Iouri Podladtchikov is one of the sickest riders on the slopes as well as a true charmer who befriends everyone he meets with a smart and funny character. The  half Suisse, half Russian young-gun from Moscow finished in World No. 6 in 06/07 on the TTR World Snowboard Tour and now sits in World No. 2 after the Burton Canadian Open 2010. Growing up in Davos, riding with former Olympic Gold medalist Gian Simmen seems to have influenced him in a very positive way.

His 2009/10 season has so far been successful with two wins at Swatch TTR halfpipe events, the 6Star O'Neill Evolution 2010 and the 5Star Burton Canadian Open. His win came after a couple of 2nd places at the Dew Tour and Winter XGames and will surely not be the last big success for Iouri this season.

Keeping his feet firmly on the ground he has got his eyes on the top spot, but knows he has a lot of work ahead of him, “I want to go further up of course, but it's going to be really hard because Peetu is in the lead with 120 TTR points I think. But there are still some events and it is possible and I am really looking forward to the next events. It's been a good year and I want to stay there for sure and not move down anymore.”

Snowboarding is not Iouri’s only passion. In summer he is more up for skateboarding and he can’t pass a ramp without throwing down a small skate session. But if you ask him what he prefers more, you might not get a definitive answer; He just enjoys having fun on a board.

Interview taken during the O'Neill Evolution 2008 in Davos, Switzerland.

Who are you and where are you from?

Hello, I’m Iouri Podladtchikov, I’m 19 years old. We’re here in Davos, Switzerland, I live here and I go to school here. I also live in Zurich, where I grew up. 

Last year you did pretty well in the Tour, can you tell us about your time riding in the TTR last season?

Last year I had a pretty good season. I finished second twice in a Six Star event, once here in Davos and once in Laax. And that made me finish 6th place in the overall rankings. Which is pretty good I think.

The Top 5 TTR guys got an invite to this season’s Air & Style. How did it feel to miss that?

I’m really pissed about that, as you know. Haha. But maybe next year. We’ll see.

What are your thoughts on TTR?

I wish the Top 6 were invited to the Air & Style! Haha. Nah…TTR is great. It’s a great opportunity to actually ride a lot at an event. There are always great ideas behind the events, not just a pipe event or a quarter event. That’s what makes it all worth it. I try to compete and do well….yeah I’m pretty stoked all the time.

Can you explain your lifestyle? What does it mean, and what does it take to be a professional snowboarder?

It takes a lot to hang in to this. You travel a lot, you’re not at home, and in my position you miss a lot of stuff at school. All together it makes it really hard to keep going all the time throughout the whole season. Cause sometimes it’s just so hard. You can’t go home, you can’t do you stuff you really want to. Cause you have to do a lot of competitions, photo shoots, and make sure you don’t get hurt at the same time, cause then it all stops. But it’s all combined with your own motivation for sure. I don’t know anybody who really does this because he’s just doing it. Everybody is doing it with passion. That’s what makes it a lifestyle.

Tell us about that passion. You’ve got powder, you’ve got winning contests…can you explain the difference between laying down a powder turn and stomping a run in front of ten thousand people.

It’s both. Both things are part of the passion I guess. I remember last year we didn’t have any snow. I didn’t jump one powder kicker last year. I was really bummed about that. All year it was just contest after contest, waiting for the snow, actually, cause maybe in between you could snowboarding. But the feeling is just... cause when you go up there…you’re not spinning or thinking about your run to stoke everybody out. You’re just riding for the powder, looking for things that you usually don’t look for. It’s so much more creative for sure. Too be honest though, just look at the videos and how many people skip the powder parts. I mean now I look at them, but when I was a small kid I just skipped because I wanted to see the tricks and wanted to see action. But if you’re doing it yourself, you see the point of it, from a different point of view.

Do you have any memorable moments from last year? What’s your ‘one moment’?

My one moment was…. I’m thinking of the Burton European Open right now… cause I was figuring out what I wanted to do in the finals, and there was bad weather. And everyone was like, “whoa we’re going to have to go home!” Everybody was not so motivated to do it, you know? But I kind of knew that the pipe was going to be good. I just felt it. I just remember this moment in finals. I had three runs. In the first two I didn’t do so good. The third was just…haha. I had to claim it. I was so happy just to land. It wasn’t perfect, but it was very close to what I wanted. That was a really good moment of the year.