FRIDTJOF “FRIDGE” TISCHENDORF

Smith rider Fridtjof “Fridge” Tischendorf’s season was slammed. After last year’s release of We Are Losers 2, he continued the transition from the contest scene to film projects, backpack in tow. With the chaotic energy he has built a career off, Fridge put together a film part by the skin of his teeth while working on his most recent project with the newly merged Lobster × YES crew. Coming off a major head, neck and spinal injury, Fridge and his backpack took a beating this year, with countless hospital visits and a nearly 1:1 injury-to-film-trip ratio. His ability to get back up is not only his raison d’être but his sage advice to himself. Given countless opportunities to walk away, Fridge remained in character and stayed in the battle, putting together what he says is something that shows he “tried his very best.” Be sure to get your eyes on it when it drops. 

Ally Watson: Why don’t we start with the backpack: What does the backpack do in the off-season?

Fridtjof “Fridge” Tischendorf:
The backpack’s been pretty chill in the off-season right now.

It gets to sit on ice ’til winter?
Yeah, but I just think of it as an extra pocket. Because I used to go ride with so much shit in my pockets all the time.

For the readers that don’t know the story about how the backpack started, do you want to share [it] real quick?
I feel like there’s so many stories behind it, really. The idea sparked because I played a shit ton of Skate 2, and there was a character that had a backpack on. Everyone always wanted to be that character when we’re playing. Then the backpack came through at world champs in Spain. We were hanging in this village, nothing to do except go to a shopping mall. I told my friend Mons [Røisland], “I could buy this backpack and ride with it for the big air.”He was like, “Hell yeah.”So, I bought the backpack, and I was riding practice with it, and everyone on the sidelines were getting up [and] asking for the rules, and I got approved to ride with it at the drop-in. It felt like a kind [of] “fuck you” to drop into the world championship with a backpack.

[Laughs.] Yeah, for sure.
I guess that’s the reason behind it, as well as for my competitive career. I don’t see any other sport where you would see anyone pull up with a backpack, because it’s such a disadvantage. And I felt like snowboarding is this unique thing where it’s more than just the tricks—it’s the whole soul showmanship of everything. You know, you pick your character, study, root for it, and then you want to win, kinda. So that’s kind of how I drew my persona in the competitive scene.

That’s cool, and your style has a little bit of chaos to it, so it adds to the whole thing. Would you say the combination of chaos and control that comes through in your style is part of your personality and who you are off the snowboard too?
I feel like I’m a pretty chill guy outside of snowboarding. It’s definitely a little bit of the character I try to play. I think it kind of reflects on how my snowboarding has evolved through failure. I never really felt like I was the best snowboarder, but that’s why I fell in love with it. It wasn’t the fact that you had to land to be perfect. It was all the slams you take to get back up again. If someone saw you try your best, it didn’t matter if you succeeded. If you took a slam and got back up, that’s the sickest, you know?

Totally.
That’s kinda how my snowboarding evolved as well. I feel like I’ve just eaten shit so many times. I was talking to a friend earlier about our latest trip and [how] I was getting beat down last season. I was at, like, 75% beatdown from every single trip last season. I haven’t learned, but that’s one of my strengths. I get back up.

It’s really hard to get back up when you’re slamming all the time.
It’s really fucking hard. I definitely cried during the last beatdown, because I’m so over it. I still get back up.

So, you had a rough season, but you’ve still got a project out this fall. How was the process [of] getting that together?
I would say it’s been incredibly challenging. It was really pivoting from being in the competitive scene to being fully into filming. I thought it would be easier. It’s way more challenging and hard than I thought, and I had a major injury the season before [while] filming. It’s taken me so long to recover, and I felt like I was finally coming back together after a year.

Then the first trip I was on, in Trondheim, Norway, I basically decided for some reason [that] I was going to try and get my ender straight away, so I didn’t have to think about it.

Oh my God…
Not the smartest move. I ended up slamming into this cheese-grater staircase, dislocating and breaking my finger. I split open my hip as well and got a massive cut. I had so much adrenaline, I went back and I battled the trick for another three hours. Afterwards, I went to the hospital, and they focused on my finger and pulled it back to position, but I left and I had a giant swimming pool on the left side of my hip, like a giant balloon. It was like a third butt cheek.

And you were just coming off a big injury from the previous year. That’s gnarly.
I haven’t really talked too much about it, but I had three compression fractures to my upper back. I sprained the ligaments supporting three vertebrae in my neck and had a concussion. The doctors told me I would heal in three months, so I went back at it at Swatch Nines, hitting the world-record hip. I was feeling so weird on my board, every single vibration, but I just kept going, not knowing how to deal with it.

Damn, and it’s that invisible injury because it’s so hard to know if you’re healed or you should wait longer.
Yeah, and then I injured myself that first trip with Lobster, and I made it to the last trip in Iceland for We Are Losers 2 that dropped last fall.

And you joined Smith, so you have a helmet sponsor now.
I’m super pumped that Smith wanted to commit to me, being more involved in the action-sports side of it for a long time.

Are you rocking the Smith helmet after your head injury?
I’m super pumped I have a helmet sponsor now. I’m really grateful that I even get paid to protect my noggin.

That’s a pretty good deal.
So, yeah, I’m rocking the helmet and kinda figuring out which one I’m liking the most, but it’s super nice. But with my injury last year, I pulled back a bit, and this year, everything is coming into place. I am super excited and really just putting my life on the line to try and produce the best content possible for this coming video project.

How are you balancing the transition to filming? Will you still be doing some contests?
My focus is on filming right now. I want to tap into that and learn as much as possible, even though competition is a big part of me and I still miss that. I’ll probably do some rail jams, like DIYX. If I get invited back to knuckle huck at X Games, I will still do that.

And you’ve always been recognized as someone who keeps things a bit weird with your style. How does that translate to your film projects?
I think it’s been a part of me since I grew up. I think it’s just something I acted on. It’s the same with the backpack. Maybe I have been insecure about my style, like a magic trick where you’re not masking your loss but moving attention to somewhere else. When I put a backpack on, it flips the focus to the backpack. It takes attention away from my faults. Snowboarding has always been a way to express myself. The magical moments are when you weren’t planning on something and it happens—it just works out magically. That’s something that I think is inspiring people and drives me to do the tricks I like. I want to play around, get as close to failing but succeed in the same way. That turns into a weird style for sure. I want to keep an element of surprise in my riding that gives off a weird expression.

That’s a rad perspective, and it’s an element of creativity that’s not, you know, your standard bag of tricks that’s just, like, knocking out the classics but adding something new and different and surprising to those.
Snowboarding definitely is my way of expressing myself, and I really want to be as close to relatable as possible.

Do you have any final words of advice?
My advice I would give to myself is to always get back up. I could use that advice, and that’s what snowboarding has taught me the most. Take your slam and get back up. And my biggest thanks, of course, to all the YES boys. In terms of this new project, I really tried my best. The list of injuries has been incredible, [and] I’m not sure I succeeded in getting the best clips, but the effort has been there.

Thanks. I’m looking forward to watching.