Radical Stories: In conversation with Roland Primus, founder of the oldest snowboard school in the world

We are delighted to welcome Roland Primus, a formative pioneer of the snowboard scene, for an interview.

As the founder of the world’s oldest snowboard school and a pioneer of snowboard instructor training, he has had a decisive influence on the development of the sport. As a founding member of the SSBA and SSBS, he not only fought for the recognition of snowboarding as a winter sport, but also made a significant contribution to the professionalization of snowboard instruction in Switzerland. With tireless commitment and visionary ideas, he set new standards and created a foundation that still influences snow sports today.

In an exclusive interview, Roland gives us exciting insights into the beginnings of snowboarding, his personal highlights and the development of the scene over the last few decades.

Look forward to inspiring stories and anecdotes from the time when snowboarding was still a crazy adventure.

Picture: Roland Primus

Please introduce yourself briefly.

My name is Roland Primus and I am the founder of the oldest snowboard school in the world.

As a founding member of the SSBA (Swiss Snowboard Association) and the SSBS (Schweizer Schneesport Berufs- und Schulverband), I not only helped to set up these associations, but have also dedicated my life to teaching snowboarding.

Through my active career as a World Cup rider for Burton, I was able to gain valuable experience. In addition to my coaching training, I founded all the national snowboard teams in Switzerland. But it wasn’t always easy to get there.

Captions:

1. Advance glacier near Flims-Laax, late 1980s
2. Hardboot-Powderturn, unknown location, mid-1980s

What was it like to open the world’s first snowboard school?

When I wanted to open a snowboard school in 1986, I found out that this was only possible with the consent of the local ski school. I felt this regulation was unfair. So I decided to take action against it – with far-reaching consequences. I took the responsible department and the canton of Graubünden to the Federal Court and won. This led to a revision of the law, a referendum and finally the adoption of the free market economy in the snow sports service sector. This meant that it was officially permitted to run snowboard schools independently of ski schools.

From the point of view of the Swiss ski schools, this success probably made me the least popular snowboarder in Switzerland. But for me it was an important step for the future of snowboarding.

This was followed by 30 years of fighting for the rights and opportunities of snowboarding in order to establish this sport as an integral part of winter sports. My goal was to offer everyone the best possible conditions to learn snowboarding – whether as a hobby, as an amateur or as a professional athlete.

At the same time, I developed a method for the structural graphical representation of movements in a movement grid. I also wrote seven books on didactics and technique in snowboarding and skiing.

Caption: Poster in front of the Primus Snowboard School in Lenzerheide – the world’s first snowboard school. Taken on the Allalingletscher in the late 1980s.

What excited you most about snowboarding back then?

I was most inspired by the movement and dynamics of snowboarding. To this day, I consider it one of the most beautiful sports, as few sports combine dynamics and elegant movements like snowboarding. Keeping your feet fixed and the associated control over the sports equipment was a huge advantage over skiing. For us young people who lived in the mountains, “surfing” on snow brought a bit of a surfer lifestyle to our surroundings.

Back then, it was extremely exciting to experience this new sport as a lifestyle in a rebellious group. The opposition from the ski lobby only brought us closer together, and the dynamic was not only overwhelming on the board, but also socially. You were part of something new, something different. The establishment was challenged and we were able to reinvent many things and define movements. Even the skiing world later adopted elements such as parallel slalom, boardercross, halfpipe and big mountain powder. It was incredible to be part of this development and to help shape it – it was a unique experience.

What prompted you to found the SSBS?

The main reason was – as is so often the case – dissatisfaction with something that already existed. The SSBA, the umbrella organization at the time, also took care of the competitions, which diverted financial resources away from training. That was unsatisfactory. That’s why I founded the SSBS to be able to drive training forward independently. The national teams and coach training soon followed. While the SSBA took care of competitions and grassroots sport, the SSBS was dedicated to education and training.

Once we had created the structures, we handed them back to the SSBA. Unfortunately, the association got into financial difficulties and was later taken over by Swiss Ski. My goal was to see Swiss snowboarding on the international podium – also as an advertisement for the schools.

In my opinion, this was the best thing for the schools. If we as Swiss are top in international comparison, more people want to take part in sport, so it’s better for the schools. For me, the race and the teams were a marketing tool for the schools. Without a lot of money, you could use the expertise of the schools and the training to get great publicity if you won titles. And that’s what we did. Switzerland dominated snowboarding like no other nation during this time.

Captions:

1. farewell to Roland as Technical Director of the SSBS in Saas-Fee, November 2023.

2 The SSBS Board would like to thank Roland for his many years of service. At the turn of the year 2024, he handed over his position as Technical Director to Lukas Sieber (to the left of Roland). The new SSBS President is Daniel Schmid (back right in the picture).

What future do you see for the profession of snowboard instructor, and what role will it play in the further development of the sport?

As in many areas, the right time to get involved is crucial. What was possible back then is often no longer possible today – and vice versa. That’s why, from my experience, you can’t deduce one-to-one what you should or shouldn’t do today, as the framework conditions have changed.

