The up-and-comer from Switzerland has already laid a nice footprint in snowboarding. Learning to ride when he was just 8, and progressing at his home resort of Davos, Christian "Hitsch" Haller has become one of the next generation riders to look out for.

Already featured on the covers of many European Snowboard mags, Christian also came out with a solid part for Mellow Mood Production’s Green for fall 07, which showcases his smooth style and ability to rip on all types of terrain.

Christian has been competing in many contests on and offside the Swatch TTR Tour already since 2004.  This kid has steadily worked his way up the rankings, improving over the years and now is competing for the top 5 spots on the TTR Tour and counts among the possible contender for the TTR World Champion title.

In 2009, he came back from an injury, more motivated than ever and with his graduation from school the same year, he has more time on his hands than ever to follow hos passion for  sport. The 2009/10 season has been the most successful of his career, finishing 6th in the 6Star Halfpipe format of the O'Neill Evolution and 8th in the Halfpipe format of 6Star Burton European Open, sitting in World No. 2 just before the Burton Canadian Open. Haller finished off his last season contest, the Burton US Open, in 8th place again in the halfpipe format giving him enough points overall to maintain in the final TTR Top 10 (rank 9). 

Interview with Hitsch in February 2010

How many years have you been riding and who was with you when you made your first turns on the board? Tell us a bit about the people who support you and your career.
I’ve been riding now for 13 years. I started snowboarding when my parents moved from the city to the mountains. First I was riding pretty much alone. My mom would drive me every weekend to the resort and pick me up in the evening. Later on I got to know other snowboarders like Stephan Maurer and Markus Keller who helped and pushed me a lot.


How long have you been riding in contests and what is the first contest you rode in?
I competed the first time at age 11, it was a small Swiss Regional Cup.

How is it riding for the Swiss National Team and how does affect your riding goals? Do you all travel and practice together?
Being on the Swiss National Team is actually pretty cool. The crew is amazing with riders like Iouri and Markus. We have a really good relationship and try to push each other as much as possible.  I don’t even feel like I have a coach or something, we are all friends and get to ride and travel together. Plus TTR counts also for their criteria to make the National team so that’s even better!

Switzerland seems to bring out some good snowboarders that also perform excellent on the international level. What is the snowboard scene in Switzerland like? Is snowboarding a well accepted sport there? 
Snowboarding got pretty famous in Switzerland. Gian Simmen might have had a big influence on that, because he was the first Snowboard Olympic Gold medalist ever. On the other side we have pure snowboard souls like Nicolas Müller and Freddi K. …those are pretty big names for such a small country. We have lot’s of good young riders coming up who push the level of snowboarding. So I would say snowboarding is really well accepted!
Also the mountains in Switzerland are pretty big and steep, it makes you a good snowboarder!


Who do you love to compete with?
I guess everybody!


What are your plans outside of the tour? Filming goals? Other non-TTR contests?
I’m going to the Olympics and try to shoot as much as possible besides that. No movie production though, only photos! I haven’t made any further plans for the future.

How do you feel about the progression of snowboarding, especially halfpipe riding this season before the Olympics?
I don’t know. It got pretty wild this season with all those double corks. I don’t know if I should like that or not. On one side it’s cool to see new tricks and the progression. On the other side I think the risk adds up so much. You can see it this season, many riders got hurt cause of this huge progression. And the injuries get worse and worse cause the level is so high nowadays. This season’s for sure special cause of the Olympics, people are under pressure and try to keep up with the level, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I guess the progression has a good side but also a really bad side. And you have to think twice if it’s worth it or not!


Thanks for your time Hitsch and good luck for your future!

 

Interview on November 25th 2007.

How’s riding been for you so far?
It’s been good. I’ve been in New Zealand at Snow Park. It was good, was there for a few weeks.  I’ve been there before. It’s nice to just go shredding for myself. I also went to the NZ Open. Then I went to Saas Fee in Switzerland a couple of times, riding the pipe and they had a good kicker and two pipes – mostly for the world cup which I had to ride in – cause I’m from Switzerland.

Do you find it tough to keep up with sponsors?
No I don’t have to do too much. But it’s good cause they pay for trips and stuff so it’s cool for me. But yeah I’ve just been shredding here in Europe most of the year and now we’re here in Hintertux.

How was Hintertux?
Well I was here a few weeks ago and it was slushy, and they had really, really big kickers. They had two big ones, and now they have some new smaller kickers. You can hit a line now, which is good to prepare for the Nokia Air & Style.

Are you stoked to be riding in the Air & Style?
Yeah. I was at Munich last year and the year before…there were only a few riders before, Mikkel was there, Torstein was there, and Iouri was there. There were only 4 or 5 riders and last year was the first real rookie contest and it was just crazy. The kicker was so good. They treat us the same as the main event guys so it’s kind of cool, with a good prize and main event feeling.

Are you going to try and make it out to TTR events and compete this year, even in the rookie field?
Yeah, I mean I already got into it last year, but I’ll be doing the O’Neil Evolution, and I’m excited to ride the European open, and the Nippon Open and probably the US Open. I’ll see how it goes. I haven’t really planned my season. I’ll just go with the flow.

Do you do much filming? Any filming plans for this year?
I’m going to film with Burton. Which will be cool since it will be for the first time. So I’m stoked about that.

Are there certain riders you like to shred with?
Iouri, guys from Burton, Mikkel, and other guys from Europe. It’s nice to ride with riders who are better than you cause it pushes you and it’s cool for me to be here with guys like that.

Anybody in particular you’re excited to see ride at the Nokia Air & Style?
I guess everybody! Cause it’s a head to head, you never know cause most of it’s so tough, last year the training was just huge and at the contest everyone was impressed. I like to see everybody. I’m excited about the double – cork ten (T rice) we’ll see if he pulls one.

Do you prefer big air’s to pipe? Do you like riding a certain style of event?
Well mostly the Big Air’s are in cities. I kind of like that cause you get to see the city and so many people come to watch. That’s kind of cool. I also like park riding. It’s all good.

What’s your favourite place you’ve been to city-wise?
City-wise? Maybe Stockholm because there are lots of hot girls. (that’s always a huge a factor) especially this year.

Have you been to Japan?
No, but I'm looking forward to going this year!