The first time I saw a 720-degree spin was on a sunny day in February 1990. Like every Wednesday afternoon, I was on Corviglia with my friends. We were on heavy boards, nothing like today's snowboards, but that didn't stop us from hitting every jump and grabbing our boards. But what we got to see on that day was something else entirely. A seven-twenty! Performed by none other than Craig Kelly, the American superstar. We knew him from magazines and VHS tapes. His backside airs were incredible - and now, as young Engadin locals, we were able to do a few runs with him. From then on, we wanted to be snowboard pros too.

Craig Kelly and all the other big names of the time were in St. Moritz to prove at the Snowboard World Cup that their sport was more than just a fad. And the event in St. Moritz really did set new standards in Europe. Snowboarding became a global phenomenon and an influential trend sport. It was the beginning of an unparalleled rise, a golden era. And the Engadin and its snowboarders were right in the middle of it, playing a key role in the development of this young and wild sport.

STYLE MATTERS

Today, snowboarders and freeskiers can get four, five or even six times turns in around their own axis. Just crazy. ‘Spin to win' was something we used to say somewhat dismissively back in my active days, when the person with the most spins didn't necessarily deserve to win. Because in freestyle, it is not just about the number of spins, it is also - or mostly - about style. This has always been the case and still is today.

But what exactly is style? One possible answer is making difficult tricks look easy. But style is more than that. It's about the flow of your movements, the way you grip the board and how you twist yourself - 'tweak' and 'bone' in freestyle jargon. Of course, style is individual and a matter of taste. Some freestylers develop their own personal and distinctive style and become social media stars as a result.

PHOTOS FOR ST. MORITZ

For Engadin photographer Filip Zuan, style is the essence of freestyle sports, 'the reason why I love photographing snowboarders and freeskiers and why I'm out on the snow whenever I can'. Zuan has explored the concept of style extensively in his many years as an action sports photographer. For his latest project, which he calls (free)STYLE, he worked with young talented riders. 'My aim was to capture their character and personal style. That's why the images are reduced to the movement of the riders, while at the same time I wanted to show the dynamics of freestyle'. The result is a series of artistic and colourful images. The photographs will be displayed on various billboards in St. Moritz from beginning of March.

RETO LAMM

Back to the St. Moritz of the 90s. Along with Craig Kelly, a certain Reto Lamm was causing quite a stir at the Snowboard World Cup. The young man from Pontresina was able to keep up with the Americans and rose to become one of the first and most influential European snowboard pros. He finished runner-up at the World Halfpipe Championships and won the first edition of the legendary Air & Style contest in Innsbruck. He also became famous as a stuntman in Willy Bogner films. After his active career, Reto Lamm worked as a networker and organiser of major snowboard events that ran independently of the FIS.

St. Moritz was certainly a good breeding ground for snowboard pioneers, as people here were no strangers to the flashy or the quirky. St. Moritz has always been a little different and open to new things. Snowboarders were welcomed on the ski lifts and even in the early 80s they were accepted without any problems, while elsewhere these strange snowboarders were banned because they were accused of destroying the slopes with their carving turns.

GIAN PAUL SCHMIDT

One of the first to master the carving turn was Gian Paul Schmidt. He lived snowboarding in all its facets and set a world record in speed snowboarding in 1988 (124.137 km/h.) He later opened a snowboard shop in St. Moritz with Benny Sacks and promoted talent in the valley. The successful 'Boarders Valley' crew around Michi Albin and Dani Sappa was born. It was also Gian Paul Schmidt who imported the first fully functional halfpipe building machine from an American farmer and sold it to resorts in Europe. Of course, St. Moritz also had a 'PipeDragon' and one of the best and longest halfpipes in the Alps from the mid-90s until the 2003 World Ski Championships.

MICHI ALBIN

The level of local riders quickly soared as a result. Michi Albin reached superstar status, winning prestigious ‘Big Air’ contests and becoming a member of the Burton Global Team, a select group of the world's best snowboarders. Dani Sappa, known as the ‘Style Master’, also enjoyed international success and completed numerous film and photography projects. There are also many other snowboarders from the Engadin, such as Martina Tscharner, halfpipe world champion and now host at the Segantini Hut. Or Christian Haller, who until recently held the world record for the highest jump on a snowboard (11.30 metres). Or Pepe Regazzi and Marco Bruni, two snowboard instructors who met in St. Moritz, became freestyle coaches and led Iouri Podladtchikov to Olympic victory.

AND THE FUTURE?

There are now a few talented freeskiers in the valley as well. The new freestyle spirit got a big boost with the Freeski World Cup on Corvatsch. This event, held for the first time in 2013, inspired the idea of bringing the FIS Freestyle World Championships to the Engadin. This will be the next milestone in the glorious freestyle history of the valley.