Snow Australia Hosts Successful Freeski Airbag Camp

The recent Snow Australia Freeski Airbag Camp in Jindabyne was an ideal way to finish up 2022 for Australia’s next generation of elite Freeski athletes.

Fifteen athletes from across the Performance Pathway were invited to the National Snowsports Training Centre (NSTC) for the pre-northern hemisphere Airbag Camp from 9-18 December. The camp was led by Freeski Technical Coach Leon Tarbotton, with assistance from Coaches Greg Janneau and Nicko Drew. 

The camp focused on fine-tuning the athletes’ run in, take off and landing fundamentals, increasing trick vocabulary including grab variety, and introducing and consolidating high level warm up and recovery practices.

"It was great seeing all the athletes who attended the camp, with some learning their first 720s up to World Cup athletes completing 1800s on the airbag. It's nice for the younger athletes to be in an inclusive environment where everyone is pushing each other forwards, regardless of where they are on their journey,” camp lead Tarbotton said.

"To complement the airbag sessions we've been able to continue our athlete development in the areas of strength & conditioning and acrobatics. Developing new movement patterns on dryland and trampoline was a major focus of the camp, and it allows the athletes to unlock new potential on the airbag, which they can then hopefully transfer to snow in the future.”

One of the invited athletes was 15-year-old Daisy Thomas who was recently announced as a new NSWIS Scholarship holder. Thomas found the experience to offer a great learning environment ahead of her on-snow competition and training block coming up in America. 

"The best part of the camp was being back on the airbag with some consistency, and being able to see the progression in a short period of time,” Thomas said.

“Being able to fine-tune my competition run with lots of reps on the airbag has also been a fantastic opportunity, which I'm hoping will translate to snow well when I return to the States in late January.”

Thomas's biggest takeaway from the camp was understanding the importance of preparation and how to do so properly before every session.

“The camp highlighted the importance of preparing properly, like a professional, for every session, whether it’s on snow, airbag, tramp, gym or recovery. The more physically and mentally prepared we are, the better chance we have to be performing at our best earlier in our sessions, which means more time for progression in the time we have at training,” Thomas said.  

Gus Broersen, 19, was also present and found the camp to be a great success and beneficial in regaining confidence after spending a large portion of the past 24 months injured.
 
“It was great to have access to all facilities such as airbag, trampoline and gym within 5 minutes of each other. Being from Melbourne, I have to drive 1.5 hours to access a decent acrobatic facility, so this was really beneficial from that point of view,” Broersen said. 
 
“I will head over Utah in the first half of January therefore the timing of this camp has been perfect for gaining confidence again prior to heading over. I’ve had some tough periods with injury over the past 24 months so it was great to find my feet again in a safe & supportive environment.”

With this camp being one of the very few opportunities for the freeski athletes to come together, Broersen commented on the benefits of all being together for a period. 
 
"We rarely have all of the Freeski athletes together in the same place, on the same program, so that's been nice. We had a group dinner one night, which was a great opportunity to connect and strengthen those relationships, making it easier to push each other in our sessions."