This snow season is particularly lively as it is the first complete snow season after the Beijing Winter Olympics. In response to the enthusiasm for ice and snow among the public, top events are also returning to China.
On November 30, the 2023-2024 season FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing Big Air World Cup kicked off at the “Snow Flying Sky” Big Air venue in Beijing. Following that, on December 6, the Freestyle and Snowboard U-Shaped Field World Cup also resumed at the Chongli Yunding Ski Resort. These two World Cups gathered the world’s top athletes again, who once again showcased the unique charm of snowboarding through their extreme performances.
“Playing is the most important thing”
On December 2, the Big Air World Cup final was held at “Snow Flying Sky”. The audience was nearly full, with many spectators coming to see Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming, as this World Cup was a rare opportunity for him to appear locally after the Winter Olympics.At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, only 17 years old, Su Yiming achieved a silver and a gold medal within a week, breaking the best record of Chinese athletes in snowboarding. During the men’s big air final, Su Yiming had already secured first place after his first two jumps. For his final jump, he did not choose the expected 1980, but instead opted for a simple 360-degree rotation.After tracing a graceful and slow arc, Su Yiming landed calmly. His explanation later was: “I just wanted to enjoy this last slide.”▲ Su Yiming training at the “Snow Flying Sky” Big Air venue in BeijingSu Yiming and snowboarding share a mutual selection. Starting to learn to ski at the age of 4, snowboarding has equated to “fun” in Su Yiming’s heart. Because he loves snowboarding, by the age of 6 or 7, Su Yiming’s sliding distance in a single snow season exceeded 500 kilometers. At the age of 7, he began his relationship with the snowboarding brand BURTON. Soon, his father’s skill and the domestic environment could not keep up with his progress, so his parents chose to let him start training in places like Japan and New Zealand, gradually accessing world-class training resources.After becoming a “world traveler”, Su Yiming found that the charm of snowboarding is not limited to competition: the snowboarding family does not have a life-and-death atmosphere; everyone focuses more on themselves, and riders care more about the innovation of their movements. When someone performs a beautiful trick, the “opponents” in the arena are sometimes even happier than the performer.Su Yiming also discovered that these riders are so free and carefree; the great figures in this circle believe that there are no standard answers to sliding; what matters is to slide out one’s style, and every slide is a personal show that showcases oneself. They believe that life is the same—life does not require painful choices, but rather to exhaust all possibilities. Therefore, their lives outside of snowboarding are also rich, going to school, surfing, playing music; they love snowboarding, but they love life itself even more.Su Yiming gradually became part of the global snowboarding community and, like his friends and idols, fell in love with hip-hop music and started playing the guitar. More importantly, he embraced the spirit shared by the community. For him, whether snowboarding or life, “playing” is the most important thing, which is also a phrase often spoken by Su Yiming and the snowboarding masters. In 2018, when Su Yiming trained in Japan under his mentor Sato Yasuhiro, he snowboarded between 300 to 320 days each year, sometimes wearing out four boards in a week. But after winning gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics, he said in an interview, “Training is playing.”After the Winter Olympics, people found that this snowboarding genius seemed to have disappeared from view for a while, even without participating in any official FIS events. Su Yiming explained that after getting the coveted gold medal, he suddenly felt particularly “empty” inside and wanted to try things outside of snowboarding. He started fishing and surfing, participated in events promoting snowboarding, and even began catching up on high school courses, as he was preparing for a huge change—becoming a freshman at Tsinghua University in 2023. Su Yiming does not see these attempts outside of snowboarding as a waste of time; he believes they represent the possibilities in his life—one of the most important aspects of the snowboarding spirit is the freedom to pursue possibilities. “I want to try many things; of course, I may not be able to play the best, but I will try my best to do better.”At this Big Air World Cup, people found that being “unprofessional” did not affect his state. In the final, he successfully performed a switch backside 1800 on his first jump, ranking first. In the second round, he successfully challenged the frontside 1980, scoring the highest of 95.50 points, securing the championship early. After the game, Su Yiming revealed that he had tried the switch backside 1800 in Austria and New Zealand before but had not succeeded. It was not until he returned to the Shougang Big Air venue that he successfully completed this move on the second day of public training, yet he still boldly placed the switch backside 1800 as his first jump—Su Yiming is still “cool”.▲ Su Yiming wins the 2023-2024 season FIS Snowboard Big Air World Cup championship
Winning or losing is not as important as passion
