Xia Yuanjie

szrbgracexia@126.com

NO sooner than Su Yiming grabbed the gold in the men’s snowboard big air event at the Beijing Winter Olympics yesterday, Ou Jiaqi reposted a video clip of the Chinese teenage sensation’s huge 1800s on WeChat, excitedly cheering on another historical breakthrough for China in snowboarding.

Ou, a former software engineer from Tencent, didn’t see real snow until he was 25; but now, he has become a snowboarding ambassador in Shenzhen.

He founded DEEPSNOW club in 2020 and it has grown into the largest snowboarding club in Shenzhen and South China, contributing to spreading knowledge and the joy of the sport among the city’s residents that never experience snow.

Ou’s first encounter with snowboarding was in 2019 at Guangzhou Sunac Snow Park, South China’s largest indoor ski slope. Since then, he has been enormously pleased with ice-and-snow sports.

Ou, hailing from Shaoguan City in Guangdong Province, was called a talented snowboarder by his peers. He learned edge change by himself in one day. “Turning by changing edges in the fall line is widely recognized as the threshold for beginners,” he said.

Since then, Ou has indulged in snowboarding and could not get enough of it. “While gliding on the snow, it feels like flying. With a huge release of the feel-good chemical dopamine in the brain, I can forget my troubles and pressures from work, and I feel free and relaxed,” he said.

Out of his passion for snowboarding, Ou and a few like-minded colleagues started organizing a club in Tencent. With the number of members increasing tenfold over six months, Ou opted to give up his well-paid job to develop the startup DEEPSNOW, as he saw a huge business potential in China’s snow-related sector, particularly in Shenzhen.

According to the 2020 China Ski Industry White Paper, the penetration rate for skiing was 1 percent in China, while its U.S. and Japan counterparts each approached 10 percent, and Switzerland and Austria’s rates each surpassed 30 percent.

“The data suggested that the market is very broad. Meanwhile, the Beijing Winter Games has been a booster for the development of snow-related sports in Shenzhen,” Ou said.

As of October 2021, 346 million Chinese people had participated in ice-and-snow sports, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

DEEPSNOW is now providing its 20,000-plus members, most of whom are in Shenzhen, information and services on snowboarding-related transportation, accommodation, tickets and equipment, as well as offering training and open classes.

“We want to break the prejudice in China that only professional elites and the affluent can participate in ice-and-snow sports. Snowboarding is a safe and easy sport for all ages,” Ou said.

In the last half of 2021, Shenzhen saw a rising amount of ski gear shops and snowboarding training organizations. “More and more parents are inquiring about our classes and bringing their kids to join our club for snowboarding,” Ou said. “Gu Ailing’s historic win at the Olympics once again ignited Shenzheners’ enthusiasm for winter sports.”

In terms of individual expenses on winter sports, Ou said that Chinese snowboarders were fortunate to enjoy a wide range of choices in ski clothing from moderately priced domestic brands to expensive well-known overseas brands.

“On the other hand, the ticket fees for ski resorts and related transportation, accommodation, and dining are relatively expensive. For example, Guangzhou Sunac’s one-day skiing ticket was 400 yuan (US$62.9) when it opened in 2019, but it costs almost 700 yuan now,” he added.

Currently, Guangdong is home to 20 ice-and-snow sports facilities, including 16 ice skating rinks and four ski slopes. A 100,000-square-meter Sunac ski slope in Bao’an District is expected to be completed in 2024.