Snowboard Community Update - June 2023

Hi all, welcome to this month’s edition of the Snowboard Community Update.

My name is Jackson Holtham, and I’m excited to be bringing you the update this month.

I am NSWIS Snowboard Cross coach, and part of the AIS Gen32 Coaching program, but I thought I would share a little bit about how I got my start in this sport, the places it’s taken me and what I am most excited about in this upcoming season…

Growing up, my family did a few small trips to Mt Hotham, I loved snowboarding and had some lessons. When I left school, I thought I would try and be a snowboard instructor. Thredbo ran a course that taught you to be an instructor and gave you a job for the season…So in 2014 I signed up and drove up to Thredbo from Adelaide as a baby-faced 17 year old!

I worked as an instructor for a number of back to back winters and fell into coaching through some private coaching & part time roles. I worked with Turn and Burn for several years before moving into the role at NSWIS and haven’t looked back since. Fun fact - That same instructor I had all those years ago ended up being a colleague of mine when I worked at the APSI. It’s not the most traditional path to coaching but I am proud of the journey.

I love the energy we have within Australian SBX right now. There are a lot of racing opportunities now in the domestic winter, such as the Chumpy Pullin FIS JNR Series, which has been fantastic in bringing the SBX community together and letting everyone have a chance to do the sport.

There isn’t another series like this in the world and it’s only going to grow! Tracks will improve, riders will be more comfortable the more they race, it’s fantastic. I think this series will play a big factor in the future of SBX (5-10-20 years...) as we are only in the early stages. Snow Australia has done a fantastic job with this and the Chumpy Pullin Foundation has supported it strongly. I see a lot of young riders wanting to push themselves in SBX and this is what it’s all about.

The NSWIS/OWIA SBX team have also been working hard, and I hope we can keep pushing the level of SBX in Australia. We have some international teams coming to train at Mt Hotham this season and I think this will be a great test of the hard work to make sure our riding is at a high level before we travel to Europe for our main competition season.

Looking ahead to this domestic season, snow has fallen and it is getting cold in the mountains, so now is a great chance to go out and warm up and work on your skills before the season starts.

Train hard, have fun, respect your coaches and always look after your team members in the club. I hope to see everyone at the ANC races in Mt Hotham - make sure you are organised to get down there!

If I could leave you with one thing - always snowboard for you and your enjoyment, if you love snowboarding enough, you’ll make anything happen!

Have a great season everyone, I’ll see you on the slopes!

Jackson

READ THE SNOWBOARD COMMUNITY UPDATE HERE

This edition includes: 

• Entries For FIS JNR SBX - Thredbo Now Open
• Chumpy Pullin Foundation FIS JNR SBX Crewnecks Now Available
• Shred For Chumpy 2023
• Snowboard Alpine FUTURES EOI - Now Open
• Little Shredders Term 3 Bookings Open
• Coaching Courses Available On The Snow Academy 
• 2023 Membership Now Open