Johan Olofsson (born 27 October 1976) is a

snowboarder Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympi ...

from

Gällivare Gällivare (; fi, Jällivaara; se, Jiellevárri or ; smj, Jiellevárre or ; fit, Jellivaara) is a locality and the seat of Gällivare Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 8,449 inhabitants in 2010. The town was ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. He is known for being one of the first riders to take freestyle tricks more commonly performed in man-made terrain parks into the big mountain freeriding environments of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. Olofsson originally came from a freestyle background; when he arrived on the Alaskan snowboarding scene, he quickly adapted his spin tricks and jibs to the backcountry environment. Olofsson rapidly gained attention and respect from the freeriding community when he started doing these tricks off natural features such as windlips and

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s in the midst of terrifyingly steep lines in the Alaskan ranges. In the Standard Films movie '' TB5'' (his first part in a major snowboard release), he was filmed in Alaska attacking a line with such ferocity that he stunned the snowboarding world and instantly gained legendary status. From the top of the line to foot of the descent, on a slope of over 40 degrees, he travelled over 3000 vertical feet in a mere 35 seconds, averaging over 120 km/h, a feat which got him into the 1996

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

and the

Snowboarding Hall of Fame Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympic ...

. He subsequently became a main stay of the TB series, featuring in TB6, TB7, TB8, TB9, TB10, as well as other movies such as '' Snowriders 2'' (1997) and '' Freeriders'' (1998). Olofsson spent his entire snowboarding career (some eight years) with Burton as his primary sponsor. After a series of injuries between 2001 and 2004 he was dropped by Burton Snowboards and went some years without a sponsor. He announced his retirement from professional snowboarding in 2005 and went on to work on a project building a snowpark at Dundret in

(Sweden) in 2007, called Thunderpark. He moved on from Thunderpark, and went pro for The North Face. He features in

Teton Gravity Research Teton Gravity Research (TGR) is an extreme sports media company based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The company was founded in 1996 by brothers Steve and Todd Jones, as well as friends Dirk Collins, Rick Armstrong, and Corey Gavitt. The group launched ...

's 2010 movie ''Deeper''. Just recently, Venture Snowboards from Silverton, CO, has brought him on board as a product tester to aid product design and development of their boards. He rode one of their Storm-R splitboards during the filming of Deeper. In 2011, Venture released the "Odin" which while not a pro-model, was designed in collaboration with Olofsson and features his signature on the board graphic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olofsson, Johan Living people Swedish male snowboarders 1976 births