Like Su Yiming, Liu Jiayu, the runner-up in the women’s snowboarding U-shaped field event and a BURTON signed athlete, also often speaks of “playing.”If Su Yiming has been immersed in snowboarding culture since childhood, then this Chinese female snowboarding representative is a latecomer. In 2003, when snowboarding was just being established in China, Liu Jiayu was sent to the Harbin team at the age of 11. From then on, Liu Jiayu began her long and arduous training as one of the first professional snowboarders in China.Liu Jiayu is not a naturally gifted athlete; she often practiced hard and ended up with injuries all over her body, but with determination, she became a leading figure in women’s snowboarding. “No pains, no gains” is her motto. However, sometimes when facing repetitive training, she questioned herself: “Why do I practice snowboarding? Do I really like this? What is snowboarding?”Due to her intense training, injuries have always been a recurring problem for Liu Jiayu. At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Liu Jiayu was affected by injuries and ultimately finished fourth. After that Olympics, shoulder injuries continued to plague her, and before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, she underwent two major surgeries, eventually finishing ninth due to injuries.After the disappointment at the Sochi Winter Olympics, facing ongoing injuries and a lack of breakthrough results, she once considered retirement. She began to let go of training, took her snowboard out to “play,” treating snowboarding as pure relaxation, thinking about retiring when she returned home. But while playing, she began to understand the essence of snowboarding: “Snowboarding is a joyful thing; if it feels painful, there’s no need to continue. During that time, after letting go of all burdens, I found the joy in snowboarding again. I realized that it is my passion that makes me want to continue.”In fact, Liu Jiayu has always been a playful child, with a natural love for sports. After this “epiphany,” she gradually rediscovered her playful spirit from childhood, and the word “play” increasingly appeared in her conversations. “Snowboarding is different from other sports; it has its own culture, not just a competitive sport, not just for championships, but for the joy of playing,” she once said.Since then, whether winning a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, achieving a historic medal for China in this event, or finishing eighth at the Beijing Winter Olympics due to mistakes, Liu Jiayu has appeared quite indifferent, as winning or losing is no longer the most important thing for her.▲ Liu Jiayu’s understanding of the spirit of snowboarding has, to some extent, facilitated her partnership with BURTON in 2018, as both share the same values.Since the Beijing Winter Olympics, Liu Jiayu has not participated in any official FIS competitions, but has traveled around the world to experience life and seek new directions. Liu Jiayu often skis outdoors with some ordinary friends, and this aimless skiing brings her immense joy.At this U-shaped field World Cup, Liu Jiayu revealed that she recently found a coach with whom she has a great connection, providing her with great inspiration. Although she did not achieve her goal of winning a Winter Olympic gold medal, she is more interested in continuing to explore the joy of snowboarding with this coach, because as she said after winning silver at this World Cup: “The greatest victory is not challenging others, but overcoming oneself.”
The Intergenerational Transmission of the Spirit of Snowboarding
In the life stories of Su Yiming, Liu Jiayu, and almost any snowboarder, we can see the powerful spiritual energy of this sport. In fact, the beginning of this spirit can be traced back to the father of snowboarding, Jake Burton.In the 1950s, Jake was born in New York, USA. He was lively and active as a child, enjoying surfing and many other sports. During his youth, a sliding toy called Snurfer (a wooden board with a rope at the front for steering, used for sliding on snow) became popular among American children. At the age of 14, Jake bought a Snurfer with his saved $10, which brought him immense joy.After graduating from college, Jake found a respectable job on Wall Street, but he did not like the atmosphere there. He wanted to do something he loved and that gave him a sense of purpose. He remembered the Snurfer that he had always longed for, and he decided to improve it and turn it into a real sport. In 1977, he made a daring decision: to leave Wall Street and start his own brand, BURTON, which is recognized as a milestone in the development of snowboarding.Soon, the first mass-produced snowboard, the Burton Backhill, was born. However, promoting snowboarding faced difficulties; throughout the 1970s, many ski resorts did not allow people to snowboard. But Jake was so passionate about snowboarding that he invested all his energy, time, and money into promoting it, personally persuading ski resorts to accept the sport while improving the products. Things began to turn around, and from the 1980s onwards, snowboarding rapidly developed.At the same time, Jake Burton infused his charisma into the sport. Like many of the “beat generation,” Jake had a confidence and impulse to change society, and snowboarding became a tool for him to promote social change. Thus, the sport has been marked by independence and freedom from its inception. Early players used hippie spirit, punk music, and second-hand clothing to challenge traditional values, making snowboarding a sport rich in spiritual power, which has been passed down through generations of snowboarders.
