Who needs snow? Finnish skiers film epic summer freestyle edit in a forest
Ilkka Hannula and Juho Kilkki can’t wait for winter. The rest of us might be daydreaming about the start of the season, but these inventive skiers haven’t wasted any time waiting for the snow to fall.
A new urban skiing video shows them rattling down stairs and along rails, through forests and across lakes, with a little help from towlines and skateboards.
Kilkki and Hannula are part of the Real Skifi crew – based in Jyväskylä in central Finland – where they've been releasing creative summer edits for several years, and the novelty clearly hasn't worn off yet.
Other filmmakers who have experimented with snow-free skiing include freeriding legend Candide Thovex, who brought his hard-charging, high-flying style to the grassy slopes of Megève for this car advert in 2015.
Or how about skiing on sand? In 2016, pro skier Fabian Lentsch and his team of "Snowmads" visited Qeshm Island in Iran in search of desert adventures, including some mind-bogglingly steep descents – and all without a snowflake in sight.
Like Candide Thovex, skier Sam Smoothy and snowboarder Xavier de le Rue are veterans of the Freeride World Tour. Earlier this year, they took the art of snow-free riding to the next level, braving clouds of ash and spurts of molten lava as they rode an active volcano in Vanuatu.
Still, you don't have to go to those lengths – if you fancy a change from indoor slopes, you could always start gently by finding a hill in your nearest park and giving grass skiing a try. It might not have quite the same appeal as the white stuff, but it's one way to pass the time until the season begins...
