PETER LINE

LEGENDARY INFO:

DOB: 8/3/1974
Home Mountain: Ski Acres, WA
Stance: Goofy

As the only active shred magazine staff writer on this list, Peter’s influence can be felt each month like an enlarged prostate, in his colon.

In all seriousness, and Ricky Melnik stories aside, before Peter Line ever put pen to page, he was putting his mark on snowboarding. Zigging and zagging through Zigzag Canyon in front of Mack Dawg’s cameras, the Washington native appeared out of nowhere as a mild-mannered and quirky snowboarding savant, and though he wasn’t old enough to drink yet, Pete had no trouble uncorking and unleashing. When The Hard, the Hungry, and the Homeless hit the shelves, all the established guard could do was drink it all in. “The old school was just straight scared,” declares Mikey LeBlanc. “Peter came out with a video part in the mid-nineties that caught a lot of attention,” adds two-time world big air champion Tina Basich. “He was pulling some new moves with new variations that kicked off a new direction [for] freestyle jumps in the backcountry.”

Peter’s life was quickly turned upside down, and the Transworld video magazine film crews captured it all. Though no one believed he was raised by chipmunks, there was no denying that the tricks he had squirreled away were nuts. How cool is Peter Line? Cool enough to make an entire industry believe that not only could a pink snowboard covered in rainbows sell, but that it was macho. “He’s an innovator and an artist,” observes Texas transplant and former goofy-footer Travis Parker. “He painted the air with his passion for progression.”

Perhaps the most telling gauge of Peter’s impact are the achievements of those he mentored, as three other riders on this list were hand-picked by Line to represent Forum, the brand he founded. Simple Pleasures, Technical Difficulties, Decade, The Resistance, True Life, and a flood of team videos followed. Original Forum 8 member JP Walker has been along for the whole ride, saying, “The kid is sick. You can credit him with inventing tricks like backside corkscrews and backside rodeos. [And he’s had] lots of contest wins over the years, from the X Games to random quarterpipe contests. He came into the game with a style all his own and did his thing. [Just a] weird, scrawny kid flipping and hucking down the mountain... Oh yeah, and stomping.”