▲ Jake Burton
As Jake’s lifelong masterpiece, the BURTON brand has also become a distinctive symbol of snowboarding, participating in shaping the spirit of snowboarding. Whether it’s the brand slogans “WE RIDE TOGETHER” or “Have as much fun as possible,” they resonate with this spirit. On the other hand, “Rider First” has been BURTON’s motto for many years. For years, BURTON has supported snowboarders worldwide in various ways, especially through professional equipment, launching many groundbreaking snowboarding products.In the 1980s, a groundbreaking figure emerged in the snowboarding community—Craig Kelly. Just before graduating from college, he decided to drop out to become a professional snowboarder, and he is widely regarded as the first true professional snowboarder. At the height of Craig’s career, he joined BURTON. One of the main reasons he joined BURTON was that he saw BURTON’s commitment to product development and its continuous drive for the advancement of snowboarding technology. Craig’s joining became a milestone in the brand’s product history; after joining BURTON, he was deeply involved in the development of snowboards, and it can be said that Craig, with his chemistry background, elevated BURTON’s products to a new level. Jake once commented, “When I started listening to Craig’s advice, my company began to succeed and rapidly take off; when everyone else in the industry started listening to Craig, the sport truly began to thrive.”Although Craig has long passed away, his professional spirit remains at BURTON. This is why Jake named the new prototype board development center BURTON Craig’s Prototype Factory. This factory has become a symbol of the brand’s professional spirit and represents BURTON’s significant investment in snowboarding product development. The Craig Prototype Board Development Center covers more than 1,000 square meters and houses BURTON’s most advanced, custom manufacturing machines, capable of producing a brand new snowboard within hours and utilizing rapid prototyping machines to manufacture plastic binding parts overnight for testing the next morning. The development center also has a mechanical workshop, allowing engineers to create and test custom parts and production processes, which is crucial for the brand’s ambition to advance snowboarding manufacturing globally.Today, almost all of the boards used by BURTON’s signed athletes are produced here. These elite athletes’ boards are highly customized, made by BURTON after fully considering the athletes’ feedback, ensuring their performance on the field.
▲ BURTON Craig’s Prototype Factory.
BURTON has also brought its professional spirit to China, supporting the development of snowboarding since entering China in 2002. The brand is committed to promoting snowboarding through various activities and interpreting the spirit of snowboarding while continuously serving China’s elite athletes with professional products. As early as 2005, BURTON began providing a series of equipment for the Chinese national team in the U-shaped field, from snowboards to boots, bindings, goggles, helmets, and snow clothing. In the post-Winter Olympics era, this cooperation has continued—this March, BURTON signed a sponsorship agreement with the Chinese national snowboard team for the 2022-2026 period, supporting Chinese snowboard athletes in their quest for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.In these two FIS World Cup events, BURTON’s support for Su Yiming and Liu Jiayu is part of this assistance. In fact, in these two World Cup events, BURTON also supported Anna Gasser, the women’s big air champion, multiple World Cup and X Games champion Kenji Otsuka, Olympic medalist Ayumu Hirano, and rising U-shaped field star Mizuki Onodera, among others. With BURTON’s professional equipment, these athletes are able to break through themselves in the World Cup and fully showcase the charm of snowboarding. More importantly, as a driving force in snowboarding, the unique spirit of these athletes resonates deeply with the younger generation in China, undoubtedly attracting more participants to snowboarding in the future.
Disclaimer: This article is original to Lazy Bear Sports and cannot be reproduced without authorization.
Click the bottom left corner 【Read the original text】 to sign up for the “8th Sports Industry Carnival”。
