Recently I traveled to Sweden where I was invited to hang out and rip at the Mayhem Bike festival in Åre and then kick it over to Stockholm for some street riding with Sweden’s top MTB street rider Eric Wallberg.  The goal for the trip was to get footage for a handful of killer segments that will comprise 2 solid ‘Ride Guide’ episodes, which incidentally are going to be ‘off the hook’ when they debut in October. 

I am not a stranger to traveling abroad and had both my bike and my luggage condensed and convenient for air travel while taking all the important things, like my mobile office in my carry on.  My flight was to leave Sunday afternoon in Vancouver and land in Heathrow, UK and connect to Arlanda Stockholm where I would meet up with Mike and Cory from the Ride Guide, chill the evening and then commence with another flight out early the next morning to Ostersund and connect for a 1 hour drive to Åre the largest ski resort in Sweden.  Flights went smooth but it soon became evident that when landing in Arlanda my bike and baggage were not going to be comforting me, however assurances were made that everything would be flown first thing in the morning and hook up for my flight the next day.  A short bus ride to a local airport hotel provided a ‘better late than never’ rendezvous with the Ride Guide boy’s where we shared some local food, drink and stories of how we all were missing luggage (theirs from a different airline).
Morning came and there was no indication that luggage was part of our flying ritual so we left making sure that we did not miss our connecting flight into Ostersund.  As we checked in we bumped into Thomas Vanderham who was also on his way to the Mayhem Festival (he apparently had all his gear), who informed us that Steve Romaniuk was also going to be at the festival.  A quick hour flight into Ostersund and we all converged into a RV and driven to Åre with the most careful regard. Once at the resort we met with Mayhem organizer’s David and John and quickly got set up in a condo complex where we bunked in with three Norwegian massage therapists.  Wait just a second!!!  Do not let your mind wonder!  It was a big condo and everyone was on their best behavior!!!  
2006 was the first time in the four year Mayhem Festival history that it rained, and boy did it ever let loose.  While I sat on the phone trying to track down my gear, Thomas and Steve did ride clinics in the mud and by all accounts tore it up as only they can shred.  Evening events were spectacular!  Including a party dedicated to a new tire that Thomas has been involved in developing, a premier of Roam with Steve Romaniuk and some good ‘ol down to earth local givn’r!  After a couple days Thomas left for Germany for a slopestyle event, Ride Guide gear showed up and strangely the sun came out full on!  The down days made the dreads itch and word on the street was that the morning sun dried 2 days of downpour, and mud was gone, it was ‘go time’ with or without luggage and bike.

The Mayhem festival for 2006 was co sponsored by Norco and my friend from Norway Henrik (Norco distributor) lent me a Team DH, skid lid and gloves from Thursday to Saturday so that I could at least get my ya’ya’s out and see the trails.  My sanity was tapped, as well as my cell roaming charges, still no gear. I bought clothing from the event booths to keep the smell down and rode hard but safe (no armour) while still in the same clothes I traveled with.  During this time we managed to get some really great altitude riding in with the Ride Guide and met with some guys who have a RC style helicopter that they can film with.  You really will want to see the Ride Guide Sweden issue, we got some incredible footage of Romaniuk and I tearing it across Swedish alpine slickrock and some killer jump and berm trails.  We were all blown away by the footage and it truly served as a life time memory.

Over the week the Mayhem festival put on 4X racing, Wallberg street comp, Dj and slopestyle events demonstrating the talent level of the Scandinavian riders.  There are currently a couple of riders out there that kill it internationally right now, but just wait another year or so, there is so much talent in Scandinavia it is crazy!  There are some incredibly fast riders and some precise technical riders, I think it is just a matter of matching their skills with a super size approach and watch out!

One of the highlights of the Mayhem festival was the big gap jump.  A long bank perpendicular to the hill was set up with different jumps down it for the jump comps but if you hit it from the side and spun out, it was a slight hip left with around a 30’- 40’ gap.  Steve kiwi Murphy had proved its viability early in the week and soon Thomas, Romaniuk and myself were incorporating it into our regular downhill diet.  After a very sick slopestyle event ended on Saturday, I finally got my luggage at 3:30pm, drove like a crazy man to meet a taxi, got Dr Phil to build my trusty steed and did two warm up laps for an evening photo shoot at the hip.  Kiwi Steve, Roamaniuk and I had a super fun jump session with some world class photographers including action guru Mattias Fredriksson. The weather gods were smiling providing some awesome pictures and truly some memorable moments.  

