Antti Autti
Snowboard Pro Forum

Name: Antti Autti (pronounce it like "auntie")

Date of birth: 1985-03-15

Started riding in what year? 1995

Sponsor/s? Flow, Billabong, Von Zipper, Nokia, Giro, Da Kine

Where did you grow up? Rovaniemi, Finland

Live now? I travel but I still have my home base in Finland.

Fave places to ride? Alpine Meadows, in Tahoe (California) has a good park, good kickers, good
pipe. It's not too big a hill so you can get many runs in.
Niseko, Japan is pretty cool for powder riding and little pillow lines (little powder bumps on the hill) - like 15 bumps in a row and you jump them and it's cool. If you get a lot of speed you can do some big jumps and tricks on them.

Do you warm up each day before you ride? If so, what do you do to warm up? Not really.
I think it's good to stretch AFTER riding. I do all kinds of basic stretches. It keeps your muscles in good shape and I think it's the most important thing so you don't feel stiff the next day.

How keep in shape in season? How keep in shape for snowboarding out of season? In season by snowboarding.
Out of season - I swim a lot, go skateboarding, hit the gym 3 or 4 times a
week.

What kind of skateboarding?

Just cruising around, and the mini ramp.
At the gym I do basic exercises to build muscles, to help keep my body
together when falling on the snow.

Fave riding buddies? My Flow buddies Risto and Miikka. It's fun to ride with them because you
know them.
You can't really have fun without friends. All my friends now are coming
from snowboarding, my teammates. A couple of friends from home I like to
ride with are Jukka and Jare. And my younger brother Tuomas too.

You speak excellent English. How did you learn?

We have to study English in school and when you travel around you have to
learn it and use it. We started studying English at age 7.

Have you finished high school?

I finished half of high school. I hope to finish it later. Snowboarding is
keeping me busy full time now.

How did you like your first US Open this year ('05) where you came in third
in the half pipe finals?
The pipe was super good in the qualifiers, but it was pretty beat up in the
finals. It's harder to do the tricks - you have to keep your eye on the
walls because there were holes. It was my first time in the Open. I didn't
have to qualify because I was invited. I didn't know what to expect. It was
super fun.

I've been in the Arctic Challenge a few times, and the European Open, and
Nippon Open. The US Open was kind of similar. The US Open is an easy going
event and everybody's having fun.

Do you ever get bummed out about your riding, and why? Yes.
How do you fix it? Just try to calm myself down, try some different tricks, go back to the ones
where I fell. But the main thing is don't lose the fun of snowboarding. If
it's not working, I just don't do it anymore that day.

Do you use visualization, and if so, how? I kind of do it but I don't think about it that much.

What safety equipt. do you wear, use for snowboarding? Basic wrist guards, helmet, but not always. I twisted my wrist last year,
and stretched the ligaments, so I wear the wrist guards on both wrists now.

If you're pro, when did you decide to “go pro” — and what happened to get you there? It happened quite fast. I went for a few World Cups.In my first World Cup, I didn't do too good. I came in like 30th place. The next one at Whistler I came in 3rd. I think I did a Frontside 9 off a kicker. And Flow liked my riding. They helped me with travel. The other sponsors came shortly after. Billabong was my second sponsor.

How did you feel about switching to the Flow "In Up Go" reclining highback binding?

I was riding with Flow before in Finland. Many people think they (the bindings) are kind of
weird looking but it's cool that people came up with something new and cool
that it really works. They're fast to get into too.

What have you read, listened to seen that you liked lately? I just read a book about Jim Morrison. "Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive." I
like it for sure. Morrison didn't really think he was a singer at all. It's
kind of interesting.
I preferred this Motley Crue book - it was more fun to read, a quick read
you couldn't put it down. Called "The Dirt." (The Dirt : Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee).

I just saw Wedding Crashers - funny.
I like Turbonegro, a Norwegian band.
The Helicopters, from Sweden are a good rock band.
I like rock and punk rock music too. Led Zeppelin and The Doors, Motley Crue.

Where have you traveled to lately that you like? Australia, and New Zealand for first time just now. Nature in NZ is amazing. In Australia
you see kangaroos and wombats. The snow was pretty good in Australia -
powder.
At NZ Snowpark, there was not that much snow - like a big playground.
kickers and pipes and rails, and only one lift so you can see everybody
riding. Reminds me of Finland a lot - we don't really have big hills you can
see everyone from the lift.

Any guilty pleasures? When I go home I always buy lots of candy - I think Finnish candy is the best in the world.
Salted licorice - black is the only flavor. You can only get that in Finland.

Anything that not many people know about you that you would like to share? No, I'd rather keep it to myself.

Encouraging words for beginners? Just go have fun and enjoy it - you shouldn't take it too seriously.