Tuukka Terva-Aho is one sick skier. Only he and Ari Kananen have done switch double back flips on snow (to my knowledge, I may be wrong). Tuukka recently won the Aussie Winter X-Games beating out the like of JP Auclair and JF Cusson. His reputation preceeds his name (a fair number people have heard of him but can't remember his name, haha). He is a way under exposed skier and he's on the verge ono a big break through.

RANT: How long have you been in skiing and what got you started?

Tuukka: I have skiied since I was 3! So 16 years! In Finland everybody do cross country skiing when they are little kids. So after that, when it wasn't so fun anymore, I started real skiing! My house was about 1 km from nearest skiing resort, so it was very easy to me get there also by myself!

RANT: How are your aerials going?

Tuukka: Few years I did quite much training for the aerials! It wasn't so fun anymore, so I thought it's better to me just do something what I enjoy! I'll do some competitions on this winter also, but just fot fun! I'll do some new stuff in aerial comps, really don't know is it ok with judges, but I wanna have some fun!

RANT: Do you think that your freestyle and aerial background have really helped you skiing? Especially in the "new school" trend.

Tuukka: Yes it have helped me alot, also for "new school". Somersault tecnic is so much better, and twisting is much more easier than without aerial background. And if you can do aerials, you can do what ever "new school" tricks you want!

RANT: How did it feel to win the Aussie X-games?

Tuukka: I felt so great! It was so hard to get in there, and I only got in on big-air, so I felt really good! There was so many good skiers, and I was little nervous, how I can do, but everything were good! I didn't like kickers so much, but it was same to everybody! When I landed my switch douple I felt so great! That was maybe greatest moment in my skiing career.

RANT: What do you think of the scene in Finland compared to other places (ie, north america, down under, etc)?

Tuukka: In Finland we don't have mountains, so everyplace were I go is heaps of fun! I have never been in North America, but I'm waiting really much that! Snow is quite wet here and we don't have dry powder. So only what we got is jumping and maybe that's why we can do so fun things from jumps!

RANT: Who do you think controls the direction of skiing most?

Tuukka: All peoples! I think that skiing is going more to that direction what snowboarding is! People just wanna have some fun with skiis! If you asking who, maybe it's Diggler!

RANT: What are your experiences with FIS and how do you think their renewed involvement in new school skiing will affect the sport?

Tuukka: I don't say anything from FIS, but still I think it's killing also this" new school" thing! In few years is gonna happened like in snowboarding, there is gonna be other organisation, freeskiing...., so I don't think it's good for this! Let see what they are doing! Hope something good, but I don't think so!!!

RANT: Where do you hope to go with skiing and with your life in general?

Tuukka: Go high!!! In this moment I wanna see lot of new places and check what I can do with my skiis! This is my last year in business college, so for the next year I don't have any plans! Let see...

RANT: Describe yourself a bit (personality, pastimes, etc).

Tuukka: I don't wanna say anything to this. Everybody can think what they want!

RANT: Shouts to anyone (sponsors, friends, etc)?

Tuukka: To my homies, to great sponsors O'neill, Salomon. To all my skiing friends all over the world. To my family and ofcourse most to my girl!!!

Hopefull we will be hooking up with Tuukka early January at Silver Star. That would be sick. Currently, he's training in Silver Star and still working his skills.