Once the festival wound down and I had my own gear it was time to get down to some serious filming.  Sunday turned out to be a bro day but Monday offered Kiwi Steve and I great weather to keep the camera rolling and we got some great footage until I got steamrolled by a 3’ high jump.  After several attempts to manual jump to crank flip, the call was made to go and eat and refuel, but I was close and knew it, or at least until I bobbled, got catapulted over the bars and hit the ground in searing pain.  Everything stopped and I immediately went to check in on Sweden’s world renowned medical system and even though I had the support of the Ride Guide crew and the care of a very cute Swedish nurse, my pride, my radius, scaffoid, acl and my mcl were all broken, not to mention the rocks removed from my back, yeehaw!  Luggage didn’t seem so bad now!

Kiwi Steve finished up filming and I took some needed rest time and the next day we left for Stockholm to meet up with Eric Wallberg, Sweden’s premier street rider to get some footage for his Ride Guide section. Tourism Sweden sent us all out with a guide to see the city and she took us to all the hot spots, assuring us that street riding was acceptable everywhere. Stockholm is one seriously amazing city, 14 islands linked up by bridges that service 3rd city, 3rd water and the last 3rd greenbelt.  Ancient Viking ruins, historic buildings and yes, no hassle street riding everywhere, including the King’s residence! This city ranks as my favourite so far and with great reason.  Eric had several days to get his section done and even though his shot locations were mainly based on historical landmarks he still managed to come up with some good diversity and some really cool riding.  I managed to coheres a 416 street bike from Henrik back in Åre and was stoked to scope spots without security moving us on, in fact there is even footage of a dready manualling past the armed guard posted in front of the Kings back door, now that’s history!  Mayhem Dave hooked up as our unofficial tour guide and we saw the wheel deal of the city both night and day, nothing short of amazing.

Trips always have an end and ours was soon coming.  The Ride Guide moved on to Switzerland and I had a day left in town to hit museums, walk about and go for a sailing trip in and around the city on Dr Phil’s 1947 mahogany boat.  Phil’s solo sailing ability was impressive to say the least and served as a great wind down.  Some chill time with Kiwi Steve, Eric and some local 3.5 brew and I was headed back early to the hotel to pack.

When arriving in Stockholm we had heard that there was a terror plot to blow up planes and that the airports were chaos, sweet, something to look forward to.  After getting the low down on security and still feeling the ‘lost luggage’ episode it felt really great to have to pack everything including my mobile office (carry on)  leaving me only wallet and passport to travel with.  Morning flight lines in Stockholm were crazy and the plane was late. Security in Heathrow took all paper, pens, books, magazines and bags bigger than a wallet taking 3 hours, which was exactly my layover time and I found myself running way longer than comfortable (always a reminder why I bike) to be the last guy to board the waiting plane.  A fairly comfortable 9 hour flight ended up with yet another 2 hour security line up coming into Canada but I was home, home sweet home!  

Sweden is off the Shlichter scale!  Everyone speaks English, the people are simply rad, bikes are everywhere and the history of the country is mesmerizing (think Viking’s).  Sweden has so much to offer from unrestricted street riding, epic cross country to fantastic resort lift access.  Huge up’s to John and David from the Mayhem festival, if you want a new bike experience and want to go to a smooth, organized festival that is pure stoke, check out www.mayhemfestival.com you won’t regret a second of it.  Monster thanks to The Ride Guide for having the dread on board for some more filming segments, you boys work hard, thanks for being so patient.  Super props to the peeps that made this happen through their super valued contributions, Norco, Ride Guide, Mayhem Festival, Tourism Sweden, Scandic Hotel Anglais.  A very special thanks to the international airline that provided ample opportunity for self realization, exercise in patience and never with so much of an apology.

Keep the glass half full y’all!

Jay Hoots

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