Disciplined anarchist

There aren’t many rules in freeriding, but one is really important: being better than the rest. In the last season the Swede Henrik Windstedt followed this rule the most consistently. Now he’s the first Freeride World Tour winner in history.

At 14, Henrik Windstedt, son of a ski instructor from Åre, competed in the Swedish Alpine junior team. But to have to follow a prepared course thought up by someone else was not for him. “I wanted to do my own thing,” says Henrik. On skis, though, for he couldn’t imagine life without them. Changing from slalom slopes to park, pipe and mogul slopes, he enjoyed the freedom of dictating the rules, line, style and risk of his sport all his own way.

Unrestrained control freak

But living freely, freestyling, freeriding, for the 24-year-old today this also means being vigilant. To have the control yourself. To take responsibility: “I don’t smoke, don’t drink, hardly go to parties,” says Henrik, the wild boy on the slopes. “Because freeriding is the best thing I can imagine. That’s why I want to be able to enjoy it in the fittest state possible.”

Overjoyed overall-winner

And what made the enjoyment a little easier: this year Windstedt was successful twice at the Freeride World Tour, and on March 15 arrived as overall leader at the Verbier Xtreme, the last and most important contest of the five-part Freeride World Tour. That everyone was expecting him to play it safe spurred him on even more to not meet their expectations. So he risked everything in the steepest passages, mastered a 30-foot drop with sovereignty, and already looked like securing the victory when he fell at a 50-foot drop. But because even Seb Michaud, his closest rival, didn’t manage to make it above seventh place, Henrik held his point lead and thus won the Freeride World Tour title for the first time.

Successful all-rounder

For Henrik the overall victory of the newly created series is his biggest success to date – especially because he was plagued by a streak of injuries and had to fight hard for his comeback. The rule of always being one step ahead of the rest he’s been painstakingly following for years. Among other things, the Swedish skiing anarchist has won the Red Bull Big Air in Åre, the WC title on the mogul slope as well as the Nordic Extreme championships six times.