Billy Morgan is chilled, "hyped" and looks like he’s having the time of his life.
Snowboarding is a sport with a lexicon of its own. A bonk is not something that happens apres-ski but a cool trick, stoked is a good thing, gnarly is not and crud conditions are never ideal.
It pays to do your research when hanging out with Team GB’s effortlessly cool "Fridge Kids", of which Morgan, 28, is an elder statesman.
The acrobat – don’t call him a gymnast – turned snowboarder is considered Britain’s first medal chance in PyeongChang, when he goes in the slopestyle qualifying in the early hours of Saturday.
The event sees competitors navigate a course punctuated with features and jumps, with judges scoring them based on the difficulty of tricks they execute.
Four years ago Jenny Jones won bronze in the women’s event, Britain’s first Olympic medal on snow, and Morgan – who is joined by team-mates Jamie Nicholls and Rowan Coultas – is looking for more.
But don’t expect any fighting talk – in snowboarding it’s not the done thing.
“Considering what we do most snowboarders are pretty quiet, I’m actually really shy,” he says. “There is not much arrogance in snowboarding because it is not cool to be an disliked person. We are surrounded by nice people which makes it so much more enjoyable to do."
Many athletes will talk about pencilling the date of their Olympic moment in their diary years in advance, but not Morgan. However, he certainly enjoyed the Games party four years ago.
“I do remember having a toilet seat around my neck at one point in the middle of the dance floor,” he recalls.
“Obviously it’s a special event but if I’d chained these Olympics in my mind, I wouldn’t enjoy it and I wouldn’t perform.
“It’s scary to put yourself under that much pressure. I need the fun stuff in my life or it’s way too intense."
It’s more than five years since he became an internet sensation when he landed the first Triple Backside Rodeo 1260 and in 2014 he made the first-ever Olympic men’s snowboard slopestyle final in style, posting the top score in qualifying.
The underside of his board was emblazoned with the words "I’m having more fun that you" – which certainly looked the case to most observers in a sport known for its free spirits.
But he admits he considered quitting the sport two years ago after one crash too many.
“I think some people don’t get "the fear" but I get it more now than before. Just being a bit older I get "the fear" a bit more,” admits Morgan. "When I go to bed, sometimes I find it hard to get to sleep because I’m just fretting about stuff in my head."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here