The Shred Sensei: An interview with multi gold medal-winning coach Yas Sato

If you’ve watched the finals of any elite-level Big Air or Slopestyle competition over the past half-decade or so, chances are you’ve seen him - standing just off to the side as the camera zooms in on one of his riders, sunglasses on, face stoic, hands behind his back, at ease but fully dialled in, and providing a calming presence as the rider visualizes their run, adjusts their goggles, and gives one more crank on their binding strap before dropping in.

Inevitably, the rider looks to their right or left - wherever he’s standing - reaches over for a high five, and then pulls him in for a bearhug, a couple more words of encouragement, and a quick squeeze of the shoulders. Then it’s back to business for the rider, eyes on the hill, before pointing the nose down for a run that - more often than not - results in a stomp that will send that rider soaring towards the top of the leaderboard. 

If you’ve ever wondered who that mysterious man is, well, wonder no more, as today we introduce you to international snowboard coach and founder of the world-renowned training facility Quest Snowboard Academy - Yas Sato. 

Fresh off of a season that saw his riders Mari Fukada (JPN) and Su Yiming (CHN) claim slopestyle gold at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, and with Su also claiming both the Slopestyle and the Big Air Crystal Globes for 2025/26, the successes of Yas’ coaching system and his facility at Quest have never been more apparent. What Yas Sato is doing simply works, and the riders that he’s coaching are proving to be some of the most accomplished to ever strap on a snowboard.

We caught up with Yas back at home in Japan, where the likes of Mari, Ming, Sara Shimizu, and others are currently on site at Quest working hard towards the 2026/27 competition season and the start of another four-year Olympic cycle. 

Read on to hear from the Shred Sensei himself, Yas Sato…

FIS – Hey Yas, stoked to talked to you – thanks for taking the time. I wanted to start by talking about the season you’ve just had, with Mari Fukada and Su Yiming both claiming Milano Cortina 2026 Slopestyle gold medals, and with Ming taking Crystal Globes in Slopestyle and Big Air - how satisfying is it as a coach to see your athletes deliver on the world’s biggest stages?

YAS SATO - I'm definitely more than happy that Mari and Ming were able to win golds in Livingo, but maybe I'm more relieved, because of how much we worked for that event over the past four years, or even eight years. We trained so hard, and we prepared everything for that event, so winning gold with them was definitely a special thing. All the hard work paid off. 

Also, I feel more relieved because I have more students coming up through Quest (Snowboard Academy), so they can see the success that riders like Mari and Ming have and they can believe in our training systems. So, I'm super happy, and also I really feel an appreciation for those two riders, because they did like really good job on the biggest stage.

But what I’m most happy about is that I was able to work for both Japan and China, and by achieving such big results, our team’s relationship between the two countries received a great deal of attention. So many people felt through our team’s story what the friendship between the two nations should look like and it became a news story.

I was also truly happy to see that the video of the two of them putting the gold medal around my neck was watched by many people in China, and it sparked a huge response. And I can only feel grateful to those two gold medalists for taking that kind of action.

FIS - How much training would you say takes place in the offseason for riders like Ming and Mari? I know Ming's got all sorts of sponsorship stuff he's got to do and promotional stuff, Mari I’m sure is busy now as well, but like - is it six days a week and so many hours a day? What's the program for riders like that? 

YS – Well, it depends on a lot of things. But if you focus on Ming and Mari, they used to train like 7-10 hours a day, for about six days a week. But sometimes they would do like 10 days straight, 7-10 hours a day. 

But after they learn the basics, they don't really have to do as much as that. Like now I think they do more like six hours a day, maybe five days a week, and that would be in training blocks. And then they would have time off too, in between sets of training days  - like when I have a business meeting in Tokyo or something (laughing). Yeah, then they have no coaches, so they take a break.

But when I was not with Ming in China, he used to train himself every day. I remember one day, I called him up to ask what he was doing and he said "I'm taking day off today, so I'm free riding by myself!"  

FIS - What do you think it is that makes riders like Ming and Mari - and I think you can include Reira (Iwabuchi) in there too, who you also coach – what is it that makes them such special snowboarders, besides the obvious talent that they have? 

YS - Well, for all of them, they grew up in a really good family and they have a really good support from the parents. And not only like financial support, but they all grew up to be really good people. 

