Erik Wilhelm
Snowboarding, Mountain Biking, Surfing, Skateboarding, Skimboarding

Accomplishments: Consistent top ten finishes in extreme contests, including 4th at the 97 Squaw Valley Extremes and 5th at the 98 Kirkwood extremes. Also, 1st at the 98 Lord of The Boards Boardercross at Homewood, and 17th at the 99 Van's Triple Crown Boardercross at Sierra at Tahoe (against the top boardercross racers from around the world). Also filming with Standard Films and Teton Gravity Research in Tahoe. More personally important, descents of the Chimney Sweep in the Palisades at Squaw, and many steep lines in the Tahoe backcountry. Also landing a switch backflip 360 stale grab off the Palisades this spring.

Residence: Tahoe City, CA

Age: 26 years young

When I'm not going huge I'm... driving a shuttle bus and working on developing a business in the board sports industry.

Tunes: Pixies, Liz Phair, X, Jane's Addiction, Natalie Merchant,Chemical Brothers, Morphine, Steel Pulse, Bob Marley, and many more...

Favorite Place to shred: Squaw Valley, Jackson Hole, and Tahoe Backcounty.

Favorite place to kick back: the beach, or a pier on Tahoe, or Santa Cruz.

I started snowboarding when I was 14, in 1986. Biking when I was 4.

Worst injuries: Blown MCL and ACL in my knee, hit a tree. Separated shoulder, over-rotated 720 in icy Squaw park. Deep bruising of back muscles and spine, tumbled down a chute at Squaw and fell 15 feet onto my back on rocks.

My biggest influences, snowboarding wise, were probably the early US extreme skiers, Scot Schmidt, Tom Day, etc. Later influences include anyone who is innovative in their sport, skaters, surfers, bikers...

What pisses me off: Ignorance, lack of tolerance, and snowboarding's "cool guy" syndrome- dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, just because it is so unoriginal now.

If I could initiate a change in my sport it would be to sponsor and support riders who deserve it because they are outstanding riders who work hard and love the sport, not because of who they know, what they look like and what cool guy parties they go to.

The popularity of X sports has made me look at the industry side of sports more, and it has definitely brought the reality of money and corporate politics more to the forefront. I have to try to ignore all the BS and keep my sports fun, cause that's what it's really all about.

Issues for newcomers: Ride for fun, snowboarding can make you a better person, but it is not going to make you rich. Kids need to ride all the mountain, not just the park. It can take a day to learn a 360, but it takes years to be able to carve steeps with style and grace.

More fun oriented attitudes and free spirited-ness will improve snowboarding. The "I'm cool cause I snowboard" thing has got to change.

Negative: Cool guy attitude, what you wear and ride make you what you are, these have got to change. I think people should realize it is less about the brands of gear and more about being genuine, and friendly when you're riding.

Future: In my future, I see myself developing a business around boardsports, and focusing on giving back to the sports which have given me so much growing up. I would like to see people enjoying snowboarding and keeping it fun in the future.

One idea for the world? Education and tolerance. We face big problems in the future and the only way we will survive is if people, especially Americans, will pull their heads out of the sand and look at what is happening to our planet, our kids, and our society, and make efforts to change our mass consumption of resources.