Snowboarding with Andrew Le Roux

The 2013 South African Snowboarding season was a huge success despite the lack of snowfall at the Afriski Mountain Resort. Andrew Le Roux is one of the top riders this country has to offer, coming off a strong season with a big win, big crashes and all round great progression we interviewed Andrew to chat to him about the 2013 season. Check it out.

Full name: Andrew James Le Roux

Nickname: Stoltzy / Le Roux

Age: 21

Hometown: Jozi

Years snowboarding: 6

Stance: Regular

Snowboard of choice: Rough

Sponsors: Need some, I’m available.

Tell us how you got into Snowboarding in a country that doesn’t really have snow?
Long story short, I started Sandboarding on the mine dumps in Benoni, which lead to snowboarding on an artificial carpet slope, one thing lead to another and I ended up on the snow slopes of AfriSki.

What do you think most people’s misconceptions are when it comes to Snowboarding in SA?
That they don’t know there is Snowboarding in SA, never the less to see how far the sport has grown in SA.

In the first snowboarding comp of the season, The Kings Cup, you placed 1st. Take us through that comp and your winning run?
The comp was hosted at AfriSki and sponsored by Mini, Burton, Red Bull, Anon, TTR, Skullcandy and Kapoko Park. It was an interesting comp for me as my fellow Kapoko Park companions and I were up since 2am ensuring all preparations were in place for the comp but by the time I had to take my runs I was ready to throw down. The comp consisted of the best 2 out of 3 run format. My first run, I did a back one tail press onto the ‘flat-to-up’ box with a 360 out, second hit I did a switch front board on the ‘pipe rail’ landing regular again, third hit I gapped the flat and did a backside board slide on the down, fourth hit I did front board over the t-box and on the kicker I stuck a clean front side 720. My second run was a scrap as I fell trying an underflip. My third run consisted of different variations of clean rails including a pacey front board to fakie on the t-box to set me up for a switch-backside-cork 540 over the kicker taking me to victory.

At the Quiksnow SA National Snowboarding Champs you were a favourite to take the win but placed 9^th overall. Take us through that comp and what happened?
Ohhhh, you know it’s one of those things. I went in qualifying first and my practise run before the comp was set to take me home with a second victory from what the judges had told me, obviously if I landed it. Both my comp runs unfortunately I saw my popol trying the switch-back-cork 540 over the first kicker. Even though I walked away from the comp as if though I was in a prison cell for a day, I wasvery stoked on the end results. I was happy that everybody rode well and stepped up the progression of snowboarding in SA including my own progression.

Overall, what did you think of the 2013 season?
The Gods didn’t bless us with the magical white stuff this season, but as man does we made ourselves at AfriSki some excellent manmade snow ensuring us of an epic ski slope and snow park (Kapoko Park). I was stoked with my riding this season and feel like I am able to push my progression a lot further than it is now.

You basically live at Afriski during the winter. How much riding do you get in and what else do you do up there?
I spent the whole season there last year, and a month during my student holidays there this year. The amount of riding last year was very limiting because as you know work comes first, but this year I managed a lot more riding as we had few more members in the Kapoko Park Crew spreading the work load.
I work in the evenings as a Groomer (Pistenbully operator) and during the days I work as a Park Builder.

“I’ll be happy as long as I keep progressing as one of SA’s top riders pushing the sport to grow locally”

You helped build and shape the new Kapoko Park, what did you think of the final set-ups? And how did it suit your riding style?
The final set ups were crazy, with the level of difficulty increasing from last year helped my riding style in terms of a lot of the features where people thought just going straight over them was good enough. I was able to add an element of creativeness to those features, e.g. in QuickSnow we had the t-box as a side feature which baffled most riders as what to do on it but I was able to miller flip over it.

What were some of the crazy things that happened up there this season?
I think you asking the wrong person that question, you should approach ski school for this one, they all types of crazy.

Now that the season is coming to an end, what are your plans for the off-season?
Grab mates, head to the coast on the weekends and catch a few wet ones.

Will you be going overseas anywhere to snowboard during their winter seasons?
I am, I’ve got a job for two and half months during my student break at the end of this year. I will be working as a ski/snb-tech in Breckenridge Colorado and I’ll be able to ride two/three days a week.

What tricks have you been working on and how many new tricks did you land this season?
New tricks in the bag are switch-corks, switch-backflips and switch spins.

You saw your ass a few times this season. Which was your hardest bail? What happened?
Oh man, you don’t understand, if it wasn’t for good stretching, chiropractors, a lot of anit-inflams and pain meds I would be lying in a hospital bed. The worst was a tranny finder on the big air, I thought I could push my switch-cork 540 into a 900 instead, though it caused me to smash and flip from tranny to landing. Injuries, were my back, left arm and right hand this season but all’s good I recover fast.

What are your goals for your snowboarding career?
To become the greatest the world has ever seen! Relax, I’m kidding, I’ll be happy as long as I keep progressing as one of SA’s top riders pushing the sport to grow locally.

Which international comp would be the ultimate to compete in for you?
TTR (World Snowboard Tour) events.

Where in the world have you ridden and where would you still like to go?
I have ridden in the States, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland and our very own AfriSki. Japan, Alaska and Canada are on the list.

Any shout outs?
Shout out to my parents, members of Kapoko Park Crew, Iztok Sumatic, Rueben Storbeck, Peter Peyper and Oliver Schwankhart.