The first major snowboard contest of the 2011-2012 season, the Air & Style Beijing will take place this Saturday. Dropping in will be a number of European snowboarders who you may or may not be that familiar with because they don't compete in a lot of U.S. contests, but who nevertheless deserve your attention anyway. One of these riders is Belgian Seppe Smits.
Smits got second place in Beijing last year, and at the Air & Style Munich. He is also the FIS World Champion in slopestyle. And he's accomplished all of this while coming from a country that has absolutely no mountains. If you ever wondered what the point of indoor snow parks were, this is the point. They breed riders like Smits, who grow up learning how to throw tricks with precision while hardly ever falling down.
Last year in Beijing, on a pre-contest down day, Smits joined me on a mission to wander the streets of the city with no map and no plan. I'd never met him before. We just happened to be sitting next to each other at breakfast, and exploring new places without an agenda happens to be something he enjoys doing, so he agreed to go with me. Like a lot of his peers who exploded onto the competition scene last season, what impressed me the most about Smits was not his riding skills, but top-level quality of his personality. The guy is just a pleasure to hang out with.
I tried to turn the camera on him during the day so I could show the world what a champ he was, but I am a word geek, and woefully unskilled in the art of video production, so the effort was a failure. So I had someone who knows what he's doing do a little video with him in New Zealand so the rest of you can see. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, if you don't know him already: meet Seppe Smits. Get to know him because you're going to be seeing a lot more of this guy.
