Local snowboarder Katie Brayer has returned to Sun Peaks after spending her summer training and competing in New Zealand.
The 19-year-old athlete billeted with a family in Queenstown while training at Cardona Alpine Resort to give herself an edge going into the 2023-2024 season. Ranked 4th in Canada for Women’s Slopestyle and 41st in the world for Slopestyle after just three years in competition, Brayer’s life is devoted to pursuing a career as a competitive shredder.
While most people her age head off to post-secondary, Brayer wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to do for work – aside from snowboarding. So, she took the leap and focused on her sport, while enrolling at Thompson Rivers University part-time.
“Snowboarding was a big part of my life and I just wanted to continue to do that,” Brayer said.
With her first back-to-back winter under her belt, Brayer is back in Kamloops and Sun Peaks, but she’s not done working to achieve her dreams as an athlete. She will spend seven days a week on snow, between training with Sun Peaks Freestyle Club (SPFC) and working in the terrain park at Sun Peaks Resort LLP.
“I get to design the park that I ride every day,” Brayer explained. “If there are certain tricks that I want to work on, and I need a certain feature for that, I usually can make it happen.”
She recently finished 6th at the Australia-New Zealand Cup. This year, she’s headed to the NorAm Cup tour and just learned she’s been invited to her first World Cup events in Edmonton and Calgary.
She humbly described her talent as between North American and World Cup skills levels, and said she wasn’t sure if she’ll head to Edmonton this year.
“I want to keep focusing on my training and start at the World Cup level when I’m ready,” Brayer explained.
Brayer’s back-to-back seasons will give her the confidence and safe repetitions she needs to pull off difficult tricks, said head coach for SPFC Rich Fonger.
“She’s probably been on snow for more than 200 days this year and hasn’t been hurt,” Fonger said.
He’s also impressed by her commitment to training, which is a mark of an athlete’s success.
“As a coach, you can give anybody the tools, but when you see somebody who’s constantly coming back and showing up early and leaving last, asking a million questions – you can see that they just have a better chance.”
For Brayer, snowboarding is both a career and a creative outlet.
“I like the freedom and creativity you get riding,” she said. “People do the same trick, but it looks completely different. Everybody has their own style and can put their creativity into it.”
Fonger and Brayer also credited her success to family support, but Fonger highlighted corporate sponsorship as the next step for Brayer to succeed at an international level.
“There’s a lot of athletes that compete in her sport and money for training and travel isn’t really an issue,” Fonger explained. “I think that the more time she spends at that level – she’s going to need some support.”
What did you think of this story?
Your feedback after we publish a story helps ensure we're always improving our reporting to better serve you.
