Favorite Old School Pros

I know in snowboarding it’s been said that the pioneers and old school guys got forgotten easily. That being said, who are you guys’ favorite old school pros? My top 3 would be

- Terje
- Craig
- Roach/Guch tied

- Marc Frank Montoya
- Peter Line
- Craig Kelly
- Tara Dakides
- Ingemar Backman
- Todd Richards
- JP Walker.

Regrettably I wasnt introduced to snowboarding young enough to know any real ‘old schoolers’ other than Terje and T-rice, but the riders that I was watching as I was starting out were:

- Eero Ettala
- Scott Vine
- Scott Stevens
- Chris Bradshaw

Also, these guys might not even be pros but I would have watched this video a hundred times or more in the beggining - check it out! Snowboarding - ughughboy

I’ll go with a few that haven’t been mentioned…

I was a huge fan of David Benedek several years ago. This guy really pushed snowboarding progression and he just had the best attitude towards snowboarding. In my eyes, he was a real pioneer of his time, pushing what was possible on a snowboard. He was killing it like no one else in the early 2000s.

Another “Robot Food” rider, Travis Parker, was also a legend of his time. So much style, so fun to watch and such a creative rider.

Dave Downing is another guy who deserves huge amounts of credit. This dude was shredding so hard in his 30s and 40s and he’s still heavily involved with Burton, and he’s a great surfer as well. He helped develop snowboards like the Burton Custom and I believe he is still very involved with product development.

Always been a fan of Travis Parker’s style!!!!!

Shit yeah, he had a vid a while back with hoola hoops hey? Good times

Yeah, DC MTN LAB!!!!!

@rider26: I knew you were goin to say Benedek Jez ahah. I thought the Custom was his “pro model” essentially?

A couple more of my favs are

- Tom Burt (he’s like the xavier before xavier)
- Jamie Lynn (frontside of the toes, method)
- Ranquet (butter master)
- Noah Salasnek (who else do you know that was a pro skateboarder and then proceed to ride big AK lines)

I don’t know why but I like the style of old school pros more than today’s, especially Roach’s.

tracvks - 27 March 2014 06:06 PM

Regrettably I wasnt introduced to snowboarding young enough to know any real ‘old schoolers’ other than Terje and T-rice, but the riders that I was watching as I was starting out were:

- Eero Ettala
- Scott Vine
- Scott Stevens
- Chris Bradshaw

Also, these guys might not even be pros but I would have watched this video a hundred times or more in the beggining - check it out! Snowboarding - ughughboy

Eero Ettala is a gun and the other Fin’s like Jussi Oksanen & Heikki Sorsa. I prefer more of the Europe riders than the US myself because they seem to keep things more pure.

@rider26: I knew you were goin to say Benedek Jez ahah.

Haha you know me well.

I thought the Custom was his “pro model” essentially?

You talking about Dave Downing? Yeah, it was pretty much what he designed/developed and rode for over a decade. He was also involved with many other products and still is.

46-years-old and still killing it. What I love about Dave Downing is he only started snowboarding relatively late in his life compared to modern day pros (he was 21 when he started snowboarding), which is something a lot of us can relate to.

I can relate to the bit about bein 46!!!!!

You sure can. 

And you’re not too old for a paddlin!!!!!

Haha ^^^^

bkrtron - 28 March 2014 11:25 AM

Eero Ettala is a gun and the other Fin’s like Jussi Oksanen & Heikki Sorsa. I prefer more of the Europe riders than the US myself because they seem to keep things more pure.

Yeah man, those guys were always in edits together

Jussi Oksanen has to be one of my all-time favourites as well.