Yuki Kadono cleaned up at Cow Day 2016, winning both the kicker and jib comps and taking home a big chunk of change.
Hakuba 47 played host to ‘Cow Day‘, a big air and jib event sponsored by Cow Brand soap. Snowboarding is no stranger to milking unusual sponsorship arrangements, and let’s face it, after a sweaty spring park day you don’t smell of roses, so why not a soap brand sponsor?
The event concept was a simple: gather together up some of Japan’s most exciting park talent to fight it out for Japan’s biggest prize purse of the season in a daytime big air and evening rail jam. The 47 Parks crew built a 20m rocket launcher of a kicker and a super fun-looking rail set up. Although there was a serious amount of cash up for grabs (1,300,000 yen – about $12,000) the atmosphere was relaxed with live DJs lending it all a springtime vibe.
In the finals, the judges were looking for clean style (not sure if this was a directive from Cow Brand soap) and perfect landings, so it was this effortless switch backside 1260 from Kudi Kadono that took top honors and 700,000 yen:
Keep an eye out for Rikuto Ohashi in the future! The fourteen year old junior high school student is still so small and light that he rides as 142 Burton Protest kids board. That didn’t stop him from taking second with a stomped backside 1260 though:
Rome SDS rider Yahiro Waki rounded out the podium with a backside double cork 12 mute:
Who wants some champagne? Yuki Kadono’s infectious stoke is becoming a regular occurrence on podiums:
As the sun went down, the fun moved down to the base area for the jib comp. Despite a solid line up of competition and street riders, when the lights came on, it was Yuki Kadono who turned it up and took the win in the rail comp – not a bad day for him!
A special shout out goes to Keiji Okamoto, who was told by the doctors he might not walk again after a serious spinal injury filming in February 2015. Barely a year later and it was great to see one of the most outgoing characters in the Japan snowboard scene back on his feet and riding, and putting on a slick event. 
To top it off, here’s the video recap of what went down: