Whitelines has learned that Andreas Wiig has decided to leave his board sponsor Nitro for a move to Forum. The move is slightly surprising because the Norwegian superstar – who has beaten the likes of Shaun White to several X-Games gold medals – was one of Nitro’s big guns. Wiig enjoyed all the benefits of being at the top of Nitro’s team roster, with a serious money contract (rumoured to be worth around half a million dollars) and a pro-model to his name. Quite apart from the money, Andreas only joined Nitro three years ago, and the brand had to fight hard to get him. Apparently they even got involved in legal wrangles with Todd Richards’ Omatic Snowboards – which had signed Wiig – to seal the deal.

Nitro’s Andi Aurhammer made it clear the move was unexpected, explaining that Nitro’s graphics team had got as far as designing Andreas 2010-11 pro model when he left. “Yeah, it was a little bit shocking at first,” he said. “We went for pre-season training at Hintertux and were expecting to sign a new contract with Andreas but we just got a call from his manager saying he was going to move.” Still, his old sponsors aren’t ones to hold a grudge: “It has been great working with him and we still have a good relationship, but he got an opportunity to move and he took it,” says Aurhammer.

The deal has yet to be officially announced, and Forum are keeping quiet about the whole thing. However, the people over at Nitro suggested that Wiig would also be signing for one of Forum’s associated clothing brands as part of a ‘head-to-toe’ contract. Although this means he will be leaving his outerwear sponsor Vans, it seems Andreas will keep rocking their boots. And while the Forum team is usually more associated with jibbers and powder hounds than contest riders, Andreas will continue to compete as well as filming with his new teammates.