It’s been a special season for local teenager Darcy Sharpe, and finishing on top at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival was a nice was to cap it off.

Sharpe kicked off the festival with a bang on Saturday night (April 14) in the Big Hip competition, the first instalment of Monster Energy’s The Shred Show, a five-star TTR World Tour snowboarding series.

The 16-year-old managed to clinch first place in front of a packed Skiers Plaza, earning himself a check to the princely sum of $15,000 and yet another great finish in a high-profile contest.

“This ranks No. 2, behind chilling with the homies and riding Mount Washington,” replied an elated Sharpe when asked what his seasonal highlight was.

“It’s a pretty good feeling,” he added.

Second place went to Antoine Truchon of Quebec with a prize of $6,000 and third went to local rider Jon Versteeg, who walked away with $4,000.

Competitors at the Big Hip had to deal with the snow conditions changing throughout the afternoon and into the evening as temperatures dropped, making judging the speed required for the jump all the more difficult.

“It was super hard,” said Sharpe. “I kind of got lucky (adding) a few slashes to my first run, after that I knew the speed.”

The 10-man final took the best two of three scores combined and Sharpe’s total of 180.00 sealed the victory. Truchon (174.75) edged Versteeg (172.00) for second while local riders Logan Haubrich and Dave Fortin missed the money but took fourth and fifth spots.

Sharpe’s best trick of the evening was on his first run, stomping a frontside double cork 1080 to the screams of thousands of spectators. He played it safe on his second run with a backside 720 and followed up with a backside 900, riding out switch.

Sharpe calls Comox home but trains locally with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club. Coach Joe McAdoo was delighted with the performance of his teenage prodigy, complimenting Sharpe’s strategy of “pulling a safety” in between his first and last jumps to make sure he had the points to secure the lead.

“He put it down under pressure, which is the big thing,” said McAdoo. “We actually (came) straight from the physio. Training last week he tweaked his knee a bit, and it was a major concern if he could actually do this contest. We did see a couple of physios and he got all the OKs.”

McAdoo has coached Sharpe for the last two seasons and has seen remarkable improvement in his athlete, especially in the last 12 months. He ended last season by winning the Showcase Showdown and reaching the finals of the Grand Opening at last year’s festival. This year, he’s kept it rolling with a number of impressive slopestyle results at both FIS-sanctioned events and TTR stops.

In the month leading up to the festival alone, Sharpe had won silver medals at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Spain, at the men’s national championships in Calgary and at the Quiksilver Showdown Over the City, a four-star TTR event at Grouse Mountain.

“The thing with Darcy is when he gets back and gets a good result, it makes him work more,” said McAdoo. “When he got back from World Juniors getting second, the first thing he said was how pumped he was to learn more tricks and better tricks. It’s pretty cool. He’s non-stop, he just wants to keep learning.”

While the season is winding down, Sharpe is not quite done competing. The Ruckus in the Rockies, also sponsored by Monster Energy, will take place in Lake Louise on May 5.

Full results from Saturday’s event are available at www.wssf.com.

For more stories of Darcy click below.

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/sharpe-shakes-it-up-at-shred-show/Content?oid=2296970

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/sharpe-truchon-take-shred-show/Content?oid=2297435

Canada has emerged as a leading nation in the sport of snowboard slopestyle with athletes like Sebastien Toutant, Mark McMorris, Charles Reid, Matts Kulisek, Antoine Truchon, Spencer O’Brien and others competing at the highest level and doing well.

But there are a lot of good up-and-coming riders moving up the ranks as well, including Darcy Sharpe — a Vancouver Island rider who has been training with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club the past few years. He placed sixth at a World Cup in Quebec this year, followed up with a second place at nationals and earned a spot to represent Canada at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain last weekend.

Sharpe proved he was up to the challenge and earned the silver medal behind Marco Grigis of Italy while finishing ahead of Brandon Davis of the U.S. There were 72 riders in the competition.

Michael Roy was eighth for Canada and David Kinskofer 19th.

Although Canadians posted some solid results at the championships, Sharpe’s silver medal was the team’s highlight for the week.

Whistler Valley Snowboard Club coach Joe McAdoo said the group is proud of what Sharpe, who turned 17 in February, has accomplished this year.

“The big thing that we’re really pleased with this year compared to last is his consistency level at contests this year, it’s been amazing,” said McAdoo. “To make it through to the finals he had to land one or two good runs, then move onto the semis and another two runs — and sometimes he even had to do this three times — just to get into the finals, where he had to do well under pressure.

