Turning streets into slopes: Pro snowboarders take Kansas City by storm

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - When people think of snowboarding you probably picture mountain peaks or ski resorts, but for a group of pro snowboarders that came to Kansas City, they’re doing their tricks, in unique places.

“It’s a pretty big process,” said Sam Anderson, pro snowboarder.

Before these pros can strap into their board and catch air, there’s a lot of engineering that goes into getting it right.

“When we see a storm is coming through in a new city, what we’ll do is use google maps and search around street view around all the areas where there might be good features,” said Anderson as he pointed at their spot.

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Their thrill of carving fresh powder came in an unexpected place -- the Kansas City Metro.

“It’s incredible,” Anderson said, as he talked about the amount of snow.

Anderson said they had been keeping track of the winter storm for a week and drove out a couple of days ago to try out new and extreme tricks.

Sometimes not quite sticking the landing, but they said it’s all part of the experience.

Anderson and his fellow snowboarders were doing what’s called a board slide off of a building railing.

“So, a board slide is when you’re coming up with your back facing the rail and then you turn 90 degrees and you’re facing the direction you’re going and you’re just sliding the rail, and you just hop it.”

When KCTV5 asked Anderson ‘why Kansas City?’ He said this has been an area they’ve looked at for a long time, add in the near foot of snow, he said it’s a recipe for the perfect landscape.

“Normally the snow comes, and it melts really quickly, so having his artic blast come through after all this snow, is kind of our dream.”

This group plans to stay in Kansas City for the next 10 days and will be trying different spots around town.

If you would like to see more snowboarding videos from this crew click here.

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