“I need to feel free — that is everything to me.” – Jussi Oksanen
When you meet Jussi, the first thing you notice is how unassuming he is. And that he doesn’t only go by “Jussi,” but he really is just “Jussi.” But those who have in any way followed snowboarding for the past two decades know better than to interpret that unassuming demeanor for anything other than a genuinely grounded dude who also happens to be a living legend and inspiring icon the same.
A couple months back, in the dead of a historically disastrous winter, we sat with Jussi Oksanen at the Southern California headquarters for Mizu in Del Mar. He welcomed us in with that signature smile he has worn all these years, whether it was at the Olympics or in monumental video parts. Often, in these sorts of circumstances — those surrounding our interview for HEADSPACE, where you are pulling back the focus on a veteran’s career to wax nostalgic about the larger meanings of things — you’ll receive heavy-handed answers weighted down by the righteous speaker’s own self-importance. Yet when Jussi offers his answers to these loaded questions, he does so in a direct, unpretentious manner. From an innovative competitive career in the half-pipe to pioneering freestyle backcountry to forward-thinking entrepreneurial efforts off the mountain, the way he speaks is simply how he feels, no filter… very much like how he rode.
