Extreme Carving: Interview with Koyo Ishida

Master from the Land of the Rising Sun

Carving began in Europe with alpine snowboarding at the end of the eighties before being copied by the ski industry. It was proven that carving could be pushed to the extreme, with the entire body touching the snow, but the laid turn (Vitelli turn) remained a curiosity, something to be done on front-side to amuse friends or people at the terrace of a restaurant. Riders were often unable to get up or could do only one laid turn.

Jacques Rilliet and Patrice Fivat , the Swiss carving duo, have developed the Extreme Carving technique, which allows Totally Laid, Linked Turns™ consisting of consecutive linked armpit-in-the-snow laid-over turns with full body extension on both heel side and toe side.

This is quite a new direction in snowboarding, but it has already gained great popularity among fans of extreme riding.

Today we want to introduce you to one of the athletes who is extremely successful in this amazing snowboarding technique.

Our guest comes from Japan, the city of Hiroshima and his name is Koyo Ishida.

Koyo has huge experience in skiing and snowboarding, he was skiing for 15 years, then tried snowboarding and found a real passion for it. He decided to progress further in this type of sport and push the boundaries to the next level. He has been snowboarding actively for over 20 years and already 6 years he is engaged in extreme carving.

In the beginning it was very difficult to learn this unique and difficult technique and it took him about a year to get to the satisfying level of skill which he keeps improving to this day.

Koyo is practicing all year round. Thanks to the specially constructed tracks in his hometown he has an opportunity to practice and enjoy carving even during the summer months!

Koyo’s experience and love for this sport has led him to start coaching others, he does it for fun and his students are making great progress. He began his career in this sport thanks to the manager from “Proshop MK” who was teaching him how to choose the right equipment for snowboarding and ski, as well as how to interact with people and enjoy this sport. Without this person, he would have stopped snowboarding a long time ago and would never have found out his true passion and level of skill he will achieve today.

Koyo, promoted the test drive event at Sun Village Akane, but he advertised it through trial and error in order to support and excite Sun Village Akane, the board maker did many test drives, and Sun Village Akane got a lot of customers thanks to Koyo, which he is proud of.Koyo also shoots amazing videos with GoPro MAX and contributes to this company, while some of his best videos are featured by GoPro. You can watch Koyo’s videos and enjoy his level of skill gained through his passion and dedication in one of the hardest techniques to truly master.

He performs such difficult tricks with grace and ease with highest level of professionalism