Brooke Lacey started snowboarding at Vista Ridge about five years ago.
“One weekend my friends that already knew how to snowboard brought me out to Vista Ridge and taught me how to and it was like instant love,” said Lacey, “I quit competitive hockey the next season and switched over to snowboarding.”
Her passion for the sport makes her want to compete, she was an affiliate at the Arctic Winter Games and has now been selected to compete in the International University Sports Federations 29th Winter Universiade competition in Russia.
The Real Winter competition in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia will feature 11 sports, 3000 athletes and 1.5 billion Television viewers.
Lacey says Vista Ridge was an amazing hill to learn on.
“It’s a great starter hill for people that are learning how to snowboard or ski and its amazing for what this community has,” said Lacey. “It’s another great thing to offer Fort McMurray.”
She noted that it was a bit of an adjustment going from Vista Ridge to Sun Peaks, the ski resort near Kamloops where she attends University and trains.
“It’s definitely a big difference, being up in the mountains is a different atmosphere with the caliber of runs you can do,” said Lacey. “But I’m really glad I started out at Vista because I think trying to learn and being thrown onto a giant mountain would be hard.”
Leading up to the competition Lacey will be up in the mountains practicing, working with a trainer and saving money for the trip.
