What was your first car?

A second hand Holden Commodore wagon, which quickly became something I spent a lot of time in. It was a good start to being on the road and most of the time I was heading somewhere to do something pretty fun. To me, it was so important, as it is these days, to have space. Most of the time my back seats are never up. There's always boards of some kind in the back - snowboards or surfboards.

As a Suzuki ambassador, what are you driving these days?

I'm in the S-Cross now, which is a pretty awesome car. I guess for me, something I still hold quite important in a car is the ability to go places that I want to go. The cool thing about Suzukis is that they are all-wheel and four-wheel drive, and they go great in the snow.

What's your pet road peeve? 

I've actually changed a lot recently. I used to be one of those guys who was always ducking and weaving looking for the best lane. These days I'm pretty cruisy. So probably the biggest thing that gets me now is the merge. People still haven't mastered the merge. It just seems to cause all kinds of traffic issues. You know, I get it. When there's a lot of cars and everyone's trying to pile in, it's always nice to get a couple of cars extra before you pull over. But a mate of mine always says, 'it's like a zipper - it's one-for-one and then it just goes smoothly up'.

What's your preferred drive music?

I just love some good solid blues-rock. I'm a huge Hendrix fan - I play a lot of guitar myself - so there's always some Hendrix playing. Recently it's also been J.J. Cale or Canned Heat, just some good harmonica foot stompin' riffs. For me, that's plenty. I'm not the kind of guy to be driving around with some heavy beats playing.

What's your favourite drive?

I see some really exciting, incredible places and nice roads, especially in Europe, but nothing beats driving on the coast near Sydney, especially the south coast. It's just unreal, with the small towns and epic scenery that you get along the way. This year I've also had a lot of time driving down in the high country in Victoria. It was one of the only times I got to drive down to the snow from home. Normally I fly 40-hours or so, and then drive to the hill.

What about in Europe?

Parts of Austria are some of my favourite, especially in spring. Their mountains are just so fierce and stand so upright. It always feels you've got something well up above you. And at that time of year everything's green, there's glacial waterfalls, and every corner brings so much new scenery. It's stunning.

VITAL STATISTICS

100,000 - the number of kilometres I put on my old Commodore wagon

2011 – the year I became a Suzuki ambassador

The lowdown: the champion Aussie snowboarder loves a car with ample off-road capabilities.

Career highlights: representing Australia at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics; finishing first at the 2016 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup? in Biqueira Beret, Spain; finishing second at the 2016 Winter X Games (Snowboard Cross) ?in Aspen, Colorado; finishing first at the 2015 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.