In the past, it was almost impossible to make a living solely by teaching snowboarding. Today, however, there are numerous opportunities to secure a permanent position in snowboarding as a coach or in organizations such as Swiss Snowboard, Swiss Olympic or Jugend+Sport. These structures did not exist in the past – they first had to grow.

The structures for professional athletes are also better today than they were back then. But at the same time, the demands have also increased, while pay and sponsorship have not necessarily become more attractive. This is often the case when a sport is just starting out: there is a lot of potential and therefore also more financial resources.

On the other hand, the snowboard industry is an area that has seen continuous stable development. Today, there are many opportunities to work in the sport – be it in development, production, marketing or sales. Anyone who wants to live the sport and earn a living from it has many options here.

As a snowboard instructor, few have been and will be able to support a family on this alone. The seasonality makes it difficult, forcing many to find additional work or move between the northern and southern hemispheres to work all year round.

Nevertheless, training to become a snowboard instructor offers the best foundation for understanding the sport in all its depth. It is the only way to really “study” snowboarding – to learn how it works, how to apply it and how to teach it. This knowledge is essential for anyone who wants to work in the industry.

If you know how snowboarding works, you can be active in many areas:

• as a trainer
• as an employee of an association
• in the competition area and in the organization
• in industry, production or in sales and marketing

This is why you can still find many former snowboard instructors in key positions within the sport today. They have the knowledge and experience needed to develop the sport further.

Captions:

1. powder skiing in Furcellas, Engadin, late 1990s
2. Splitboard camp in Greenland, 2014
3. Splitboard tour for a photo shoot for the Curli brand.
Roland’s latest project: dog harnesses. Together with Mark Zimmermann, he founded Curli to transfer their knowledge from mountain sports to the everyday lives of dogs and their owners. The result: high-performance dog harnesses that combine functionality, comfort and safety.
4 Another passion: flying. Here in front of Piz Palü – Split & Fly might be a more appropriate name.
5. Roland and his wife Claudia

How did you experience the founding of Radical?

Having ridden for Burton from the start, I paid less attention to Radical – but all the more to the man behind the brand: Mark Farner. For me, Radical = Mark Farner, because he understood the sport the way I did. But at the same time, he was also my competition rival.

Mark had his own boards, which always gave him an advantage. That’s why Radical was more of a problem than a solution for me back then. He was extremely fast on his board, even though he weighed significantly less than me – I must have had 25 kg more on my ribs. It was hard to beat him and for me it had to be the material.

Luckily, Mark spent a lot of time in Zurich, where he built his “wonder weapons”, while I trained in Laax and Lenzerheide and ran my two snowboard schools. The core construction of his boards was so elaborate and high quality that there was hardly another board that offered so much support. Radical was and is the board for dynamic riding with maximum grip.

As is so often the case, the difference lies in the detail.

How do you think Radical has influenced the sport?

There was a time when all brands had to be measured against Radical when it came to performance. Radical was the measure of all things. With his brand, Mark Farner showed the entire industry what was possible in board construction and what riding characteristics a snowboard could have. In doing so, he gave the sport the chance to develop in the direction of more dynamics and speed.

Snowboarding has not become so fast and dynamic by itself – Radical has made a decisive contribution to this. Thanks to Radical, surfing in powder, which worked perfectly with its infinite lateral positions and flowing carving in deep snow, could also be experienced on the piste. Grip was everything, and Radical made surfing on the piste possible. No other board could offer this in this form.

In conclusion, one thing can be said with certainty: with Radical, Mark Farner has managed to bring the surf style of snowboarding to the slopes and at the same time lay the foundation for modern carving. Mark was a surfer – and one who sought and found carving on the “frozen wave”.

I thank him for that – and Radical.

Are there any special moments or anecdotes with Mark Farner that you would like to share with us?

One of the most impressive moments was when Mark presented his thesis. As a sports student at the time, he was writing his master’s thesis on the biomechanical aspects of release forms in snowboarding. For me, this event is a milestone in the history of the sport.

With his background in skating and snowboarding, he showed a completely new way – an understanding of movement sequences that was groundbreaking not only for snowboarding, but for many other sports. I think this is one of his greatest achievements – and also one of the most misunderstood.

His findings were so phenomenal that hardly anyone understood them. It took the established ski sport decades to even understand them.

For me as a competitor, Radical was often a problem, as already mentioned – but Mark Farner was the solution. But his true genius remained hidden from most people.

Would you like to send us a message to celebrate Radical’s 40th anniversary?

Keep surfing. Every snowboarding career starts with a frontside and a backside turn and ends with it. Everything in between is nice, but not essential to becoming a snowboarder. Keep on carving your turns in the frozen wave.

To conclude: At the end of the interview, after we had viewed and compiled the pictures, Roland shared a nice closing sentence with us:

… “Looking back, I realized that there are three great loves in my life: My wife Claudia, snowboarding and flying”…

Thank you very much for the interview Roland!

Picture: Roland Primus – still a very successful businessman today.