He’s fearless. He’s technical. And he skis by his own rules. He’s Sammy Carlson, and he’s the newest member of the Quiksilver family.

The 29-year-old from Mount Hood, Oregon gained international notoriety for his success in competitive Freesking early in his career before decided to ditch the podium and focus on progressing the sport through other mediums.

After winning numerous Big Air events, standing on the podium of the Dew Tour, and grabbing four X Games medals — including Slopestyle gold in 2011 — Sammy has shifted his sights on pushing the limits outside of competition. He felt as though the runs had become predictable and boring and was ready to migrate his creative energy towards filming feats never before seen on skis. Sammy was the first ever skier to land a switch 1260 and has changed the game in terms of backcountry riding.

“I want to focus 100% on the type of riding that excites me and aim towards the unimaginable. With skiing, your mind is the only limit. So I just let my imagination take over and follow the visions I have in my head of certain jumps, lines or both. The terrain is endless, you just gotta find it!”

Sammy joins Travis Rice, Mat Crepel, Bryan Fox and Austen Sweetin on Quik’s team. You can expect to see this core group of people hanging together and pushing the limits of what’s possible in the snow.

“I want to keep getting further into the mountains and surround myself with people that motivate me” Sammy said. “I’m also super excited to judge the Quiksilver Young Guns Ski event — it’ll be rad to go out to Whistler with some of the world’s best kids and hand one of them $10K. Overall, I’m just stoked to join the Quiksilver family. The brand has such a deep history and I can’t wait to help progress the legend of the mountain and the wave in the future.”