With a glove on one hand and a cast on the other, Sienna Anderson, junior, knows what it’s like to compete through injury. Although she’s the snowboarding team captain, she’s also a softball player. The injury left her on the sidelines for the following softball season.

“Last year at state, on the very first day, I broke my wrist. I was just practicing and I fell in the halfpipe. I still did all the competitions with my cast on because I was so upset that it was the first day. I had one glove on and then a cast,” Anderson said. “It can be really intimidating, if I see someone do something and I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to do that.’ But there’s always a fear of getting injured.”

To become the athlete she is now, Anderson began by going up to the mountain with her brother and father.

“When I first started, I couldn’t even, like, stand up on my snowboard. I feel like there’s been a lot of progression between then and now because I’ve been snowboarding for about eight years,” Anderson said. “I would say my snowboard that I had when I first started is about half the size of mine now.”

While rewarding for athletes, snowboarding is not an inexpensive sport to participate in.

“It took a lot of convincing for my dad to drive me up and buy me a season pass every year, because it’s a lot of money and a lot of commitment,” Anderson said. “Buying a season pass means that you’re going up [to the mountain] a lot to get a good use out of it, and obviously it takes a long time to get there. It’s a lot of gas.”

Although it’s a commitment, Anderson appreciates the snowboarding community she has been able to experience in her time with the sport.

“Snowboarding culture is always a positive environment. You’re not gonna get judged if you fall and everyone’s just super encouraging,” Anderson said. “There’s always really loud music playing no matter where you go, and if you do something cool, random people will come up to you and say, ‘Good job.’ I just think that it’s a really fun community to be in, because everyone’s always so hyped and positive.”

As a captain and teammate, Anderson aims to reflect this energy within her team.

“One thing that I’ve always tried to do as a captain and just as a teammate is to stay up at the top of the race course for everyone’s run and make sure that everybody gets cheered on and everyone feels confident before their run,” Anderson said. “I just try to give everyone high fives and fist bumps before they go, make sure that they’re feeling pumped, because it is really stressful standing at the top of the run and waiting for your turn.”

Beginning with recreational snowboarding at eleven, Kellan Donahue, junior, entered the sport competitively in his freshman year. After a family friend encouraged him to try high school snowboarding, Donahue’s connections he made on the team kept him there.

“The coaches, the people, the team, being in a competitive atmosphere [were my biggest motivators],” Donahue said.

On the team, Donahue specializes in bank slalom and boardercross, winning the first-place title for bank slalom in two of their competitions so far this season.

“[I felt] pretty excited because I didn’t think I was gonna do that well,” Donahue said.

Although with many recent achievements, Donahue had faced the challenge of breaking his neck, almost putting a pause on his sophomore season.

“I barely got back into it. I got cleared to go back into snowboarding right before the season started,” Donahue said.

Once sophomore year began, he had to work back into shape after his accident.

“Doing jumps, working up, starting small again [and] just getting back into it [helped me overcome the injury],” Donahue said.

This season, Donahue hopes for his team to win their next boardercross event and get a podium at the state competition.

After high school, Donahue hopes to continue his career in snowboarding and find a school that offers an alpine snowboarding program.

From not knowing how to snowboard to being one of the best snowboarders in her class, Bella Jackson, senior, looks to be on top of the mountain going into her third year of snowboarding. 

“I started snowboarding two years ago. When I first started snowboarding, I was really bad. I mean, it was hard. Really, really hard,” Jackson said.

Jackson has always wanted to chase the passion of snowboarding, but had some difficulty doing so. 

“I wanted to start snowboarding when I was little, but I never really got the chance to,” Jackson said. “My dad eventually taught me and my sister how, but I was still not very good.”

After time and practice, Jackson eventually got the hang of it and got really good at it. 

“After I really started to practice, everything kind of became easy. Obviously it depends what trick you’re doing but the simple stuff like 180s and 360s became really easy,” Jackson said.  

“It became easy after a while, it just took some practice and eventually I got the hang of it,” Jackson said.

Jackson is looking to compete in every event this year. Which will be her first time doing so.

“I take it as a go-big-or-go-home thing,” Jackson said. “It’s my last year of snowboarding with the team so, why not do every event?”

Jackson focused on border cross and slopestyle last year as a junior, but wants to expand, and do two that she has never done before. 

