From the finish line, Events Hakuba sits down with award-winning filmmaker and Freeride World Tour athlete Elias Elhardt to chat about his latest movies and freshest lines. Catch the reaction of this FWT wildcard rider on his podium finish at the Freeride World Tour 2020 opening event in Hakuba, Japan.
January 21st, 2020 | by Jared Kubokawa
Pushing boundaries not only with his snowboard but also with his filmmaking and unique narrative style, intellectual rider, Elias Elhardt is known for his big air, big rides and bringing cultures together. Originally hailing from Germany, he now calls Austria’s Arlberg Resort his bed & shreadfest. Following his award-winning success with his film Contraddiction, Elias speaks to Events Hakuba not only about his third place winning run at the FWT 2020 in Hakuba, Japan but also about his newest cinematic foray titled Narcis—an exploration of worn-torn Kosovo’s long forgotten snowsports culture. Not only does Elias push the limits of what he as a rider can do, but also what the sport of snowboarding itself can do. Read the article here or click below for the exclusive finish line interview.
©Freeride World Tour / Elias Elhardt
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Transcription of the live interview from January 19th, 2020 at the Finish Line of the FWT 2020 competition in Hakuba, Nagano, Japan
Jared: Alright, Events Hakuba here with Elias Elhardt, the second rider down today. How were the snow conditions? How was your run?
Elias: It was actually better than I thought, you know with that wind event a couple of days ago it got quite firm but maybe it recovered. But anyways, it was pretty fun and the further down we got, the less wind affected it was and there were tons of hits along the way, so it was pretty good.
©Freeride World Tour / Dominique Daher
J: Nice! So you went looker’s left, is that right?
E: Right.
J: And what did you see down there in the terrain? Were there any trannies or anything interesting that you hit?
E: There was tons of stuff! Lots of stuff actually that I didn’t particularly plan on. To be honest, I kind of came off track of my line a little bit and then I had to improvise.
J: But just being spontaneous and creative, right?
E: Yeah, which isn’t always easy if you had a certain plan in mind, but it went alright, yeah.
J: That’s cool, great. Well congratulations on your run.
E: Thanks.
J: And talking about creativity, he’s also a very interesting film maker. He’s combining narrative storytelling with snowboarding. And you just put out a new film. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience in Kosovo?
E: So for the new film “Narcis”, I was in Kosovo for three weeks actually, in a little town called Brezovica.
J: Okay.
E: And you know Kosovo had a devastating war twenty years ago and in that place Brezovica, there’s Serbs and Albanians living together and doing winter sports, which is quite a special sort of meeting ground for a lot of conflicting parties actually. I thought that was a nice story to tell and see and just engage with what winter sports can do, beyond sort of like just a fun experience that we all enjoy doing. And just to be part of that scene down there for a little while. So that was a really nice experience and kind of portrayed one of the protagonists that lived through it all from, you know.
©Freeride World Tour / Dominique Daher
J: Through the war, through everything.
E: Yeah through Yugoslavia, through the breakdown of Yugoslavia and then the war, and after, and now the rebuilding stage.
J: So yeah, snowboarding and winter sports bringing people together.
E: Yeah.
J: That’s very interesting.
E: I would hope so.
J: That’s great, well congratulations again. We’re here with Elias Elhardt, the wild card this year. Good luck bro.
E: Thanks.
©Freeride World Tour / Jeremy Bernhard
Events Hakuba is an Official Media Guest for the Freeride World Tour 2020. For more freeride action, catch up on the FWT20 season here.
