HOW ARE YOU SO GOOD? | MARK MCMORRIS
Words Will Fraser
There are just over 8 billion people in the world, and by “just over,” I mean roughly 8,236,613,070. Most of us are average, some of us are great, and a tiny percentage (maybe around 0.00000012%) of us are extraordinary. Think Michael Jordan, Connor McDavid, Caitlin Clark, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. These athletes stand above the rest, even among professionals. They exist on a level where no amount of proverbial ball-busting, visualizing, or collagen supplements would get you to their equal. Out of the 8,236,613,070 of us, they stand out… but why?
This article is part of a series where we’ll investigate some of the greatest in snowboarding. We start with one of, if not the best of our time, Mark McMorris.
This article was featured in Issue 17.1.
PASSION AND TIME
In Mark’s recounting of how he arrived at where he is today, he begins with something incredibly intuitive: passion.
It’s important to “[have] a lot of passion, first and foremost. I did not get into snowboarding to be the best,” Mark said. “I really just loved nothing more than snowboarding. By the time I was seven or eight, I had become infatuated with it, enjoying it so much, but still playing so many other sports. But by the time I was 11 or 12, I was like, this is what I want to do.”
With that, Mark’s progression began. He had a rail setup in his backyard, rode Saskatchewan’s Mission Ridge all the time, and travelled to Alberta’s Canada Olympic Park (COP) or Banff every other weekend to snowboard, a 7.5-hour drive at minimum.
[o] Aaron Blatt
“I was obsessed… I remember planning what tricks I was going to learn at COP in math class on Wednesday,” he said. “We were in the car Thursday night, and I was the first one on the chairlift Friday morning. I was tapped—beyond horse blinders back then—I saw nothing but tricks.”
COMMUNITY AND BIRTH ORDER
Mark wasn’t doing it alone, though. Enter big brother Craig McMorris.
“Growing up, we would have been hooped without each other,” Mark said. “There was not a lot of snowboarding in the province we were from… the fact that I had a brother who shared a similar interest led to ultimate progression. We were both chasing a similar goal and were both extremely motivated toward it.”
This phenomenon is common among the best. It’s called the Birth-Order Effect: younger siblings are statistically more likely to become elite athletes. Nearly every elite athlete mentioned earlier has an older sibling who played their sport—Serena had Venus, Connor had Cam, Michael had Larry, Caitlin had Blake, and Mark had Craig…
Being a younger sibling, you tend to develop your skills against the older, tougher competition, fostering progression, a higher competitive drive, and greater risk tolerance. But Craig wasn’t Mark’s only influence. Around the ages of 14 to 16, when Mark was travelling more, he spent a lot of time with Sebastien Toutant, who at the time was a child prodigy, dropping NBD’s and dripping in early-2000s Oakley and O’Neill swag.
“Seb was a much more technically sound snowboarder than me. He was child-prodigy-type-shit,” Mark said. “When I got to ride with him, I was taking notes and learning a lot.” Seb gave Mark a real-life glimpse of what was possible on a snowboard. A glimpse of what he could work towards.
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
Beyond passion, birth order, and Sebastien Toutant in a pair of Oakley Gascans, timing also contributed to Mark's success.
"I got really lucky," Mark said, "because snowboarding became an Olympic sport in '98 and by the time I was 13, Team Saskatchewan had been established... with it, there was some government funding to drive to COP or Banff every second weekend. I think without that, it would have been really, really hard to make a go at it."
Watch Mark McMorris at Saas-Fee, Switzerland, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. At 32 years old, he's objectively an old dog in the realm of slopestyle snowboarding — but who says veterans can't learn new tricks?
Mark was born at an opportune time, able to take advantage of programs and travel funding that were previously unavailable. He also benefited from the enthusiasm of his coach, Russell Davies, and was at a developmental age where he could absorb new information like a sponge. If he had been five years older, that funding or those coaches might have changed, and that development window might have been missed—a window that any middle-aged person trying to learn tennis or golf knows is crucial.
SPORT SAMPLING
Of course, timing isn't everything. There is also the value and privilege of access. Not everyone gets to play sports, and fewer get to play multiple sports. However, "sport sampling" (trying out different sports) has been shown to be really valuable for elongating careers and skill development.
Mark played many sports growing up. "Looking back," he said, "I probably was synthesizing all this information from all these different sports without knowing it," he said. "Sask hockey is kinda gnarly. You fuck up, you skate. You forget your neck guard, you skate. I didn't love that. But it was engrained in me, so when it was time to put energy into snowboarding, I kinda had that workhorse mentality."
NO QUIT
That tenacity is another significant trait. Mark stands at 5'10" and describes himself affectionately as being "built like a brick shithouse."
"I can take hits. As a kid, when I ate shit, my dad was never like, 'Oh no! I was raised to get back up.'"
Mark's determination drives him to succeed, and it's helped him achieve his goals—but where does it come from? I asked him this while acknowledging the hard truth that it can stem from a difficult place for some people, such as a feeling of inadequacy. Mark was genuine in his response.
Mark McMorris Switch Backside 540, Alaska. [o] Aaron Blatt
"[Us athletes], we're fucked up," he says. "We can't just sit and enjoy something. You win a contest, and it's cool for like 30 minutes, and then it's like, 'What now?' I think that's what makes good people great... but it's tough for us to enjoy it at times because we're constantly looking at people who are bigger and better."
It's a hard truth to grapple with. Success doesn't always arise from passion alone.
THE PLAY FACTOR
To counterbalance the hard side of determination, Mark pendulated to the importance of play. "Snowboarding is meant to be fun," he said. As kids, "that's what Craig and I used to do. We used to just play... it was about riding with my brother and friends, messing around, being jokers, doing tricks. That's the recipe for good times, progression, and falling in love with an activity."
In sports science, Mark is 100% right. Play isn't a sidebar to play, it's essential. Many elite athletes follow this loop: explore (i.e. play), then succeed, then explore again, then succeed more.
Beyond competitions, Mark McMorris has made a name for himself in the backcountry. Peep some of his clips in Burton's latest film release, PAVED.
"Sometimes I can get too wrapped up in it—training, getting clips, contests, placements... Even if you're the man to someone, you're not necessarily the man in your own brain. It can be hard travelling and spending so much time alone... but how do you usually do your best? [It's] when you're having fun and around the right people. That stuff makes me love this sport."
SO, WHAT MAKES AN ELITE ATHLETE?
There is a lot. It's a mix of passion and obsession, older brothers and icy hills, well-timed funding and brick-shithouse genetics. It's hours and hours of playful riding mixed with that Saskatchewan work ethic. It's drive, support, luck, and a deep love for the thing itself. In this piece, we can't get it down to a couple of things. If we could, we'd be rich! So, if you were trying to become magnificently successful after reading this, I'm sorry. It's probably not happening. But I think there is something more human to take away from this piece than an outline for success. It's the idea that we all can't be elite athletes, but we can chase what we love, surround ourselves with good people, and remember to play along the way. That could lead us to our own success, however big or small.
