The extreme sport of snowboarding is known to be dominated by Americans. But a non-American who’s joined this field and is now carving his own name earning championships and medals in major competitions.

The name to beat is Antti Autti from Rovaniemi, Finland. Antti Aleksanteri is a popular figure in snowboarding in his home country. He gained international attention after beating famous snowboarders such as Shaun White, Danny Kass and Andy Finch in the 2005 Winter X Games’ Men’s Superpipe. He and Steve Fisher are the only snowboarders to have defeated Shaun White in this category.

So, far Autti is the first ever non-American to have won the gold in the men’s superpipe event. His other best achievement is getting the second spot in the 2007 TTR World Snowboarding tour. Autti says method and switch back are his favorite tricks.

Autti belongs to a family of sports enthusiasts. His younger brother, whom he considers as his biggest inspiration, is a skier while his uncle was a former football player. His interest in snowboarding began in 1995 while vacationing at a ski center in Lapland. It was not until 2001, however, when he started joining competitions. Since then, he has won several championships including the WSF World Halfpipe and FIS Finnish National Halfpipe in 2004.

This Finnish snowboarder officially represented his country in the 2006 Winter Olympics. For that, he was fortunate to have been awarded a piece of land in his home town and of course, he plans on putting up a house there in the future.

Snowboarding aside, Autti is a normal guy who enjoys movies and music. He admires Johnny Depp as well as The Doors, Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, among others. Did you know that he would have been a bartender if he weren’t snowboarding today? Other than that, Autti says he also would have finished school and joined the army.

But then again, he’s happy with his passion now as he says it enables him to travel in other countries, meet new people and learn about their cultures. He sees himself becoming a coach for junior snowboarders in his hometown upon retirement from professional snowboarding.

And what’s a tip he can share with those into snowboarding? Listen up, you guys. Autti says to enjoy the sport as much as you can and not be too serious about riding. It’s the fun that you get out of snowboarding and the smile that doing it elicits from your face that’s more important. Performing well is vital, of course, but you have to get pleasure out of that even though you’re in a competition. So, take that from the expert himself.