Para Team Update

Wow, it’s been a busy month for Para Snowboard competitions. We have been on the road for almost a month with only a couple days at home between trips. To start with we headed off to Steamboat for the first World Cup held in the US since 2017. We had a training camp for a few days before the event and then back-to-back competitions. A couple of our athletes had gained enough points and were able to compete in their first World Cup. In addition to the World Cup races, they also hosted North American Cup (NorAm) races as well allowing all of our athletes to compete. Then on the 3rd day of competition, they hosted US National Championships and with a western belt buckle as a fitting trophy for first place. We had a lot of good results including a WC podium sweep by Kate Delson, Brenna Huckaby and Courtney Godfrey. 

For a couple of athletes, this event wasn’t just a race but was a chance to qualify for the World Championships held soon after in Canada. Two of our athletes were able to successfully qualify into World Champs. 

Next, it was a quick trip home, laundry, and then off to Big White Canada for the World Championships. It was great to have so many of our athletes qualify for World Champs and Big White Resort did an amazing job hosting. The first event was Banked Slalom and as anticipated there was some very challenging competition. It was a new format this time and only the top 8 qualified for finals. From our team, Brenna Huckaby and Kate Delson went on to finish 4th and 6th respectively. Then into Snowboardcross where on the podium we had Kate with 2nd and Brenna with 3rd and then Jackie and Becca both in small finals (top 8 finishes). Finally, we had the Snowboardcross Team event which had teams made of one male and one female. Kate was selected for one team and Brenna for the other, Kate’s team taking 4th and Brenna’s taking 5th. It was a great showing from all the world’s teams and demonstrates we have some work to do before the Paralympics next spring. 

Meanwhile, the other groups have been training at home (in between storms, canyon closures and powder days). We are well prepared for that competition that is hosted in deep snow!

Looking forward to spring and summer, we are hoping to host some training camps. Ideally, a camp at Snowbird in late April or May would be ideal followed by possibilities at Mt. Hood this June and perhaps South America this August/September.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Mountain Snowboard Team Update

Kaito and Gage opted to pass on our local Snowbird 3* in order to go to Kirkwood for their 3* event. Tahoe freeride has the largest fields in freeride snowboarding, averaging 15-20 competitors per division and these two wanted real competition this year. Kaito laid down a huge line in finals, winning the day and moving him from 6th to 2nd to finish out the competition. Gage placed 3rd in both qualifiers and finals, holding 3rd overall for the competition. This wrapped up our competition season before JFC’s. Kaito currently sitting 3rd overall in U15’s with three podiums and Gage sitting at 10th overall in U19’s with two podiums and a top five. We are also excited about Sebastian, a newer rider to the program entering his first Comp at park city, as well as the half dozen new riders looking to join the team next season!

Dev Team (Young Riders) Crew:

The Dev Team has had a really good month. We gained a new member, Dylan! Although Dylan has not ridden for long, he showed confidence and progression in just one day. He will make a great additional member to the team. This month we have been practicing different kinds of grabs and learning what they are all called. Jhulian was able to get his first nose grab! In other news Jake hit his first rail of the season, Arra rode a skateboard effortlessly for her first time, and Jameson completed his first melon grab backside 180.
It has been a real joy and pleasure coaching these kids this season. They each have such cool, individual personalities and they bring something different to the hill each day. I have high hopes we will continue to build and grow this team into next season.

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