“I’m going to do half pipe, banked slalom, border cross, and slopestyle,” Jackson said.“I really like border cross and slopestyle. Those are probably my two favorites.”

After this season, Jackson looks to continue snowboarding as much as she can during college, either leisurely or competitively.

“I would love to snowboard in college,” Jackson said. “Even if I’m not on a team, I would love to just snowboard for fun.”

Switching from skiing to snowboarding three years ago, Carter Christianson, senior, is a seasoned athlete on the mountain. His decision to transition to a new sport came from prior experience through another pastime.

“I used to surf a lot, so I tried snowboarding when I couldn’t surf because it was too cold,” Christianson said. “Then I just stuck with it.”

Christianson competes in all events offered for athletes, such as halfpipe, slopestyle, boardercross, and banked slalom, but has a top pick.

“I do them all, but my favorite is slopestyle,” Christanson said. “[It’s my favorite] because I spend most of my time doing things like the jumps in the race, and that’s what slopestyle is.”

Throughout his career, Christianson has faced adversity within the sport but worked to overcome it. 

“I injured my pelvis my first season. I went off a jump weirdly which was pretty painful,” Christanson said. “I went through physical therapy, and good doctors helped me through it. It also was at the end of the season, so it wasn’t too much of a hindrance.”

As Christianson has played multiple sports, his perspective on team culture is widespread. 

“I’d say it’s pretty similar to skating and surfing. Everyone’s pretty happy to be there, so everyone just spreads happiness,” Christanson said. “Everyone’s friends with everyone and being on the lift too, you make a lot of friends.”

Compared to snowboarding individually, Christianson believes there are benefits to being on a team.

“It was worth it for me to join the team because it helped me go up [to the mountain] a lot more. I think I would be going up a lot less if I wasn’t on the team,” Christianson said. “Being with the team, there’s so many friends you make, even people you didn’t know before the team. I’ve just made a lot of friends.”

Taking on the mountain for the first time at age four, Beren Flintjer, senior, has worked to perfect the skill in the 13 years he’s been snowboarding.

“I was as bad as they come when I started,” Flintjer said. “I’d say I’m pretty good now. I can do anything I want to, realistically.”

Flintjer started snowboarding when his parents took him up to the mountain, but now that initial motivation has evolved into something more personal.

“I just kind of found my own motivation,” Flintjer said. “[I] like competing, and I like getting better.”

The accumulation of difficult skills throughout Flintjer’s career, such as 360-degree spins, is one of his biggest points of pride.

“It just took a lot of courage,” Flintjer said. “It’s hard to do something you’re not used to, and people get hurt doing a lot of that stuff, so it’s just a lot of nerves.”

Flintjer believes that his 360s still need perfecting, which is one of his goals for the season alongside making it to state with the team. Snowboarding is an individual sport, with your placement in each competition determined by how well you performed in relation to others.

Flintjer competes in border cross, bank slalom, slopestyle, and half pipe, but when it comes to personal preference, one event beats out the others.

“I like border cross the most, it’s just more fun to race directly against the people,” Flintjer said.

While he doesn’t plan to compete beyond high school, Flintjer hopes to continue snowboarding for the rest of his life, much like his father.

“[My] favorite snowboarding memory is probably really fresh snow, like two feet deep,” Flintjer said. “My dad took me down one of the more complex pieces of terrain for the first time. It was just really fun, I’d never been there, and it [was] just like floating on a cloud.”

Now part of a team for this memorable sport, Flintjer has found himself surrounded by many different types of people, yet finds one trait lacking in the team dynamic.

“We’re not snobs just because it’s expensive,” Flinjter said. “I feel like there’s a lot of stigma around the fact that ‘Oh, you ski’ or ‘You snowboard’ because it’s kind of a rich person sport, right? It’s really expensive. But we’re not bragging that we do it, it’s just kind of the thing we enjoy.”

This mindset is something that Flintjer hopes to change as a team leader, especially among the freshmen and sophomores who may be looking to become members.

“I think that it’s important to want to do this and to realize that it’s a privilege to do this,” Flintjer said.

Having a passion for snowboarding since elementary school, Madeline Mushlitz, senior, was inspired to start snowboarding by her brother and has been competing since freshman year.

