On the cover: Marko “Grilo” Grilc; photo by Sean Kerrick Sullivan.

One hundred fifty issues of Pleasure Snowboard Mag. Add in all those photos, girls, powder, product, and special issues, and that number is even higher. It felt kind of weird at first this morning, sitting down to write this 150th intro. Impostor syndrome was doing its thing, you know. Then again, who gives a shit? There’s no room for negativity on this page. This is Pleasure issue 150—and, after all those years, how amazing is it that this magazine is still running hot.

It’s hard not to get nostalgic when looking at this exact history. While talking about this very issue, nostalgia was a constant companion during the last months. We sat down and immersed ourselves in all the mayhem from the last two decades. Gossips, endless party nights, a ridiculous amount of bliss while being batshit drunk, travels, challenges, friendships. Looking at the past is fun and should be part of this issue. We didn’t want to drown in nostalgia, though, so looking at the present and future is also part of issue 150.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Pleasure is only as interesting as the people involved. When looking at the people involved from the last 150 issues, there’s a ton of influential characters, and the list would blow up the extent of this page. But as a former Pleasure editor once said: "None of us worked as hard as Fischi." So, from the beginning, there was only one contributor set in stone for this issue: Fischi, also known as Markus Fischer. I remember working with Fischi for the first time more than ten years ago. He was shooting with Eero Ettala and Marko Grilc at Absolut Park in Flachauwinkl. After shooting all day in the backcountry, we stayed in a hotel room together. I was sleeping on the couch, right next to Fischi’s work desk. After dinner, we had some more beers and around midnight, I dozed off. Around four hours later, I woke up again, blinking at the desk right next to me. An ungodly amount of cables, batteries, battery chargers, gummy bears, bottles, and Fischi, still working in front of the computer. "They were right, Fischi really is a powerhouse", I thought back then, trying to get to sleep again, knowing that the alarm would go off three hours later.

Of course, that’s just one story of Fischi, and I’m sure there were also at least two dozen nights where he actually got some sleep in the last two decades. Talk to any rider that has worked with him, though, and they’ll assure you that there are few people in this scene that are working harder.

Eventually, Fischi moved on from Pleasure, and the mag did change quite a bit. With each new graphic designer, the layout and style of Pleasure changed. Looking at older issues now, I see a completely different magazine, having no doubt whatsoever, of course, that Pleasure 150 would not be possible without the 149 issues before.

At this point, it’s mandatory to thank all the editors, photographers, artists, graphic designers, riders, and, most importantly, all the readers, that make these pages what they are. Snowboarding really can give us everything, and, whether you are still working in our industry or not, you probably wouldn’t do what you are currently doing without it. As Zach Aller says in his piece on page 124, though, snowboarding can also take everything from you. A shattering realization we all had to experience in November 2021, when our good friend Marko "Grilo" Grilc tragically died. "Snowboarding hasn’t just lost a great snowboarder; it’s lost one of its most crucial cogs," our editor Tom Kingsnorth wrote in Pleasure 140 about Grilo. Thinking about this loss still hurts. Looking at this cover of Pleasure 150, though, we certainly know that Grilo is still part of our community. The cog still works, and we still hear that loud, contagious laugh.

Have fun with Pleasure 150.