Getting the chance to be a snowboarder as a full-time professional, Billy Morgan knows he’s got it lucky.
But there’ll be no getting carried away from the 26-year-old, who insists a simple approach to his day job is the key to success.
A gymnast in his former years, Morgan first took up snowboarding at the age of 14 and was immediately hooked.
Injuries have reared their head at times – he recently returned from another round of surgery – but Morgan has established himself as one of Britain’s leading snowboarders. A Winter Olympic appearance where he finished tenth in the men’s slopestyle final came in 2014 while back in April, Morgan made history as the first to land the quad cork trick.
And while raising the bar high, Morgan continues to take each ride as it comes.
“I tend to try to not set too many goals, because it tricks me out a little bit. I think a bit too much about it if I do that,” he said.
“I just want to get fit and healthy and get my body better so I can ride as much as possible. The more riding I can do, the more fun I have.
“You have to prioritise your training time and your fun snowboarding time. If you can’t ride all day then you don’t have time to have fun. I just want to get healthy and get back on it.
“It has become a job for me. The more fun you have while snowboarding, the more enjoyable your job is.
“It does put a lot of stress on you and makes it more difficult to enjoy as it goes on but I can’t complain, it’s good. It’s very good.”
Morgan is the first to admit that last season was a bit of a mixed bag with the highlight not coming until his historic jump in April.
The New Year will bring with it a busy schedule of events for Morgan to get stuck into though before a trip to New Zealand in the summer, and the Southampton-born snowboarder is targeting more success.
“It’s nice to get a couple of results as you go through the season,” he added. “Going to lots of places and meeting lots of new people and having good times where you go along is important.
“Last season was pretty mellow toward the end. It was a standard competition circuit. At the beginning of the season I started to struggle with my knee so it was just a bit painful trying to struggle all the way through it.
“Then it ended on such a high with doing the quad cork. It seemed like a good season at the end, but when I think about it, it was pretty average apart from the end bit.
“I had a lot of fun though and it was an enjoyable season but not too productive until the end.”
Sportsbeat 2015