This is a topic I wanted to write about for a long time. In december 2009 Marko posted and asked people to sign a petition for snowboarding / new school skiing kids in Helsinki. And the city authorities listened and now we have our own little jib park in Helsinki!

Some background on “Lumiparkki Kivikko” (Snowpark Helsinki) project

Initially, I worked in the original project group for getting an urban jib park in Helsinki city area (“Helsinki Snowpark”). The original project started in spring 2009. The idea was based on a wide public-private co-operation. But after a very busy summer/fall of planning, scheduling, selling, negotiating etc. the project failed. This is a very long story but to put it briefly the place was just wrong (= too much neighboring houses and people living nearby = strong argument against the whole idea from the local house owners).

I left the company behind the whole idea in spring 2010 (and started to work for a launch of our own consulting company, Fiercer Media – Btw. this link is all Finnish for now). Still, the idea of the city jib park was well accepted in Helsinki municipal regime, lots of people signed petition for it,  and the project re-started all over again in spring/summer 2010. Now only the location was changed to a more suitable one.

Meanwhile Marko and I founded our own local business. Luckily we managed to get part of the Helsinki Snowpark (“Lumiparkki Kivikko“) production: we launched the whole concept in social media (Facebook, Youtube) and took care of all the communication in social media in fall 2010 (all this is in Finnish only, for now).  The launch went great and actually the user/customer feedback helped to shape the final product quite a lot – the potential customers were heard well before the park itself was built.

“Lumiparkki Kivikko” (Snowpark Helsinki) is an entry and mid level mini park for the youth and young minded!

Being involved with this whole thing from the start I can tell you that it wasn’t an easy case to get all parts done and to deal with all the bureaucracy with city administration. But now I can admit I feel really good for all the jibber kids in town. Similarly, as we have skate parks in the city during summer, now we have a reasonable priced jib park supported by the city, within the reach of public transportation, not too far from the city centre. In my opinion the best part of the whole thing is that now even the ones that probably could not afford “normal” resort skiing/snowboarding can get to know snow sliding and continue it with reasonable price. If you think how Finnish snowboarders have done in recent years, this can’t be a bad thing – I hope there is going to be probably a even wider base of potential new stars in Helsinki in the near future?

The park it self is a “mini version”. Lots of easy jibs and novice/middle level kickers. The idea is that everything is safety enough for the beginner but also fun enough for an expert. This seems to work well, thanks to guys at Soul Productions that shape and maintain all the obstacles.

Personally, I am very grateful for the city sport department and its staff and management for being open to this kind of new thinking. People didn’t believe a few years ago that this could be possible in Helsinki! There are also about 30 different people and instances I should mention here but I have done that already in person (and in Finnish media), so I won’t list all here…You know who you are, and can take it granted we are thankful here at HBS. And especially thankful in behalf of all the snow sliding young kids in Helsinki!

Keep on shredding! / HBS

PS. The author testing the kickers here …”senior freestyle skier” for sure, the next thing I need is a neck brace and a walker, based on how stiff I look at the picture, heh