I was living in Helsinki, I had the car, I was getting drunk, and then after a while I was like: 'You know what? I don't want this life!

It definitely doesn’t show in the output…

Thank you. And what I usually do early season, from November to December, I just go snowboard. I go to Mammoth, and Colorado, and Whistler, and I just go snowboard. I don’t film, and I don’t shoot photos. And once I feel like I’m ready, I’m good on my snowboard [I start filming]… And it’s gotten to the point where it’s pretty heavy what we do. The falls are getting pretty heavy. When I go out and film I almost need a week off to recover [laughs]. So I come home and have my guys here, chiropracters and my trainer. And I can chill out with the family and get ready and healthy and go back.

Is this is your secret of how to stay on top of the game for that long? Is it listening to your body and giving it rest and taking care of it?

Yeah, I think it is. And what I do now to myself compared to ten years ago… I didn’t really train, I ate whatever, and now it’s completely different. I train twice a week, I cycle, I do a lot of things to keep myself healthy. And now with the family I appreciate being a pro snowboarder more than I ever have before. It’s an amazing lifestyle. And it makes me want to work twice as hard. It’s a great job, I do what I love, and I get to spend a lot of time with my family. Getting those two things right has given me more motivation to keep going and taking care of myself. So I can enjoy my snowboarding and hopefully do it longer.

So many snowboard brands seem to be focussing on the next big thing and often they get rid of the seasoned and experienced pros. It obviously doesn’t affect you, but what are your thoughts on that?

I think it’s pretty sad. It’s such a short-minded vision. The kid who’s coming up… you never know how long he’s gonna be around. They might kill it after two seasons or whatever. The guys who have been around for a long time and keep producing and getting better and doing different stuff… that’s a pretty safe bet for a company I would think.

You know, Fredi… I think Fredi [Kalbermatten] is one of the best snowboarders in the world, and he’s having such a hard time getting sponsors. That to me doesn’t seem to be right at all. But it shows what’s big right now. I think it’s what it comes down to, that contests have a big viewing, and it’s the Olympics. And what we’re doing in the backcountry… not as many people view it. Which is sad, seeing what’s happening with the movies, that kids are not buying DVDs.

Every year it’s one movie less, and less money is going towards the movies. And now it’s on youtube, and websites, and iTunes. And I feel what we do doesn’t have the same impact that it had ten years ago. When we put a movie out people would say ‘I can’t wait till the new Mack Dawg movie or Robot Food movie [comes out]’… and now it’s kind of diluted what we do…