February Snowboard Update 2025
Para Snowboard Team Update
The Para snowboard team has returned from a month-long Europe trip. Starting off in Pyha, Finland, the team earned some really great results in the SBX comp held there: Kate Delson finished 3rd in Women’s WC LL2/LL1 category, Aleks Godowski finished 8th in Men’s LL2 in his first-ever WC competition! Rebecca Johnston finished 1st in LL1 and Jackie Hamwey 3rd in Women’s LL2 EC. Overall, it was a great 2 weeks of training and competition and to finish Finland out, we were lucky enough to witness a show of Northern Lights during the awards ceremony. A perfect ending to a great trip!
Next came Lenk, Switzerland where another SBX WC/EC competition was held. The course was built well and challenging, but the athletes pushed through and overcame a lot. The first day of competition, Kate Delson won her first WC 1st place in the LL2/LL1 Women’s category. Very exciting! She didn’t do too bad the second day, either, placing 4th among the women riders. Jackie Hamwey secured 1st place both competition days in EC.
After Lenk, we were off to spend some time riding and exploring Verbier, Switzerland. This was one of the coolest towns and resorts with a very cool vibe and some great steep terrain, not to mention beautiful.
Our last stop was Kuhtai, Austria with a Banked Slalom competition. Our first day of training we were slammed with a large amount of snow. Unfortunately, training was cancelled due to difficulties with course maintenance, but fortunately, we were able to get some pow turns before 4 days on course training and racing. The course had a couple of challenging turns, but the athletes made strong changes to their riding and strategies and were able to improve throughout. Kate Delson placed 4th in Women’s WC LL2/LL1, Courtney Godfrey placed 1st both days of competition in Women’s EC LL2 and Jackie Hamway followed with 3rd both days.
With a great month of training, competition, and travel, we were all looking forward to getting home to recuperate before returning to Steamboat, Colorado, where the first Para WC will be held in the US soon!
Athlete Highlight
Kate Delson joined us last season from Mammoth, where she previously trained on the Mammoth Snowboard Team. Kate’s first love of snowboarding was freestyle. She kills it over the jumps and on the boxes and rails. Racing came second, but that has not stopped her from coming into the race scene and making herself known among the riders and coaches. Kate has a natural ability and a true passion for being on her board. Moving her way up to World Cup at the end of last season, she has since come in 1st place in Lenk and 4th place in Kuhtai in the Women’s LL2/LL1 category. We are excited to see where Kate takes her snowboarding in the future years.
Big Mountain Snowboard Team Update
Kaito and Gage both took 2nd for their divisions at the IFSA Grand Targhee national comp the first week of February. The following week, they went to Palisades for another national competition where Kaito took 3rd and Gage took 5th in some of the largest fields we have seen for freeride snowboarding.
Big things coming from these two!
~ Coach Miles
Devo (Young Riders) Team Update
The devo team is still going strong. We were able to incorporate a Woodward Session for Jameson and Jake this month. They both pushed their boundaries and hit some rails they had never tried! Big shout out to Julian who has progressed leaps and bounds this season from where he started.
NorAm Team Update
Jake and David were able to attend the Steamboat NorAm this year! There were 3 races in the mix and one training day, so the course time was super valuable. Despite having a hurt knee the entire time, Jake was able to get in the mix during heat racing better than ever before. He is riding strong and staying focused. I am super proud of David as well. He was unsure if he would be able to swing this trip, and has been fighting mental battles of his career in the sport. He was able to keep going despite many crashes on the course. He conquered some demons and re-found his love of the sport. I am super grateful to have been able to see it all in action!
~ Coach Anna