Since blasting onto the scene at the 2006 Empire Shakedown at St. Saveur one hour away from his native Montreal, “Toots” has had the eyes of the global industry on him. But he’s never made a claim or said a word of his big plans publicly, instead, electing to train hard and prepare for the major challenges on the path to his goal. Following a 2010-2011 remarkable season that included several five and six star TTR contest wins, plus gold and silver medal performances in slopestyle and big air as a rookie at Winter X Games (en route to being crowned the Jeep Overall Male Performer of the Year), it appears that he’s on the right track.

While many are surprised, there are some who are not. After all, how many 14 year-olds were doing Cab 10s / 16 year-olds doing double corks / 18 year-olds doing triple corks / ….? And of those, how many spent 120 days/year in the park, 50 riding world-class urban features, and another 50 in the summer on a trampoline?

Perhaps more than anything, Seb has long represented the coming of a new era — a time where the twenty-something year old veterans of contest snowboarding will bow out to the kids. As much as any of today’s current teen shred standouts, Seb could be the single most poignant sign that the youth is effectively taking over. This phenomenon has been noted far and wide, all the way to the not-so-old-himself Shaun White, who elected to make a post to his Facebook and Twitter page following an X Games slopestyle dominated by three teens (Toots, McMorris, Flanagan): “Slopestyle today at X Games was insane, level of riding was all time. Congrats Seb Toots.” It seems that the revolution was even televised.