“I’m flying high on euphoria.”

Kazu Kokubo is an all-terrain machine. Style, attitude, and raw power are attributes that have vaulted him into not only Japan’s snowboarding elite, but also the world. Watch him in an interview and you see a man that is calm, deliberate, and gentle, but as soon as he straps in he becomes a possessed with borderline superhuman shred ability, hitting jumps and cliffs that many would simply gawk at. Kazu’s part in CAPiTA’s Defenders of Awesome 2 – STAY BAD ASS showcases his confidence and expertise in tremendous backcountry situations, and touches on his roots on the walls of a halfpipe (He won the Burton US Open when he was 14). The method in his ending shot is going to reverberate through snowboarding for many years to come.

Get your copy of Defenders of Awesome 2 – STAY BAD ASS at Capitasnowboarding.com

Check out Kazu in Snowboard Mag 11.2’s feature editorial piece Against the Grain with a digital subscription here.

Watch also: Creating the Cover: Snowboard Mag 11.2 with Kazu Kokubo