Archived: Nils Jansons' Mind Your Step
Sometimes, life goes full circle in Thailand.
One full revolution of our planet around the Sun ago, I started working alongside Kaspars Alksnis and Nils Jansons on an idea that would later turn into, as any meticulous plan eventually does, something else entirely.
Originally thought as a means to go on a month-long Chinese trip together, our plan was to pitch FISE with a concept that would capture Nils’ experience at the final event of their World Series, and then follow him on his adventures through the country.
In short, have them foot the bill for a video focused on long train rides, real street skating, and the thrill of exploring unknown territories, and then present the result to their online audience in a documentary mini-series. Aiming at the core of the blading scene, but also other action sports and normal people alike, we planned to do things a little differently from the start.
Only we had no idea how different they’d actually become.
Believe it or not, a varied group of people at FISE gave us the green light.
Their answer, unfortunately, reached us after the deadline, and during the time it took every person involved with that decision to approve the project, we had no alternative but to come up with another plan.
This one involved filming a whole street section during four weeks in Thailand. On top of a similar documentary, still meant to be shown to a wider audience through YouTube, we would also sell that section on VOD to help cover production costs. If we broke even, 10% of the profits were to be donated to an NGO doing environmental work.
Sounds ambitious? Nevertheless, the plan went surprisingly well this time, if you leave out the physical injuries we all endured and other trivial issues. We all made it out alive, the three parts of the documentary are online, and 864€ have been donated to WWF thanks to the support of our community.
Mind Your Step, it is called.
You can watch the final piece of the puzzle below.
Nils’ section dropped the day I landed back in Thailand, one whole year after we started working on this project, which proved to be a great opportunity to learn and grow. To be able to watch it again, here in this special place, brings back memories of lights, flavors & sounds, and reminds me of some of the things I have learned, too.
Any good Thai massage will make it abundantly clear: in life, flexibility is key.
Sometimes, giving up is the right thing to do, and accepting things as they are, the only way to sanity. In certain circumstances, you have to make space around you in order to make room inside. And how you deal with what’s inside, determines what’s around you. That either mental or physical, stiffness only results in suffering. It’s quite impossible to maintain a healthy mindset if your body is in pain. And the other way around!
Full circle, I told you.
In short, don’t mind your step too much and let go!
DISPOSABLE PHOTOGRAPHS BY YOURS, TRULY
