words and photos by Jeff Schmuck

There’s just no other way to put it…day 1 of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions went off. The sun was out in full force in Are, Sweden this morning and throughout the day. With five beyond massive features to choose from, including The Floater (a 30-meter stepdown), The Trip Buster (a JOI-style gap jump), The Rhythm Section (three bmx-style jumps, tranny-to-tranny), The Launcher (a 30-foot tall hip, with a 70 foot gap in the middle to a 50-foot tall landing) and The Experiment (a tabletop with an old-school freestyle take-off), a difficult decision had to be made on what to hit first.

After briefly considering testing out the hip to kick things off, Jon made the call to hit the JOI jump, mainly due to the lack of wind that was making the day that much more perfect.

Jon and his baby

The hospitality of the event is at all an all-time high courtesy of Jon, who has really outdone himself this year by first transporting the athletes to Are from the local airport by helicopter, and then putting the crew up in the beautiful Tott hotel, complete with Cadillac shuttles taking everyone wherever they need to go. The happiest man in the hotel this morning was Peter Olenick, who’s gift bag included 70 tins of snuss and more chocolate and condoms than you could shake a stick at.

Peter Olenick

As everyone got ready to head up the hill, the excitement was at an all-time high for everyone involved, particularly after the bad weather that has plagued most of the events this year. But no one was quite aware of just how much things were about to go off until they approached the jump.

The Trip Buster

The Trip Buster, according to Jon, “is by far the biggest jump I’ll probably ever build.” And it was no joke.

Jon and his other baby

A 26-meter gap monster with a buttery smooth landing complete with sunshine, a large crowd of spectators and a heli follow-cam made for a day filled with an epic level of skiing that went right until sunset and was just too amazing for words. So I’ll just shut-up and let the pictures do the rest of the talking…

Simon Dumont

To say that The Dumont was going off today would be a huge understatment. He stomped every single one of his jumps, including a quiver of ridiculously corked 10's complete with more tweaks in his grabs that I've ever seen someone do.

Oscar Scherlin

Oscar was representing Sweden hard today, throwing some sick cork 3 double japans amongst a host of other things.

Jacob Wester

Also on point for his homeland was Jacob, who spent most of the day tossing huge flatspin 7's.

Colby West

Another man to watch throughout the week is Colby West, who was fired enough up to be the first one to hit the jump switch, throwing some picture perfect switch misty 7's, 5's and zero spins.

Andreas Hatveit

To no one's surprise, Andreas was one of the first on the hill and the last to leave, throwing some huge corked out 7's. Bonus points to his brother Jon, who continued to prove that he is the best and balliest follow cam man in the business.

Sammy Carlson

Sammy was arguably going higher than anyone all day with his trademark flawless flatspin 5's, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then start talking.

Jon Olsson

And of course, last but certainly not least, our host Jon Olsson was in fine-form, busting out his effortless rodeo 5's and switch cork 5's in between running the most exciting event of the year. Thanks for everything so far Jon.

In other athlete news, Mike Clarke and Peter Olenick didn't compete today (Mike's luggage was lost by the airline but will be arriving tomorrow morning and Peter is nursing a bit of a sore knee), while Henrik Harlaut seemed to be just getting a feel for the jump for the better part of the day. The forecast is unfortunately calling for a bit of bad weather beginning tomorrow, so Jon has planned an early morning shoot on the hip jump that anyone who isn’t too hurting after tonight’s old school hip-hop party will surely be front-and-center at. Stay tuned to NS for full coverage of the Jon Olsson Super Sessions right till the bitter end on April 6th, and be sure to check out the Jon Olsson Super Sessions Videoblog, which will be updated daily and presented to you right here in the articles and on the frontpage player.