“I compete in all of them. Border cross, slopestyle, and half pipe,” Mushlitz said. “Slopestyle is probably my favorite. I just think that it’s the most fun to me, and it’s my favorite to watch.” 

One of Mushlitz’s accomplishments is winning first place on slopestyle squads at state.

For her and the team, it took them going up every week, practicing, and trying new skills. Mushlitz has both personal goals and goals for her team. 

“My personal goals are probably just to do as well as I can, then make it to state and do my best there,” Mushlitz said. “[My] team goals are probably for as many people to make it to state, and to do their best.” 

Mushlitz has been on the team for four years, and has enjoyed experiences like competing in state competitions.

“State as a whole [is] just really fun. It’s a great community and it’s fun to hang out with everyone for a week up at the mountain,” Mushlitz said.

The snowboarding team has dry land practices, which can have benefits before the official season starts.

“Dry land practices were basically workouts we did with our coaches, and it was kind of just like getting to know your teammates before the snowboarding year started,” Mushlitz said.

As a captain on the team, there are certain ways Mushlitz has been a leader to the team. 

“[My job is] getting as many people [feeling] good in the beginning or just getting as many people to join the team. It’s just encouraging people to do their best and try new things and getting people more comfortable with the sport,” Mushlitz said.

Being a senior and returning member of the team, Mushlitz works to encourage the team. 

“I’d say as a senior, I just try to be good motivation to my teammates, kind of just encourage them to do their best and try things even if they’re worried or scared,” Mushlitz said.

When she joined the team three years ago, Maia Johnston, junior, had just begun her snowboarding journey.  

“When I started, I was completely new,” Johnston said. “I face planted once or twice, but now I’m at the point where I can get around, do jumps, [and] start to learn new tricks.” 

Johnston competes in a number of events, such as slopestyle, banked slalom, border cross, and half pipe, but she has a preferred event. 

“My favorite [event] is slopestyle. We do tricks on the jumps, and we also have boxes and rail features that you can do tricks on,” Johnston said. “I like it because it’s super relaxed and it’s fun to kind of show off these new tricks we’ve been working on.”

This upcoming season, Johnston wants to increase her skills and become more experienced in certain aspects. 

“My goals this year are to keep progressing and learning more tricks, and to get better at the competition events,” Johnston said. “I want to keep developing my slopestyle scales, like grabs on the jumps, and real tricks like board slides, progressing those, making them better and better.”

As a multi-sport athlete, Johnston also participates in cross country and track, competing in a different sport each season. The team environment can be different across sports. 

“[The snowboarding team] is a lot more relaxed,” Johnston said. “The races are more intense in the other sports, but here it’s okay to not be perfect.”

Snowboarding can have a particular culture behind it, compared to other sports and activities. 

“I think the culture is really laid back and relaxed,” Johnston said. “The people are all really encouraging and nice to each other, and we definitely push each other to get better and learn new tricks.” 

In the future, Maia Johnston hopes to continue snowboarding as she goes to college. 

“I want to go snowboarding in college, and basically keep doing it forever, because it’s so fun,” Johnston said. 

Despite only joining the snowboard team last year, Henry Lukesh, junior, is a snowboarder with five years of experience. His decision to not join the team until sophomore year stemmed from him not knowing about the team’s existence.

“I didn’t know [the team] was a thing, and I didn’t really see myself trying to get better at snowboarding at the time,” Lukesh said.

Lukesh specializes in the slopestyle event, which includes snowboarding, a course of obstacles, and the halfpipe event, which has athletes perform tricks in a snow halfpipe. However, his favorite memory didn’t come from a competition.

“My friends would ride through the forest on powder days, and it’s just a big group of us having fun,” Lukesh said.

Mt. Hood is about a two-hour drive from the school, making it more difficult for Lukesh to get more practice time.

“Since we’re not close to [the mountain] we don’t get as much time as we would normally, but sometimes it doesn’t matter. I just wish we were a little bit closer,” Lukesh said

Lukesh acknowledges the difference between snowboarding and other high school sports.

“There’s not always going to be a lot of people that want to participate in this and try and go really far in this sport,” Lukesh said. “It’s a team, but we don’t compete as a team. We compete as individuals.”

The difficulty and individuality don’t hinder the enjoyment for Lukesh however.

“It’s really fun once you start to get the hang of it and it’s just a really fun sport overall,” Lukesh said.