Mattias Fredriksson is an amazing photographer from Are, Sweden.

I have spent a fair bit of time with him, I first met him during Crankworx in Whistler in 2002 or 2003. I remember him being super friendly and we got along really well, and he shot a photo of me doing a one hander (ha ha) off the final jump on A-line, I believe I was riding a Norco Sasquatch hardtail.

He came out to Nelson 3 or 4 years later to hang out with local writer Mitchell Scott and we ended up doing some riding together. I was really impressed because he remembered my name, all about me, I was blown away at his memory.

I ended up heading over to his place in Sweden in September 2007 to ride bikes and hang out. It was a lot of fun and a good adventure, although the weather was terrible. Some days I couldn’t go riding at all because the gondola was shut down due to wind. However, it was a good experience and I learned a lot about the bike park in Are and how they are going about building trails and improving their bike park. I also learned just how hard Mattias works and witnessed his meticulous organization. I now understand why he is probably the most successful ski photographer in the world. I kept my eye out for buxom blondes but was largely disappointed, although I met a beautiful young lady named Lena and spent some quality time with her. I spent time in Stockholm on the way home and decided that the standard of living over in Scandanavia is quite high. No ‘Salmo Dinner Jackets’ (plaid sweaters) in sight, no muddy shoes, lots of fancy leather handbags, pointy shoes, tapas lounges, etc. Perhaps not my scene but nice. Mattias spends a lot of time in Stockholm shooting portraits and on assignment with various companies, he was shooting an ad with skier Jon Ollson the day after my flight was supposed to leave so I tried to extend my stay but was unsuccessful.

I have invited Mattias out next September for a Rilor Wilderness trip and am stoked to see him again and ride with him, and show him all the new trails I’ve got going since he was last here. I rode with him last september as well, he came back to Nelson to shoot photos for a story about our local riding scene. But to ride with him for 4 days straight will be unique, because he is the type of guy who is usually really busy, heading out during a meal to make a phone call, for example. So it will be awesome to just ride, ride, ride with him.

Check out Mattias Fredriksson’s website at www.mattiasfredriksson.com and also the photo below, which is me jumping through some big old cedars on ‘Powerslave.’ Mattias was happy with this photo, I’m not sure if it ever got published anywhere, though.