Hi all, welcome back to the Snowboard Community Update. My name is Nickie Rodger, and I’m excited to be bringing you the update for August.

First, a little bit about me… I was born and raised in Kelowna, BC, Canada. My home resort is Big White, and this year marks my 34th season on snow. I am the proud Mama to 2 boys (20 and 15) back home, and all things in my life lead to the snow and snowboarding.

To this day there has been nothing that has given me more family, friends, laughter, and joy than this gift of snowboarding. And it started me on a pathway that has led me to the farthest corners of our frozen planet, introduced me to some of my closest friends and opened my eyes and heart to some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen.

Last year, I became the Snow Australia Para Snowboard Coach, and was thrilled to join Ben Tudhope and the team during the Northern Hemisphere season, where Ben won the Snowboard Cross World Championships and two Crystal Globes. 

We’ve had a tough year for snow here in Australia for the 2023 domestic season, but in spite of this we have had a great training season. We were joined by the Great Britain and Japan Para Teams as well as a Japan Development SBX team. It was good to have a few more people to join our small team in training GS, Start Sections and Pump track.

We had some really good Airbag sessions with both Para Teams at the NSTC in Jindabyne, and are proud to say that these were the first athletes with prosthetics that have ever ridden these bags in Jindabyne. It was pretty amazing to watch Japanese Paralympian Junta Kosuda huck double backflips off the HP bag! I guess it’s not a far step from the backflips he can huck and land on snow, but still super amazing to watch!

With so many hurdles for non-Para athletes to get to the snow, it's been amazing to see para athletes getting involved and joining our development camps. It's not an easy thing when most people in this country live so far from the snow, so to see people get involved and dedicate themselves to the sport is a big feat.

Sean Pollard and Ben Tudhope have both just finished competing in the ANC races at Mt Hotham, the Transfer Banked Slalom at Thredbo Resort, and are about to compete in the Hotham Boardriders Gunbarrel Banked Slalom in Mt Hotham. They compete against non-Para competitors in all these races, and more than hold their own! If you're out at Mt Hotham on Friday, come on out and watch them rip up the course!

My biggest tip for any snowboarder is to ride as much as possible, whenever you can. In good weather and bad, ride moguls, ride drops, ride park, hit all the hits, get as comfortable on your board as you can and when you are, do it all over again switch! Gym time makes you a better rider full stop; you’d better be strong if you want to ride 170 days a year! And never, ever forget why you ride - it’s the love of the sport and the gift of joy that it gives you!

Everything is hard when you start it for the first time, but if you want something bad enough it will be worth every ounce of sweat and tears you pour into it. And the sport of snowboarding will give you the greatest returns you could ever imagine.

Nickie Rodger
Para Snowboard Coach

All generations of Australian Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross athletes have converged at Mt Hotham Alpine Resort lastt week for a full week of development, training and racing opportunities.

The week kicked off with the Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross FUTURES, with 72 athletes in attendance, focusing on high performance training and preparation techniques for heat racing.

After two days of training and development under the guidance of the NSWIS and OWIA Teams, the athletes had a chance to put their newly-honed skills to the test in the Youth, Groms and FIS Junior races on Wednesday.

Harriet Fuller won the Female Grom’s race, with Lucy Evans taking home the gold in the Youth Female race and Alexander Frost in the Men’s Youth event.

The inaugural Snowboard Alpine FUTURES was held on Saturday 29 July at Mt Buller with participants given the opportunity to train on a giant slalom course with national team athletes, coaches and Olympians.

Going into the event the program aims were to give athletes exposure to the discipline of Snowboard Alpine and prepare riders for competition.
Millie Bongiorno, a veteran of the last three World Championships, said the Snowboard Alpine FUTURES was a tremendous success with all involved learning from some of the sport’s best minds.

“It was an incredibly rewarding experience for me to assist in hosting this event,” said Bongiorno. “We had a total of 23 athletes participating who showed a lot of passion and dedication towards improving their racing skills, which made for an extremely rewarding weekend.

The Snow Australia Para FUTURES event recently concluded after three exciting days of adaptive snow sports at Perisher Resort

The event brought together seven talented new para-athletes, the Snow Australia High Performance Para Alpine National Team, guides from Disabled Wintersports Australia (DWA), Paralympics Australia and a fantastic team of classifiers.

The event was a showcase of skill and development while also being an important platform for promoting adaptive sports and progressing athletes on the development pathway

The Snow Australia Para FUTURES event aims to provide snowsports athletes with a physical (PI) or visual (VI) impairment with a fun and supportive environment, to demonstrate their abilities across different snow sports disciplines of para-alpine skiing and para-snowboarding. Their performances showcased not only their physical prowess but also their determination and resilience.

It has recently been identified that there is a possible gap in travel and medical cover that may see our members being responsible for Ambulance and Emergency Transport costs occurring during Competition or Training in New Zealand.

Snow Australia in association with Insurance Advisernet (IA) are proud to provide Australian Ski and Snowboard members the opportunity to purchase an Ambulance and Emergency Transport Benefit of up to $5,000 for only $209.00.

Follow the link below for more information and to purchase your policy.

The Chumpy Pullin FIS JNR Series may be over for 2023 but you can still get your exclusive sweatshirt and support a great cause.

Don't miss out!

A reminder that the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) have implemented a fluor wax ban from the 2023/2024 winter season.

FIS has remained committed to banning fluor products used in ski preparation given the health risks and environmental concerns connected to fluorine waxes. Working with Bruker, a leading manufacturer of high-performance scientific instruments, while maintaining a close collaboration with the International Biathlon Union (IBU) through a joint working group, an effective and accurate testing method was developed.