The black Kat of Snow

While it is the middle of summer in the good old SA, I thought it would be pretty fun to have a chat with one of our top snowboarders. He won the best trick at our Snowboard Jam in December with a crazy 270 on 270 off. His name - Katlego Maponyane, but you can call him Kat. The guy is literally like Black Kat, excuse the pun, but I would compare him more to Chunky than ultra smooth. I often have my sphincter pulling just watching him decimate himself on rails for hours on end, but just as you wanna go up and say, "Hey Kat, how about a break?" (Oh dam another pun, sorry, it just came out, haha), he will absolutely pull the biggest trick of the day with so much style and grace you wanna cry.

Like I said, smooth, but actually chunky! (Photo: Jaimie Smith)

So down to business and a quick chat with the Kat:

[Kai]
Dudem, keen to answer some quik questions for me blog?
[Kat Maponyane]
umm ok cool lukka
fire away
[Kai]
Ok, first off, how did you get into the snow?
[Kat Maponyane]
In the far away hills of tiffendell, went to SA champs the one year for a party with no intention of ever getting strapped to a board.
[Kai]
What grabbed you about the sport - did you come from a board riding background?
[Kat Maponyane]
Nothing really to be honest. I'd seen it a few times on tv & it looked kinda cool,but never thought it would be realistic to ever try it seeing as we're in Africa. I was always the kid that had friends who could skate, but never really had any talent at it myself.
[Kai]
Haha surely you can skate now? I mean you hit pretty gnarly jibs on a snowboard?
[Kat Maponyane]
Have fun in the mini ramp is about as far as I can go.

Chunky Rail Slide! ooh the Steeeez! (Photo: Jaimie Smith)

[Kai]
What's your favorite aspect of the sport?
[Kat Maponyane]
The fun factor & amp; non team sport side of it.
[Kai]
You recently have been about SA playing beats - was this pretty connected to your snowboarding? Especially the type of music you are into.
[Kat Maponyane]
Not connected at all, we started dj'ing as a joke because we needed a "filler" dj for the night at a party.
[Kai]
Ok, so what are your plans for 2011
[Kat Maponyane]
Unfortunately all plans to do some riding this northern hemi winter have been dashed due to work commitments, so now all I can do is wait for the short SA season to come along.
But to answer your question - fun fun fun & more improvement & to keep staying on the podiums in one way or another
[Kai]
Do you have lots of groupies? (I had heard rumors)
[Kat Maponyane]
I have one die hard groupie!
[Kai]
Awesome, guess that puts you in the same league as the Flying Concords?
[Kat Maponyane]
Yip
Something like that.
[Kai]
Lastly any message for the peeps who wanna board in SA?
[Kat Maponyane]
Logon to snowboarder.co.za, get involved, do something different, come hangout & amp; have a good time while doing it!
[Kai]
Shot dude, you wont mind if I compare you to peanut butter hey?
[Kat Maponyane]
No, not at all captain.


Check out Kat in action in these videos: