KOTH 30

The Backside Air That Changed Everything

Words – Kenneth Erlandsen

Photos – Daniel Mikkelsen / Lina Adams / David Steinmo Hansen / Elias Koli / Pontus Ståhlkloo / Erik Rosenfors / Kenneth Erlandsen / Leo Cittadella

“I’m switching to a bigger board.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to do the biggest backside air in the world.”

Something along those lines was exchanged between Swedish photographer Vincent Skoglund and Ingemar Backman during a day in May 1996 at Riksgränsen.
The occasion was the King of the Hill quarterpipe finals. Backman sat in fifth place with one hit remaining.

He took an extra 30 meters of speed, dropped in — and the rest is snowboard history.

– Ingemar and Peter Line used the covers in an ad for their outerwear brand Four Square –

Thirty years after that defining moment that landed on the covers of all the major snowboard magazines, Backman invited snowboarders, photographers, filmers, artists and industry people alike — back to Riksgränsen to celebrate both King of the Hill 30 and the air that changed everything.

Back to 1996

In today’s snowboard world, dominated by instant SoMe clips, it’s easy to forget how different things looked in 1996. No smartphones and no digital platforms feeding endless content seconds after the have taken place.

If you wanted to stay updated, you had three options – be there in person, wait for the next snowboard magazine to hit the shelves, or hold out until the fall movie premieres to see what the world’s best riders had stacked over the winter.

Not everything was better back then. But those movie premieres — packed theaters buzzing with anticipation — and the endless pile of snowboard magazines arriving (almost) every month, is something worth missing when reminiscing about ‘90s snowboard culture.

On that special day in Riksgränsen in 96, legend has it that filmmaker Mike “Mackdawg” McIntyre ran out of film in his 16mm camera just before Backman landed the highest backside air ever done and changed snowboarding forever.

– Feature article in Swedish magazine Funsport Snowboard, released autumn 1996 –

Luckily, Swedish filmer Pierre Wikberg captured the moment. His clip ended up opening Mackdawg’s iconic Stomping Grounds, released during a legendary snowboard film season that also included Standard Films’ TB5 and Subject: Haakonsen – Life and Times of a Sprocking Cat by Terje Haakonsen and Dave Seoane.

All three films showcased riders from the explosive Scandinavian wave that would shape snowboarding for years to come – Sebu Kuhlberg, Johan Olofsson, Peter Ström, Daniel Franck, Ingemar Backman, and Terje Haakonsen.

Which again, brings us to another story from Riksgränsen 1996. Because snowboarding, like everything else, has a tendency to come full circle.

The Return of the Kings

The week before King of the Hill 96, Terje Haakonsen and Dave Seoane had been in Riksgränsen filming Subject: Haakonsen. They left just before the contest started.

“Next year, everyone hopes Terje will be here,” wrote Funsport Snowboard editor Pelle Jansson in the magazine’s event coverage later that fall.

Fast forward 30 years — wish granted.

Terje showed up.

– Two legends – Terje and Ingemar, shot by Daniel Mikkelsen –

And he did not come alone. KOTH 30 gathered multiple generations of snowboarders – Fritjof Tischendorf, Sebbe De Buck, Halldor Helgason, Rene Rinnekangas, Ulrik Badertscher, Albin and Teo Hjellström, Iker Fernández, Michi Albin, Ruben Rosenfors, Gabe Ferguson, Hana Beaman, Nils Arvidsson, Lucas Foster, Gig Rüf, Iris Pham, and Joey Okesson, to name a few. And off course the man himself, Ingemar Backman. He needs a revisit.

– Rene, Terje, Ingemar, Halldor, Ulrik and Sebbe. Photo by David Steinmo Hansen –

Ingemar Revisited

By the late 1990s, Backman had become one of the biggest names in international snowboarding. He dominated contests and produced video parts that still hold up today.

As injuries and fading motivation started affecting his career, Backman gradually disappeared from competitive snowboarding in the early 2000s. He transitioned into the business side of the industry, playing a key role in brands like WeSC, FourSquare Outerwear, and Allian Snowboards.

In 2025, he re-emerged in the swedish documentary Vi slutar aldrig (We never quit), directed by Johan Lundberg and filmed by Vincent Skoglund and Pierre Wikberg. The film follows Backman, Johan Olofsson, and Jacob Söderqvist from their glory days as professional snowboarders in the 1990s into life after the spotlight — focusing on friendship, career, and identity beyond professional snowboarding.

