Local Sports

So you want to be a pro snowboarder… Everybody has to start somewhere. You could start next weekend at the Ripzone Snowboard Invitational, which leads off this year’s Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival.

It’s been an uphill battle to organize another World Freestyle Snowmobiling Association Pro Bowl competition in the Sea to Sky area this year, but then snowmobilers are renowned for their ability to climb hills.

There wasn’t any chocolate in the gold medals presented to Whistler skiers at the Nabob/Hershey Cup Western Canadian Spring Series at Red Mountain last weekend, but it was still sweet for a number of up and coming Whistler racers.

Last week the top junior and senior snowboard athletes in the country converged on Mont Tremblant for the 2002 Pizza Pops Canadian National and Junior Snowboard Championships.

The World Ski and Snowboard Festival has taken snow sports to new extremes in recent years, slapping huge cash prizes on the barrel head, and inviting the top athletes in the world to Whistler to compete for fame, fortune and fun.

The Blackcomb Boys team ran away with last week’s North American Ski Patrol Challenge for the second year in a row, earning 44 points in four patrol-related events on March 27. The Whistler Patrol team tied for second with Big White.

From April 10 to 12, representatives from the top ski schools in the world will converge in Whistler to determine who is the cream of the crop of the cream of the crop at the World Alpine Ski Schools Championships.

Nielson, Ricker on top for Canada Last year Canada’s Jasey-Jay Anderson became the first Canadian to win the overall World Cup snowboard championships. Last week, the 26-year-old from Mt.

Olympic medalists among athletes For years the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival has been luring the top skiers and snowboarders to Whistler in April with the promise of riches, parties, world class contests to compete in, and giant audiences th

The Whistler Mountain Ski Club will provide six of 10 members to the B.C. Team for the upcoming Sierra Wireless Air Canada Whistler Cup, running from April 5 to 7 in Whistler.