Originally featured in Snowboard Mag 11.2: The Transcendent Issue
MFU. “Middle Fingers Up to competitive snowboarding.” While this may seem like an unlikely mantra for the new face of competitive snowboarding, it isn’t. Sage Kotsenburg went through the 2013-14 season on his terms, and where many of his fellow competitors may have succumb to the forces of coaches, judges or sponsors, Sage didn’t. That’s just not who he is. Last winter was Sage’s season, and he owned every moment of it.
Prior to last season, Sage had not won a contest in the better half of a decade, but he was constantly competing. “I would always get second place or something, there are so many second places at my house. Something would always go wrong.” His name was always in the lineup, yet he was rarely in the middle of the spotlight. Discontent grew in him, not of bitterness, but of frustration. That’s when he decided that he was responsible for his own fate.
“Two years ago I got so over contests, I didn’t even want to do them anymore. Everyone was doing the same tricks, the courses were exactly the same, and it was so boring. So then I said, ‘I’m just going to do whatever I want this year and if [the judges] are down that’s cool, if not, whatever.’”
“I’m not hating on anyone in halfpipe or anything, but I wanted to show a sick side of snowboarding that’s fun. We are super competitive but we have a good time. We’re not a bunch of robots.”
With that mentality Sage entered the battle to qualify for the US Olympic Slopestyle Team with middle fingers held high and MFU emblazoned on his facemask. He went through the motions of IOC sanctioned events on courses that were subpar at best and it came down to the last event of the year: the U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. The night before finals he was told that he needed to win in order to guarantee his spot on the Olympic team — a spot he previously thought was locked in.
It was a return to the same frustration he had before starting the year, but it was also a reminder that it was his choice and his time to do what he loves to do. His coach and friend, Bill Enos, had to bring that back to him. So he went snowboarding and won his first major title in nine years. Sage had a goal to become an Olympian and he accomplished it in grand fashion that was completely his own.