– Ingemar in Riksgränsen 2026. Photo by Daniel Mikkelsen –

The documentary portrayed a low-key Backman, largely removed from the snowboard industry. It also revealed the enormous archive his mother had collected from his career – magazine clippings, ads, photographs, bibs, and memorabilia documenting decades of snowboard history, enough to fill a book.

Maybe it’s time for an autobiography, Ingemar?

Around the same time the film premiered in the fall of 2025, Backman made an Instagram post revealing that he was considering selling the board he used to set the world record with in 1996. The news spread around the globe, and Ingemar was flooded with messages from every corner of the snowboard world. “The board is priceless, you should keep it, it belongs in a museum,” were just some of the responses Backman received, he told the podcast FNRad in late September last year.

The board, which Ingemar himself believed had been lost for more than 20 years, turned out to have been sitting in his mother’s house the entire time.

Long story short – the board was not sold and could be seen on display during KOTH 30.

– Yes, is that board with the painted seagull. On display at KOTH 30. Photo Lina Adams –

Then came the bombshell during winter 2026 – Backman revived the iconic Atlantis Snowboards brand he rode for throughout the ‘90s, relaunching it as Atlantis Ghosttown in collaboration with the niche label Moonchild Snowboards.

To top it all off, Backman turned 50 this year. What better way to celebrate than returning to Riksgränsen and making quarter pipe great again (MQGA-movement ?) — 30 years after changing snowboarding forever?

FOMO Event of the Year

If you opened Instagram between May 11–17, chances are your feed got flooded with clips from KOTH 30. Not surprising, considering the event gathered everyone from legendary ‘90s riders to today’s biggest names.

And the riding?

Insane!

Halldor Helgason did Halldor things. Rene Rinnekangas once again proved he’s built differently. Backman himself soared sky-high on his new Atlantis setup with the same effortless style he became famous for.

– Gabriel Ferguson as captured by the Finnish photgrapher Elias Koli –

Terje went big, recreating the air to fakie from Riksgränsen 93, shot by Martin Willners, and the same trick done at the same spot in 96, that landed him and photographer Scott Needham the september cover of Snowboarder Magazine 30 years ago.

– Terje, 33 years apart, by Snowboarder Mag, Leo Citadella and Martin Willners –

Fridge flipped like only Fridge can. Gabriel Taylor threw handplants on top of the train tunnel. Lucas Foster reminded everyone why alley-oop McTwists remain one of snowboarding’s best looking tricks.

– Joey Okesson joining the Mile High Club. Photo by Daniel Mikkelsen –

But KOTH 30 was not only about elite level riding. It was also about the personal, heart warming stories.

Like Erik Rosenfors, who rode with Craig Kelly at the Riksgränsen summer camps in the early ‘90s and later became instrumental in shaping the areas snowboard culture. During KOTH 30, he watched his son Ruben ride the same quarterpipe terrain where Kelly once fell in love with the mountain’s natural features.

– Ruben Rosenfors by Erik Rosenfors. Father and son tag team –

David Ny shaped the quarterpipe — just like he did in 1996. Vincent Skoglund traded his still camera for a phone, livestreaming sessions on Instagram while Pierre Wikberg helped organizing the event.

It was the writing of a new chapter in snowboard history, written by the same people who wrote it at the same venue 30 years ago.

History Repeating

Did you know Craig Kelly coached Backman in Riksgränsen back in May 1991? A story Ingemar himself wrote about and handed out on paper during the KOTH 30 celebration. A love story printed on paper in the digital ages. You gotta love that.

– Ingemars loveletter til Craig Kelly. It`s perfectly normal to get a bit emotional reading this –

Craig Kelly would have turned 60 in April this year. It’s impossible not to think he would have been there if the world had unfolded differently.

And strangely enough, compared to today’s hyper-connected snowboard world, parts of KOTH 30 felt frozen in Craig Kelly-time.

– Craig was there, too – Photos by Elias Koli and Lina Adams

The pre-event hype was minimal. No official website. Only an Instagram account to find information. Some people were invited. Others simply showed up after hearing about the event through friends, or industry connections.

Each morning, the day’s plans were written on a chalkboard. Or you just followed the flow of people around the mountain until you found where things were happening.

Pretty much like 1996, or as Shirley Bassey once sang – “That it’s all just a little bit of History repeating».

Full Circle

Watching Ingemar Backman back on a snowboard — doing backside airs high above the Riksgränsen quarterpipe, 30 years after delivering one of the most monumental moments in snowboard history — stands out as the most heartwarming snowboard moment of 2026.