established themselves in the snowboarding elite on both the national and international scene. In the autumn of 1987, Håkonsen had his first goes on borrowed boards on the alpine slopes at Rauland and in the fields around his parents’ house in Åmot. In February 1988 he bought his own second hand board, and the month after he participated in the Nordic Championship held at Rauland. Håkonsen won in the junior class, and quickly became part of the team of the Norwegian importer for snowboard manufacturer Burton Snowboards, Elling Balhald. After winning a number of Norwegian competitions in the 1988-1989 season, Håkonsen was invited to meet Craig Kelly at Juvass (Galdhøpiggen Summer Ski Centre). At the time, Kelly was the world's leading and best known snowboarder. Håkonsen has on several occasions said that he regarded Kelly as his mentor. In turn, Kelly saw the boy's potential and put him in touch with his sponsor, Burton Snowboards. At the age of 15, Håkonsen travelled to the USA by himself and negotiated his first professional contracts with Burton and Oakley. Håkonsen completed the final year of lower secondary school and then took the decision, due to the contracts, not to apply to upper secondary school. Håkonsen made his international debut in February 1990 with a fifth-place finish in halfpipe at the World Cup in St. Moritz. One month later he began to be noticed a lot more following a fifth-place finish in halfpipe at the US Open as part of a strong field. Håkonsen also came fifth in the halfpipe and moguls in the same year at the world championships in Breckenridge. This was the last year that the moguls were included as an event in snowboarding competitions. During his first seasons, Håkonsen took part in both the freestyle and alpine branches of snowboarding. Despite the strong wishes of his sponsors that he participate in all forms of competition, Håkonsen opted to focus solely on halfpipe and freeriding during the course of the 1990-1991 season. Part of the reason that he had previously stopped competing in alpine skiing was that he was tired of the strict competitive regime, feeling there was too little play or action. He found the alpine discipline of snowboarding to have similar traits. In protest at the pressure to compete in all forms of competition, he began taking part in alpine events using a freestyle board. The last competition