As excitement builds for the new Winter Dew Tour, snowboarder Kevin Pearce is in the spotlight. Pearce had a huge year in international competition last year with strong finishes in a dozen different contests and big wins at the Air & Style big air contest in Germany, the Arctic Challenge Quarterpipe competition in Norway, and the Nippon Open Slopestyle contest in Japan.

Pearce is one of the most versatile athletes in pro snowboarding, at ease on rails, terrain parks, superpipes and even in the Alaskan backcountry where he spent a month this spring filming for the new Absinthe film Ready. He’s also an avid surfer and skateboarder. We caught up with him in Salt Lake City after he took in the Toyota Challenge Skate Park Finals to find out why he’s stoked for the start of the Winter Dew Tour.

Allisports.com: Congrats on a huge year last year. Can you fill us in on what you’ve been up to since we last heard from you?

Kevin Pearce: Last year was pretty crazy. We were doing contests from December to March. I also got to spend a month filming in Alaska with Absinthe for this new film, which is coming out any day now. It was my first year really filming backcountry, and it was cool to get a taste of that. Over the summer I traveled to New Zealand and Australia, doing some stuff for Burton, and then I went to Mt. Hood for a week. Other than that, I’ve just been trying to get some surfing in.

What are your impressions now that you’ve had a chance to check out a Dew Tour event in person?

This was cool. It was the first one I’ve been to and it was cool to hang out and check out what it’s all about. It’s definitely a big production and there’s a lot going on. I watched the Skate Park Finals with Chaz Ortiz and Ryan Sheckler, and I’ve never seen that many people at a skate contest before. That was pretty exciting to see, that that many people are into it and know what it’s about. It made me feel really good about what the Winter Dew Tour could do for snowboarding. I’m also excited for NBC and MTV to be involved because it’s hard for people to get up to the mountains and have the access to be able to snowboard and to be able to see really good snowboarding.

There are a lot of other snowboard contests happening these days. Now that the Winter Dew Tour is coming into the mix, what do you think is missing from the contest scene? What would you like to see from the Dew Tour?

That’s a good question. There are so many contests right now, it’s pretty crazy. There’s the Burton Global Open series, there’s the TTR events, there’s the World Cups, the Grand Prix. If the Dew Tour wants to come in and really make an impression, it’s going to have to be at the level where all the best riders show up and everybody’s stoked on it. From what I’ve seen here, talking to all the skaters and BMX and FMX guys, that shouldn’t be a problem. If the Dew Tour can do right by skateboarders, they should be all right with snowboarders. There’s a lot of money and a lot of good exposure for snowboarding on the line, so I’m stoked.

You’re one of the few guys who will be able to hang in both the Halfpipe and Slopestyle competitions on the Winter Dew Tour. Do you plan on competing in both?

Oh yeah, there’s no question. I think that’s a big thing now with a lot of us coming up: We ride slopestyle, we ride pipe and we ride backcountry. We’re snowboarders and we’re taking it all in.

Snowboarding has come so far, so fast. How do you keep up with the level of progression to be able to compete with what everybody else is doing?

I think a lot of the progression has to do with riding with your friends, doing what you love. Getting to ride with all those guys all year, that’s when I’m having the most fun and learning the most tricks. That’s where the progression happens. Whether it’s at a contest where everybody’s dialed in and riding well, or just out riding together having fun, whenever we’re together we’re always trying new stuff and pushing each other. In snowboarding we don’t have a bunch of coaches on our backs telling us what to do, it’s just us riding together at a level where we can progress and learn new tricks. If you’re having fun it makes it easier. That’s probably the thing I’m most excited about with the Dew Tour after watching the skate contests, is just seeing how much fun all the skaters are having, and how much they’re pushing each other to progress.