Jacob Wester is damn good at skiing. Throughout his tenured career, Wester has competed at multiple X Games events in nearly every discipline possible. These days, the Swede has been sticking to the backcountry—tearing up the filming scene while getting the best of the steep and deep. We caught up with Mr. Wester to get the details behind his 2014 Real Ski edit. Check out what he had to say below. To vote for Jacob Wester, use the hashtags #RealSki and #Wester on Twitter and Instagram.
Who do you see as your biggest competition in this year’s contest?
Sammy [Carlson], hands down. I am sure he has something crazy up his sleeve.
Where did you spend your time shooting for your video?
I spent most of my time shooting for my segment in a little town in the northernmost part of Sweden called Riksgränsen. It’s right on the border of Norway, a mellow 17 hour drive from my home in Stockholm. My original plan was to film everything in April, down in the Alps, but at the end of March I bruised my knee filming for my web series. I had to take the entire month of April off. Luckily, it turns out Riksgränsen has powder all the way into late May, so we had plenty of time to build jumps and ski lines up there. It’s also above the Arctic Circle, so the sun stays up almost all night, so there’s really no rush to get out of bed in the morning. [Laughs].
Who’d you film with?
I didn’t have a filmer for the project originally. I had just collected the best footage of my season from different filmers—but for Riksgränsen I wanted someone to spend a few weeks with me. The photographer that I traveled with most of the year, Daniel Rönnbäck, suggested for me to let his childhood friend Alric Ljunghager come with us and shoot. It turned out Alric has an amazing eye for filming, and is a true artist. He came up with a lot of ideas, helped out while building all the features, and even agreed to edit the whole thing. I’m stoked on how it ended up working out. It’s always difficult to work with someone you’ve never met before, but we were on the same page right away.
What’s your favorite trick from your entry?
As far as fun goes, my double backie at the end. At first, I didn’t want it in my video because it’s not a very technical trick, but the sunset shot was just too good. For technicality, I’m pretty stoked on my natural 540 off a pretty scary overhanging cornice. It had this super blind, roll-over take-off where you could only see the bottom of the landing and it felt like I was gonna land so flat. I’m also stoked on one of the cork 360s I did up in Riksgränsen. It was probably the biggest I’ve ever gone off a backcountry jump, and the flattest landing too.
Is there a trick you missed or wished that you’d gotten while shooting?
It would have been cool to get some left-side dubs. I didn’t find a good jump to do one off of up in Riksgränsen, and I hadn’t done it earlier in the season because I thought I would have all April in the alps to do one in good snow. That’s the weakness of my entry for sure.
How do you feel about the format?
It’s really cool to be a part of X Games again. I’ve been in the slopestyle and big air events in Aspen and Tignes for 7 years, but now I’m just filming. I don’t miss competing much, but I’ve always loved being at X-Games and this enables me to still be a part of that world in a way. I hope I can do it again!
Do you find that there less pressure than a typical contest?
Yes and no. It’s a different kind of pressure. There’s a relaxed, fun period of filming followed by a pretty hectic editing period where you start doubting your footage and thinking everyone else got better shots than you. If you fall in an X Games run, it’s over, and then you wake up the next day and forget about the whole thing. If you drop a shitty X Games RealSki segment, the video is there for everyone to watch forever. I hope I don’t have to feel that way about it.
If you win, what’s your plan for the $25k prize?
Go surfing a little before winter, then blow the rest on camera gear!
Any shout outs?
Mad shout outs to everyone involved in this video. Alric Ljunghager for filming, then spending all summer editing in between two jobs. Daniel Rönnbäck for taking photos and building jumps. Fabian Gattlen for filming down in the Alps. Corey Stanton and Emil “Stougen” Granöö for getting all the 2nd angles up in Riksgränsen. Also, the whole crew I spent the Riksgränsen trip with: E’Dollo, B-Dog, Taylor Seaton, Simon Ericson, Finnen, Dogge, Mr. Andersson, you’re all the realest people out! Hope I’m not forgetting anyone!
