Baekhyun Of K-Pop Boy Band EXO Masters The ‘Faceplant’ Learning To Snowboard, Chanyeol Giggles Affectionately At Groupmate’s Tumble [Videos]
EXO had one of the biggest years in their collective careers in 2016. The nine-member boy band created by SM Entertainment — Xiumin, Suho, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai, and Sehun — did so much. They had the North American leg of their tour “Exo’luxion,” with sold out concerts in Dallas, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey. They also had three K-pop comebacks with Ex’Act, Lotto (repackaging of Ex’Act), and their Christmas special, For Life. Finally, EXO established their first sub-group EXO-CBX in which they made their debut with their first extended play (EP) Hey Mama!
However, certain individual members of EXO enjoyed success in their solo endeavors. One such member is Baekhyun. Last January, he and Suzy of Miss A did a duet titled “Dream,” which became the first K-pop song of the year to achieve a “Perfect All-Kill.” He followed up with another duet with singer K.Will, a folk-ballad song titled “The Day” as part of SM Station. Finally, Baekhyun made a successful Korean small-screen debut playing Prince Wang Eun in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo. His performance earned him the New Star Award at the 2016 SBS Drama Awards.
Apparently, after a year of work, Baekhyun is enjoying some down time, and he wanted EXO-L (official fan club of EXO) to join in on the fun. Recently, Baekhyun tried out snowboarding for the first time. During his time, he “mastered the faceplant” much to the playful delight of fellow EXO bandmate and SM Entertainment labelmate, Chanyeol, who can be heard giggling in the background after Baekhyun’s tumble.
K-pop fans and EXO-L first learned of Baekhyun learning how to snowboard on Monday, January 9, when Chanyeol uploaded Instagram videos of him snowboarding, as reported by Soompi. Apparently, Chanyeol was Baekhyun’s teacher when it came to snowboarding, as one of the video’s captions reads the following clearly showing who is “Hyung” and “Dongsaeng” in this situation.
“Student Baekhyun who did really well for his first time.”
In the first video, Baekhyun is smoothly gliding down a trainer’s slope. He is making slow turns, taking his time to learn how to snowboard. Chanyeol suddenly yells out that Baekhyun is doing great, and that is when things go adorably downhill. Baekhyun makes a sharp turn and becomes the “master of the faceplant.” Viewers can hear Chanyeol giggling in the background before the video cuts off.
Later on, Chanyeol posted a video of himself doing simple tricks on the slope too. Given the incline, he couldn’t do anything overly extravagant, especially if Baekhyun was the one filming as he slid down along with him.
It is nice to see a member of EXO enjoy himself after a year of hard work. Although we mentioned everything EXO did in 2016, we really did not detail all the accolades they earned. They are the first K-pop act to win all three “Daesangs” at the MelOn Music Awards, an accomplishment even their biggest rivals BTS stood up for. EXO also had the highest sales for a K-pop boy band for 2016. That is an amazing feat on its own given that BTS was set up to topple EXO in sales given the fact they are the lone act working under Big Hit Entertainment, yet Big Hit Entertainment was able to have the second highest number of album sales for 2015, outselling both YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.
Right now, we do not know what is in store for EXO for 2017. They are probably still in the midst of promoting For Real, but since it was a Christmas special, promotions should end fairly soon if they are, in fact, still going. As for Baekhyun, we can expect to see him take on more K-drama roles given his recent recognition. Finally, since he is a third of EXO-CBX who is fairly new, we might see more of him through the EXO sub-group too.
[Featured Image by SM Entertainment]
