Coffee Talk With Trond Hansen

Written by: Trond Hansen

Those pics above can really resume well Trond Hansen. Sick riding, smooth passion for music, great guitar player and singer, and good MX rider. I remember the first time i saw the Viking around. Saalbach, Adidas Slopestyle 2005, He was there with Niels Windfeldt and they were really killing it. Such a different style. Exactly what i wanted to see at the time on a mountainbike, snowboard inspiration. Sending huge tailwhips on a sketchy hip on their heavy Kona fullys….This was Trond and he’s still like that. You can count on him when it’s about sending big tricks on big jumps. Doing well on contest, i can assure you that Trond is all about freeriding. Having the chance to film during both Days of Thunder, i was really stocked to see that he found the perfect balance, a nice overall rider, technical dirtjumper (still remember his 720° in Peynier), stylish as a motocross rider on big jumps, and fast as hell when it’s about DH. Watch out for him this year, and get a DOT DVD soon to come to enjoy some great riding from the north ! Find after the drop his interview with sick pics from Joakim Andreassen. As a musician, i asked him what he wanted to put under spotlights for his interview, his answer was Serge Gainsbourg. Sorry, couldn’t find a nice clip of “Requiem pour un twister” but i’m sure he gonna be pleased with one of the most famous beat and song that Gainsbourg made with Brigitte Bardot, “Bonnie & Clyde”…Enjoy !
- Name ? Trond Gjedrem Hansen
- Age ? 27
- Who you’re riding for ? Specialized, Rockstar, Oakley, Camelbak, and Hafjell

How and when did you start riding a bike ? I started riding when i was 14. I got a proper MTB and just started riding around my hometown looking for places to ride. We went to the mountains and streets looking for trails, stairs, and basically anything we could find to ride our bike on.

- When did you become a “pro” ? in January 2006 I got a deal with Specialized, wich made me able to not work on the side of riding. I startted riding pro contests like Crankworks and Adidas Slopestyle in 2005.

- What were the biggest changes in life turning pro ? It made me able to travel anywhere anytime I wanted to to ride my bike. I guess the biggest change was that i started going away for a few months every winter so I could ride.

How do you train ? I do all kinds of different stuff. Of course I ride my bike, i snowboard, ride my MX, climbing now and then, and i started kickboxing a little bit lately, and I go to the gym. Don´t get me wrong, i don´t do all these things every week, but I like to do different stuff to keep it fun.

- Can you describe a normal day of your life ? That all depends of the time of year. Right now there´s no possibilities to ride where I live, so now it is going to school for a few hours, either snowboard, climb, or work out, and then playing some music with my band. In the summertime it´s quite different. If I´m at home I´ll start off with a good breakfast (breakfast is my favourite meal of the day), and then go ride either the mountains or the dirtjumps, and then whatever afterwards.

Can you please briefly sum up your season? My 2009 season wasn´t so good contestwise. I´ve been riding contests for quite a few years now, and have a hard time finding the motivation for all the contests. Ridingwise it was good. I got to ride a lot in Spain, France, and most of all back home, where we also had our own contest ANTI Days of Thunder.

- What are you focused on for next year? I wanna travel to some nice places with my bike. There´s some plans, but we´ll see if they work out.
- Any changes ? I´ll be doing more filmtrips and less contests.
- Sponsors ? I´m now riding for Camelbak too.

- What are you up to for this winter? I´m spending quite a bit of time doing school now, and I started a band and I´m super into playing music nowadays. It´s the first winter I will live at home in five years so I´m hoping snowboard a lot, and I wanna go to Barcelona and Aptos to ride my bike a few times.

What are you doing when you’re not on you bike ? Playing music, snowboard, climb, sitting on the computer editing movies or making music.

- What kind of music do you listen to ? The last few days I´ve been listening to the Racontours. One of Jack Whites bands. In general I listen to anything that i think sounds good, so the list would be to long. I like Serge Gainsbourg too. He´s from france:-)

What was your dream when you were a kid? I had too many dreams when I was a kid, cause whenever I started doing a sport or something I wanted to be a pro at that. But since I started riding bikes I wanted to be a bikepro. Did you succeed ? Yes

- Which skills do you think are recquired to be a top-level athlete ? I think you need to be physically talented, wich means good strength, coordination, and balance, and then you need motivation to get better, and the brains to figure out how to get better.

- Is there some persons who helped you along your career or now and you would like to thanks or put the spotlights on ? I´d like to thank Tarek, Snorre, Niels, Joakim, and my sponsors.