Young snowboarder from China loves big air

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — The 11-year-old snowboarder from China has jokes. Lots of them. She even wants to write a joke book one day.

“How do you know if a plant is smart?” Patti Zhou playfully asked. “It has square roots.”

Instant giggles. It’s just the kid in her shining through.

The Beijing-born, Colorado-based Zhou could be the next big thing in snowboarding, maybe even this weekend at her Dew Tour debut in Copper Mountain, Colorado. She might have even been a halfpipe/ slopestyle contender at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy — if only there weren’t age requirements (she won’t be 15 yet). It’s the same sort of thing that kept two-time Olympic halfpipe champion Chloe Kim on the sideline for the 2014 Sochi Games.

Zhou reasons it just gives her more time to learn bigger tricks like one of her favorite halfpipe riders, Olympic gold medalist Ayumu Hirano from Japan.

Zhou started riding a snowboard at the age of 2 — was even given a lollipop to sweeten the deal (strawberry-flavored, she believes). It didn’t take her long to fall in love with her mountain surroundings.

“When I was young, I thought the mountain was so big and so scary and so dark. But the mountain is actually alive,” said Zhou, who’s slated to compete in the halfpipe and super streetstyle competitions on Saturday at the Dew Tour, along with a halfpipe high air & best trick jam on Sunday. “So when I go snowboarding I always try to find the animal creatures in there.”

Then, she gives them names. A particularly tall deer she once saw she named after Australia’s particularly tall snowboarder Scotty James, who has earned two Olympic medals in the halfpipe.