The Whistler Valley Snowboard Club got off to an informal but early start to the season on Saturday with the Nov. 5 opening of Blackcomb Mountain. A few of the coaches met up with a few of the riders to enjoy the surprisingly good early season conditions.
"It wasn’t anything formal as far as coaching goes, but a few of our young riders were so excited to be back out there and we all like to ride together anyway," said Rob Picard.
The club was originally slated to start regular coaching on Dec. 3, but decided to move the start date a week earlier. The next two weekends will be spent on professional development for the coaches, registering kids for the club, and freeriding at every opportunity.
With snow on the mountains and the earliest start to the season in 20 years, registration is strong and there is a lot of excitement, according to Picard.
"The last week the phone has been ringing off the hook," he said.
The WVSC has a large number of young members, and several adult members from Japan. According to Picard the club’s goal for this year is to draw in more teens to the program and to the WVSC team. The team competes in freestyle contests – halfpipe, quarterpipe, slopestyle, big air, rail jams – and snowboardcross races across the province, in Alberta and even south of the border.
"There are a lot of great riders in that age group that ride here and that have so much potential, and that’s the group we want to get into the program and eventually into competitions. The kids who start with us tend to stay with us for the long term, but we do have room for a few more teens," said Picard.
This year the WVSC has set more ambitious goals for its competitive program. Kids at a higher skill level will be encouraged to enter pro contests, while Picard hopes to field a full team at B.C. Snowboard Association provincial series events. In addition, the club will try to have a presence at events as far away as Alberta and in the U.S., leading up to the national championships.
Locally, riders will take part in the Sprite Park Rider Series in Whistler, and other pro and amateur competitions throughout the region.
"There’s no pressure on the kids that just want to ride with the club and work with coaches to improve their skills, but there are a lot of kids that are into competitions. They’re fun, you get to travel and see other mountains, and there’s a lot of opportunity there as well for the kids who’d like to go pro one day, or want to compete with provincial and national teams," said Picard.
The WVSC was also more active in the summer months than in the past. For the first time the club offered a dryland training program, which was extremely popular. He hopes to keep that momentum going through the winter with the addition of a trampoline program in the evenings.
The club also invested some time on its website, www.whistlervalleysnowboardclub.ca . There are interviews with coaches and athletes, photos, videos, and other content that Picard hopes to update regularly with the help of members. Past WVSC members like national team member Mercedes Nicoll and other pro riders are also featured to help inspire the younger riders with the club.
For example, club rider Brin Alexander, 11, recently posted an interview with new WVSC coach Chris Wimbles.
Picard, who is stepping back "a little" from coaching to spend more time promoting and administrating for the club, has also been working with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club and the Blackcomb Freestyle Ski Club, as well as Whistler-Blackcomb, to plan for common legacies from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. There are no specifics yet, but Picard says they have hired a consultant to look into different possibilities. "Instead of going after things individually, it just made better sense to join forces to make sure it looks good on paper and that we get the stuff that we really need. We don’t know exactly what that is yet, but it’s going to be great," he said.
Last year’s poor weather and conditions from mid-January to early March didn’t affect the club that much – the terrains parks remained open, and the riders still went up every weekend. Still, Picard believes that it’s important for boarders to get a lot of freeriding in, and that wasn’t always possible with the lack of snow.
"We’re looking forward to getting out there and using the whole mountain again. We love the park, it’s been good to us, but it’s fun to head out there and ride different types of terrain. Well-rounded riders generally do better when they start to specialize in park or pipe or whatever," said Picard.
Picard is also looking forward to using the night halfpipe at Base II that was built for the 2005 FIS Snowboard World Championships. Because of the conditions it was only used for about a month last season.
"We’ll be out there every night that pipe is open, and we hope it opens early and stays open for a long time," he said. "It’s such a great facility to have, and it’s going to get a lot of kids into riding halfpipe."
Registration for the WVSC is open through the end of December. Registration information is available on the website, or through Whistler-Blackcomb Guest Relations.
