The Fridtjof Fredricsson Interview

Interview by Kyle Meyr

How have you been Frido?

Very good! The season hasn’t gotten super intense yet but it’s been great so far.

What have you been up to so far this season?

We stayed at  Hintertux for ten days at this super nice hotel because we got a deal through the Norwegian national team. It’s the same hotel that Shaun White is staying at, so it’s pretty pimp! (laughs)


(laughs) Then you went to London for the Relentless Freeze big air competition. How did it go?

It was good! Actually, that’s quite a story. I went through to the final where I met Kai Mahler at the first head-to-head. I was lucky to get through that with a double 12 double mute. Then, on the second hit I met Ole Mustad, who is a good friend of mine and also on the national team. I had to go first, but when I landed my ski kind of broke and the whole base got ripped up.

Yikes, how did that that happen?

I’m not sure what happened. I think I went through the snow or something. Maybe the other ski got under it and ripped up the base? Anyway, I couldn’t use the ski so I had to pick up another ski. Luckily, I brought two pairs of skis. So I took the other ski up to the top and had one old one and one new one, but when I tried to step into the bindings, they were way too small. So I was left with only one ski! Oscar Scherlin was up there and had Volkl skis as well so I used one of his, but they were 10cm shorter. With two different skis, I ended up not being able to do my trick perfectly.

What was your trick in that round?

I actually landed a double 12 mute to reverse tail, but I didn’t land it so well and didn’t get the tail grab perfectly. So Ole beat me with a double 12 nose mute and went through to the finals.


Let’s talk about you being on the Norwegian national team. How has it changed your career as a professional skier?

We have trainings together in Norway, which have been super good. We go jogging and pump muscles (laughs). So far we’ve only done that trip to Hintertux. Christopher Frankum is our coach, and he’s very cool and a good friend of ours, but at the same time he’s a really good coach. He’s also a great skier so he really knows what he’s doing. Frankum helps organize the trips, gets us spots in competitions and comes to the competitions to help us out. When we are on trips, he films us the whole day so we can watch it after and see what we can do differently. He gives really good individual feedback.

How do you like being a part of the Norwegian national team so far?

It’s good! We’ve had some good basic training in the beginning of the autumn and there’s more to come after the season. We’re also going to have some more trips to America, throughout Norway and some other places in Europe hopefully.

What trips do you personally have planned this year?

This is my first year that I’m finished with secondary school so I’m planning on doing everything I can. After this, I’m going back to Norway to find some snow there. It doesn’t look too good for that right now, but hopefully I can find something, maybe at Andreas Håtveit’s place. Then, I’m off to Budapest, Glacier 3000 straight after that, King of Style, Sweet Rumble and to the states for Dew Tour. After that, I’ll be entering all the European contests I can and am going to film a lot more this year.

Which contests are you looking forward to the most?

Dew Tour I think. I haven’t done so many slopestyle contests yet because I haven’t had a chance to go to the States with so much schoolwork. But now that I have the chance so I will be going over there more.


Congratulations on graduating. You seem pretty excited about that. What does it mean for your skiing?

Well now I have more time to put towards skiing and focus on that. I can ski twice as much, film twice as much and compete twice as much So I’m super stoked on that.

What are your plans for filming this season?

I’m going to film a lot more with both Chaoz Productions and Field Productions. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been filming with both of them for some years now, but never had a super huge segment. I’m hoping to get a really good one with both this year though.

Quick change of topics; the Olympics. What do you think about freestyle skiing being added? What does it change in the sport?

I think it’s going to be a huge change to the sport because more ‘normal’ people are going to see it and larger sponsors that aren’t as relevant to the sport at the moment are going to think it’s cool and get into it. Of course the media part is going to get much larger too. People are going to see it more on television and they’re going to get to know more about the sport than they do now.

Good or bad?

I think that’s good. It’s still going to be the same sport when you’re having fun out on the slopes and the competition will be just the same as others I guess. Just now more people are going to get know about the sport!

 How much are you focusing on the Olympics?

I really want to do it, of course. If I can get there, I will try my best to make it happen! (laughs)

I want to talk about what was obviously a big moment for you last year; JOI. How did that go?

Jon built the jump perfectly last year, modeling it after the 2007 step over kicker, and it was huge. So I did a triple wobble/cork 1440. I actually tried a 1440 at the Frostgun Invitational that some people are calling a triple, but that wasn’t a triple at all (laughs). That was definitely just a double cork. At JOI, I feel like I got more of a cork on each of the three spins.

What do you think of the triple? Do you think it will be an integral part of this competition season?

It’s a really huge trick and honestly not the most fun trick to do (laughs). I hope there won’t be triple corks in slopestyle. It’d be better if we could just keep it to the huge big air competitions. You still have to have good grabs and smooth landings so I hope it stays out of slopestyle so it doesn’t just turn into a huck fest.

Any more plans for this year?

Zuppen, a crew of friends of mine from back home, are doing this web series where we film both skiing and just fucking around. We’re just having fun, making some webisodes and putting some humor into it. They’re coming around to many places with me this year, like here in London, filming both competitions and us kidding around and just having a good time, because that’s what skiing is all about! So thaat’s going to be a really cool part of my year.

And to wrap it up, any shout-outs?

Of course I want to give a shout out to my sponsors SB Sportswear, Volkl and Dragon, who have been really supportive getting me into movies, allowing me to travel around the world and hooking me up with super cool swag! Also, my fans, family and all the homies! (laughs)