When you look back in history,
the snowboarders that really pushed the sport
to what it is today, they had no guidance.
We have guidance from the legends of our sport,
they had nothing, they created everything.
Craig Kelly, Terje Håkonsen,
they really pushed the envelope of what was possible,
in these hand-dug halfpipes, but they really set the bar
and laid the groundwork for what we’re able to do today.
I think that, sure, Ingemar’s backside air
back then opened up a whole new spectrum
for what’s possible with like bigger transitions.
And that new benchmark he set
was really the goal from then on.
Height is a reference, it’s something that can be measured.
And of course it was a breakthrough.
I think that method was in every snowboard magazine.
Snowboarding getting introduced to the Olympics
in Nagano in ’98, that was huge.
We didn’t get into snowboarding
to go the Olympics, it was something we loved.
It always had like a rebellious attitude.
It wasn’t skiing, it was surfing and skating on snow.
But that really kind of started
to put snowboarding in the limelight.
1998, Gian, in Nagano, yeah,
it made it truly special that it was a Swiss guy
who got this first Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe.
He was a role model in snowboarding, for sure.
And for us, it was great to have somebody
in this small country to kind of pave the way.
Arctic Challenge itself,
it was really the snowboarding event for snowboarders.
And I think that was a huge impact.
And when Heikki broke that record,
it was really ground-breaking.
Ross Powers’ method was a huge moment in snowboarding.
And apparently he was just like,
"I'm going to send it as big as I can!”
And I think that really speaks to the mentality
of what it takes to go big in the halfpipe.
You really have to grit your teeth,
get ticked off, and just absolutely send it.
That’s what he did, and he set an all-time high
for a backside air in the halfpipe that day.
It was really cool to see.
And I think that method will live on forever.
With Ticket To Ride Tour, there came
more new events, new formats.
There was quarterpipe competitions happening,
the same as creative slopestyles
with bigger transitions.
Halfpipes got to superpipes,
and the walls got taller and taller.
So that matched really nicely
with the progression that was going on in the riding.
I think, especially in Europe,
we could really feel this kind of hype,
because there were a lot of TTR events in Europe.
It was a different attitude of competing,
and it made it a bit cooler.
There’s no denying that Shaun White
was a king of amplitude, and he really paved the way
for amplitude in a way that just totally raised the bar.
You’re on the world stage,
it’s like, to win something like that
just carries so much weight.
Nothing really has the same ring as,
"I'm an Olympic gold medalist.”
You can be anywhere in the world and say that,
and people will kind of like turn their head.
Shaun White!
Shaun White is probably one of the most
talented snowboarders that I’ve ever met.
And he’s taken snowboarding
from just big in the mainstream to like pop culture.
Quarterpipe has got really popular,
especially US Open, Air & Style, Arctic Challenge.
And those things really got bigger and bigger, I feel like,
before the halfpipes did.
And people were going faster and faster and faster.
A new, let’s say discipline
kind of emerged, and the battle for the
highest air was, for sure, one of the most prestigious.
Terje managed to push that record
over the 9 meter bench, 9.8, really close to 10 meters.
That was surely like another big step in transition riding.
All the respect for Terje,
I think he is the quarterpipe Jedi.
It was like a gladiator showdown,
and people were really excited to watch it, of course.
But I think the price is really high.
When Jack Mitrani did it at Air & Style,
he took a bit of a slam, but I think easily
he would tell you that that’s the biggest air he’s ever done.
That era, with Kevin Pearce, the whole Frends Crew.
It was interesting, because there was
kind of this “Shaun or against him” image.
People really wanted to beat him
throughout the years, and Kevin actually did.
He would bring out in his run the very best.
And he made it happen throughout a few events,
and then achieved to overcome Shaun.
It was really good for snowboarding,
shaking up the podium, and I think it also
motivated Shaun to be better and to do better.
Vancouver was impressive because you go
from an 18-foot halfpipe to a 22-foot halfpipe.
I wanted to cement who I was in the sport,
and have another win at the Olympics, and I did it.
I left it all out on the mountain
that day, I didn’t really hold back,
and that’s kind of like, I was content.
Shaun goes bigger than anybody else in the pipe.
I mean, he’s shown over and over his ability
to come in, without much practice, and do it.
And, you know, be still winning all these contests,
it’s unbelievable to watch him.
A huge, and that's a 20-foot high...
It’s pretty impressive for him to go 7 meters
or more out of the halfpipe.
I didn’t even know that was a thing, 7 meters 30,
so yeah, Shaun has always pushed it with amplitude,
and credit to him.
I’m motivated, I want to win, I want to do well,
and I think it’s showing through in my riding.
He just simply goes higher than everybody else on a snowboard.
Wow.
That’s got to be one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.
We all had this session
where everybody sent it really heavily.
The hard part about the hip jump
is that at the take-off, you don’t see the landing.
And that’s the most scary part, as well.
Going big, or air time, was always a bit of my strength.
And you know
when you’re a little bit bigger than before.
You feel it, and it’s of course the best feeling ever.
It makes me really happy to have this title,
it’s something that will never go away,
for me personally, that I achieved that.
It’s almost scary to see how big guys like Shaun fly out
of the regular superpipe and now the quarterpipe.
I don’t think I dare to say
that that’s not going to be broken one day,
because I remember how often we already said that,
“OK, now I think we kind of reached the limit.”
But they still keep pushing,
the shapers, the engineers, as well as the riders.