Freestyle ski­ing start­ed with a small cult fol­low­ing who par­tic­i­pat­ed in moguls and aer­i­al jumps back in the 1960s. Since then it’s devel­oped into one of the most pop­u­lar and fastest-grow­ing seg­ments of the sport. The first evi­dence of mod­ern day ‘ter­rain parks’ start­ed in the 1990s, short­ly after which Salomon pro­duced the first pair of twin-tipped skis. Over the last twen­ty years the sport has devel­oped at a rapid pace, and freestyle skiers have been push­ing the lim­its to an almost ridicu­lous dis­play. Here’s a list of 6 freestyle skiers who are lead­ing the pack.

Torin Yater-Wal­lace
At the ripe age of 17, Torin is con­sid­ered to be one of the best up-and-com­ing freestyle skiers on the plan­et. Not only was Torin the third youngest per­son to ever com­pete in a Win­ter X Games, but he already has two bronze, one sil­ver and a gold medal in four dif­fer­ent Win­ter X Games events in the Unit­ed States and Europe. In 2012, at the US Slopestyle Com­pe­ti­tion, Torin became the first per­son ever to land a switch 1080 dur­ing competition.

Simon Dumont
Simon is 26, and from Maine. He’s one of the few dom­i­nat­ing the sport. So far, he’s won eight medals in the Win­ter X Games, most of them in the Super­pipe event. He cur­rent­ly holds the wold quar­ter-pipe record for per­form­ing a cork 900 while sail­ing 35.5 feet high (wood­en tele­phone poles are 30 feet). He’s best known for his super­man dou­ble front flips and is reg­u­lar­ly seen soar­ing 20 feet high out of the walls of half pipes all over the world.

Jon Ols­son
Jon is a 30-year old free ski­ing leg­end from Swe­den. While he’s def­i­nite­ly at the old­er end of the sport, he still dom­i­nates com­pe­ti­tions. Ols­son start­ed off as a ski rac­er, but at age 16 switched out his race skis for some twin tips and nev­er looked back. He’s won count­less Win­ter X Games medals in a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent com­pe­ti­tions and even host­ed his own big air events. One of his most well known con­tri­bu­tions to free ski­ing is his vari­a­tions of dou­ble flips.

Bob­by Brown
Brown, a Col­orado free style ski­er, was cred­it­ed as the first per­son to ever land a Triple Cork 1440 and a Switch Dou­ble Misty 1440. He has 6 gold medals in Win­ter X Games events and 2 sil­ver medals under his belt so far. He first gained major fame in the freestyle ski­ing world when he received a per­fect score at the Win­ter X Games for the big air event, in addi­tion to anoth­er medal.

T.J. Schiller
Schiller is the head ski­er of the Cana­di­an freestyle ski team. He’s the third per­son of all time to have land­ed a 1620 rota­tion dur­ing a com­pe­ti­tion (this is ridicu­lous by the way). He’s con­sid­ered to be one of the most styl­ish skiers of the sport and his sig­na­ture switch 1080 mute grabs are incom­pa­ra­ble. He was also the first ski­er ever to land a dou­ble cork 1620 dur­ing the Win­ter X Games.

Tom Wal­lisch
Tom grew up in Penn­syl­va­nia, but moved to Utah in pur­suit of high­er edu­ca­tion. The big­ger moun­tains out west helped him devel­op into prob­a­bly the most pop­u­lar freestyle ski­er today. He lives among the leg­ends of Seth Mor­ri­son and the late Shane McConkey in tak­ing the hon­or of receiv­ing back to back Pow­der Read­er Poll awards, which are con­sid­ered to be one of the most cov­et­ed awards of the sport. He won gold in the 2012 Slopestyle com­pe­ti­tion of the Win­ter X Games and par­tic­i­pates in a num­ber of extreme ski movies.