Aleksi Suovaara in "AATSI"
by Teemu Metsäkylä
Yesterday my girlfriend and I drove from Taos, New Mexico to Park City, Utah over 11 hours. I took first shift through tumbleweeds and dust storm, her turn for mountain passes and blowing snow, then I resumed for straight travels up Utah’s spine, attentive through curves past Sundance into Park City up to the last climb where we see two snowplows clearing roads after recent avalanche. They make room for my passage and I begin accelerating, only to feel hydroplaning on the snowpack as our vehicle makes the most minuscule of progress. I’m flooring the gas pedal while RPMs stay thankfully low and we make slower than walking progress up this incline in our two wheel drive rental while my girlfriend engages hazard lights and 4 wheel drive traffic from behind carves around us with caution and comparative ease. Minutes pass as our slow progress continues. I don’t want the engine to overheat but am reluctant to stop pressing gas and risk losing our slim bit of momentum. The crest appears in sight as a snowplow makes space on our left. We inch past the vast machine and our tires spin, RPMs max out and we catch grip on a thicker spot of snow, pitched forward onto traction around the curve and into Deer Valley.
Mosaic textures in Super 8 over Free Skate Mag red dot, shot lingers on sculpture of an insouciant boy riding a fish in a fountain, hi def switch to Aleksi backside bluntslide flip to forward over featured fountain while a trolley car passes. Next clip in a smartly zipped black and white striped jacket, he exits a park via tailslide popover perpendicular parapet to regular. A quick super 8 shot conveys little, then next clip displays lengthy front tail slide lifted into switch crooks held to end, out to fakie. Next clip in Carhartt hoodie at same spot is front 5-0 to switch crooks to fakie pop out followed by fakie back bigspin to 5-0 revert, two trick Bobby Dekeyzer technicality herein counterbalancing the fact that he also spanned this long ledge’s entirety just the clip before. Aleksi usually wore black Converse high tops before he got on Vans and you can see the aesthetic ideal in his mind’s eye. Gang of Four style New Wave plays while Aleksi holds crooked grind through flat ledge over stairs, dropping into further crooked grind on metal fence before fakie descent in Old Skool pros. Modernist hubba gets noseslide 270 revert in tucked white tee under verdant trees.
Super 8 shows aged citizens playing in public fountain, then Aleksi returns for balletic Austyn Gillete line of half-cab flip noseslide, backside flip nosegrind, cousins to each other with Swedish model home in background. He kickflips out of front tail and 360 flips out of back smith. His glasses and affinity for Hockey garment brutalism bring to mind Diego Todd; also see Brian Michaud for shaved head style. Aleksi shows further combination mastery with diamond plate crooked grind to nose manual nollie flip out alongside water. He wears art student Sk8-Hi’s, apparently red leather dyed black.
Aleksi noseslide 270 shoves black marble ledge on dirt ground then offers his board to a horse. He 360 pressure flips down first stair set then late back bigspins the second one like Chris Pfanner. Someone seeks dap but Aleksi has a textbook tre flip to perform. Parking garage bump gap gets another 360 flip, then he impossibles a walrus statue to stair gap I recognize. At a Swedish TF ledge he switch wallie nosebluntslide 270 out as single. Next line features kickflip out of noseslide on flat ledge then kickflip into noseslide on bank to ledge. Again at the bank to ledge, he back bluntslide flips to fakie. He crooked grinds a third top step for the length of a building before popping out and down. He utilizes board as shovel to facilitate flatbar back 5050 transfer into cobblestone. He holds back 180 nosegrind as sidewalk descends out to street ride switch front bigs down hill. A deep crew values his back smith kickflip out. Wax residue guides his noseblunt booger slide across platform into noseblunt proper on ledgeside before nollie flip to fakie.
Prior to ender, we see Super 8 of the Rally-3000 carnival gap, excited that Aleksi is approaching, but he takes another route of bluntslide down and across low hubba, then at the convex kink before second stair set, he pops down into back 5050 last descent. The boys cheer then super 8 hipshot parting glance at bespectacled ripper, glasses resting upon buccal smile. I hadn’t heard of Aleksi before this part, but he’s been building his name in the Finnish scene and shared billing with Eetu Toropainen in Troposphere three seasons ago. His dedication to lengthy ledgework and light-footed technicality has Vans Europe boosting him and I hope Aleksi is looking forward to a 2023 filled with traveling on other people’s dime.