“He has been stepping up. At nationals he fell in the first qualifying run to get into the semifinals… and he was still able to put down a highly difficult run — under pressure with only one chance to put it down, and a lot riding on his back.”

McAdoo said they were working with Sharpe to add new tricks to his bag. Right now he has backside and switch backside 900s, cab 900s and a few 1080s. He brought out a fronstide double corked 1080 to win the Afterdark Invitational at Mt. Washington, and tested the same trick again at nationals this year.

“We’re looking forward to doing a training camp at Mt. Washington with an airbag and jumps, and get a few more doubles comp ready,” said McAdoo.

Having Sharpe with the program has helped inspire some of the other riders to progress, McAdoo said. “A lot of the things that a lot of high-end riders do, they can actually see Darcy doing them,” he said. “As a coach I can say, ‘hey guys, I wan’t you to watch videos an hour every night,’ and they can see Darcy spends two hours a night studying. They can see what it takes to get to the next level. And learning big tricks first on the trampoline, then bring them onto the air bag and then onto the snow — he’s working really hard and he’s definitely getting results.”

Sharpe’s next contest is The Shred Show, a now five-star TTR World Tour event, taking place during the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, April 13 to 17.

In men’s halfpipe, Canada’s Harrison Gray placed fifth out of 58 athletes, and was the only member of the team to crack the top 30.

In women’s snowboardcross, Zoe Bergermann missed the final but won the consolation to place fifth, with teammate Jade Critchlow one spot back in sixth.

By Michel Beaudry

“Creative thinking may simply be the realization that there is no particular virtue in doing things the way they’ve always been done.”

- Rudolph Flesch, Educator

He made it look easy. But there was absolutely nothing easy – or simple – about that particular stunt. When WVSC vet Johnny Lyall casually jumped through the Olympic rings and onto the country’s TV screens last February during the Games’ Opening Ceremonies (arguably the most dramatic event of the whole evening), the twentysomething rider became an instant celebrity. And rightfully so.

Think of all the things that could have gone wrong with that sequence. A bad take-off, a shaky leap, a wrong landing: the disaster scenarios are endless. But Lyall looked so cool, so calm and collected in the air, that most viewers totally underestimated the technical proficiency – or the hours of training – required to nail that jump. The guy had ice running through his veins. Nothing was going to touch him that night.

“It was done right,” Lyall told a young reporter soon after the show. “And we were stoked on it. I think people are looking at it as a milestone for snowboarding now. It was such an honour for me. And I’ve heard so many nice things… people saying they’re proud of me and that I represented Canada. It’s just so cool that I was attached to that.”

And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, says his former coach Rob Picard. “He was the perfect person to do it,” explains the founder and owner of the near-iconic Whistler Valley Snowboard Club. “He has such a great personality. I think he did an amazing job…”

But for Picard, Lyall’s Olympic leap was more than just a great public spectacle. “Johnny’s from that first generation of WVSC riders – you know, Tyler Massey, Tim Orr, Adam Friesen, Mikey Rencz, Mercedes Nichol – who really set the tone for the club.”

He pauses for a breath. I can feel just by the energy in the air how much these kids mean to him. “They were amazing,” he says. “Honestly – they could pretty much achieve whatever they wanted. We’d hit a contest in Silver Star or Sun Peaks or whatever and they’d come home with all the hardware. They had a reputation. They definitely set themselves up as the ones to beat…”

So how did it feel to see a WVSC alum light up the world’s big screens last February? Picard laughs. “I was out snowmobiling that day – way out in the middle of nowhere – so I missed the show.” By the time he got back to civilization his phone was ringing off the hook. “I had a million messages,” he says. “Most of them were like: ‘Is that really Johnny?’ And I kept thinking to myself: ‘Is that really Johnny doing what?’”

It didn’t take long for him to find out what the heck Lyall was up to. “When I finally saw the sequence I couldn’t believe it,” he admits. “It was like he’d won this huge contest.” A long pause. Another big smile. “Which I guess he did.”

But without Picard and his unconventional WVSC program, who knows where the young rider might have ended up…

“I grew up on the East Coast,” says the longtime coach. “St. John, New Brunswick to be precise.” And then with just a tinge of pride: “Went to school with Mark Fawcett. He was my inspiration.”

Not a bad role model. Currently a coach with the Canadian Snowboard Team, Fawcett is one of the country’s most decorated snowsport jocks. And a real student of the game. There’s a bit of the football coach in Fawcett. And as he displayed on the kitschy MTV show that followed his team to Cypress, playing with his riders’ minds is all part of it.

