The first time I went snowboarding was a year and a half ago in Whistler. I loved it so much. I thought it was a way to be free and put so much style into a sport.

This year I competed at the Interschools Snowsports Competition in the Regional and then the NSW State Championship events, representing Newington College. I came 22nd in the State for snowboard cross and 17th for giant slalom. I missed on going to Nationals by .2 of a second. I’m proud of how I went because I just gave it a go without race lessons or any time snowboarding since Christmas.

Flynn Gannon from Year 9 at Stanmore helped me a lot. He did the course inspections with me and gave me very good tips. Watching him race has inspired me to go again next year.

My plan is to have race lessons in Whistler over Christmas and practice as much as I can. I am also very happy to now have a race board that I bought from Flynn.

Sam Schultz, Year 5W