By Ben Thornton-Harwood, Special to the Revelstoke Times Review
This week Nicole Derksen will be joining the Freeskiing World Tour at its third stop of the series right here in Revelstoke, where she hopes to better last year’s standing of fourth in the competition.
She explained of last year’s contest: “It was cool, I did four out of seven stops and didn’t really know what to expect. It was amazing travelling around, I’ve never skied in the States and it was awesome. “
The forest firefighter continued without the help of sponsors. Taking part in the tour is expensive doing it off your own dime, but is excited for the competition ahead: “I have a camper van to take down and just drive and hit all the stops.”
In the off-season, she picked up severla new sponsors: Scott, Dynastar, Lange, Look, clothing brand Flylow, Nomadic Machine and Revelstoke physiotherapy clinic Helios. Her long-term goal is to spin skiing into a career and travel the world shooting and filming.
The 24-year-old Big Eddy resident is grateful of the support from fellow Revelstokians “It’s awesome to have tonnes of support, but that means tonnes of pressure because of the ‘home hill advantage,’ and so many people know me.”
PHOTO: Nicole with her dog Datsun
Nicole also reflected on her long term goals saying “I want to be in photos and magazines. A segment in a video or something, that would be awesome, but I just want to travel and do what I love.”
Nicole explained what motivates her, putting it down to her competitive nature. “I’m a very competitive person; I like the competition element of it and pushing myself harder.
“During the comp I’ll push myself so much harder than I usually would on the hill. I was out of my comfort zone the whole time last year and that really drives me and makes me work harder.”
Nicole summed up her aims for this year’s tour stop in Revelstoke this week: “I just want to challenge myself and do better than last year, all I can do is go out and do the best I can and have fun.”
