COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Snowboarder Louie Vito cranked rapper Lil Jon on his iPod and dropped into the halfpipe for a qualifying run Friday, pulling off some stylish backside moves.

At 5-foot-5, Vito doesn’t look like your typical snowboarder or come from a place (Ohio) that usually churns out such winter daredevils. Yet when he plunges into the pipe, it’s easy to see why he’s the reigning champion of the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix.

Vito flowed through the halfpipe with a sense of ease Friday, finishing second in his heat to advance to the finals today. Copper Mountain is the first of three stops in the Grand Prix series.

“I really dislike qualifiers, they’re really challenging for me,” Vito said. “Whenever I get through qualifying, it’s a good day for me.”

Vito doesn’t have the instant name recognition of snowboarders like Shaun White, Hannah Teter or Gretchen Bleiler.

But that day is soon approaching.

“Slowly you build your rep,” the 20-year-old said. “You can’t force it, can’t control what people think about you and want to see. You’ve just got to keep doing your thing.”

Growing up in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Vito ripped his way down the local slopes at Mad River Mountain every day after school in the winter, taking advantage of the lighted runs.

However, he didn’t have access to a halfpipe, the closest one being nearly six hours away at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania.

So every weekend, Vito and his father would drive to the mountain, staying at budget motels to save money. Vito shredded countless gloves grabbing on to the tow rope for a lift up to the halfpipe.

“That place jump-started my riding,” Vito said.

He attended Stratton Mountain School in Vermont for high school, learning the finer tricks of snowboarding, and won his first event, the Australian Open, at 17.

By capturing the Grand Prix crown last season, he shed the label up-and-comer, moving on to skillful snowboarder.

He relishes the responsibility of defending his title.

“I don’t feel pressure from people as much as myself,” the charismatic Vito said. “Once you get the taste of winning, it’s hard to settle for less.”

These days, he’s trying to combine his technical expertise in the halfpipe with more “amplitude” to achieve more air for his best trick — back-to-back 1080s, where he does three rotations, drops back into the pipe and does three more on the other side.

“He’s trying to take it to the next level,” U.S. snowboarding halfpipe coach Michael Jankowski said. “That’s the type of guy Louie is — very calculated, very smart and very driven.”

Jankowski attributes Vito’s drive to growing up in Ohio and not having a halfpipe in his backyard.

“It shows geography doesn’t matter,” Jankowski said. “Being from Ohio, Minnesota, wherever — sometimes that gives you the drive and love because every single day you feel lucky to do what you love. When you get to the bigger mountains, you still have that love.”

Although Vito now lives in Sandy, Utah, buying a house that he shares with his sister, he still returns to his Ohio roots often, hosting a charitable rail jam on the mountain that started him on his way to becoming a boarder.

“It’s me trying to raise money and stoke out the kids, get them hyped on snowboarding,” Vito said of the event on Dec. 27. “I want to give back to the mountain.”

Vito couldn’t get back on his board until late summer after a torn meniscus in his left knee sidelined him.

Still, he stayed plenty busy. Vito made a cameo appearance in Shawty Putt’s rap video for “Dat baby don’t look like me,” proudly pointing out himself in the background.

He also interviewed for a spot on “Dancing with the Stars” and had a good chance of making the cast — or so heard — had his knee not been messed up.

Does his dancing rival his boarding?

“I can drop it like it’s hot,” he said, smiling. “I have some dance moves.”