Red Bull.com

Russ Henshaw is 20 years old and he is already one of the best freeskiers in the world. A year or two ago he peered into the crystal ball of free-skiing aerial wizardry with a keen and professional gaze and saw the future. (“I thought right side double corks were going to be the next big thing,” he says.). Henshaw had the vision and the skill to back it up, and he was the first person on the snow to land the trick. (“I started doing them this year,” he says.) Then “three other people learnt them,” so now Russ looking for the next thing – and waiting for someone else to come up with something to match it. (“Or,” he laughs, “I just need to come up with a whole different rotation.”)

This is a big ask – but if anyone’s going to break the laws of physics in skis, Henshaw is a reasonable bet. Henshaw is familiar with the improbable. He often makes his living performing inverted, off-axis twist and flip combinations 40 or 50 feet in the air, he has balls of steel, calm confidence, industrial strength knees and an enviable contest record, including a 4th in Big Air and 5th in Slopestyle at the most recent, and 14th, winter X-Games.

Born in Sydney, Henshaw strapped on his first pair of skis when he was three. A dozen years later, encouraged by national under-12 slalom titles, his parents moved to Jindabyne, the golden gateway to the NSW snowfields. Now he spends most of the year with his passport in his pocket on a world dream snowfields tour; home maybe for 10 days for Christmas in the northern winter, anywhere from his beloved Thredbo to New Zealand or even South America during the southern winter.