“Why Riga?” many might ask. Well, it’s a funny story really…”
On the 19th of April the whole of KIPA sat down to discuss and plan the KIPA Street Jam that would occur two months from that day. However, another subject was also brought to our attention. Because of COVID, KIPA had not made a single full group trip outside Sweden since our very first video “Tell em” in Madrid, Spain. We all agreed that it would be a great idea to go somewhere and film a video. While we had many ideas on when and where we should do this, ultimately it narrowed itself down to Murat’s suggestion, which was Riga.
The capital city of Latvia has fostered several athletes who’ve contributed to parkour immensely with their creativity of movement. However, in the last few years the surge of creativity and community which had put Riga and Latvia in the spotlight has seemed to decline. Instead of going to an already known and thriving community, we thought going to Riga and Latvia to pay homage to what the city and country has contributed to Parkour, was a much better idea. Ever since we started filming longer pieces for KIPA, we have tried not to solely focus on ourselves, and place emphasis on the community. We knew beforehand that we wanted to do the same for our Riga project. We also thought it was very important that we would pay for the athletes’ flights and living situations. It was essential that these athletes would feel not only welcome, but wanted. We had come up with a roster of athletes whom we wanted to shoot with in Riga and we had written an invitation letter. But, as per usual, we were very late getting out with the whole thing.
Since we were so late with sending invitations, only two out of five athletes were able to make it. These two athletes were Jaco Tombolani and Sophia Fitz. Jaco Tombolani is an incredible athlete from Venice, Italy, who we have been big fans of for years. We first met Jaco back in 2019 in Venice on a trip throughout Europe. Already then we were amazed at his power and his control. Since then, Jaco has only been improving and is right now, according to us, one of the best in the game. It felt obvious to ask Jaco if he wanted to be a part of this project and we were honored when he said yes. Sophia Fitz is a great friend of ours, and also a great athlete. She recently moved to Stockholm, Sweden, to study abroad, and reached out to us on Instagram since she didn’t know anybody from Sweden at the time. In a very short time we became great friends and saw each other on an almost daily basis. Sophia fully integrated herself into our local community and small clique, so it felt like a natural choice to ask her if she wanted to join us in Riga. Unfortunately Sophia had recently been dealing with a longtime injury and informed us that she would not be able to perform at her fullest during the trip. Regardless of her injury Sophia joined us and still threw down. She greatly contributed to making both our trip, and video, so memorable to us!
While in Riga
During our 7 day long stay in Riga we had an incredible time driving around the city, coming up with and shooting various challenges. The city offers a unique array of spots, many of which are quite rugged and not very forgiving. The concrete jungle situated in Latvia had become our new home during that time. The problem was that we did not know our way around our new home. We didn’t know any spots, nor the language, and while Murat could assist us with his Russian language skills, we still needed someone who knew Riga inside and out. Enter, Stanislav Lazdan.
“This understanding but very supportive attitude became the glue of this project”
Stanislav Lazdan, more commonly known as Staz, is a legendary Latvian athlete who grew up outside of Riga. He grew up training in his smaller town with another legendary Latvian athlete, Pavel Petkuns, or Pasha the Boss. The two athletes have both contributed significantly to how the sport is perceived and performed today. While planning our trip to Riga we reached out to Staz, asking if he would be home throughout our stay, or if he could give us some locations of spots. It was important to us that we not only went to Riga, but that we actually went to the old spots on which the old Latvian community used to train on.
Staz seemed excited about the whole project and promised to show us around the city once we arrived. While in Riga, Staz took us around everywhere in his car. Tightly packed together, (possibly one too many) we roamed the streets of Riga in a hunt for spots. It was a very memorable experience sitting in the car, walking around, seeing legendary spots and being told what had been done there. Thanks to Staz we now had everything we needed to create our new video.
In the Making
Throughout filming we all had a collective goal of getting as interesting and tasteful clips as we could. Constantly rotating filmers and second filmers, everyone had the opportunity to do a little bit of everything. Nobody had an asserted role or a specific objective to complete. Much like a house of cards, we were all leaning on and supporting each other. Some clips were one bangs and others were long long battles. My favorite example of this is my own wallflip variation in a corner. This clip took a solid three hours and a total of 63 attempts to land. During this entire duration all members of the Riga crew stayed at the spot, helping with filming or mental support. While I didn’t walk away from that spot feeling fulfilled or happy with my execution, the others assured me that it was a great clip and that we will film many more. This understanding but very supportive attitude became the glue of this project.
Another great example of this was when Lester attempted his first double sideflip outside. While he never found a perfect spot, Lester was persistent in wanting to try and accomplish this feat for the project. Once he had found a somewhat decent place to try, it would all come down to if he could commit to the move or not. We all did our very best to support him throughout his process. Unfortunately Lester ended up underdoing the first attempt and landing on his side and face. But even after bruising his toe and getting injured, Lester stood up and smiled like usual, although this time with dirt between his teeth. I think this example of perseverance best describes our mindsets and attitudes during our time in Riga.
Final Thoughts
I’ll never forget the fun we had during those days. All of us stay- ing together in an Airbnb, cooking, eating and sleeping together. The time it rained the whole day so we had an indoor couch session. The time we had to take out the trash and found ourselves in a weird conversation with an older woman who only spoke russian. Or the time we all were running back and forth around a park trying to film as many clips as possible. Memories like these are the reason to go and make projects with your friends. You don’t need to have expensive high quality cameras or go to a place with the best spots in the world. All you need is to have quality time with your friends and capture it.
