Officially, Rhett Haubrich is on short-term injured reserve.
Luckily, he was totally healthy for his last competition of the snowboard season, the $10,000 Sport Chek Snow Crown Freestyle Nationals at Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park. He’s in no rush to get on the active list.
“I hurt my ankle playing around doing some jumps up at Silver Star so I’ll be out for a week or two,” laughed Haubrich, a Vernon 20-year-old with five years of boarding competition experience.
Haubrich posted a top-25 at the FIS World Junior Championships in Erzurum, Turkey, so pre qualified for the Junior and Open division semifinals at nationals.
His execution on one of the slopestyle jumps was less than what he is accustomed to, and placed him seventh in the Junior class, ruled by Michel Gregoire of Quebec. Tanner Holland of Kelowna, who like Haubrich, trains at Whistler, bagged the bronze medal.
Haubrich put together a near-perfect run (89.50 points) in the Open to place third overall and pocket $750.
Darcy Sharpe of Team Canada (Comox) won the Open crown with a 96.00, followed by Tyler Nicholson of North Bay, Ont., at 95.5. Nicholson, who trains in Colorado, landed a massive switch back 1200 for the Most Outstanding Trick award.
“I was just boarding well and landed my run with three jumps and a rail. I was happy for sure,” said the modest, soft-spoken Haubrich. “The money will sure help me out.”
In Turkey, where Nicholson struck gold in the slopestyle, Haubrich registered a first-rate run but unfortunately, a slight stumble on the rail left him 21st in the field of 50. His coaches figured he would have been top-five without the slip.
Haubrich shares a place with two friends at Whistler and works summers.
“Last summer I worked in Lloydminster on the oil rigs. I’m getting low on money so I’ll be heading back to Alberta soon.”
For fun this summer, he will skateboard and hang out with buddies at the beach.