But I digress. The two young Maritimers, says Rob, were tight.

“When Mark went down to the States – to Carrabassett Academy – to train, I chased him down there,” continues Picard. He says the experience completely changed his view of snowboarding. “To see a bona fide, organized program like the one they had in Maine – to see just how successful it was – that was really inspiring.” And though he didn’t attend the school himself, he made sure to take in as much as he could. “I think I got a really good feel for what they were doing down there.” A breath. “I certainly learned a lot.”

Apparently. Slowly the young easterner worked his way west. An unsatisfactory stay in Banff. A look around to see what else was happening. More stories about this place on the Coast that kicked ass. More snowboarding. And more. And more. And finally – rolling into Whistler for the winter of 1991. Young and keen and raring to play.

His timing was perfect. Snowboarding was hot then. By the winter of ’96, Blackcomb Ski Club had figured it out. The riders weren’t going away. And if you can’t beat them…

So they hired Bobby Allison to coach the older elite riders (Darren Chalmers, Maëlle Ricker et al) while newcomer Rob Picard would take care of the grommets. The young hounds. The hungry bunch. The irreverent, outgoing, happy risk-taking spawn of the first generation of Whistlerites to settle down and make families in this valley. “We had a lot of fun that first year,” says Picard with a faraway tone. “Orr, Massey, Freisen, Burgess – so many local kids. I didn’t miss a day that winter. We rode all over!”

Alas, his style of coaching didn’t quite fit with the club’s vision. “We missed a few gate sessions,” he admits. “I was just a little too freeride for ‘em. If it snowed we were gone.”

Come the next winter, Picard was on his own and running a semi-underground program on Blackcomb Mountain. “We were guerrilla, for sure,” he says with just a hint of naughtiness to his smile. “Definitely under the radar.” His biggest supporters? The parents of the kids he was coaching! “There’s no way this club would have survived without their help. People like Mariana Orr and Binty Massey – they’re the ones who sent me in the direction I’m going. They knew the kids liked what I was doing. They knew they were being supervised properly. And they wanted continuity for them. So they really encouraged me.”

And that transformed everything. Slowly his program grew in stature. Slowly it grew in legitimacy. “At first, mountain management wasn’t sure what to do with us,” Picard recounts. “But then we got really popular. When they started looking at our program with a critical eye, they soon realized: ‘Hey – they’re taking care of our kids. And our neighbours’ kids. This has a really local flavour.’ That’s when we became official…”

The winter of ’97-’98 was huge for the WVSC. Remember? That’s the year Whistler and Blackcomb joined forces. That’s also the year Picard’s baby became an officially endorsed snowboard program. “The sport was booming at that point,” he says. “And our numbers too.” From six kids that first year, the WVSC grew to a 70-rider program by the 2003-04 season.

So popular was the program that a group of young skiing upstarts – Kye Petersen, the Pettit brothers – had started hanging out in the pipe and park with Picard and his charges. “It’s so great to see how well those kids have done,” he says. “I remember watching these little guys – 10-11 years old, you know – and thinking ‘we should adopt these kids.’ So we sort of kept an eye on them. They were our little ski buddies…”

Those were thrilling years. No question. But things have changed since then. The economy. Shifts in youth culture. School pressures. Available time. You name it… “The number of riders has gone down,” admits Picard. “And that’s right across the board. Which means that our numbers have followed.” He sighs. And puts on his business hat. “We have 30 kids in the program this year. And I can tell ya – they’re very well served. Our coaching levels have never been higher.”

Led by head coach Joe McAdoo, WVSC riders now focus their skills on halfpipe riding and slopestyle (the most-recent addition to the World Cup calendar). “We’re seeing a lot of young kids with some amazing new tricks,” says Picard. “There’s a whole new level of performance out there. What was the edge a few years ago is just standard now.”

Riders to watch? “Kyle Thomas and Andrew Mathew,” he says. “They’re well on their way to the Olympic Halfpipe Team. And then there’s slopestylers Darcy Sharpe from Comox and Dan Stubbs from Pickering Ontario. They definitely have what it takes.”

And Picard? After 15 seasons on the hot seat what’s his future look like? “The club has been my baby for so long,” he says. “It’s my job, my passion, my hobby even.” He looks out into the distance. Sighs again. “I could never stop doing this until I found someone I could trust who was as committed to the program as I am. I just couldn’t…”

FULL STORY HERE

Darcy Sharpe from Whistler Valley Snowboard Club on Vimeo.