Terje Håkonsen

Terje Håkonsen was born on 11 October 1974 in the village of Åmot in Vinje Municipality in Telemark, Norway, and is a Norwegian professional snowboarder widely regarded as one of the most influential riders in the history of the sport. He began snowboarding in 1987, won the junior class at the Nordic Championship in 1988 and at fifteen travelled alone to the United States to sign his first professional contracts with Burton and Oakley. He dominated freestyle snowboarding in the 1990s, winning the International Snowboarding Federation world championship in halfpipe in 1993, 1995 and 1997, the European Championship every time he entered, the US Open halfpipe three times and the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom seven times between 1995 and 2012. In 2007 he set a world record for the highest air, 9.8 metres above the top of a quarterpipe, at the Arctic Challenge in Oslo. When the halfpipe joined the Olympic programme in 1998 he boycotted the qualifiers in protest at the International Ski Federation running qualification instead of the snowboarders' own federation. He lives in Oslo and speaks out for organic food.