Kareem El Rafie - a podcast by jody wachniak

This Swedish Egyptian has transferred from pro snowboarder to full-time “soul boarder”. Life after professional snowboarding is a difficult road for most, you seem to lose not only your identity but your beloved travel budget. It’s time to join the 5-9 world? For some yes, but not for Kareem. He found away to juggle work and play by starting a successful food truck business Laolita and soon to be restaurant. This allows him to take the winters off and enjoy boarding, with no outside pressures from brands. Kareem’s first sponsor was Forum Snowboards and that presented an opportunity of a lifetime to film for the iconic Forum movie - THAT (2006) where he shared a part with now close friend Stevie Bell. A few seasons later Kareem found himself in the middle of Forum’s big switch over, new ownership, new team managers and somehow got lost in the mix. Kareem had a string of annoying mishaps throughout his career but the guy never seemed worried. He has been involved in countless videos from Video Grass, Factor Films, Dope Industries, Blue Tomato, Helgason's and many many more. Mark Frank Montoya even handpicked Kareem to be apart of his outerwear company SOUND. The guy has always focused his time and energy on what feels right and what looks dope to him, in his own words “soul boarding” a term used by Kareem when someone is doing a trick that expresses their own unique vision of how that trick should be done with no expected outcome but filling ones soul. That vision of “soul boarding” lead him to start one of Europe’s biggest rail jams - The Frontline rail jam named after his clothing company in which he wanted to get the community together to have a more fun and style focused contest showcasing that simple tricks can place you at the top when right. His event/ clothing company have helped shine spotlights on the careers of e-man, halldor helgason, eiki helgason, felix remington, kevin griffin the list goes on, even myself. Kareem has so many amazing stories, excited to share this one. Much love everyone

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