They know how to listen people, and they're really good at like choosing the right environment to surround themselves, and once they believe in themselves - when they feel like they're going the right way – it’s just like 120% focused on what they’re doing and achieving their goals. 

FIS - You're talking about eight years of working with these riders – Mari and Ming - what's maybe something that you’ve learned about each of them over that time that the public might not know? 

YS – I think one thing maybe is how much they are able to appreciate people. Like, they're obviously super talented snowboarders and athletes, but at the same time they know you have to be a good person and you have to respect others around you. You can't just be like really greedy and only think about yourself to get to where they have gotten to be. They know how to thank people and how to appreciate the environment and appreciate the people around them. 

I think this is very important and it's something I’ve told them from when we first started training with them, but really they both just have those kind of personalities.

FIS - That's definitely been 100% my experience with them, is just how much appreciation and respect they show to people around them at the events, whether it’s with fans, or with people like myself, or with the local organisers, or the course workers...they're both just incredibly gracious people. 

YS - Yes exactly. Ming is probably more good at talking about himself and talking to other people. Mari is maybe too shy, but you can see she's been like trying so hard herself to express more about herself and her appreciation to the whole event and the fans. 

FIS - She's still young, too. She's definitely getting more mature every year. But yeah, it's pretty special to watch both of them, how they ride and how they carry themselves at events. 

YS – Yeah, thank you. Really there are so many competitors and snowboarders that are lovely people, but yeah our team, we try to make a special effort to support the sports and the events with respect. The event has been made by so many people, investors that spend the money like for the events, the nation that is hosting the event, we have to thank all of the people who work to make these events happen. 

FIS – When we talk about the development of riders like Mari and Ming, obviously a huge part of that is Quest Snowboard Academy, which you founded. Can you tell us about the Quest facility, the importance of that, and how you've been able to do what you've been able to do as a coach with that facility to train your riders? 

YS - Yeah, so I've been (running Quest) for 15 years now, I think, maybe 16. The reason why I came up with this idea is I just wanted to learn myself 1080s and 1260s. That was one of my goals to learn those tricks myself. So I built my first airbag jump and I just like tested it myself and tried to learn these tricks, but I think I was too old. (Laughing) I needed like a time machine to go back to the past and teach myself, you know?  

It was kind of impossible for me, but then like I started coaching the young kids and that became my focus. Like Takeru (Otsuka), he was 11 when he first came to Quest, Ryoma (Kimata) was only also like 11, maybe 12. Aoto Kakami, who won the silver in (Krasnoyarsk 2021) Junior World Championships, he was like 8 or 9, Reira was like 13.  

When I started coaching them, I wanted to give them tips that I already knew. The tips that I would use to make myself a better snowboarder if I could go back to the past. And along with the snowboarding side of things I’ve also worked on many aspects of developing athletes—studying things myself along the way, from their approach to training, to their mindset, and even their mental strength.

FIS – And having the Quest facility allows you to teach these riders some pretty advanced stuff at a very young age? 

YS - Having the safety (of the airbag) is the most important thing. Especially from the parents’ side, you know, they’re really happy about how safe it is. And the riders can like try a trick so many times a day, you know? The conditions are pretty much the same all the time because the jumps are brush and the landing is airbag, so they don't really have to have a concern about the snow conditions or the weather. 

So I tell the riders that they like they are taking a time machine or something, you know. They learn everything really fast. They know what to do for the trick, they can learn the tricks the fastest way. Like the time machine, always moving forwards. 

FIS - Yeah, the repetitions for these tricks are so important to be able to put it down in pressure situations on snow.

YS - Yeah. The riders would get good anyways if they just keep riding, but they have to know like how to train right way. Because if you start doing things wrong, start with the wrong basics, then it just takes forever, or they hit a ceiling and they can't get past that ceiling. But with airbags, and with the right kind of training, we can we can reduce the time spent on some of the stuff. We just can make the training more productive. 

FIS - So when you are bringing up young riders through the Quest system, what are the traits that you're looking for in a rider and how do you develop a plan based around those traits that you see from a new rider or young rider? 

YS - Riders come to Quest for one reason: they truly want to get better. At the beginning, some of them are still unsure—like, “If I learn here, will I really get that much better?” And some also see me almost like a magician.

