Ben Kilner has rounded off a pretty damn sensational season by signing a brand new outerwear deal, with Protest. As the UK’s top pipe rider – and a Vancouver Olympic semifinalist no less! – Ben is obviously pretty hot property right now, so Protest are understandably stoked to have got him.

The brand released a statement which said: “We identified Ben as a British athlete with huge potential and hope that we can help him develop further as a rider in the coming years.” Ben, for his part, sounded equally pleased, adding: “I can’t wait to be part of the new team.”

Although he sat out the end of the season (including this year’s Brits) with an injury, Ben has big things planned for next year. When we spoke to him before the Vancouver games he was talking about competing in more slopestyle and big air comps to mix it up a bit. Personally we’d love to see what he could do if he transfers his silky skills to straight kickers. On top of this, he’ll hopefully keep repping the UK in the pipe – when he spoke to Ed in the immediate aftermath of the Olympics, he said: “I would happily go through that four-year training cycle to experience this again.”

Whatever he decides, we look forward to seeing what Kil-dog does next.