Heikki Sorsa
-Worlds highest air from a lethal quarterpipe in 2001 with 9.3 meters.
-The unforgettable mohawk hair, and winning the qualifiers heat in Salt Lake City Olympics 2002. It’s not just about the sport. It’s about having fun and looking sick af while doing it.
-Numerous video parts with Standard films, Mack Dawg productions and Absinthe Video production companies back in VHS and DVD times for the riders créme de la créme. The style gods of snowboarding.
Raw talent is something you can’t acquire. You either have it or you don’t. Heikki defenitely does have it.
One common conception is that the world is on track when sons continue in their fathers footsteps, and pick up what dad used to do for the family’s bread and butter. In the case of Heikki Sorsa the world of snowboarding turned out as the winner when this son of an aviator discovered that flying can also be done standing sideways.
If the amount of podium positions is your meter to value an athlete’s worth or impact to their specific fields of sports, Heikki does tickle the needle, but probably will be left to a smaller notice. But if the meter values immaterial impact to the specific sport, and beyond, plus whom peer athletes name as one of the most inspirational and fluent riders around, Heikki Sorsa stands in a league of his own.
Skate- and snowboarding often walk hand in hand, in this specific order. Heikki makes no exception to this. He picked up a skateboard long before needing to shave, and luckily just long enough before any real bad habits found their ways to this kid growing up in Helsinki. During family winter holidays Heikkis family often traveled to northern Karelia, a region in Finland with places that have unpronounceable names like Mönni, Röksä and Mäkrä. There’s also a ski resort called Mustavaara. It was there where he found snowboarding.
After getting inspired and acquired that mandatory learn how to snowboard course (which he passed with flying colors btw) back in southern FIN, he returned to Mustavaara with a snowboard, excitement and a capital city kid’s skate mentality.
One could say that skateboarding gave Heikki the lyrics for the song of his unfolding life. But snowboarding gave him his voice to sing the song out loud.
When the scoops for talent in air awareness, and body control was handed out Heikki got what most of us grind and practice for years just to come close to what he has. Without guys like Heikki who just makes those huge cab 9 tail grabs look easy like the everyday front 3’s. The envelope of what is possible on a snowboard wouldn’t be pushed as hard as it still is to this day.
To quote another Finnish Snowboarding legend Eero Ettala, who also names Heikki as his personal GOAT (greatest of all times), “ Even the sickest video parts don’t do justice to that guy. You need to see him live to understand how good he really is.”
Even though he flew higher than most, has a family of his own and the active pro career in the rear view mirror, Heikkis feet are solidly on the ground, or better, in the stirrups. If you don’t know what those are, it’s the thing you put your feet in when riding horseback. That is his new midlife passion, riding. Instead of sports cars and motorbikes Heikki did once again a signature G move reaching the threshold of 40, he found horses. In his own words the kicks for him are the same as in the peak years of snowboarding.
But just to show he still is on top of the game, he is the Finnish nationals banked slalom champion of 2024, -25 and second by a hair in -26.
Remember Finland? Even today we produce those world class riders by the dozens like it was -98, so you can just imagine who’s against you at the gates. That banked champ title is not just out for grabs.
Or maybe it is…-for those who just are born with a snowboard on their feet.