THEME: Futureproof
PHOTO: Justin Hostynek
RIDER: “JP” Jan-Petter Solberg
LOCATION: Livigno, Italy
𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗔: Canon EOS 1 (analog)
WRITER: Justin Hostynek
Early in January of 2001, I met up with Patrick Armbruster in Livigno, Italy to start stacking clips for Transcendence, the second of our many collaborative feature films. At the time, it was hard to imagine that this cute little mountain town tucked deep in the Dolomites would become the site of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The first Burton European Open was to take place in Livigno and our plan was to hook up with a grip of the same characters who had been in our previous Absinthe Films feature, Tribal (2000). Wolfgang Nyvelt, Fredi Kalbermatten, Michi Albin, Nicolas Müller, Jonas Emery, Steve Gruber, Ingemar Backman, Sani Alibabic, Iker Fernandez, Gigi Rüf and Romain De Marchi were all going to be in the same place at the same time, along with a ton of our other friends who would also be competing in the event. Perfect way to kick off a winter of filming by connecting with so much of our tribe.
Rene Hansen had just made the move from Airwalk to become the new team manager at Burton Snowboards. Seeing Romain De Marchi for the rising star that he was, Rene made sure to bring RDM with him, making it a tandem transition from Airwalk to Burton. Amidst these big new changes, Rene made a point to impress on me how excited he was about a new little grom, fellow Norwegian, and other significant addition to the Burton team. But, it was Romain’s enthusiasm for JP Solberg that made me take note.
We’d heard rumors about a massive road gap just a few clicks up the pass from Livigno that might be doable, so after the contest wrapped up, a few of us went to take a closer look. The landing was steep enough but the snow was marginal and with a guardrail on the knuckle, consequences for coming up short on this gap would have been severe. No one was eager to step to it, especially so early in the season on a freezing, gloomy, overcast day. As the youngest addition to the crew, JP Solberg was elected to guinea pig the gap but when he threw down a flawless corked cab 540, we all knew that it was on for this eighteen-year-old style master.
I was busy shooting the photo and Armbruster was with another crew, so when Ingemar rolled down the road on his skateboard, dad-cam in hand, he was the only one to get a clip of this moment. Without a second angle showing JP’s landing, Backman's shot didn’t make it into the movie but sometimes it’s the album covers and the movie posters which engage our imagination on a deeper level that make for the strongest impressions.
This photo became one of the most iconic of the Absinthe Films covers, heralding the arrival of a new talent whose style would go on to inspire generations of snowboarding's riding elite and weekend warriors alike. But my favorite part of this photo is Ingo's intent posture, focusing on doing his best to document what he loves with the tools at hand.