TERJE HAAKONSEN INTERVIEW: The Legend, The Myth, The Man

Behind the makings of a legend are the feats of a human. A person with a rare combination of foresight, ingenuity, and the ability to translate vision to action successfully within a given outlet—oftentimes with a seemingly supernatural aptitude. Terje Haakonsen is these qualities personified, and as a current practitioner of what earned him this status a decade and a half ago, he is an exemplary study. The history of snowboarding is laced with accents and punctuation left by Terje Haakonsen, and during two weeks spent in his home country of Norway, I witnessed what most riders would call exclamation points in their careers, but for Terje, they are simply just more commas.

We sit at a long dinner table in the Bjorligard Hotell—a collection of competitors, celluloid snappers, talent wranglers, and globe-trotting company men. We are all here for one reason. For one person.

Terje looks around nostalgically and says, “I haven’t been here since 1989. I was here for a big regional contest. It was my first really big contest and I was so nervous. There were so many people—tons of skaters, and they all knew each other. I was so used to smaller contests, with only a few people in my division. There were about forty or fifty in my division here, though.” The second course was served, and the conversation shifted….

This dinner took place a mere three days after Terje Haakonsen—father of three, homeowner, and restaurateur—traveled thirty-two feet above the lip of his own contest’s quarterpipe in his hometown of Oslo, Norway. This is more than a decade after his last interview in SNOWBOARDER. This is the season his peers voted him the most influential person in snowboarding.

The day after Terje neared the ten-meter mark, we sat in his newly-opened organic restaurant/bakery/café, Korn. The business comes to Terje as easily as his agility on a snowboard. He talks of the spot’s opening, making it sound like steps that just fell into one another. Over a cup of orange-carrot juice, Terje Haakonsen looks calm and ageless and very human.

How are you feeling today?
A little sore, from some bad landings. I thought it would be worse…

Is today any different for you? Any different than yesterday?
The weather is different.

Haha. What about going thirty-two feet above a quarterpipe?
No; I’m the same, I hope. I’ve gotten a lot of text messages from people congratulating me. That’s nice. It’s something we’ve been working towards with The Arctic Challenge. There have only been a few years where people haven’t gone [at least] eight meters. And then a few years ago, Heikki hit 9.3. A lot of people weren’t sure if it was possible to go higher. The weather has so much to do with it. The sun came out and everybody was riding so well. Most people were doing spin tricks over the five-meter mark, which is so good. There was so much good riding.

How many more years will TAC be a quarter? What’s next?
I’m not sure… [I’m] trying to find this out as we speak. I think we will do one more quarterpipe in Oslo before we move on. We had a pretty good year this year, but we still have some flaws we need to fix, and the quarterpipe can still be better.

After TTR and The Arctic Challenge, what do you see as the next step in contests?
Contests are just who is able to ride a snowboard best at that given moment. I know there is still a lot of room to grow, and I have been speaking with a few other riders about how to grow contests.

And riders are getting good at all aspects…
Everyone now is so good at everything. People sometimes say that rail riders aren’t real snowboarders, but you gotta understand that some kids don’t grow up around great mountains. They do what they know. You just have to do what you have to do for where you’re at. People growing up around big mountains don’t have more soul just because they’re doing backcountry. You can’t condemn anyone for what they’re into.

Could you have imagined this for yourself back in the late eighties or early nineties?
No, I can’t even predict a year ahead. Haha.

Back then, did you have a certain goal you wanted to reach within snowboarding?
I don’t think at a young age like that I had any idea of where I wanted to end up. I was just taking it all as it came. I had a couple small injuries a little while back that made me slow down. I didn’t want to push it and end up with inflamed calves or bad hips, so I definitely slowed down for a few years—which was good for me.

How many years was that?
Oh, a lot of years, probably five years… Sometimes I had less than thirteen days, other years I had over twenty, some under twenty. When I did The Haakonsen Factor, I was up to thirty days again.

Do you plan on riding at this level for much longer?
I’m not sure. I need to feed my addiction—get the good powder trips—at least a few each season. If I can’t get them here, then I go elsewhere. I don’t really have to travel far to get great powder. I’m not in the same physical shape, though. I can’t ride parks anymore. I ride powder jumps when I’m in the backcountry, and transitions—which are more forgiving on your body. Unless, of course, you bail. I’m not really the guy to build kickers. I’m always looking for lines with natural stuff: windlips, gaps…

Are you feeling healthy and strong?
Pretty healthy, not that strong though. I think I’m better now than I was five years ago. Of course, I have my days when I’m really sore. After some sessions on hardpack or at a contest, I definitely need some days off.

When’s the last time you rode a park?
Long ago… Normally when I ride a park, I do slashes or hit the jumps as hips. Haha. I can cruise through parks a couple times actually, but I don’t do laps.

Would you consider doing a big air contest?
Yeah, [but] I wouldn’t place well. I wouldn’t do a 1080 or an upside-down 900 or anything. In Japan, we have a quarterpipe with a small jump, and sometimes I’ll make the semis (laughs). It’s just really basic, though.

