Who Am I
My Backstory
Skiing has been my life from a young age, from the days of Snow Park in 2008 when my mum would pick me up after school and we’d go night skiing with my brother and friends, all the way up until now when I travel the world with the same friends, filming and competing as much as I can.
I grew up in Wanaka, New Zealand. The local school was very lenient towards skiing and would let us take days off as long as our grades were satisfactory. I played every sport I could: rugby, football, mountain biking, skateboarding, fishing and hiking. As long as I was outside, I was happy. This has stayed with me throughout my whole life. When I was 12 years old my parents got a bit sick of taking me and my brother to every sport under the sun and I knew skiing was what I wanted to do. It was at about this time I started training with Nico and Miguel Porteous up at Snow Park and when I started to compete. In 2015 my family moved to Cirencester in England, taking me with them. I then went on to compete with the British Team. Throughout my competitive career, I had some highlights including a couple of World Cup starts; I was a national champ in various age categories in New Zealand and Britain and had some solid finishes in Europa Cups.
Over the last few years, I started to lose passion for the competitive FIS circuit. It was costly and, with little to no support provided by the governing body, I decided to follow my aspirations in alternative areas of skiing, including filming, photoshoots, jam-style events and learning to make the most of everything the mountain has to offer. Over the last two years, I’ve been more passionate about skiing than ever. Meeting new like-minded people outside of the comp scene has shown me how many opportunities there are for me in the sport. I’ve been able to start a video group (Boom Club) with close friends Nico Porteous and Tom Greenway, be involved in film projects in Japan (Shaisho coming out in September) and feature in projects with established Director Gavin Rudy.
As well as allowing me time to work on video projects stepping away from competition has made it possible for me to take part in other non-FIS regulated events such as JIB Leauge, Gaptastic Voyage, Copenhagen Open and even organising our own events. Boom Club has become a platform for my friends and me to hold grassroots events such as the Tamworth Takedown and we plan on having more of these in the near future, expanding not just outside of Tamworth, but outside the UK and into Europe and New Zealand.
At the moment I am completely self-funded. I work as much as possible when I’m home in the UK and find part-time work during the New Zealand season. I receive a few endorsements from various companies for which I am grateful for, but other than that I rely on my skills in construction and the flexibility of some good bosses I’ve had over the years.
Looking into the future I aspire to continue to progress in this direction, working on projects I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid, not only in the realm of park skiing but creating projects focused on exploration and the adventure that comes along with freeskiing. My love for the mountains isn’t just a love for skiing. As I grow older I want to get off the beaten track and diversify my skiing and myself as much as possible. Over the next few years, I plan to work on projects in conjunction with Boom Club and work on my own media profile by attending and organising photo & film shoots.