agr has a new friend. His name is Katlego Maponyane. Like most of our friends, we have not met him in person. But the Internet is even better than real interaction. Because you can use smiley faces and whatnot.

Katlego “Kat” Maponyane is a snowboarder from South Africa (yes, there is snow in South Africa). Kat is a damn good snowboarder. He is sponsored by Oakley, Skullcandy, and Quiksilver. We are going to go ahead and say that he is one of the best snowboarders on the entire continent. Kat answered some questions that agr had about snacks, babes and boardin’.

1. How hot was your first snowboard instructor? If she were a celebrity, who would she be?
-She was pretty hot. On a scale of 1 to 10, I definitely would have given her one. She would be a cross between Jessica Alba and a Suicide Girls model.

2. Was she impressed by your snowboard skills?
-I don’t know really? I hope she was. I went through a lot of pain for her.

3. When did you begin snowboarding?
-23 July 2006

4. When was the last time you went snowboarding?
-Close to a month ago (August 24th to be exact).

5. How many days a year do you get to snowboard?
-Probably only about 60 days max. That’s counting both Northern and Southern Hemi seasons.

6. What is cooler: skateboarding or snowboarding?
-Snowboarding, only because I suck balls at skating, I can wake skate a bit though.

7. What is your home mountain like? Real or artificial snow? Lifts? Powder? Park? Babes?
-Afri-Ski has been described by many as a line of cocaine down a hooker’s ass, due to the fact that it’s a single slope that’s about 1km long, 4hours from Johannesburg and is literally in the middle of nowhere. The snow’s both artificial and real, but mostly artificial. It has a T-bar lift and the coolest thing about it is the sweet little park that’s been built there by the guys from the snowboarding club of South Africa (snowboarder.co.za). The only girls that go there are the ones we already know. I wish more would go more often.

8. Is snowboarding popular?
-Most South African’s have never seen snow, so I doubt they even know what snowboarding is.

9. Tell us about the movie you are in.
-It’s called TIA (THIS IS AFRICA) and will be the first ever full length snowboard film out of Africa and its being produced by Scratch Media. It’s about letting people know snowboarding exists down here through a crew of friends having good times in the last place you would expect to find snow. No budget, no choppers, just under 3 months of snow and the plain and simple rawness of what snowboarding in Africa is like.

10. Can you be a “pro” snowboarder in South Africa?
-The word “pro” can be thrown around loosely, but none of us can actually claim it. Being hooked up with a couple of sponsors helps a great deal in cutting down a whole bunch of costs and being able to spend months on end in North America and Europe snowboarding is super rad, but in reality it’s unfortunately more like an expensive hobby.

11. What would be the best non-snowboarding sponsor to have?
-Free petrol for the rest of my life.

12. Are your favorite snowboard videos and magazines from South Africa or elsewhere?
-The only way to stay up to date with the rest of the snowboarding world is the internet. Online magazines are ingenious and European videos are way too underrated.

13. If you got to pick your home mountain, what would you pick?
-Hmmm, I’d have to choose one of the spots in Tahoe. It just has so much to offer, whether it’s one of the big resorts or the smaller ones. Always fun!

14. What is the most popular snowboard company among South African snowboarders?
-Not one brand dominates the market because none of them have any distributors here. All the riders have different outerwear, boards, boots, bindings, etc.

15. Best snowboarder ever?
-I’m still super wet behind the ears with this whole snowboarding thing, but from all the videos I’ve watched and knowledge I’ve gained in my short time, my all time favourites would have to be Scotty Wittlake, Terje Haakonsen, Jamie Lynn, JP Walker and Jeremy Jones (Jib).

Stay tuned for part 2 with Kat….