Video battles have always been our favorite event format. It’s a competition… but it’s not. Everyone rides together, pushes each other and celebrates progression, style and creativity. Lena Müller won MVP for the women, so we connected with her for a conversation about her experience at El Tony Mate’s Crew Clash…
Hey Lena, What did you think of the event?
It was such a nice experience. I met so many inspiring and cool people. It was also really nice that you could snowboard so much. Super exhausting, but so much fun.
Was it what you expected?
I was surprised how chill and welcoming everyone was. El Tony set up a “crib” where we could all hang out together and it was so nice.
Was it stressful to get everything finished on time?
Oh yeah, that was way more stressful than I expected. That’s actually why we named our movie, “Rollercoaster”. We experienced so many ups and downs with trying to film everything that we wanted. And also the weather was worse than we expected, so we found ourselves on the last day saying, “Oh Fuck, we really need to stack some more clips!”
Did you have a plan going in?
We kind of had a plan, but it didn’t really work out, so we had to improvise. The main problem was that we ran out of time. But in the end it all came together.
Would you have some advice for a new crew coming in next year?
There’s less time than you think! So be ready on the first day.
Can you introduce us to your team?
Mario Grob is one of the skiers. We kind of grew up together, riding in Snowland. I’ve known him for so long and his skiing is so sick. It was an easy choice for me.
Claudio Battaglia is his best friend, so that made a lot of sense. He’s really good and also a shaper in Davos, so that’s how we know each other.
Yuna Scheidegger is one of my best friends. I really love snowboarding with her. It’s just cool how we push each other since we’re at the same level. Also, I really wanted to have another girl on the team.
Jonas Junker is such a creative guy. He’s always hyped. It’s so sick to shred with him since he’s always so stoked. He’s just such a fun person to hang out with.
I know our filmer, Sandro Held, from skateboarding. He did the Radix movie this summer so that’s how he came into the crew.
Are you guys already a crew, or did you bring everyone together for this event?
I brought them all in and I’m really happy with how it worked out. There were so many different personalities. Everyone has such a unique style, but they all matched together, which was really fun to see.
Do you like the idea of mixed crews?
I love it. It’s way more interesting than just having only snowboarder men or only snowboarder girls. I really love that it’s so diverse. It was also pretty fun to see comp riders with non comp riders, and how that changes their trick selection.
Was there a specific trick from your edit that you’re proud of?
I’m really stoked on the Down-Flat-Down-Flat-Down boardslide. I love challenge rails. You don’t have that many normally, and the GMP park shapers set up two of them that I thought were pretty sick.
Did you like the rest of the setup?
It was nice and I loved the rails, but I was a bit sad that I was super slow on the jumps. But other than that, it was just perfect. Especially on Friday, the last filming day. It was such a good vibe.
Was there a spot or a trick that was a battle?
Oh, the house was such a struggle for me. It was actually my idea. I thought it would be nice to drop from the roof, so we filmed that. But then JJ was like, “That could be such a fun jump.” I mean, what the fuck? The landing was so flat, but we built it anyway and it took forever for me to land. It was such a battle. I got it on my very last try, right before the lifts closed.
It was cool that that you guys had that pow spot, and of course a lot of park… but also the street clips. I guess that’s where you got to know the local police?
Yeah. We actually found that spot when we arrived, so it was our first spot on the next morning. When we got there we realized that there were actually three different rails, so we started setting them up. But when we put snow in the landing so that we could ride out across the street, a neighbor came and told us that we couldn’t do it. So we did a reshape and had to deal with a way shorter landing. But after that, we had a session for about an hour where everyone got clips. But then the police came and we got kicked out.
Was that a new experience for you? Or did you already know about dealing with the police from skating?
Oh yeah, it’s happened a lot in skating. But it was only my second street spot on a snowboard. But I love this. I really want to do more.
Did you learn anything from that experience?
I guess to face my fears… When it’s street it always seems 100x more scary than it is. It’s just after doing it the first time that you realize it’s not that bad.
What did you think of the other movies?
I really enjoyed Gustav’s. It was so funny. But also the others too. It was inspiring to see all of the different ideas.
How about on a riding level? Was there anyone who really impressed you?
Yuna impressed me on the trampoline.
Everyone says it’s way harder than it looks and she got two tricks on it…
Yeah, that was pretty sick.
And from the other crews, I loved that Isaac’s team did so many group shots. Every time I’d watch them from the t-bar I’d be like, “What the fuck?” You could never guess what was going to happen.
Any ideas of little changes that the organizers could add to make next year’s Crew Clash even better?
I thought it was already really nice… but maybe a day more filming would be nice because weather can easily be a problem.
Any last thoughts before we wrap this up?
Shoutout to El Tony for hosting such an amazing event! And big thanks to Nesta and the Blondes for the sick music in the first part of our video! Go check out their music!
Thanks Lena! Be sure to watch all of the Crew Clash Vol. 2 edits here.