Antti Rissanen: Work In Progress. Video Premiere

Without further ado we would like to present to you: Antti Rissanen: Work In Progress - we hope you like it!



Finland, June 2012

After completing quite a successful shooting session in Spain, we decided to check out Antti's home spots in Finland. Since Antti had his last ever (congrats again buddy!) school exams at the end of May, we were eager to fly to Finland in the first week of June to capture some more shots on photo and video. Our plan was to cover three cities and as many locations as we could squeeze in. It all started in Helsinki, Finland's capitol, and a very well-known destination for action sports athletes of various kinds.


We spent the first evening at a nice treeride spot close to the Olympic Stadium, where Antti pulled a couple of barspins and double barspins. Luckily the sunset lasted until almost 11:30 p.m., so we were able to get some colorful results.


Antti had already been on a road trip for a week before we arrived, so his bike looked a bit banged up already - no brakes, rear wheel quite toasted, and no spares left... Antti looked a bit damaged too, three days earlier his knee had "snapped" during a failed double tailwhip landing, which left everyone in quite a nervous state, but for the time being all seemed fine.


Since the plan for the next day included a sunrise shoot at the next spot on our list, we crammed our video and photo equipment including a camera crane and big tripods, two bikes, everyone's clothes and ourselves, into Antti's VW Golf (!) and started towards Tampere at around midnight. The weather forecast predicted nice and lightly clouded skies for the sunrise at around 3 a.m. so the only sleep was during the drive. It was not only quite uncomfortable, but also quite short. Unfortunately it wasn't even worth the hassle, as the next morning turned out to be too cloudy and grey to get the results we hoped for. So after some hours of 30 minute sleep - cell phone alarm - sky check - 30 minute sleep - repeat, we decided to cancel the early bird session and went for a lot of coffee and breakfast at the next gas station. When got back our moods had improved considerably, and the session was on.


Antti threw down some really nice tricks, including various 360 combos and flip barspins. The session's highlight was a very clean double backflip shortly before rain set in, and we quit the action for the rest of the day.


For the next few days we had scheduled sessions at Antti's home spot in Kuopio, where he had originally landed the Cashroll in 2011. Unfortunately the sessions ended up being cut short by Antti's knee, but we were still able to get some nice shots including super dumped 360's and a nice 360 double tailwhip. After a pedal-slip on a flipwhip landing, Antti's knee hurt too much to continue, and this time the pain didn't subside during the next hours. A checkup at the hospital brought the bad news: torn ACL, probably already from the first crash one week earlier, operation required, and therefore the end of the shooting sessions - and unfortunately also of Antti's season.


As could be expected, the weather improved considerably once we couldn't shoot any more action, so we just enjoyed the last two days in nice weather and took a couple of lifestyle shots in and around the famous Finnish lakes. Not the worst time either!!



All in all, we were very happy with the results from Finland and luckily Fabian also had enough footage to finish the video edit. So all that's left to say for now is: Antti, massive props for sending big tricks and getting amazing shots even though your knee must have felt like s..t ! Heal up quickly and come back even stronger in 2013!! We're already looking forward to seeing you at the international contests...!

Big thanks to Antti's sponsors Dartmoor and OBG who supported us in the realization of this media project! You guys rock!!

Make sure to read part one of the Antti Rissanen - Work In Progress story here!

Credits:
Riding: Antti Rissanen
Directing, filming and editing: Fabian Kluhs
Producing and still photography: Lars Scharl
3D animation: Chris Rebmann
Sound design: Daniel Walt
Music: Heaven's Basement - The Long Goodbye

Words by Lars Scharl.