Flipping through the summer

Ryder Mackenzie-White preps for ski season

After landing his first front flip on the last day of the season in April, Freestyle Ski Club competitor Ryder Mackenzie-White hasn’t let the off season slow his progression. The 10-year-old competitor has spent the summer working to clean up his front flip and added a backflip to his growing list of tricks.

“I’ve been really excited the whole summer to try it on the jumps up here (at Sun Peaks),” said Mackenzie-White.

Mackenzie-White said after crashing during his first front flip attempt he would have been too scared to try again if he didn’t have the support of his friends Olson Advocaat and Andrew Helton in the terrain park.

Helton said it was great to help and watch Mackenzie-White.

“It was a foggy kind of gloomy day in the park, and I remember seeing Ryder and Olson sitting at the top of the Three Bears jumps. After meeting up with them, Ryder told me he really wanted to do a front flip,” Helton said. “I asked him what he was scared of and we talked about it for a few minutes, what to do and what not to do. After a little quiet moment Ryder gathered his courage and dropped in. He popped perfect, got the flip around and disappeared behind the knuckle.

“Olson and I waited eagerly for him to pop up on the last jump, then we see Ryder with his hand high in the air. We both skied down to him and gave him a big hug!”

“If they weren’t there I wouldn’t have done it,” Mackenzie-White said. “When I landed it, it felt really good because I knew people were helping me do it and if there wasn’t people helping me and I still landed it, it wouldn’t have felt as good.”

The young athlete attended his first summer training program at Whistler Blackcomb in early July where he was able to practice flipping and worked on his rotations which he will utilize in competition this season.

“It was pretty good cause it wasn’t cold and when it’s cold you can’t focus. It was nice and hot too it was the perfect snow and you can just train on it really well. It wasn’t hard so if you wanted to try new tricks and if you fell it wouldn’t really hurt.,” he said.

Competing in the super youth division Mackenzie-White won’t be able to debut his new skills for two years when he transitions into the Timber Tour competitions.

Discussing goals for the upcoming season he said he’s looking to add a few more tricks. Hoping to get a cork 700 this season he’s been practicing going off axis hoping to progress to the point where he can start trying them.

“I (also) want to get opposite 720s. I was super close on the last day, last year. I think I’m going to be able to do it this year because I was practicing those a lot in Whistler,” he said.

Sponsored by McSporties, Oronge Boardshop and Head Ski he plans to compete in competitions at Apex Mountain Resort and Whistler Blackcomb and ski as much as possible this season.