Were you watching the Winter Olympics earlier in the year and thinking "wow looks like Australia may get some medals here?" and were you wondering, like the rest of the world, how does a land known for sunshine and beaches and deserts and not-very-high mountains and paltry winters produce world-class skiers and snowboarders ?
Had you ever, up to that point, heard of Torah Bright ? Dale Begg-Smith ? Lydia Lassila ? Do you know who Anna Segal is ? or Chumpy Pullin ? or Ramone Cooper ? or Russ Henshaw ?
pic: CHUMPY via The Australian
pic: Anna via fueltv
pic: Ramone via static.wix.com
All of a sudden, out of seemingly nowhere, and against all odds Australia is bringing home the bacon in the wonderful world of snowsports ! not in Alpine Racing mind you, where the Austrians, Italians and French still dominate, but in the relatively new [and dare I say cooler] world of snowboarding, freeride and half pipe.
And a local club called TBR [Team Buller Riders] based at my home mountain of Mt Buller, can take a not insubstantial amount of credit for a lot of the champions that we are churning out. TBR alumni boasts two Olympic Gold medals [aerialists Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila] Australia's first X-Games Gold medal [Anna Segal] 3 World Champions, 10 Australian Olympians and many, many World Cup medals
TBR offers training programs in the Olympic discipline of Mogul skiing and is identified in the official SSA Olympic Athlete pathway. Oh yeah and they also offer training for X-Games Freeride disciplines big air, rails, half pipe as well as all terrain techniques for Big Mountain
And TBR continues to produce more internationally successful winter snow sport athletes than any other comparable program in Australia..pretty good results from a grass-roots, not-for-profit club that is run by some dedicated guys and gals, supported by amazing parents and the local Mt Buller Mountain Operations crew!!
team leader Andrew 'Patto' Pattison
both my sons have benefited from the TBR training program - and what I love about the club is a real feeling of comradeship - most of the coaches now were TBR athletes in the past and are dedicated to the idea of giving back to the club and of instilling a passion for the sport and a respect for the mountains in these young, impressionable kids.
The entry level age is from 9-12 yrs and they're known as TBR GROMS - they get training in a specialised skill set known as the TBR:Platform, the core technical skiing skill components required by all proficient freestyle skiers. By the time they gradaute from TBR:GROM, these 'ski grommits' will have developed the platform and are ready to make a choice to move onto their preferred next level of training...the specialised worlds of either moguls or freeride.
TBR GROM Tom via: Drew Wilson
for some kids in the program, like moguls champ Brodie Summers, the dream is to move into the Olympic stream via NSWIS (NSW Institute of Sport). Brodie happily accepted a place at NSWIS just a few weeks ago and is moving to Jindabyne for the winter. whilst we're sad to see him go I have a feeling we may be cheering him on at Sochi with his team-mate Dale Begg-Smith in 2014.
or maybe the athlete's dream is follow in the footsteps of Anna Segal [Anna's blog here].... there's already a very strong likelihood that half pipe skiing will be the next Olympic sport debuting at Sochi......if so Anna, and Australia is well poised to grab some more Gold !
but its not just the established names that will be causing excitement, it's the kids aged 12, 14 or 16 years who will be ready to see some action then. Britt Cox [blog link here] already proved it can be done when she, at age 15, became Australia's youngest Olympian this year !
pic: Britt Cox via Andrew Pattison
TBR also has a long and distinguished history with the Australian Aerialists the "flying kangaroos"....both call Chamois ski run their home turf and many times throughout the season the Aussies can be seen training there.......Chamois is home to the Alisa Camplin judge's stand and the soon-to-be-renamed Lydia Lassila chair (a 2 seater known locally as the "love chair") TBR takes on the responsibility of helping these athletes (who start as gymnasts) perfect their skiing skills.
In the events scene TBR is already running the wildly successful ABOM Mogul Challenge [21 years and counting] an event that sees the cream of the crop both locally and internationally compete in a non-stop bump'n'grind course. on a sunny day it's hard to beat the Summit at Mt Buller for ABOM ski thrills and spills!
and this year TBR riders and brothers Watkin and Oscar McLennan have teamed up with the SnowFox Crew to introduce SoO [Shred of Origin] Buller's first freeride invitational event ..that will prove to be exciting on and off the slopes with performances, parties and demo days planned.
TBR athletes dream big, jump big and believe that, when it comes to achieving your ski desires, anything is possible...
possibility is the TBR theme for 2010 as laid out here.....
http://www.youtube.com/teambullerriders#p/a/u/0/lxHhIUYcOKk
oh and did I mention that TBR has a skeleton staff of 3 and a dedicated team of 25 coaches and a kick-ass website ?
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