The 60 most influential snowboarders of all time

There are some snowboarders that stand head and shoulders above the rest. Be it effortless style, balls-out risk taking or a creative mind some riders push the sport in a direction forever changing its destiny. Snowboard Review trawled through the annals of snowboarding history to create a list of the 50 most influential riders of all time, except we couldn’t narrow it to 50 so we chose 60! Enjoy.

This list is by no means gospel and is completely up for debate but Snowboad-Review thought it would be fun to get its readers talking about who in the sport influenced them and why. Below is a list of who we feel has made the biggest influence to date, we’re not interested by who the best snowboarder of all-time is just to what extent they influenced the rest of us with either their style, personality, professionalism or pure insanity. If you think that somebody should be included then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment at the bottom of the list…..and remember that it’s not all about the old-skool rippers and US riders.

1) Craig Kelly – The legend that inspired riders like Terje. RIP Craig.

2) Jamie Lynn – Inspired future generations with his effortless style.

3) Terje Haakonsen – Dominated the sport for 10 years and helped start the TTR.

4) JP Walker – JP made jibbing cool again with those Karate Kid arms.

5) Travis Parker – Put the ‘fun’ into snowboarding.

6) Shaun White – The best pipe rider the world has ever seen……and not too bad at slopestyle either.

7) Devun Walsh – Best bs180 in the business.

8) Travis Rice – That’s it that’s all.

9) Nico Muller – Makes AK descents look effortless.

10) Johan Olofsson – TB5…..need I say more!

11) Kevin Jones – X Games legend who’s style was years ahead of his time.

12) Gigi Ruf – Probably the best backcountry freestyler the world has ever seen.

13) MFM – The original snowboarding gangster.

14) Peter Line – The founding father of Forum and the inventor of the backside rodeo.

15) Jeremy Jones – Jib King

16) Romain De Marchi – His sections in Vivid and Pop were insane.

17) Jussi Oksannen – Biggest bag of tricks in the business, we all watched TB7 in awe.

18) David Benedek – True innovator

19) Jeff Brushie – The original jib kid.

20) Ingemar Backman – Riksgransen quarter, need I say more?

21) David Vincent – Took too many mushrooms and did the French proud.

22) Axel Pauporte – The original nut job that inspired riders like T-Rice to go hard and fast.

23) Mike Ranquet – Showed two fingers to the establishment and had fun.

24) Bryan Iguchi – Snowboarding legend that got lost in the Mt Baker wilderness for almost a decade.

25) Terry Kidwell – The guy that inspired Craig Kelly.

26) Trevor Andrew – A rockstar and a massive stoner with great style.

27) Freeride Jeremy Jones – Quietly progressing the sport away from the limelight and helping to save the environment so that future generations can shred.

28) Shaun Palmer – Mr Palmer almost made boardercross cool and invented the Palmer in the process.

29) Daniel Franck – Terje’s arch nemesis.

30) Todd Richards – One of the only snowboarders that could genuinely challenge Terje.

31) Mickey Leblanc – There was a time when Mr Leblanc rode jumps and mountains! In fairness Mickey and his Park City crew have started a new form of riding where you don’t need a lift pass; just a car and a rope.

32) Danny Kass – Bought something to pipe riding that Shaun White couldn’t manage.

33) Tara Dakides – Took women’s park riding to a new level.

34) Eero Ettala – Best Rodeo in the business…..and the best double Rodeo in the business.

35) Shawn Farmer – This guy should have been locked up…..not put in a helicopter and flown to the top of an AK peak.

36) Peter Bauer – Together with Jean Nevra this man ruled the early 1990’s and showed the Americans how it was done.

37) Noah Salesnek – The man that inspired generations of Americans with his silky style…..it was either going to be him or Nate Cole.

38) Chad Otterstrom – Great style and like Heiki Sorsa very underrated, despite being awarded Transworld Mag’s ‘Rider of the Year’ a few years ago.

39) Victoria Jealous – Showed us that girls weren’t scared to ride 45 degree slopes in AK.

40) Tom Burt – The king of first descents who now owns Winterstick.

41) Mads Johnson – Goes bigger and further than anybody……..FACT

42) Wolle Nyvelt – The quiet Austrian shredder who doesn’t need bindings to rule the hill.

43) Eddie Wall – Developed in a mountain lab as part of a government experiment. Eddie can jib just about anything, including bombs.

44) JP Solberg – Super smooth style and a fetching pink bunny outfit.

45) DCP – One of the only pro’s that still rides the mountains like a wave.

46) Heiki Sorsa – Maybe the most underrated rider in the history of snowboarding. Heiki made a massive impact when he dropped into the Olympic halfpipe with a Mohawk.

