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Escarpment Magaz ine Winter
2012
The Escarpment
has long been a hotbed for competitive winter sports. Each
weekend thousands of kids take to our slopes in a variety of different programs,
learning proper technique, improving skill sets and of course competing against
their friends and rivals from other clubs. Ski racing is by far the largest program
found along the Escarpment, and one only needs to visit any club at nine o’clock
on a Saturday morning to see the number of kids gathered for their respective
programs. And while Ontario has produced a small number of athletes who
have gone onto the international stage, we are not necessarily considered a
powerhouse province when it comes to Alpine Racing. There is one area how-
ever, that is largely overlooked when considering the Escarpment’s contribution
to athletes competing at the international level. One sport that we have not only
contributed to, but actually make up over half of the national team and are glob-
ally recognized as breeding ground for some of the strongest riders in the world.
That sport is Freestyle Snowboarding.
Freestyle Snowboarding makes up a very small percentage of athletes when
compared to other programs found along the Escarpment. Yet in the last
decade, they have had more success than all the other programs combined.
When you consider how small the snowboard programs are at the private ski
clubs, and how few resources go into Freestyle Snowboarding, one has to ask
the question, “How has the Escarpment managed to produce so many world
class Snowboarders?”
There is no simple answer to that question, and many things have contributed
to our success in the sport. The fact that Blue Mountain has one of the best Ter-
rain Parks in Canada is certainly a factor. So to is the ability for local kids to
ride that park at night, increasing their time on snow and improving the acces-
sibility to all riders. With a dedicated chairlift in Blue Mountain’s “Badlands”
Terrain Park and the short turnaround time between runs, riders are able to get
more laps more quickly.
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text | clay dolan photos | jesse fulton