The hardworking people behind the First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST) have a solution for keeping up with the booming growth of the program dedicated to developing competitive and recreational First Nation riders.

“We don’t sleep,” jokes Lindsay Hubley Baker, the FNST’s events program officer.

When it began in 2004, the FNST was powered by impressive dreams and 10 riders from the Lil’wat and Squamish nations to form its first High-Performance Team (HPT). This season, the FNST is expected to have three divisions of the HPT based in Whistler, Cypress and Big White, plus the thriving recreational team now linking with 13 First Nations in B.C. and Washington State to draw about 140 young athletes into the program.

“We’ve actually been expanding like crazy with our recreational teams,” Hubley Baker said last Thursday (Nov. 19), as she and FNST Senior Administrator Virginia Johnston took time out of their busy schedule to talk to The Question.

While the HPT was initially comprised of only the talented Lil’wat and Squamish athletes, it has gained national attention through media exposure and campaigns by the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, such as the poster series that featured HPT member Chelsie Mitchell-McCutcheon, Hubley Baker said. The team, which trains experienced athletes who have their sights set on competing at provincial, national and international levels, now has members from B.C., Quebec and Alberta.

And the recreational team, which began in the FNST’s second season with 22 Lil’wat youth riding at Whistler Blackcomb and 22 Squamish athletes at Grouse Mountain, has been thriving. The 13 First Nations involved team up with nine mountain partners to host the rec programs, and the total of about 140 participants includes 35 based at Whistler Blackcomb, including 25 Lil’wat Nation and 10 Squamish Nation athletes.

The upcoming season is “looking really busy already, just getting all our teams started,” Hubley Baker said, not to mention the expected involvement with the 2010 Olympics.

While FNST founder Aaron Marchant’s initial dream of supporting an aboriginal athlete to reach the podium at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games was exciting in the early stages, Hubley Baker said, that aim has grown and evolved over the seasons as the recreational program has opened doors for many youth who might never have gotten to try snowboarding.

Watching the success of the recreational team for the Lil’wat and Squamish riders, she said, helped motivate organizers to expand, and “the interest was there from other First Nations.” The strong desire to help as many First Nations youth as possible to access the mountains and learn the sports is alive and well.

The Lil’wat and Squamish nation programs are successful with the numbers of participants they have attracted, and particularly with the skilled young people rising through the ranks, Hubley Baker said. Some of the young athletes, who started at age six and are now about 11, are rising quickly and it’s believed they will accomplish great things competitively and as instructors.

“They’re amazing athletes with big dreams,” Hubley Baker said, projecting that the FNST could have riders competing internationally by 2014 or 2018.

The FNST’s Junior Elite team is the highest level of the recreational program, for athletes ages 12 to 14, and some of the riders who earned spots on the HPT for this season rose through those ranks to get there.

While the light of the future burns bright, hopes for FNST’s stated “ultimate goal” aren’t dimming, either. Hubley Baker said FNST staff met national team snowboarder Caroline Calvé, an Olympic hopeful, at last season’s World Cup event at Cypress Mountain, and she is “totally supportive of our team” as a rider with Algonquin heritage. Calvé has essentially been adopted as a team member by the FNST, though she didn’t grow with the program.

“We’re really excited to have her as a team member,” Hubley Baker said.

The Whistler-based HPT members for this season are Dominick Harry, Stephanie Johnston, Wanaki Kistabish, Mitchell-McCutcheon, Quinntin Muehlsarth, Dakota Newman and Sandy Ward of the Lil’wat Nation. Ward is also still a member of the B.C. team, but she comes to the FNST training when she can and teaches some of the recreational kids, Hubley Baker said, which is exciting and inspirational for the young athletes.

The HPT athletes become certified instructors, so in Whistler they alternate their weekends between training and teaching the recreational-program riders.

Look for FNST members to be front and centre on Feb. 6, 2010, as 20 athletes have been awarded spots in the Olympic Torch Relay in Lillooet by RBC, one of the team’s sponsors. The primary contributor to the FNST’s growth has been the Aboriginal Youth Sport Legacy Fund, a 2010 Legacies Now program.

The FNST is also raising money through the sale of slick gear and clothing featuring beautiful designs by Xwa Lack Tun (Rick Harry) of the Squamish Nation. Fans and supporters can snap up T-shirts, jackets, stickers and pins, plus two different types of snowboards: the Legacy board, named for the partnership between the Lil’wat and Squamish nations and designed for recreational riders, and the Challenger, for the high-performance athletes.

Look for the merchandise at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, or contact the FNST.
Details are online at fnriders.com.