A total of 19 Canadian Freestyle Ski Team members – including Cassie Sharpe of Comox – will be competing at the Dew Tour – a key platinum level stop on the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) calendar.
The competition, which features events in halfpipe and slopestyle and runs Dec. 10-13, will be returning to Breckenridge, Colorado, for the eighth year in a row. Sharpe is one of two female halfpipe athletes on the national squad.
The event marks the start of the competition season, and Sharpe says, “(I’m) definitely a little nervous that the first contest of the year is a big one,” she told The Record.
“But we’ve been training a lot and I feel prepared. Ready to have fun and do my best!” the 23-year-old added.
Both of the Canadian halfpipe and slopestyle teams have been training hard all summer and increased the amount of snow training that they did in the off-season.
“This year, during the off-season we had a number of different training camps, all with different goals in mind,” said Trennon Paynter, head coach of the halfpipe team.
“Three of our training camps were on snow, and we had five additional training camps that were geared towards complementary practices and skills.”
Many of the athletes will get an opportunity to try out the new tricks they’ve been working on all summer.
A Canadian has not medalled at the Dew Tour since 2013 when both Alex Beaulieu-Marchand and Kim Lamarre captured silver in slopestyle.
Also expected to compete in Colorado is slopestyle skier Teal Harle of Campbell River. Harle is the first graduate of the Podium of Life Snowsports Academy which used to operate at Mount Washington before relocating to Whistler.
