Japanese riders have always set themselves apart from the pack. And Kazuhiro Kokubo is no exception. An explosive freestyle rider able to adapt to any type of terrain, Kokubo will have the entire crowd floored every time he launches himself off the coping or lip keeping his highly technical tricks as smooth as butter.

In the 06/07 season, Kazuhiro finished 45th on the TTR Tour, even reaching the Top 10 for a couple of weeks. For the 07/08 season however, Kazuhiro has unleashed his bag of trick wizardry upon unsuspecting competitors and has found himself in the Top Ten for 11 weeks, even reaching TTR World No. 6. Currently he is in the TTR Top 15 and has an incredible record of Top 5 and podium finished under his belt already.

Kokubo performs well in both Halfpipe and Slopestyle and his success began early in the season at the 5-Star Abominable Snow Jam in Mt. Hood with a 4th place in the Halfpipe. He kept things up in the southern hemisphere with a 7th in the Halfpipe at the 5-Star Burton New Zealand Open. Kokubo then landed his first podium of the season with a 3rd in the slopestyle at the 4-Star Garnier Fructis Australian Open.

Back in his homeland, Kazuhiro destroyed the Slopestyle and Halfpipe in ALTS Bandai at the 5-Star Nissan X-Trail Nippon Open scoring two second places. His halfpipe run started off with a massive Chuckflip Nosegrab off his first hit, into a FS 10 Tail, a Cab 7, a FS 7 and ending a Cab 9. With runs like these it’s no wonder he’s one of the top Japanese riders currently on the Tour. He continued his high streak of podiums at the 6-Star Burton US Open, competing only in the pipe and finishing 8th. His best six results earned him his TTR World No. 11 position in the end-of-season TTR Rankings.

Kokubo is also known to kill it in the backcountry and recently stomped his biggest cliff drop ever while filming for Absinthe Films. Also check him out in the new Burton team video “Thanks in Advance’ where he flew to Colorado with the Burton Crew for a sick session at Winter Park.

In 08/09, Kokubo only posted one result on the TTR Tour with a win of the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open Halfpipe. At the only other international contest that he entered, namely the FIS World Cup 08/09 in Saas Fee/ Switzerland he placed third.

The following season, Kokubo decided to attend some more contests and posted some of his best results yet including a victory at the prestigious 6Star Burton US Open Halfpipe and a third place in the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open Halfpipe which saw one of the most intense halfpipe competitions in the history of snowboarding. Kokubo finished 8th in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Kokubo always ups the riding level at halfpipe competitions and we hope to se him at many more international contests in the future.