By Steve Hubrecht
Youngsters who love to rip the snowy slopes with their feet strapped into a single board instead of a pair of boards will have the chance to join a dedicated freestyle snowboard program next winter.
The Freestyle Panorama Ski Club is launching a snowboard program, aiming to fill a void that’s existed for several years.
The club once had a freestyle snowboard program, but that fell by the wayside some time ago, explained club volunteer Jessica Fairhart. “We want to bring it back.”
The new program will be similar in many respects to the freestyle ski programs the club already runs, and will focus on competition skill development in several disciplines, such as ‘park’ and ‘freeride’.
“It will be a fun program for youth that will provide them a pathway to competition,” Fairhart told the Pioneer. “It fits really well with what we already do at the club.”
There are approximately 70 young athletes in Freestyle Panorama Ski Club’s ski programs, and Fairhart is not yet sure how many participants there will be in the snowboard program next winter since the club has only just announced the revival.
To get a sense of how big the snowboard program may be (and to get an idea of how much planning needs to be done), the club is asking anyone who is potentially interested to fill out a Google form.
The form is available at www.freestylepanorama.com.
The club is also busy trying to recruit coaches and get them certified in time for next winter.
“We’re really excited,” said Fairhart.
She said credit for resuscitating the snowboard program belongs with Syndicate Board Shop owner and avid local snowboarder Eric Lange, who approached the club with the idea to do so.
Lange was modest when contacted by the Pioneer, but said he felt compelled to help restart a freestyle snowboarding program because “there’s always been a lot of opportunity for young skiers. We should provide that opportunity for young snowboarders as well.”
Freestyle snowboarding is a great sport because “you can express yourself as an individual. There’s no set parameters. You can really just be yourself and have fun, it’s not hyper-competitive,” Lange told the Pioneer.
“The focus is not necessarily on winning so much as it is on enjoyment, on having fun.”
