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Used with permission from Tristan Rooney

According to sophomore snowboarder Tristan Rooney, he started snowboarding seven years ago, was hooked, and has been progressing ever since.

“Me and a couple friends just saw some snowboarding videos, wanted to try it out, and we’ve been snowboarding ever since,” Rooney said. “I usually just snowboard with my friends, we go to Highland a few times a week, every once and a while we’ll go to Buck Hill. Every year we go to Colorado at the end of the season.”

Rooney’s former G-Team coach Chaz Chaffee said Rooney had no problem moving up quickly in the snowboarding world, going from a beginner, learning basic tricks, to expert groups.

“I was Tristan’s coach for a little over two years. When I first started with (Tristan) he was in one of the beginner groups and we worked on the technicality of tricks,” Chaffee said “He and a couple of his friends all progressed to the point where I was able to ask them to move up to a higher level the G-team offered and then his dad wanted him to do private lessons.”

After that, Chaffee said Rooney’s ability to quickly master tricks helped him move on to compete.

“He did every competition, he went on to nationals, he did everything he needed to do,¨ Chaffee said. “It took him three to five tries and he’d get a trick and we’d move on from there, which is pretty good considering most people will spend weeks doing one trick before they can get it down.”

According to Rooney, one aspect he appreciates about snowboarding is the variation and number of different kind of events in which he can participate.

“I like that there are a lot of different types of snowboarding, you can do tricks, you can race, and I like doing all of them. I like doing all sorts of racing, racing is one of my favorite things,” Rooney said.

Chaffee said Tristan’s personality and relationships with other snowboarders are vital to his success in the sport. According to Chaffee, snowboarding with people who have mastered different tricks, or different styles, is a big part of improving.

“For (Tristan) having an outgoing personality, and having all these friends who were as good helps since (snowboarders) all really push off of each other. I just help them work off of that energy and keep everything flowing,” Chaffee said. “For snowboarding personality has a lot to do with being able to move up, because if you work by yourself and don’t get along with people your not going to learn much, you’ll end up doing the same things over and over.”

Having placed before in racing events, Rooney said he enjoys out-of-state national competitions.

“At the end of the season, during spring break, we go to Colorado, Copper Mountain, we ride with our teams, practice and, towards the end of the week, we compete for the best spot in a bunch of different events. It’s a lot of fun,” Rooney said. “I haven’t won anything so far, but last year I competed in border cross and I placed 13th.”

Rooney said he has been gathering footage for an upcoming video part, but remained focused on just having fun this year.

“I’ve been filming, I’m probably going to make a few videos and post them,” Rooney said. “This year I’m not actually competing, going to nationals, but I have the past few years. This year I’m just kind of riding for fun.”

Chaffee said Tristan has potential to go farther in snowboarding in the future.

“I think (Tristan) has a good opportunity to push forward in the snowboarding community,” Chaffee said. “The biggest thing is finding the niche that you want to be a part of, you have all mountain, freestyle, racing, boardercross, and it’s not whether your good at it or not, it’s whether you enjoy doing it.”

Rooney said some of his goals are to continue filming and get some sponsorships.

“I’ve been riding a Capita board for like four years, I’ve had three of them. I’m trying to get sponsored by some of my favorite companies and make good videos,¨ Roney said. “There are a few snowboarders I really like, but my favorite snowboarder is Mark McMorris, watching him snowboard.”

Chaffee said Rooney has all the support he needs to succeed.

“From what I understand (Tristan) likes doing boardercross just as much as he likes doing freestyle, so by finding himself going out to the mountains more, continue competing, filming, he can make it wherever he wants to go,” Chaffee said. “He’s a really good kid, his dad really wants the best for him. With his family, friends and the G-team all supporting him, that’s going to help him go a long way.”                      

Rooney said anyone looking to try out snowboarding for the first time will have a lot of fun and can develop into whatever kind of snowboarder they want to be.

“I’d say give it a try, it’s a lot of fun. There are a lot of different types of snowboarding, so you can try anything,” Rooney said.