“Basic” is an interesting concept to ponder around Haakonsen. To him, the most complex lines in snowboarding have been basic. Terje is aware of his talent, but doesn’t dissect it to the point of babble. To him, it is basic: do whatever he wants on a snowboard and get it back under his feet. The complexities of the body are simple, as long as you listen to it. Terje trusts his body, and treats it well. On the day of his huge method, he knew that within a matter of a few hits, it would be his time. A self-analyzing physicist, he discussed the feeling of approaching the massive method: “I didn’t know until that day, after my first run if it would be possible to break the record… It felt much better than it had the days before, smoother, and the conditions were perfect. I knew after my first hit I would have about five runs to get it before my body, and the quarterpipe, would no longer be able to take it. That was my window to do it.”

How do you maintain your health and athleticism?
For the most part, just being active with different things, like soccer, skating, and biking around town. The only training part I do is yoga. That keeps me in check. I eat pretty well—clean and fresh food. Eating organics [and] local food, and staying away from massed-produced meats. That will also help the environment a lot more than you may think.

So then, do you cook for you and your family?
Yes, I cook pretty much every day. We eat it all, but stay away from the cow; and we don’t eat too much chicken. My kids like fish and aren’t too picky about anything else. I try to make the kids taste everything. I attempt to cook all kinds of stuff, but I still have a lot to learn. I don’t like shopping for the food—that takes time.

When did your passion and focus go from pipes and jumps to backcountry?
Well, it actually started in the backcountry. We didn’t have pipes and parks when I first started. Even though when we did World Cups in the early nineties, we didn’t care about the pipe if there was good snow. We would practice for ten minutes before the event, but mostly we would just be making laps in the powder. I think most of the guys back then, that’s the way they [all] rode. We all rode powder boards; split-tails and stuff. Also, when we started filming, it was more like freeriding the mountain [or] the resort. Sometimes you get powder, sometimes you hit the natural jumps. Nobody was really into building jumps.

Do you think in your youth you had a focus that other people didn’t necessarily have?
I don’t know… I did well in Norwegian contests. I won a lot, which only made me determined to win more. You get used to winning, and just want to keep it up. I think that may have affected me. Me and Guch and Johan were all dedicated. Before that, I met Craig Kelly, which was at such an early age. He showed so much discipline with his stretching and eating. The rest of us always used him as a reference. He was who we all looked up to. When it came to more than just riding, Craig showed us so much. He was so disciplined. We would go and have some crazy party and Craig would get a little disappointed. I’m still not as regimented as he was, haha. I’m working on it, though!

What made you want to ride more again? What rekindled that fire?
More time—my body felt better again. The two last seasons, I probably had at least fifty days apiece. I felt that I needed to get some more good snow and terrain than I did the year before. One year you have a project you want to do; some years, not.

Why is it that you have maintained your high level of snowboarding, but some of your peers have not?
Lots of guys would get an injury and decide they don’t want to push it. Some guys are just contest riders and will quit when they don’t place well anymore. I’m sure some are just over it, too. What has helped me is that I had about five years where I didn’t ride a ton. I could spread out my riding between all the categories as well. I also had Craig Kelly to look up to—and his riding in the mountains just got better with time. But even he cared about the spotlight. [Terje thinks for a moment.] Hmm… What can I say, I like to do what I do. Haha.

That is just it, exactly. Terje is an extraordinary example of love and ability. While snowmobiling in poor conditions during the second week of The Arctic Challenge, the entire crew was just milling around taking its time. Knowing there was snow ahead, Terje prodded: “Jesus Christ, let’s just go snowboarding.” Once the snowmobiles dropped us off, Haakon dropped his head into the whipping wind and set a fast pace upwards. Does Terje still love snowboarding? As much as any upward standing human can love their job.

How much of your success in snowboarding do you attribute to natural talent over work?
A lot came naturally. It helped that I did many different sports. Soccer, skiing, volleyball, whatever. We would do a lot of cliff diving, too. I watched a lot of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies—for sure, that helped. I wasn’t hyperactive, though. I could still sit inside and play a lot of video games. I played a lot of video games. I was hanging out with older guys, with my older brother, and whenever I hung out with him and his friends, I would have to show that I could do the stuff. Jump from the same cliffs and such.

Did you find it tough performing in contests, knowing that people expected you to win?
Well, in 1994 I did a lot of contests. The first couple years, I was doing ten or twelve a year. Then in ’95 I only did four, and I won all of them. I only did a few in ’96. I kept it that way, kind of low-key. I started taking time to [experience] other things that snowboarding could provide, instead of competing all the time. I never would get angry if I didn’t get top three. I did put pressure on myself, but it wasn’t because of what others expected of me.

Was it ever difficult, at your young age, to be crowned the reigning champion of snowboarding?
I don’t think I could call it a difficult riding vice, because for a young guy that is doing what he likes, he wouldn’t know anything else when everything comes naturally. I think the harder part is to keep it going. More mentally than the riding, I think. The reality is that most people like to see the top guys fail in sports or business or anywhere. You will have your supporters and friends, but for the most part, you are being hunted by other competitors and judged by media and sponsors. Some more than others, of course. But for me, I don’t feel like it has been a mental game. I am a pretty serious competitor, but at the same time, I know not to take snowboarding too seriously.

READ PART TWO OF TERJE'S INTERVIEW