jani Karppa

Some of my friends keep asking me why I want to ride this late during the spring when there is no more powder. My answer is simple: ¨I like powder but I love snowboarding!¨ there is always cool stuff to do even thought the snow is slushy like this natural bowl ! photo: Jani Karppa

Well that is a feature I have not done for a very long time! Spring is good for building jumps and it was for sure great bonus to do some tricks on this one but l could not see myself building beastie this size during the best powdays of the season. photo: Jani Karppa

Matti cheers while Im checking footage! Filming for Approach & Attack is almost done. we still have one more trip to New Zealand before the movie comes out. Trip to Riksgransen was perfect ender for season that to me was one the hardest when it comes to weather waiting. But looking back those shitty weather days it feels like every time you learn something new and come out with more motivation than ever! photo: Jani Karppa

I was invited to be assistant coach for finnish snowboard association junior camp this weekend. Ruka, the mecca of finnish park riding is closing on sunday even though conditions are still epic. Biggest and probably only reason is lack of customers. Down south people are already on summer mode but for these lucky grommets this weekend still meant super good session up north!

I got to ride with 14 year old Rene Rinnekangas this week. He is one the most talented young riders to come out from Finland. Spring riding always brings out the best of everyone and riding with juniors for sure made me ride harder too. when you go to these camps to be a coach you do not stand around, you ride all day long as hard as you can!

One of the highlights of the camp was when everyone came to skate my mini ramp. Even though it got super wet right away it did not stop these kids! Samu Sundell who is also known as ¨Bob Marley of Punavuori¨ was on fire thru out the session

My house in Ruka was pretty full since after skate session I got to talk about life as professional snowboarder and showed few photos of our current project ¨Approach & Attack¨. Juniors come to these camps to learn new tricks but it is also important to let them know about culture of snowboarding and give few tips for the future.

Since spring 2009 I have been organizing snowboard gathering Anttisworld CUP in northern Finland. Earlier this year I  got a call from Pyhä ski resort asking me if I would like to bring the event to place which it deserves! I did not have to think twice for this opportunity! Here is Recap of Anttisworld CUP 2014
photo: Teemu Heljo

First event day was all about transitions. Together with Pyhä park crew we ended up building bowl that featured hip , quarter pipe and spine.  Joonas Mustonen warming up before his highest air of the day. photo: Teemu Heljo

Set up was built right next to Cafe Wurst so the crowd could see the action real close. It had been a while since my last QP session in Finland so to me this was the highlight feature of the weekend! Photo: Harri Tarvainen

Jeppe Rontti was killing it during the whole weekend. He won on friday and got second on saturday right after Ilkka Ojansivu. Jeppe is truly great all around snowboarder from Finland photo: Teemu Heljo

Day 2 was banked slalom. Judging criteria included style , speed and difficulty. photo: Harri Tarvainen

Tero Poikajärvi and his input during banked slalom. lots of speed but even more style. photo: Harri Tarvainen

Pyry Orava was the youngest rider of the weekend. It was nice to see that he was not hesitating to ride with big guys. Pyry ended up winning the best rookie of the weekend.  photo: Harri Tarvainen

Ilkka Ojansivu , Winner of Banked Slalom! He got himself  brand new Drake DF1. photo: Teemu Heljo

Multitalented snowboarder , videographer and musician Janne Tanskanen ended up winning price for the best attitude! He seemed to be pretty damn stoked photo: Harri Tarvainen

Of course after every great snowboard event there needs to be party. Ours started from the minibus where JanneTapio was playing. Thanks everyone who joined this year! Now it is time for infamous Wappulounas. Our daily video updates from the event are going to be on point again this week! photo: Teemu Heljo