16-Year-Old Hiroto Ogiwara Lands World’s First Backside 2160 In Snowboarding At The Nines

Snowboard progression continued at The Nines in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, as the weeklong invite-only progression session came to a close.

After 20-year-old Japanese snowboarder Reira Iwabuchi landed the first ever frontside triple 1260 (three and a half rotations) in women’s snowboarding on Tuesday, April 5, and 25-year-old Canadian Laurie Blouin joined Austria’s Anna Gasser as the only women to have landed a cab (switch frontside) triple 1260, another milestone was set.

Japanese snowboarder Hiroto Ogiwara, 16, stomped the first ever backside 2160 (six full rotations) on a snowboard.

The historic first happened on Wednesday, April 6. Ogiwara’s plan initially was to try and land a backside 1800, which he hadn’t been able to do the previous day. When he accomplished that feat quicker than he expected, he cast an eye toward progression.

“After my first hit, I thought the jump was perfect and I could go for the 1800,” Ogiwara said. “When I landed the 18, I realized I still had some time left over, so I thought, ‘Maybe I can go for it [the 2160].’”

Five attempts later, Ogiwara landed snowboarding’s first-ever backside 2160 (a backside 2160 Indy tailbone). “On the last try, the takeoff felt so good and everything in the air was right, so I knew I had it,” said Ogiwara. “The instant I landed it, I was kind of shocked and and wasn’t sure if I’d actually done it. I watched the video and was stoked and surprised to see that I had actually spun six full rotations!”

But the 16-year-old from Ushiku, Japan, may have claimed another world first. When watching the video of Ogiwara’s feat, count how many off-axis flips (or corks) he does. It’s quite possible that in addition to claiming the 2160, Ogiwara has landed snowboarding’s first quintuple cork.

Organizers at The Nines chose not to put out messaging that the world’s first quintuple has been claimed, instead deciding to “let the snowboarders argue among themselves if it was a quint.”

It sure looks like it.

The Nines began in 2008 as a men’s private session called Nine Knights in Oberstdorf, Germany and was joined in 2011 by a women’s event called Nine Queens. In 2014, the events merged.

The event’s innovative terrain park designs has birthed some of the best progression in freestyle snowboarding and skiing. The jump this year was a true table big air (taking off and landing at the same height), featuring a 5-meter-high take-off, 23 meters from take-off to landing. Ogiwara flew 35-40 meters, as the landing was 36 degrees steep and 40 meters long.

Needless to say, Ogiwara took the Best Trick title at The Nines. The United States’ Luke Winkelmann took Best Style, and Austria’s Valentino Guseli took Ruler of the Week.

For the female snowboarders, Iwabuchi took Best Trick with her front triple 1260, while Great Britain’s Mia Brookes took Best Style and also Ruler of the Week.

Alex Hall landed the first 2160 on skis at X Games Aspen in January. Needless to say, he won gold in the men’s ski big air contest. He wasn’t able to land it in the Beijing Olympics big air final, however.

In this year’s Olympics snowboard men’s big air final, seven riders—the most ever—landed 1800s. China’s Su Yiming, who won gold, made history with the first triple 1800 at a Winter Games. Finnish snowboarder Rene Rinnekangas has attempted the 2160 in competition but it never seriously felt like it was on the table during the 2021-22 season.

Now that Ogiwara has set the bar, however, and with a full fall training camp ahead of us, the 2160 could very well find its way into competition for the 2022-23 season.