January Snowboard Update 2025
SBSEF Snowboard/ Team Utah Snowboard
The Para team is at our second comp of the season in Finland where we are experiencing some very un-Finland like weather – above freezing temps!
(This is about as high as the sun gets this time of year in Lapland – photo above)
All the athletes have made some great improvements over the last 8 days training on the sbx course out here. Jackie Hamwey’s getting more balanced over her board, giving her more control through turns and start sections. Becca Johnston has gotten back to hitting jumps after sustaining a knee injury. Dennae Russell’s been working hard on getting more consistent movement toward the front of her board. Everyone is fully committed to a good start to the competition season and putting hard work in to race at their best.
Today and tomorrow starts the days of competition over here in Europe. Everyone is riding the course well and hoping for some really great results. We have several riders racing Europacup level as well as a few at World Cup including Aleks Godowski who was wildcarded into his first World Cup – go Aleks!
Following this round of comps we head for Lenk Switzerland and then finally to Kuhtai Austria to finish this block – almost a month for this trip! There’s been a lot of fun times and laughs as a team and the team morale is high. A lot of great team support among each other.
Back home the NorAm team is training, getting ready for their first competition as is the Freeride team – apparently enjoying some new snow if the weather reports are accurate (we in Europe are a bit jealous)
Although our NorAm team has dwindled a bit from last year, we are still training hard. Felicia attended the first boardercross race and placed 7th and 4th. David has been making improvements and doing well to balance family life and training. Similarly, Jake has done well to balance school life with training. We have been working on jumping in all different ways in order to have really good control in the air. We have also been working early morning sessions to improve our turning. Izzy, on the para team, has been training with us while the rest para is away at a race. She has shown a lot of improvement on indoor roller boarding at Woodward. She has been trying to work on some pre-Ollie’s on the rollers to get extra pump! Sick!
Young Riders (soon to be “Dev Team”)
The youth group has been really killing it this season. We have been having daily challenges for the athletes to complete, and a small reward if they are able to complete the challenge! We have been working on the fundamentals of Ollie’s, butters, and carving. 
Jameson landed his biggest back 3 on Monday, and I was really excited for him! He came into the day saying “I just wanna see how big I can go today”. It’s been really cool to see him progress throughout the last few years. He has also been very supportive of the younger less experienced riders, which I truly love to see. Good vibes all around 🖤
SBSEF Snowboard Coach