Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) students have trained hard and achieved excellent snowsports results during the recent northern hemisphere winter season.

Principal Nicola Jacobsen said MAC students had travelled to many countries including Canada, Switzerland, America, Italy, Austria and Germany to train and compete internationally at an elite level.

“Seeing our students train and perform at an elite level is such an inspiration for our students,” Nicola said.

“This level of commitment and performance takes a particular mindset and it helps create a culture of high performance at our school.”

She said the school’s aim was to always support its students’ dreams “which means that sometimes we need to be flexible in how we deliver our learning programmes so we can help our students reach their goals”. 

Year 12 student Cam Melville Ives competed in snowboard slopestyle, big air and halfpipe, starting his season travelling to Austria to train on the glacial pipe before heading to Colorado for the first world cup of the season.

“It was really cool to take all the tricks I learnt in Austria, including B2B double 1080s, frontside 1260, alleyoop double rodeo, and to put them in a run,” he said.

“My best world cup event this season was in Kreischberg where I was able to land two of my best tricks and place 21st overall. I also won some other smaller events such as the Laax Europa Cup halfpipe and the World Rookie Tour.” 

Cam’s brother Fin also competed in the world cup season, mostly in halfpipe but also big air and slopestyle.

“My world cup season started in Copper and I was really stoked to make it to the finals and finish sixth,” Fin said.

“I competed in two more world cup events in Calgary and Mammoth lakes finishing in eighth place overall in the FIS World Cup standings for 2023 which I am really happy with.” 

Freestyle skier and Year 10 student Kazuma Saka spent five months training in the northern hemisphere, travelling alone and staying with host families.

“I joined Team Summit at Copper Mountain in America where I did a few competitions and got first place in the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) rail jams, and first place in slopestyle,” Kazuma said.

Year 10 student and freestyle skier Luke Harrold says his biggest competition of the season was the Aspen Open Halfpipe Competition.

“I placed first in the open age division against competitors who have been competing in the Olympics so that result was definitely the highlight of my season.” 

Fifteen-year-old Harry Rowden travelled to the United States to train and compete for the Team Summit Freeride Ski team and, despite a concussion that kept him out of some of the events, managed to compete in one competition before returning home.

“I had a pretty gnarly run with a few control issues, but was lucky enough to end up in the top 10 out of 50 riders.”

Alpine ski racing competitor Isabel Watterson (Year 9) had an outstanding season, finishing as the number one under 14 female racer in Switzerland.

“At the Samnaun international giant slalom race with 15 countries competing, I skied from bib 75 out of 90 in the under 14 girls and achieved second place - just 0.03 seconds off taking the win,” she said.

“In some of the national points races I was also able to secure the fastest time of the day for boys and girls in all age groups which filled me with lots of confidence.”

Year 9 student Lottie King spent the season based in British Columbia.

“One of my favourite moments from a competition this year was definitely the podium ceremony at the biannual British Columbia games. This competition was filled with the best freestylers from all around BC, and I was so proud to claim first in slopestyle and second in big air.

“I then went on to the Canada Junior Nationals feeling confident, and landed with a third in big air and fifth in slopestyle.”

Year 12 student Lucia Georgalli competed in snowboarding big air and slopestyle at the Europa Cup in Switzerland and the World Rookie Tour final.

Lucia Georgalli, also in Year 12 at MAC, competed in snowboarding big air and slopestyle at the Europa Cup in Switzerland and the World Rookie Tour final. 

“I got first which I'm hyped about. My run on the jumps was a front-side 720 into a back-side 720 and one of my prizes for winning the World Rookie Tour was an invitation to the Swatch Nines and Anna Gasser progression sessions and the Prime Park session at the end of this year.”

Year 11 student Sylvia Trotter spent three months at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia where she focused on training.

“The three months were spent training, improving my air game, and getting ready to string together harder competition lines for this winter season.”

PHOTOS: Supplied