If you haven’t heard of Jamie Nicholls, chances are you soon will: the 17-year-old from Yorkshire is Britain’s best snowboarder. He started competing on the snow when he was eight, and has won every British title available since.
Aged 14, he was riding with – and beating – the best grown-ups in the country, and now the teenager is making a name for himself beyond his home borders.
Recent competition results place him at the business end of the world-class big air, slopestyle halfpipe and rail scenes, while he is nabbing star parts in snowboard films. Not bad for a lad who learned all he knows on England’s dry slopes.
“There is no secret to my success,” he explains in this month's Red Bulletin. “It’s all about working hard to progress your sport wherever you’re riding.”
Nicholls’ days of riding an oversized board at the Castleford Xscape indoor slope are behind him. Now he travels all year round, following the snow and rubbing shoulders with the riders he idolised as a boy. This year he plans to compete at some of the world’s best-known events, including the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado at the end of January.
First on his 2011 schedule is Europe’s biggest event: The Burton European Open, in Laax, Switzerland, a top-ranking World Snowboard Tour stop attracting over 450 of the world’s best riders.
At last year’s Burton, Nicholls finished 13th; this year top 10 or better is a distinct possibility. “It’s amazing to be travelling the world, competing, meeting new people, filming, and jibbing with friends,” he says. “I guess someone from Britain could become snowboarding world champion. We’re taken more seriously now.”
Read the January 2011 issue of The Red Bulletin here
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