Meet Sage Kotsenburg - Live for the Mountains

Welcome Sage Kotsenburg to the Just Live Team

Pro snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg became a household name in 2014, the same year that slopestyle was introduced in the Olympics. His gold medal run in Sochi on the first day of competition came to represent a seismic shift in his sport.

In that run, a trick he invented (but hadn’t attempted until then) introduced an element of style and swagger into a sport whose competitive runs were once purely acrobatic. Called the “Holy Crail”, the trick makes it appear as if he’s spinning like a top as he rotates 4½ times, grabbing the board behind his back in the process. It’s super smooth, and he landed it. But when you grow up in Park City, Utah, surrounded by snowy mountains, supportive parents and competitive siblings, you’re bound to go places in life.

Sage was only 5 years old when his older brother, Blaze, got into snowboarding. He followed suit and by age 6, Sage had already entered and won his first snowboarding competition. Not long after that, along with Blaze and their younger sister, Kirra, they had taught their parents how to snowboard. And while the rest isn’t necessarily history, it’s almost all you need to know.

In the years that followed, Sage would continue to hone his craft, collecting awards & medals along the way, including first place in the 2010-11 Dew Tour standings, first place at the Mammoth Mountain U.S. Grand Prix in 2013, and silver medals for slopestyle in the 2010 and 2012 X Games. His gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics came next, but it was far from the end of the road. He just won Men’s Rider of the Year at the 2020 Snowboarder Awards.

Sage is a snowboarder’s snowboarder. He’s been doing it for the love of the sport since he was 5 years old, and it shows. He lives to chase the storm, which means he is constantly traveling. So whether he’s traveling for a competition or the love of the mountain, a good night’s sleep is going to be crucial.

“It’s really important to me to have a natural remedy that can keep up with my lifestyle,” he says. “Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your body and the fact [that] I can take some CBD before I sleep to help aid that recovery process is very beneficial.”

Aside from sleep, Sage keeps his mind & body sharp by sticking to a consistent wellness routine that emphasizes preventative measures like stretching and proper diet. “Warming up and stretching is crucial for snowboarding. I look for ways to help my healing process and CBD goes hand in hand with stretching and warming up for me,” he says.

From a dietary standpoint, Sage has been following a strictly vegan diet since 2016. Not only has that change positively affected his overall health, it’s also in line with his ethical and environmental values. Needless to say, he’s a big fan of our Vegan Softgels.

When injuries creep in on Sage’s life as they’re bound to do given his strenuous lifestyle, he’s always looked for ways to avoid opiates and painkillers. “I always have looked for natural treatments before opiates or painkillers, my whole life. From getting out of surgeries and refusing to take painkillers to just searching around seeing what other treatments we have naturally on this planet, I choose natural,” he says.

“I see so much benefit from taking CBD,” he says, “Take it for sleep, soreness, or just take it for preventative measures, it’s a natural supplement that your body can easily take in and place where needed,” he concludes.

On joining the Just Live team, Sage says, “Being surrounded with so many other athletes who have put their bodies and minds to the limit makes me feel comfortable that we can all say we have gone the alternative route and we are over it. We want to be giving our body what it needs to thrive, and to me… that is the definition of Just Live.”

We’re stoked to welcome Sage Kotsenburg to the Just Live team.