This post is part of a series of interviews with pro riders.
The focus is predominantly on snowboarding gear (this is a website all about snowboard gear after all!) but there some other questions just for fun.
This week’s pro rider gear profile features Joshua Reeves.
Joshua Reeves Interview
- How Long Have you Been Competing Professionally in Snowboarding?
When I was 15 I started riding on the World Cup tour for slope style. Then when I was 18 I stopped riding slope and took a year off competitions then when I was 20 I started to ride halfpipe and on my first year I was back on the World Cup tour
- What Discipline(s) do you compete in?
Atm I am riding halfpipe
- Snowboarding Profiles is a gear site, so that’s what we care most about here – how important do think it is to get your gear right?
I think choosing the right gear for you is probably one of the biggest things! There are so many different performing boards boots and bindings out there that there is a perfect set up for each person’s style of riding, because you will progress your snowboarding twice as fast riding the right stuff
- And for those young riders out there aspiring to be professional snowboarders, what do you consider the most important thing to being successful? Practice? Belief? Desire? Confidence? Gear? Good coach? Good physical shape? Likely a combination of the above, but what would be the single most important thing in your eyes?
The one and most important thing in my eyes for becoming a professional snowboarder is just the pure love and passion of snowboarding! The love of the sport is what makes you stand out amongst the rest. People can see how much fun you are having just watching you ride your board and that is what makes them want to get motivation from your videos to go out and ride for themselves.
- Getting back to gear, what do You think is the most important part of your equipment to get right? Snowboard? Bindings? Boots? Outerwear? Safety Equipment? And what would be your 2nd and 3rd choices as to what’s most important?
Personally I think bindings might be the most important part of your gear because they play such a huge factor in the control and weight of your snowboard that if your are rocking your high backs a little too soft it’s harder to get that responsiveness out of a carve, but if they’re to stiff it might be a little harder to get that pretzel out of the rail. Although I’m putting snowboard second in line, I still feel like it’s super important to pick the right one. There are so many different shapes and sizes of snowboards that they will all preform differently. If you are more of a park rider you might like a softer camber board for jumps and rails, but for halfpipe you would like a stiff camber board. But then there are powder boards that are more directional and so on…
I think I put boots last in this category because you can still ride anything with stiff or soft boots, I just like ridding something that feels comfy on my feet!
- In terms of the snowboard, what do you think is the most important factor or factors – the thing that can make the biggest difference to the feel and performance of the board? Camber Profile? Length? Width? Sidecut? Effective Edge? Flex? Weight? Base? Graphic 😉
I’m super picky with snowboards so I take all those factors into play when I’m getting a new board. But the biggest ones might be camber, flex and weight. For performing your best I think those are huge, but I’m also a sucker for a good looking snowboard.
- What gear is your go to right now? Board? Bindings? Boots? (can choose multiple)
My go to gear atm is the Lib Tech TRS for snowboard because that board is probably the best over all board I’ve ever ridden, and the Lib Tech Dynamo is probably the most aggressive pow board I’ve ever been on.
Bindings would have to be Bent Metal Axions, they are not to stiff but super responsive.
For boots I’m loving the Vans Invado Pros I love the look of them and when they’re done up they feel super secure.
- And finally, where is your favorite place to snowboard?
Hands down my favorite place to snowboard would have to be Whistler Blackcomb. They have everything from one of the best parks in the world to some of the deepest pow that you could find at a resort!
Big thanks to Josh for doing this interview! If you want to follow what Josh is up to check out his instagram @j0sh.reeves
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