You live in Hemsedal, Norway and I kind of feel like there's a whole generation today of snowboard fans and consumers that don't really know a lot about Hemsedal's history and what that place was to snowboarding back in the day.

Yeah, so I grew up in a suburb of Oslo called Rykkin and we grew riding little icy hills, kinda like what I think the midwest and the east coast has in the US. So Hemsedal was always kind of like the “big mountain.” Much like a lot of riders in the US migrated to Mammoth in the early 2000s, I feel like Hemsedal was kind of that for Scandinavia. Also, it has been made famous through a lot of the shoots that used to happen here.

Did Mack Dawg ever have a shoot there?

I don't know if Mack Dawg was ever here. There were definitely clips in Mack Dawg. Standard had a lot of clips of Eero and Heikki, and so a lot of international pros came here for different spring sessions in the early 2000s. Now, everything has changed. Everybody's more global and they travel internationally. It doesn't have that same scene going on anymore, but it's still a cool mountain with pretty decent snow and nice terrain. 

Snowboarding is so cyclical. Do you think there will ever be a time where it comes back to Hemsedal and people get those spring sessions going again?

I'm sure it can happen, a spring session here or there. I go up with my friends and we build stuff well into May every year. But in terms of the scene, I think too much has changed and a lot of it has changed with social media. Back in the day people used to live here for the winter and they weren't concerned if anywhere else were better, you know? But now you can always see what other people are up to so you always wonder where the best conditions are. But back in the day people just kind of found a place they liked and committed to it.

You went to a snowboarding academy and got into the slopestyle scene and then you took a step away from that. 

Growing up in Norway, the only way to kind of get into snowboarding was through competitions, so me and all my friends competed at a young age. When I was 16 I moved up to a mountain town to go to a sports academy, and that's kind of what we did, competed. Back then, a lot of the global competitions were “open” so you could sign up and we just started going to them. We did decent, and so then you get invited to new competitions. I don't think it was anything that I ever planned, it just kind of happened naturally because that's what we did. I think it took a few years for me to realize that I'm just not that competitive, I'm not really into it. I think changing sponsors helped me realize that I should focus on what I like to do because there's no point in doing the competition side if I don't like it, just to please somebody else.

Now, being a dad, having a family, settling down in Hemsedal, what does your typical day of snowboarding look like from start to finish? 

I think my days now finally have a little more structure than what they used to. But, my day starts at 6:00 and I make breakfast for the family. Then we go to daycare around 8:00, I go home, get changed, put my gear on and I'm usually at the lift by 9:00 or 9:30, depending on the conditions. Then I spend the day riding and go grocery shop, pick my kid up from daycare, and back to family life.

What I find really admirable about you and what Tanner and I initially talked about when we were chatting with you was you're really good at creating content on your own in any given conditions. 

I think I grew up at a time and place where we didn't have good parks. There are parks around, but it wasn't like you could hot lap from top to bottom and everything worked out. We'd always find something to session, you know? I think that mentality is something that we always brought with us that if you go up on the mountain, you always find somewhere where it's good and usually post up there, lap it or hike it but make the most of it. I think for me, that's the way I still like to do it. Go figure out what's the best for that given day and then take it from there. I'm also very fortunate to live in a place where conditions aren't always great, but there's always something you can ride. I've always been drawn to the Think Thank crew. Even when I was competing and riding slopestyle, I'd always watch a lot of Think Thank and I always liked their energy and how they made the most out of anything. I want to spend more time at home, so I can't be sitting around waiting for the perfect day because there are two of them a year. There's always something that works. I think for a few years in my career when I was traveling more, I was just way too spoiled. I like it more now just going out and making the most of whatever is there.

What is the most important thing you look for in a snowboard? If there's one attribute of a snowboard, what does it boil down to?

I'm pretty picky. I'm picky because I have a bigger foot. I've spent too much time in my life with toe drag and heel drag. Usually it's width, but now I know what width I like and we make boards that are my width. For me it's when you go freeriding and how it sits in the snow, how you see your nose pop up and how much buoyancy there is, how it planes through the snow. I think that's the number one thing. If there's a little bit less or more sidecut, you can work with that and get used to that. But how it sits in the snow is important.

How has becoming a father changed the way that you look at your career?

I find the word “career” kind of hard because I think what it has done is set my life up so the snowboarding that I do is more just a part of the lifestyle. But it has been amazing to get the opportunity to move here and have snowboarding and the mountains as a part of my everyday life. I think being a father, it hasn't changed it dramatically, but I think I've gotten more hungry. I think I'm more motivated now than ever and I go riding on more crappy days. I ride more in general now than I ever have, I think.

Talk a little bit about the testing process for you. Having boards sent to you and working with Ryan and Paul and then coming to Powder Mountain to test them with the whole crew.

I really like the process of testing and building products. I think it's interesting and I've always been pretty interested in boards and board specs. I like to have a bit of a quiver where I try out different things and different stances, angles, everything. For me it has been a really cool experience. There's definitely some added pressure that there is an end goal and I want that end goal to be as good as possible. But the process has been amazing. I know Paul from before and working with everybody else in-house has been super cool. They're all really helpful and I feel like there's mutual understanding of all the elements that need to come together to make a good product.

How do you feel the team vibe is?

I've met most of the guys before, but I haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with anybody on the program, so that's been really cool. I think it's a group of like-minded people with similar ideas and goals and lifestyles. Yeah, right from the start it was a pretty easygoing thing.

Who do you draw inspiration from in snowboarding?

I like to see when people are out riding and it's genuine, that they go out because they like it. I draw a lot of inspiration from people that aren't professional snowboarders because most people, there's no monetary incentive to do what they do. I love riding with people that aren't professional snowboarders, as well. Obviously, I have a lot of friends that are professionals and I love riding with them too, but it's really cool to ride with people that see snowboarding through different lenses I think. But I'd say these days I definitely draw a little more inspiration from older riders, but I don't have a particular name because if I list one, I have to say a hundred.