When Kiwis Fly
Altitude, Slopestyle, and The Sky High Goals of a Young New Zealander.
On 7 February 2014, fifteen New Zealanders clad in black and white walk onto the world stage in Sochi, Russia. This is the first year that slopestyle snowboarding will grace the games, and Olympic hopeful Sebastian Judge is ecstatic to watch history being made.
Snowboarding premiered as an Olympic sport in Nagano, Japan in 1998, and has come a long way in the last sixteen years. Starting with just two types of snowboarding, giant slalom and half-pipe, there are now five different events - the most recent addition being slopestyle.
Snowboarders have always struggled to fit into the mainstream, and Judge, a Canadian-born New Zealander, says “seeing snowboarders in prime time during the Olympics is pretty cool”. While the average 16-year-old might be thinking about finding a summer job, Judge has set his goals a little higher: he’s training for the next winter Olympics.
Judge has been throwing himself off jumps and down hills since age four - “growing up in Vancouver you’re kind of forced to snowboard or ski”. Although he started as a toddler, his true calling as a competitor wouldn’t happen for six more years when his family immigrated to New Zealand. “I was put on the New Zealand Development Team,” he says, after he entered Mount Ruapehu’s yearly snowboarding competition on a whim. This would kickstart his career and attract the attention of high profile sponsors such as Monster, Salomon, and Billabong.
He splits his time between three world-class snowboarding resorts: Wanaka, Whistler and Mammoth. Judge spends 10 months of each year in the snow, and although he loves it there are downsides to the constant pressure and travel: “I haven’t had a solid friend base for nearly two years, and I miss my dog”.
Something about the spirit of the sport that keeps Judge hooked. “I feel like it’s 99% about having fun. I mean, we’re still athletes, we still do crazy things that take a lot of work… but it’s seriously fun. It’s definitely not like some sports, that’s why I like it.”
Judge agrees that the culture of snowboarding has changed in his short career. “It’s gotten much more serious since I started. I mean, slopestyle is now in the Olympics, that’s huge. But you still watch it and know they’re in a completely different headspace than athletes from other sports… they high-five and hug at the end of each event”.
Judge loves that snowboarding is about going beyond what has been done. “There’s no formula when it comes to winning. It’s not won by doing the same thing they did last year.” He will spend the next four years pushing himself to the limit with training, competitions, and events in hopes of qualifying for the 2018 Olympics.
“Snowboarding is very… free. It’s a way of life,” he says, pausing briefly to look over at the snowboards leaning against the wall of his bedroom. “It’s not just about winning, hell no. It’s about pushing the boundaries.”
(Note: this article lists Judge’s sponsors at the time of the interview in 2014, but he longer competes at a competitive level after a serious brain injury during training in Mammoth. Judge can still be found on slopes all over the world as a sports videographer. )