Lina Stenvall, Girls Marketing Manager for Volcom Europe talks about the importance of goals, being outside and staying in control – at least sometimes

Photography by Britta Burger

If you don’t have goals in life then why live?

On days off I like to spend the entire day on the beach. If you’re lucky you can get three surf sessions in and in between those chill with friends or go grab some food in one of the nice restaurants we have in the area.

I’ve always loved being on the move and all of my games and play time as a kid and teen, always involved doing just that, running around in the forest, climbing in trees, playing sports and getting in trouble. I still can’t go for a normal walk and usually end up climbing a tree or something else stupid. It saddens me when I think about how alienated kids are from nature today. Not sure how many kids nowadays would go and create a farm in the forest out of pine cones and sticks. I feel they are losing their chance to develop a creative mind.

My introduction to snowboarding is actually quite sad, as it’s a result of my mom trying to cheer us up when my grandma died. She got us snowboards and from that day I spent all my free time during the winters on the board but continued training in skiing. When my coaches told me I needed to choose one of the two I easily chose snowboarding. My best friend Fanny and I always competed for the last spot in the races anyway so it wasn’t perhaps our thing. I have loved snowboarding ever since!

It saddens me when I think about how alienated kids are from nature today.

I started surfing when I went to Bali with my boyfriend at that time – 2004. While he was surfing proper waves I played around with some Balinese kids in the whitewater. They were great teachers. The trip was a nightmare and the relationship ended shortly after but if my passion for surfing is all I take a way from that year, I don’t regret a single day.

The best thing about my job is the constant change and opportunity it brings to meet insanely great people, travel to different places and have a creative mind. It’s the story behind our fashion that’s the most intriguing and motivating. I’d like more people to think about the brands they buy and their background and instead of putting all of their money into mass-brands that produce a lot of shit and are a big burden for our planet, try to be strong enough to have their own personal style and associate themselves with a brand that represents their own values in life.

It’s the story behind our fashion that’s the most intriguing and motivating.

Living in south west France I miss snowboarding every day during the winter but getting a brain freeze in the cold winter water isn’t a bad second option. Coming from Finland I’m not very picky about temperature or the quality of the waves so I enjoy surfing all year round.

Having spent my childhood summers on a sailboat, part of my heart will always belong to the ocean. Last summer we did a week-long boat trip on a friend’s catamaran in Indonesia. Fishing for our own food, seeing beautiful landscapes but also the effects of the tsunami while surfing great breaks, made for one unforgettable journey. I shed a tear when I touched land after those two weeks.

I have the worst dentofobia as I call it. I like to be in control and sitting in that chair with my mouth open at someone else’s mercy I could just die. My stress and anxiety levels just hit the roof. Literally scared shitless.

I did most of my studies in Swedish as I belong to roughly 6% of the Finnish population that have Swedish as a first language. I also did a senior exchange year in a high school in Las Vegas, which was more fun than educating. I think that work has always taught me more than school but then again the two definitely do compliment each other.

I think that work has always taught me more than school but then again the two definitely do compliment each other.

My only inspiration in life is my family. They are a strong group of people and have taught me that you need to take care of yourself and the people around you. They’ve also taught me to create my own future and that’s what I’m doing every day. I try to make the best out of every moment. A dear friend just told me “life won’t wait forever” and that’s why I think you need to cherish even the smallest accomplishments in life and make sure you don’t let life pass you buy while you sit on the sideline.

Despite my love for relaxing at home and building a home, after some time I always get very antsy and need to get on the move. Traveling is something I’ve enjoyed since little but I’ve sort of got a love-hate relationship with it because airports and metros soon get very exhausting.

If you don’t have goals in life then why live? Learning and experiencing new things is always a goal for me, but a more tangible one might be to at some point take my masters degree – more for my own pleasure than anything else. But generally I’m not too much of a future thinker as I like to stay in the moment and put everything into it. As Peter Ducker says “The best way to predict the future is to create it”.