Snowboardology - Thanet's got talent
By Charlotte Ruffy
You may not know it, but the UK has one of the most vibrant
snowboard scenes in the world and despite it being a basically
snowless country, us Brits are actually very fortunate, because we
can ride all year long on the UK’s artificial slopes, as we found
out from Thanet’s own talented snowboarder Ollie Jackson (15) who
has earned
himself a place on the Great Britain junior snowboarding
team!
We thought Thanet had more to offer surfers than snowboarders so
we asked Ollie how snowboarding has changed his life….
How long have you been snowboarding for?
Seven years, but I’ve only been competing for two
What got you into snowboarding?
I tried it when I was on holiday and just went on from there
How many competitions have you been in?
23 both in the UK and abroad
That’s quite a lot, out of them how many have you placed
in?
12
Wow! That really good. I now know why you’re in the Great
Britain junior team. How hard was it for you to get in?
I went to the try outs, tried my best and got picked. I was
lucky though, because I was scouted one day when I was
competing.
Being in the team GB is a great achievement but other then
that, what would you say was your best?
I got a 2 second time at the British championship and came 10th
overall, out of
150 competitors including pros
Cool, you must train a lot to get a time like that. How many
times a month do you train?
I train one day every other week
There’s obviously not alot of snow around here, where do you go
to train?
Chatham, I would train a lot more if it was closer
Being abroad alot on competitions and training, how do you keep
up with
schoolwork?
It’s hard but people at school give me a lot of help if I need
to catch up.
What advice would you give to anyone that wants to take up
snowboarding?
Keep pushing yourself it can be hard sometimes but never give
up. Just keep at it and don’t be scared.
And finally what are your goals for the future?
I’m going to try and become a pro, to the European standards, I
know it’s going to be hard but ‘You can do anything if you put your
mind to it ‘.