The Cashroll (2011)

I have to admit – I’m crazy for new tricks!
The bigger, higher, more technical and just plain crazier the better! So I was really impressed by Daniel Dhers‘ 2009 BMX creation called „The Cashroll“ and also by Brett Banasiewicz’s nohanded combo. Then I saw Benny Phillips‘ short indoor edit in the summer of 2011 and was pretty excited – it looked like someone was finally working on bringing that trick to MTB!! Shortly after I came home from Crankworx Whistler a couple of weeks later, I saw Antti’s short Cashroll clip and was stunned – an 18 years old Finnish guy landing this trick on dirt!? I’m a half-Finn and I had a one-week-vacation planned at our place in Finland for later that same month! I instantly wrote to Antti on Pinkbike, introduced myself and asked him where that jump was and if he wanted to photograph the Cashroll during my vacation. He wrote back quickly and it turned out that his home spot was about 30 minutes from our place. Couldn’t get any luckier than that! We could fix a date for the time frame my vacation was planned in and I guess we were both stoked to set up the shoot that quickly. I flew to Finland directly from the Suzuki Nine Knights event and arrived in perfect sunny and warm conditions, ready for battle! Some quick phone calls and my friends and I drove to Kuopio to meet Antti. The dirt jumps looked great and I had a very good feeling taking the first photos of Antti throwing some sweet frontflips, backflips, cliffhangers, flipwhips and 360 nohanders. This guy could ride!

The short video clip of his Cashroll had actually been shot at a different location, on a slightly bigger jump. The jumps in Kuopio were a bit smaller, but Antti was confident that they’d give him enough airtime to do the Cashroll. After some practice runs he decided to go for it and just landed it perfectly on the very first try! What more can you ask for as a photographer!

Winter session in Kuopio (2012)

Half a year after the Cashroll session, Antti and I met up in Kuopio again. We wanted to shoot a couple of deep winter dirtjump photos and the weather in Finland provided us with the perfect conditions. Winter wonderland everywhere, everything covered in a thick blanket of powder snow. Temperatures of -20°C during the daylight resulted in the clearest air and a soft, yellowish hue to the sunlight. Antti didn’t really mind the cold and he sent a couple of very nice trick on the heavily snowed-in jumps. We were both stoked about the resulting photos and we had a couple of very nice publications.

Work In Progress video project (2012)

In early summer of 2012, Antti, Austrian filmer Fabian Kluhs and I decided to produce a video edit as kind of an introduction to the MTB scene. We started with a one week trip to La Poma Bikepark in Barcelona, one of the most popular dirtjump bike parks in Europe. Over the winter time, Antti had worked on some new tricks and he was super motivated to send it for Fabian’s and my cameras.

The second session took place in Finland a couple of weeks later. Fabian and I flew to Helsinki and met up with Antti, who had just moved there. After shooting some lifestyle stuff and street spots in the Finnish capitol for two days, we drove to a dirtjump spot in Tampere, where Antti had landed his first Cashroll one year earlier. After driving through the Finnish midsummer night (close call with a moose on the Finnish highway included) we arrived at the spot and Antti, who had barely slept in the completely overpacked car (VW Golf with three guys, photo equipment, filming equipment including camcrane, two bikes plus clothes etc.), decided to go for a double flip. He stomped it without any problems, sent a couple of other tricks as filler material and called it a day. Maximum efficiency and a late breakfast for everyone, just in time before the rain started pouring down and we decided to drive on to Kuopio, Antti’s home town.

Even though our shooting time was quite limited at both sessions, I still got a lot of good photos and Fabian also managed to finish the video edit with a lot of amazing scenes. It was an awesome time producing the edit for sure and I still enjoy watching the edit even though I have probably seen it 1000 times by now 😉 Check it out here: