In the earlier days of snowboarding, it was a “vibe/flowstate” sport.  It was stoners on the hill appreciating Nature and Gravity.  Then the Olympic Committee came knocking.

Board companies and merch companies etc all were stoked, more eyes on their products meant more revenue.  But many riders were a lot more suspicious.  Most famously, Terje Haakonsen.  Terje is the unarguable GOAT.  The Gretzky of snowboarding. Everyone expected him to be thrilled because he would 100% for sure win a gold medal. He resisted it, though.  His claim was that the systematized heading would kill the fun and creativity and switch snowboarding to rules-bound robots. He refused to participate in the Olympics.

And, like he said, the clash between the Olympics and “real” snowboarding immediately raised its head.  The gold medal winner has his medal stripped for testing positive for…marijuana. Everything Terje thought came to pass.  

Instead Terje invented his own comp. Invite only, you’d be taken to a remote island off the coast of Northern Norway to compete with fellow bros.  No formal refs, no formal media, just dudes in the moment. Local chefs served whale burgers and seal lasagna. They had bonfires and..dare I say…marijuana.  This contest became legendary, it was snowboarding in its final form to its purest extent of and for “the boys”.  By consensus, not judging, Terje won with a still incredible \~10m air out of a quarter. 

Now, Olympic snowboarding is won by gameified Asian gymnasts. People who had never seen snow until quite late in their careers, training instead getting endless reps in ball pits and trampolines.  Their coaches look at every line in the scoring manual and gamify ways to get an extra 0.1 point.  None have ever skipped school to ride with the boys, none had ever seen a back country sunset.  They were gymnasts in warm clothes, the concept snowboarding has “a soul” entirely foreign to them.

Watching Halfpipe in 2026 simply isn’t cool to me anymore. Technical mastery but with no motivating energy.  Terje was absolutely right the whole time, the Olympics kill everything they touch.

Modern Halfpipe is Cucked and/or we didn’t deserve Terje