The Finnish rider who grew up riding at Talma, a local hill near Helsinki, Finland is one of the most versatile riders around, able to take it from the arena to the mountain to the street with ease.

With his controlled style and love for progression, Sorsa pushes the sport in all directions simultaneously filming and competing during the same season all while maintaining an attitude that screams ‘fun’.

Back in 2002, Sorsa competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City for Half Pipe. He was also the previous world record holder with a height of 9.5 meters, set at the Arctic Challenge, which was recently broken by Terje.

Last year Sorsa competed in three Swatch TTR events finishing twice in the top ten and once in the top five with an 8th at the TTR 6Star Nokia Air & Style Munich 2006, a 7th at the TTR 6Star Nissan X-Trail Jam 2006 where he threw down massive one-footers, and a 4th in the Slope Style at the TTR 6Star Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships 2007.

During that same season, Heikki managed to fit in impressive parts for a couple of this year’s new films from the industry's top filmmakers including Burton’s Thanks in Advanced and Mack Dawg’s Picture This.

Since his 2007 season, Heikki only attended TTR events on rare occasions including the 5Star Red Bull Snowscrapers in 2009 and The Oakley Artic Challenge in 2010. It remains to be seen if Sorsa decides to ride more contests on the TTR Tour. If so, he is surely a strong contender for a spot in the TTR Top 5.

Interview date: Feb. 2006

How long have you been doing contests?
I don’t know really. It’s such a long time since I started… ha ha!

But you are only 23?!
I guess I was 16 when I started. My first contest was a Finnish Cup in Serena, and I came in 2nd. Then I was just doing Halfpipe contests for a while, but now I like doing Slopestyle and Big Air contests as well.

You have earned a couple of ‘Tickets To Ride’ at The Arctic Challenge in your time. Also, you set the World Record highest air (9.3m) at the Oslo edition in 2001. Still unbeaten, it is one of the longest held records since Ingemar Backman’s world record set in Riksgransen in 1995. How does that feel?
Ha, ha… Feels pretty good. It’s cool that snowboarding has been progressing so much in the last couple of years, yet nobody has passed it. I think that someone is going to in the next couple of years for sure, but I don’t care. Sort of stoked that I held it for so long…

So you rode in the ISF era, in the FIS setup and on both the original and new TTR Format. Actually, in my opinion you were robbed at the last Olympics. Your riding was insane and the Mohawk even better! How would you describe the three different organisations?
The ISF was what got me into the Burton Rookie team. I mean, everyone did the ISF before to get sponsored! When you get sponsored, you get the chance to go filming. And that is the shit! I did the FIS just to get to the Olympics, and actually, I don’t want to say too much about the result or whatever, but it was so much fun. But I sort of got over the whole pipe thing. I did it for two years straight, and while I am not over it exactly, there is so much other stuff to do as well. Now I do the TTR contests that have a similar feel to the ISF in the past. Early season I film rails back home in Helsinki, and then do the TTR contests which are generally at the right time and the right place and fit into my filming schedule. 

You are presently sitting on 7th place in the TTR rankings with a 10th place at 6(six) Star event the Nokia Air&Style and 3rd at the Nissan X-Trail. Actually, you qualified 3rd in the Nissan X-Trail Quarter contest but got concussion and couldn’t ride the finals which meant you finished 7th. Had you been able to ride… who knows where you would be now. Is the new ranking system fun from a rider’s point of views? 
Yeah, sure I check it out… It would be cool to be number one, for sure… but I don’t really care that much. I mean it’s just one ranking. Being world number one on the TTR list is cool, but it is just one ranking. There are so many other riders doing films or other shit. It’s cool because it is a rider who does Halfpipe, Slopestyle, Quarterpipe and Big Air… but it’s probably not accurate to call the winning rider the ‘best in the world’.

So, if the TTR ranking list had Shaun White, Danny Kass, etc, would it be legit? The question really is, who would you like to see on the TTR ranking to feel that it was a legitimate measure of the world’s best riders…? 
That’s a hard question. There are people who do contests, some people who do filming and contests, and some people who just film. That is just snowboarding I think. There is so much going on… riding powder and having fun. It’s hard to imagine a list that has everyone on it, and snowboarding is not just about contests. It’s sort of hard to explain what I mean. Of course I’d be stoked to be TTR No. 1, even in the first season – but snowboarding is really diverse.

Your filming commitments are fairly heavy this season. On top of your Mack Dawg commitments, you are filming a documentary of ‘The life of a Pro Snowboarder’. How is all that going?
I am going to the States after this (Heikki was interviewed at the Burton European Open) to do the X-Games and then start filming powder and back country shit. The documentary is really easy. I just do what I do and someone films it. Nice, eh?

Thanks Heikki. We hope to see you in the top 10 by the end of the season in any case. Do you think you can hang on..?
I hurt my ankle at the Nissan X-Trail so this is my first time back. I hope I stay up there and keep healthy till the end of the season… thank you gay fag.