By Embry Rucker

December 1, 1998

Born: 1978, Geneva Switzerland

Sponsors: Hammer snowboard, Quiksilver, Northwave, Arnette, and Pulp.

After Darius graduated high school, he asked his parents if he could take a year or so off to ride all over the world. His dad supported him but his mom didn't really like the idea. After snowboarding for seven years while still in school, Darius wanted to travel, meet people, and mainly see the rest of the world as his sponsor proposed he would be able to do.

"I'll go to university later. Maybe I'll work with my dad-he imports handmade carpets from the Middle East." The senior Mr. Heristchian moved out of Iran when he was young to study in Geneva and has stayed there ever since. Darius' family is spread out all over Europe because they had to escape the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Darius never got the chance to visit his dad's country because of Iran's diplomatic relation with the rest of the world. "I still hope I'll go there sometime. I saw in the magazine [TransWorld SNOWboarding Volume 10 Number 7] Craig Kelly rode some amazing Iranian mountains a couple years ago, and from what I've heard from dad, the country seems really beautiful. All kinds of landscape, sand dunes, and a ski resort in Tibetan-looking mountain ranges."

When the Craig Kelly story came out, the only thing people noticed about this place was that ski resorts have different runs for men and women. I'm sure Darius will end up teaching some "long time no see" cousins how to snowboard and really enjoy the giant backcountry nobody has ever ridden