So what I try to do is let them experience the real situation, and help them feel what they need to focus on first—what they need to tackle to start improving. I look at technique and I just find their problems. Just like, ‘Okay, let's do a straight air’, and then watch the straight air. I look to see if their are mistakes or if it’s like missing something. ‘Okay, let's do an ollie,’ but like, you know, there are many ways to do an ollie.

So if they're doing a good ollie, it’s okay, next, like, ‘let's go 180,’ then you see the 180 and then if I find any problems, I just fix it. Finding the bad habits and trying to take them away. 

Everyone is in a different spot (with their riding), so my job is just taking them to the core, whoever it is, like a boy, a female, or a teenager, someone in their twenties or 11 years old or like 15 years old, everyone is different. And then there are kids from China, kids from Japan, kids from US, Canada, Italia - everyone’s different. So I’m trying to find the right words to make sense of snowboarding for them.

I look at it like a pyramid. If you have a big base you can build it to the moon. So they need to have really good basics to pile their tricks on top. I'm collecting their basics first, then what's next and then what’s next after that. Fundamentals are everything, but they have to train the fundamentals in a right way.

FIS - And now at Quest you have the halfpipe dryslope airbag set-up, which I think is the only one in the world. Tell us more about that - whose idea was it and how difficult was it to put that thing together? 

YS - That’s my idea. 

I tried the quarter pipe, like transition jump in a different Quest. I was worried because using the dryslope in the transitions, I was like, is it gonna really work for the transition, even for just like a shark fin jump? But like we succeeded with that, so I tried for the halfpipe.

We had pipe riders at Quest such as Sara Shimizu and Haku Shimisaki, I had those type of riders who I’ve been like coaching from when they were really young. So we built the shark fin, but I was always thinking that wasn't enough. 

So, you know, once I had the land and once I had enough money to make the halfpipe hits, I was like ‘Ok, let’s do it.’ My bank helped get the land, which used to be a mini golf course, and once I had the land I said, why not?

But it cost so much. I invested like one million US dollars to build up. 

FIS - Oh my gosh. 

YS - Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but I couldn't stop myself. 

It was very scary to try to build it. Nobody knew if it would be a success, nobody knew if we were building it the right way until we tested it on the first day. 

FIS - Your wife must have been super happy… 

YS - I mean, like, I didn't tell her what we were doing (laughing).

It was scary, but my staff had 15 years experience building the airbags, so we were confident, and I thought the halfpipe was definitely the newest airbag thing to try, and then nobody had done it before like this, so… 

It was like a big, big challenge, but I think we won the gamble. And I’m happy to see all riders that have trained on it so far. 

Not only Japanese - many pipe riders from outside of Japan have come, and freeskiers too. Henry (Sildaru) from Estonia, who won the silver medal in Italy, I heard he told someone that he learned new tricks at Quest that he did in the Olympics. He learned on the airbag, so I was super stoked to hear that. 

FIS - Facilities like Quest or like Maximise in Canada or Banger Park in Austria, they have had a huge role in progression over the last decade or more. Where do you see progression going over the next decade?

YS - Well, the whole community doesn’t want to go for only a spin-to-win style of competition. So you’re seeing riders trying new stuff, like new axises, new take-offs. Some riders are definitely spinning harder and harder, like, Hiroto (Ogiwara), but at the same time, some people are trying rodeos in different ways with bigger spins, off the toes, things like this. Definitely riders are going to add more rotations, but with new axises or new takeoffs. 

FIS - If we’re just talking about spins, is 2520 (seven full rotations) the limit?

YS - I think 2700. But it depends on like, you know, if you guys (FIS) make the jumps bigger.  Size matters. So if you build like, you know, a BIG big air jump, yeah, definitely 27 is possible. But also for World Cups, you have to consider everyone hitting the jump, including all the riders from around the world, and the women on the same jump, so we have to find the right size, right? 

I also want to see progression in how we show the sport. I think we should show more information about the judging system to the public. People need more understanding about what the riders are doing at these competitions and why they’re getting the scores they’re getting.

The judges don’t decide the direction by themselves. Coaches and athletes from around talk a lot together as a community, and then they decide the direction they want to see the sport go in. After that, the judges do their best to follow the plan and keep things fair.

I want people to understand that judging is a tough and risky job, but I also think we should give judges even more respect for their hard work and dedication. And maybe people like Todd Richards can come to some more events and come to the judges meetings so that he can understand, too. I truly hope we can build a community filled with even bigger respect for everyone.