We decided to get under the skin of an assortment of pro riders by posing one question and seeing how they stack up. For this instalment we asked: “Which rider influenced you most as a kid and why?”
Feel free to add your own answers beneath!
We decided to get under the skin of an assortment of pro riders by posing one question and seeing how they stack up. For this instalment we asked: “Which rider influenced you most as a kid and why?”
Feel free to add your own answers beneath!
“It was Seb Toots I guess. Because he was goofy and I always wanted to do the same tricks as him, it was the same feeling.”
“When I was little I didn’t look up to pro riders, I was always riding with my brothers, so they were my biggest role models. When I was like 15 and I got up there all my classmates asked me who my favourite riders were and I always said my brothers. I had to study some snowboarding when I got into the snowboard academy, when I was 16 just studying all the pro riders to get to know what contest they went to and when. I was so busy with my own riding before I didn’t focus on anyone else or what tricks they were doing.”
“My brother. I grew up with him, we did every sport together, we learnt to snowboard together and he was always just a step ahead of me, then we we’re just pushing each other. Always good times with him. I still ride with him from time to time but not that much since he kind of quit professional snowboarding and is more focussed on just enjoying life and travelling.”
“My brother Frode has always been my hero and I think he kinda knows that, but I know that he’s not superman. Almost, but not fully superman.”
“There’s two. Kjersti Buass and Jamie Anderson. I still look up to both of them, not just because they’re both amazing riders, but really good role models and good human beings. I use to fan out pretty hard. I remember watching Kjersti at the Norwegian champs, being the kid who was too shy to say hi. We had the Norwegian Champs in my home town one year so the local newspaper took a picture of me and Kjersti, that was crazy for me, I was so excited and asked her to sign my jacket but she didn’t want to because she was scared of ruining the jacket, she did eventually. That’s crazy looking back on that.”
“Probably Nicolas and Freddi as their career started to kick off right when I really got into snowboarding.”
“Of course Sami Saarenpää because he was from same city as me but also Heikki Sorsa with his mohawk at the Olympics and of course Eero Ettala in his video parts he always rides everything. And he’s also amazing skater.”
“It wasn’t one person. It was the whole Forum team!”
“Probably Heikki Sorsa or Antti Autti because they were really famous in Finland when I was young and I only got to see them on the Olympics and that kind of stuff from TV. Also some local riders who I saw riding in my home resort.”
“There are too many riders that inspired me as a kid, not only riders but personality (Athletes,Musician,Actors etc) i just took anything i liked from all these people to become myself. But Danny Davis, Ipod, Danny Kass, Markus Keller were for sure my favorites in snowboarding.”
“JP Walker and Louif Paradis. JP because he basically started the whole Street thing and I was always so impressed of what’s actually possible. Louif because I’ve always been a big fan of his style, creativity, spot and trick choice.”
“I think way back in the days it was Gian Simmen. He won the Olympics and was pretty much the man for snowboarding here in Switzerland… as more and more I got into filming and riding back country I looked up to Gigi, Pat Moore or Müller and I’m still inspired by them now… but there are so many other riders I’m hyped on, like Mat Schaer or Fredrik Evensen, these kids are killing it. But I’m not only inspired of riders because of riding! There is so much more! Like Jake Welch, he is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met!!!”
“A lot of people influenced my snowboarding growing up, the main guys are the ones I looked up to when the dry slope scene was still really good. Dudes like; Wayne Taylor, Stu Edwards, Damian Doyle, Tom Percival, Col Myton, Stuart Horsham, Ben Wall, Ian Ashmore, Tom Honey, Matt Higson, Matt Mcwhirter John Weatherly. So many people used to influence you then because you’d see different people at all the contest through the summer on all the dry slopes round the UK. I would have to say my biggest influence was Jonny Russell though, I really don’t think I would snowboard in the same way if I never rode with Jonny. He has always been just so good and so proper with his riding so it kind of put me in a good direction and hanging out with older dudes makes you have to not act like a little shit or they will let you know about it haha.”
“Mikkel Bang, he was from the same area, he was the guy I wanted to be.”
“It was JP Walker for sure and the whole Forum team back then, because the first snowboard movie I saw was The Resistance.”
“It must have been the local heroes back then, Heikki Sorsa and Eero Niemelä. Also Jussi Oksanen and Joni Mäkinen from the Standard movies. Just seeing someone from Finland being that good live or on a video was amazing. It really made me want to learn the tricks they were doing.”
“Terje.”
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