Imagine moments before competing in a national event. The crowd is bigger than expected. The nervous excitement of emotion running through your body, and oh yeah, you've never competed in anything like this before.
That was basically the feeling Team Saskatchewan's snowboarders had at the Canadian Winter Games in Halifax a few weeks ago.
Ryley Mitchell of Battleford and Tyler Lightfoot of North Battleford competed in the male half pipe event, as members of Team Saskatchewan, but going into the event, there was one issue - that was that there isn't a half pipe in Saskatchewan to train on.
Mitchell's athlete profile read, "This is my first time riding a half pipe event. I'm going to try my best and have fun. I want to represent Saskatchewan and give it my all."
That is what the 16-year-old snowboarder did, as he trained for two days at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary before heading to Halifax. Lightfoot's first training session came once he arrived in Halifax.
Russ Davies, the snowboarding coach tuned the two Battlefords athletes and the third Saskatchewan snowboarder, Craig McMorris, who last competed in a half pipe event four years ago at the previous Canada Winter Games.
After days of preparation and training the day came for the three Saskatchewan boys to ride along side 16 others from the country. The crowds were thought to be in the thousands for the event while some fans were turned away because of the large number of people interested in watching the half pipe event.
Team Saskatchewan didn't disappoint despite their short training period. McMorris placed fifth, Lightfoot placed 13th and Mitchell finished in 17th.
Lightfoot, 19, has made a name for himself at Table Mountain, as he has won a slopestyle competition in 2010 and now on the national scale he and Mitchell proved they can compete in half pipe as well.
Two days later, Lightfoot was on the hill again for the snowboardcross event and placed 18th.
Surely the experience in Halifax is something the two riders from the Battlefords will never forget, even is Saskatchewan is all flat and there is nowhere to train.
