Ever since he vanished off the Burton website and we clocked him rocking a ‘Defenders of Awesome’ hoody  in an Every Third Thursday edit over the summer, we’ve had our suspicions about Kazuhiro Kokubo. And on Christmas day, while we were busy stuffing our gullets and drowning in wrapping paper, Capita dropped the official announcement that Kazu had signed to the Capita pro team. Check this welcome edit for some background on the signing, a bit of a cheeky dig at his former longtime sponsors Burton and some shots of the rest of the Capita team as it stands right now.

As two time US open halfpipe champion and after releasing a stormer of a part in the 2011 Burton movie Standing Sideways, Kazu definitely has the skills to be riding alongside the likes of Scott Stevens, Dan Brisse and Phil Jaques and his punk-as-fook attitude also seems a perfect fit for the Capita brand image. He was famously banned from the 2010 Olympic opening ceremony for having his shirt hanging out and rocking his tie (and pants) low while travelling, which apparently had the Japanese public in uproar.

Kazu will also be shredding in shiny new boots this season following an announcement that he’ll be joining the likes of Jake Blauvelt and fellow ex-Burton ripper Keegan Valaika on the new Adidas Snowboarding program. Lets hope he keeps them spit-shined eh? The Japanese public expect nothing less…