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Interview | Marcus Kleveland

Marcus Kleveland drops his latest edit ‘Two Days in Laax’

Marcus Kleveland just dropped his latest edit ‘Two Days in Laax’, filmed and edited by Petter Ulsletten his hometown buddy who put competing aside to film for Marcus this season. A while back, we sat down with the two when they were in town for the Nitro ‘Offline’ premiere and got to catch up with Marcus on what post-injury life’s like.

“I mean the quad cork, there’s so much going on at the same time”

The 20-year-old Norwegian Knuckle Master managed to recover in record time, as back in November he wasn’t even sure if he was going to be able to ride in this year’s X Games – well, not only was he able to ride but he also took home silver in everyone’s favourite comp – The ‘Knuckle Huck’ (check out our favourite moments from this years X Games).

How are you finding London?
Definitely a lot of people, a lot of things going on. I’m not really used to a lot of people since I come from a small town back home in Norway. So, it’s something new for sure.

You’re here for the Nitro Premiere?
Yeah, we were in Manchester a couple of days ago and watched it there and the movie is sick. It makes me hyped to go riding and I hope it will get other people hyped too [give Nitro ‘Offline’ a watch if you haven’t yet].

You were the first one to land a quad cork in a competition. Are you planning to extend that to whatever you’d call a ‘five-cork’?
I mean the quad cork, there’s so much going on at the same time. It’s hard to say if it’s going to be possible to do one more. We’ll just have to find out in the future, but I’m not planning on doing it.

Who was your inspiration growing up?
Definitely Travis Rice. And Torstein Horgmo.

Travis is more of a backcountry guy…
Yeah, but I just enjoyed all the movies that he made. That was like mind-blowing.

You’ve been doing some backcountry yourself. Do you reckon you’ll look into that a bit more?
I’ve been trying a little bit. I went to Japan in 2015 I think. Or 2016. It was fun, it was something else. With Eero [Ettala]. I definitely want to try and look more into to.

What about street riding?
I like street riding. I haven’t really done much of it but…

What’s your proudest accomplishment so far during your career?
That would be my first gold in X Games. The slopestyle gold in 2017.

Who are your favourite people to ride with?
Just friends. Just get everybody hyped and have a good time.

What’s your favourite resort?
Easy. My favourite resort is back home in Dombas. Love that place.

Is that where you learned to snowboard?
Yeah I learned to snowboard back home. I started when I was 3,5 and then just went from there.

“They told me that I can’t snowboard until January next year”

What do you listen to while riding?
I listen to something every time that I ride. I need something to get me hyped to go riding, like an edit or just music. I listen to a lot of trap music. Hip Hop. Travis Scott, Young Thug…

What set up are you currently riding?
I’m riding the Nitro Team board with Nitro Team bindings, and Nitro Select boots. I love the fact that we can talk together [with the Nitro team] and try out different boards and give our feedback. People who we work with at Nitro are super kind and good. It’s been amazing.

What are you looking forward to the most this season?
Just getting back to my old routine. Riding at home and to get back to where I was before. Trying to do the tricks I did before and feel like myself. And of course, to travel with the team and hang out.

What’re your plans for the season?
Don’t really have anything crazy planned but I’m heading to X Games at the end of January. We’ll see if I ride but I am definitely going to go there and enjoy it.

Have you got any plans for any big video projects?
I don’t really have any plans for movie or video, but I’m having my friend who’s going to come with and pretty much document everything this winter, which is pretty nice so we’re definitely going to put out some edits.

How did it feel to be back on snow?
It felt amazing to be back on snow. First time back on snow was late May. It felt good, such an unbelievable feeling because they told me that I can’t snowboard until January next year and to be back that quick, I mean I didn’t ride a lot but, I could ride. So, it felt really good to have some snow under my feet.

What’s your secret to healing so quickly?
I don’t know haha. I’ve never really had any downtime thinking like, ‘I hate this’. You got to have your mind on something else than the injury. I went to the gym a lot and to the physio a lot. I did a lot of bending on the knee to get it better. But I also gamed a lot, hanged out with friends, drove a lot of cars. Just doing something else and not thinking too much of the injury. I think that’s important. If you think too much about it, I feel like the body just shuts down.

What’s the weirdest trick you’ve ever done?
The weirdest looking trick I’ve ever done… I’ve done this nollie misty kind of flip, like a nollie misty 5 off a jump but I wanted to up it so I did a nollie double misty 9. I also did it on the scaffolding which was so fucking sketchy, so yeh, that was an interesting one.

Do you remember when you hit your first big jump?
Yes, and it went shit. I broke my goggles. I was trying a backside 5. I had hit it a couple of times but I never span on it, so I wanted to spin and I tried to just do a backside 3 and it was bigger than I thought so I over-rotated and I slammed my head in the knuckle. When I was younger, I used to put my hand in the jump when I was trying to spin, and so I just carved way too much, and drifted straight on the knuckle with my head and broke my goggles. I was sooooo sad. And I was so scared of going home because I didn’t know if my parents were going to be mad at me for breaking my goggles but it was fine in the end.

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