When a team becomes a crew

Inside the Ride Snowboards European team, where Stefan Schauer and Basti Sturma reveal how rider chemistry, creativity and friendship shape the crew.

Over the past four years, Ride’s European roster has gone from a collection of riders scattered across the continent to something that feels much closer to a crew. Rather than talk about the latest film, we asked European team manager Stefan Schauer and photographer, filmer and creative lead Basti Sturma about the people behind it: who sees the weird spots, who keeps a shovel close, who gets the clip in the fewest tries, and how you build a team people actually want to spend winter with.

Interview by Alba Pardo
Photos by Bastien Sturma

Stefan, when you took over the European team, what did it look like?
Stefan: When I started almost four years ago, we had a lot of good athletes all over Europe, but it wasn’t really a Europe team. We had some good athletes in Finland, some in France – good individuals, but they weren’t really working as a team.

Before I started, Basti had already begun a project called Sincerely Yours to bring those bits and pieces from all over Europe together and showcase the Ride Europe team. That was really the start. Then Basti and I tried to pick the athletes we saw as a good fit for a European team, and the next project was RADAR. The name came from wanting to put the European Ride guys on the radar.

Now, that is probably the part I’m most proud of. They aren’t only good athletes or good snowboarders. You can see that they’re friends and that they work together.

What are you actually looking for when you add someone to the team?
Stefan: Most of the time there are people you’ve watched for one or two years, and you think they have potential and could fit the team in terms of riding.

But a main part of the procedure for me is asking the riders already in the team. If I just picked individuals who I thought were good, maybe the level would be really high, but that doesn’t mean the team would work together. So I ask the main guys, “What do you think about him or her? Do you think this could be a good fit?”

Most of our team is actually friends of riders who were already together on a trip. Then you see that it works and you can say, “The level is good, the personality is good, this could work.” Sometimes it doesn’t. You add someone, take them on a trip, and realise it isn’t working.

Basti, you’re the one spending weeks on the road with them. Who are the different characters?
Basti: There are definitely types.

Louis is the sneaky one. He’s not as outspoken, but as soon as he connects with people, he gets a little bit sneaky and starts playing with everyone.

Joe Simpson always comes up with the craziest ideas, especially with spots. He sees things differently from the other riders, which is really refreshing on big trips. You can go around, see something, and immediately think, “That’s a Joe spot.” Then there are other places where you think, “That’s a Louis spot.”

Their riding goes with their personalities. Joe rode this ledge where the drop-in was maybe ten or fifteen centimetres wide and there was something like a ten-metre drop on the side. It didn’t really make sense, but it looked super sick. That was just a Joe spot.

Wouter is always making challenges out of everything. “If you land this try, you have to do this,” or, “If you land this try, I have to do that.” There’s always a gambling vibe, which is really funny when you’ve been outside together for a while.

Mikko is pretty shy and introverted, but when he gets on his snowboard, it’s insane how good and fast he is at getting his stuff. I think he probably gets the most clips with the least amount of tries. He lets his snowboarding speak for him.

And Simon seems to occupy quite a particular place in the group.
Basti: Simon always has good tunes. He loves reggae and hip-hop; he’s been doing this for a long time and he knows exactly what he’s doing when talking about snowboard projects. He’s also always super supportive and always has a shovel in his hand.

Last winter we had a big crew and split in two vans. I remember Kaili at some spots saying, “I want Simon in the van,” because she knew he would guide her and help make it happen. He doesn’t officially have this position where he’s the older brother of the group or anything like that. Everybody just loves having him around.

Does having different generations in the team help?
Basti: Definitely. Kristian Skjømming is one of the youngest in the crew. He’s insanely talented. Sometimes he can still be guided a little, but he has a strong idea of what he likes and wants to show about his riding, and it’s really nice to have different generations like him and Simon next to each other.

They empower each other. It’s refreshing for Simon to have Skjømming there, and it’s good for Skjømming to have Simon. There’s something similar with Eliot. Simon was looking at him and said, “That was me back in the day.” Eliot listens to a lot of reggae; he’s not necessarily the earliest person in the morning, but when he gets on his board, his snowboarding speaks for him too.

Are there people who fill completely different spaces within the team?
Basti: Sevi is the mountain goat. He’ll walk anywhere; he knows what he’s doing and the way he wants to ride natural terrain. If we’re doing mountain stuff in Europe, he’s the guy.

