The Tawatinaw Valley Freeriders ski club ended the season on a high note bringing home three medals from the Alberta Provincial Championships in Jasper March 31 through April 3.
Five riders made the trip to Marmot Basin to compete in slopestyle, moguls and dual moguls.
Clyde’s Emma Siegle brought home gold in F18 slopestyle with a bronze from skier Daniel Masur in the M18 category and a silver for Jaden Sandgathe in M14.
Coach Trevor Lendrum said competition was fierce throughout the weekend, with all athletes vying to end the season with a win.
New for many of the riders, dual mogul competition added an extra challenge, pushing skiers to race directly against opponents in head-to-head competition.
“As a coach, that was one of the most entertaining things to watch. We don’t really ever train in duels and they only compete at the Alberta Championship,” Lendrum said.
“They’re basically skiing on the verge of out of control. When you’re dueling against someone, they’re pushing you to go faster. They push themselves a lot harder than in normal training because they’re trying to beat the person next to them.”
Lendrum praised the three, but took the time to give credit to the entire team for an outstanding season.
“The athletes improved quite a bit. During the beginning of the season, I was gone for a bit, but when I came back, even then, I noticed some big improvements.”
He credited much of that improvement to dry-land training at Tawatinaw’s Evolution facility, an air bag jump training facility south of Pine Valley Ski Resort.
The facility, built by parents and coaches, is a recent addition to the skiers, regime and allows them to train jumps all season.
“That training facility is what’s making the Tawatinaw team competitive in the provincial range,” Lendrum said.
“It’s allowing us to train all season. There wasn’t a lot of snow this year, and what they had to compete on our guys absolutely killed it.
“The jumps they’re competing on are much bigger. It’s pretty cool training on something smaller and then seeing them hit some of the biggest jumps they’ve ever been on in competition with confidence.”
