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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=\\\"\\/files\\/2009\\/01\\/14\\/snb0109_thr04_lauri_adair.jpg\\\"&gt;&lt;img class=\\\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1000086249\\\" title=\\\"snb0109_thr04_lauri_adair\\\" src=\\\"\\/files\\/2009\\/01\\/14\\/snb0109_thr04_lauri_adair.600x400.jpg\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" width=\\\"600\\\" height=\\\"400\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/a&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Lauri Heiskari. Photo: Colin Adair.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Finnish ex-patriot, street rail ripper, tech park enthusiast, flamboyant hat wearer, DC teamrider, Melrose Place fan\\u2014Lauri Heiskari is many things. Always down for the adventure and ever turning out the jaw-dropping video part, Heiskari\\u2019s latest celluloid magic involves a little more powder than years past. Yep, he\\u2019s honing his backcountry talent with the true master\\u2014DC teammate Devun Walsh.&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nWe met up with Heiskari on the steeps and deeps of Chile\\u2019s Al Colorado and Valle Nevado. That\\u2019s right, pow in August\\u2014there\\u2019s just no rest for the wicked.&lt;strong&gt;\\u2014Jennifer Sherowski&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So you were heli-boarding down there. What\\u2019s your take on heli-ing? Is it really worth all the money and effort?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nI\\u2019ve done it twice now, and it\\u2019s amazing! I feel very fortunate for getting to do it since it\\u2019s so freakin\\u2019 expensive. I\\u2019m terrified of it, too, though. I\\u2019m a bit scared of the turbulence\\u2014that little hotbox is a lot shakier than an airplane! I just pump up the music and stare at the ceiling [laughs].&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nHelis are a great way to check out different terrain quickly and access peaks that are impossible to reach by hiking or using sleds. One bad thing is that it\\u2019s really time consuming, especially if you\\u2019re trying to hit a jump, and with a crew trying to film from the heli, too \\u2026 it\\u2019s quite a hassle.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Photographer Colin Adair said that you didn\\u2019t get to see any of the lines on recon\\u2014that Devun and Iikka did all the scoping. How did it feel getting dumped out of the heli and having to approach terrain blindly?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nWell, you kinda see it on the way in there, and those guys were there last year, so they already had an idea about where to go, so it was all good. I have a lot of faith in Devun\\u2019s knowledge of where to go and what to do, so if he tells me to jump into a ditch blindfolded, I will.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You obviously didn\\u2019t ride any backcountry growing up in Finland, right? So how\\u2019d you finally get over the lack of experience and start feeling comfortable in the backcountry?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nWell, I do feel a lot more comfortable compared to when I first started filming, and every year I\\u2019ve learned tons and gained more confidence. Thanks, Dev! But it was really hard for me at first, because Finland is almost totally flat, and so big terrain and deep snow made me really feel out of place for a while. I just wanted to go back to the park \\u2026 what was I thinking?&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seriously! Tell me about the snow on this trip\\u2014was it all time?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nIt snowed a ton while we were there, and it was amazing\\u2014so much fun. It sure does feel good to go straight to three feet of uncrowded pow in the middle of summertime instead of a packed, weird salt\\/snow summer-camp situation. Actually, that doesn\\u2019t sound too bad, either\\u2014never mind.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What\\u2019s Chile like?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nPeople from Chile are really nice and polite\\u2014some of \\u2019em are pretty hippied out and stony, but still really nice. But you probably want to make sure that the heli driver didn\\u2019t have a \\u201clong dinner\\u201d the night before he\\u2019s supposed to fly with you. Just a little sniff of his breath, and if you don\\u2019t catch a buzz off it, then you should be good.&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nThe trip was really good in general, besides the fact that every morning something new appeared on my board\\u2014either a kook-tag or a weird penis\\u2014so by the end of the trip everybody\\u2019s boards were pretty R-rated and definitely not recommended for resale.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I heard some people recognized you on the streets of Santiago and wanted a photo with you. What\\u2019s it like to be that famous?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nI actually just paid them to do it, and then to ask, \\u201cWho\\u2019s that?\\u201d while pointing at Iikka\\u2014just to piss him off. Nobody knows me.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Describe your most rewarding moment of the entire three days.&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nEvery trick you land in pow keeps replaying in your mind for days. It\\u2019s just awesome. Otherwise, maybe the freeride runs with the heli!&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What song was listened to most often on your iPod?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nMain Flow and 7L, \\u201cForever.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do you still have a house in Finland? Where do you officially live right now?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nSan Clemente [California], baby! Yeah, I love being close to everything and being able to live a beach life for a couple of months before going back to the winter wonderland life. Back when I used to live in Finland, the \\u201cbeach life\\u201d was \\u201csurrounded by alcoholics in the pouring rain\\u201d life.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Haha! What\\u2019s something you really miss about Finland?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nIf I had to name one thing, it\\u2019d be the culture. It\\u2019s just different there\\u2014homey. That\\u2019s where I\\u2019m from, so I know how things work. Here, everything works a little differently, and the people are different. I\\u2019m figuring everything out by myself and using my second language on all these weird forms and papers\\u2014and I just can\\u2019t make that call to dad and have him to do it [laughs]. I do think there\\u2019s a lot more dishonesty with people here.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What\\u2019s making you happy these days?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nJust life in general. I love what I do. I\\u2019m living in this great place, and I have people I\\u2019ve been tight with for so long around me. It\\u2019s great to pick a location in the world and just move there and still have your best friends with you. I\\u2019m trying to enjoy everything. I want to learn how to cook, ride more pow, surf my ass off, take some great photos, and chill with my girl and Iikka and Eero and enjoy this crazy world.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are some of your other recent obsessions besides snowboarding?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nSurfing, working out, fish-eye-lens pictures, looking for furniture for my first house, and drawing graphics\\u2014which end up looking pretty horrible. It\\u2019s a work in process. I consider myself like Picasso\\u2014like, it might take a couple lifetimes for my art to get truly appreciated \\u2026 maybe more.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What\\u2019s the most important lesson you\\u2019ve learned in life so far?&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nDon\\u2019t be a jealous of anybody. People are always gonna have something you don\\u2019t, and you\\u2019ll always have something they don\\u2019t. Jealousy starts everything bad, and it can ruin great friendships. People need to appreciate you because of who you are, not what you have or don\\u2019t have.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;[Gallery=6610]&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://snowboarding.transworld.net/uncategorized/three-days-with-lauri-heiskari-in-chile/?pid=30131>