Then my brother Guillaume is the engineer. If we have to figure something out at a spot that isn’t working, everyone starts thinking about it, and then my brother comes over and says, “That’s how we have to do it.” And it works every time.

Mikhail is playful with Wouter and Louis. He’s always down to play UNO and mess around with everyone, but he’s also a genuinely nice guy who takes care of people and makes sure everyone has their space. He’ll keep the room clean and make sure the kitchen is decent. On a long trip, that’s actually really nice.

Kaili was new to the group last winter. What was it like bringing someone into a crew where everybody already knows each other?
Basti: It was her first winter with the crew, and that’s always difficult because everybody already knows each other. She was a little bit more shy at first, but she knew exactly what she wanted and what she didn’t want with her riding.

She would arrive at a spot and say, “Okay, that’s it. That’s my spot. I’m going to do that,” and she’d put the work into getting it. She got some really nice stuff. She’s a very stylish snowboarder and has a little bit of an old-school vibe, which is really nice.

The biggest thing with this crew is that everyone is really nice, but they’re also super professional. We’re on a trip and everyone knows what they have to do. If you have to drive everybody, teach them everything and tell them what to do, it’s not going to be nearly as efficient.

Niqi had a different kind of season.
Basti: Niqi had been dealing with a lot of struggles with concussions the last few seasons. From the outside, you don’t always see those struggles. This year you could really tell she was back. She was on it, she was feeling good on the board. It really felt like, “Oh, Niqi’s back.” That was really nice to see.

How does a trip with nine riders actually work?
Basti: Stockholm was crazy.

We were eleven people in total inlcuding my brother and me, so nine riders. It was a two-week trip, and we managed to get 50 clips. I’d never experienced anything like it.

We had two vans, my brother was filming, and the Simpson brothers also had a camera, so we split into two crews. Then we got into this insanely productive rhythm. We also tried to avoid having two riders ride the same spot in the same way. Most of the time we tried to keep it to one spot per rider.

At some point, because we had two vans, it became competitive. Each crew wanted to get home with more clips than the other one. Then we got close to 50 and were like, “Fuck, we have to make it.” On the last day it was raining and we still got the final two clips.

Stefan, does that kind of efficiency come from intentionally building the team around chemistry?
Stefan: That’s definitely part of it.

For us, the team is one of the most important things we identify with as a brand. We’re not the brand that talks endlessly about technical product details. Brand image is really important to us, and the first thing people see when they look at a brand is often the team.

For me, what I want people to see is fun in snowboarding. They’re professional riders and they work hard, but they enjoy what they’re doing. That’s what we want to show in the clips and movies.

Basti, where do you actually fit into all of this?
Basti: I’m all around. On the trip, I’m organising to make sure everything is right and everybody has what they need; I try to keep people happy and the energy high.

I’m also in this middle position between the riders and the brand. I want the best for the riders, but I also want Ride to be stoked on what we get. We want the best for the brand, but we also want the riders to get the best visibility they can.

And then on the trip, I’m doing groceries, I love to cook, I’m taking care of everything so everyone else can concentrate on giving their best for snowboarding.

So you’re basically the mum of the crew?
Basti: Yeah. [Laughs.] In the end, it’s a big family.

I think some of that comes from my family. My mum is Portuguese, my dad is Italian, I was born in France. Food and community are important.

When we have dinner, everyone sits together. We’re maybe a little bit late with dinner for the Swiss and Scandinavians, but it’s still important that everybody sits around the table and has a good chat. It brings people together.

And apparently there is a lot of UNO.
Basti: UNO is a big thing in the Ride room. After a nice day of filming, we play UNO at night.

Does it still feel like a brand team at that point?
Basti: That’s the nice thing. It’s a brand project, but in the end it feels like that’s our crew.

It’s not something where somebody else just put the puzzle together. We knew most of these people. We had filmed with the Simpsons during our Brust Studio projects,, and we filmed with Louis for more than 10 years; we knew most of the people before they got on Ride. We built that together.

Ride trusts us and gives us the freedom to do what we think is right. When we’re talking about bringing somebody in, it’s a discussion. It’s never just somebody saying, “This person is now on the team.”

The vibe is there, everyone puts in the work, and we’re all there for the same thing.