47) Gian Simmen / Ross Powers – 1998 & 2002 Olympic halfpipe champions.

48) Andreas Wiig – One of the only men to humble Shaun White and do a Wiig flip.

49) Hampus Mossesson – The stand-out rider in Robotfood’s Afterlame….which was a stand-out film.

50) Jeff Anderson – One cool kid that could have done so much more in the sport had his life not been cut tragically short. RIP

51) Pat Moore – Great video section after great video section. Still only at the grand old age of 24 it seems like Pat has been ruling for years.

52) Torstein Horgmo – Watch this years Standard Films release ‘Black Winter’….I believe the bar has been raised!

53) Kelly Clark – Goes as big as the boys in the halfpipe thanks to Jesus.

54) Mike Basich – Basich dropped 130ft out of a helicopter for a photo! Legend!

55) Regis Roland – Inspired generations of Europeans with his ridiculous lines in the Apocalypse films then started his own legendary snowboard company.

56) Tom Sims – Showed millions of James Bond fans in the early 80’s what could be done on a plank of wood.

57) Temple Cummins – Probably still has a pro model with GNU.

58) Kier Dillon – The man that Burton built the Vapor for…..as if he didn’t go big enough out of a pipe anyway.

59) Joni Malmi – Still riding for Forum and still ruling. Watch his section in the Forum movie True Life and witness him trying rodeo’s onto rails.

60) Nick Peralta – One of the original AK pioneers.

Posted by Tom Ewbank in Blog & News.

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What colour is powder?

Jung on December 24, 2009  at  06:53 AM

Where is the Tommy Brunner ?

Rich Ewbank on December 24, 2009  at  05:53 PM

True Tommy was an absolute hero who’s ability is sadly missed… RIP. There are a lot of riders we’ve missed off the list. Max Plotzender, Jonas Emery, Tristan Picot (RIP), Sebu Kulberg and Gilles Voirol (RIP) who absolutely dominated the mountain. To name a few! We’ve lost a lot of legends to Avalanches!

Alex on December 27, 2009  at  07:13 PM

Peter Line didnt invent the rodeo - it was first done by Kevin Sansalone, and then Chris Engelsmen nailed it and named it the Rodeo - Line was just the one who did it best

Tom Ewbank on December 28, 2009  at  01:16 PM

Learn something new every day…...are you sure Peter Line didn’t invent the ‘backside’ rodeo? Obviously the Frontside Rodeo was mastered first and that’s where the trick got its name.

Rich Ewbank on December 28, 2009  at  01:28 PM

I’ve just read that it was Kevin Young… I guess we’ll never know!

mza on August 31, 2010  at  01:20 PM

jp walker might have made jibbing popular again but he definately didnt invent it or freestyle riding. would have liked to have seen you show some more respect to guys like nate cole and roan rogers. they did what they did with amazing style on top of everything else. kier dillion, daniel franck please give me a break, they sucked.

The Real Tom Ewbank on August 31, 2010  at  01:51 PM

Daniel Franck and Terje inspired an entire generation of Scandinavian and European riders….who are now some of the best riders in the World. Also, nobody said JP invented it we just reckon he helped take it to new levels; there are only a handful of riders that have been pushing the sport and inspiring riders for three generations and JP is one of them. Yeah Nate Cole was sick and inspired loads of US riders, not to mention having great style, but he hasn’t had the same kind of influence on snowboarding that JP has.

Rich Ewbank on August 31, 2010  at  02:26 PM

The list is the 60 most influential riders of all time. I did have a ‘Type A’ beanie when Nate Cole was riding but I certainly wasn’t influenced by him anywhere near as much as I was by JP. Man every kid at the start of the last decade had a do-rag around their leg and a basketball vest regardless if it was -30 degrees. Nate deserves respect for going about things his own way but let’s not put him in the same league as JP as far as influence goes. Forum was a marketing phenomenom.

ReGo23 on March 07, 2011  at  05:12 PM

Daniel or Chris Young landed the 1st fs rodeo and named it. Which of the two it is depends on who you ask. Chris Englesman landed the first backside rodeo. Peter Line perfected it. Chris’ 1st bs rodeo started with a 90* rotation before going inverted. Peter did it all in one-motion - text book by today’s standards. Peter also invented the cork. How he is not top 5 on this list puzzles me. If you are going to make a list like this, know your snowboard history!!! Travis Rice out of the top 5 too?!?!?! Come on…

Rich Ewbank on March 07, 2011  at  06:07 PM

Who would you remove from the current top 5 to fit Peter and Travis?

When you start with a backside 90 isn’t that a 90 roll?

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