Catching some air with star snowboarder
Debra Downey, Senior Editor
Published on
Jul 04, 2008
At just 11 years of age, Mikey Ciccarelli has already turned a few heads in the sport of snowboarding.
The pint-sized Grade 6 St. Joachim student has an extensive collection of snowboarding medals and awards amassed during years of competition.
Mikey was only six when he decided to try his hand at snowboarding.
"I was skiing and saw someone snowboarding. It looked a lot more fun than skiing," said Mikey.
His mom picked up a used snowboard at a garage sale and presented it her son for Christmas 2002.
Mikey didn't wait long to try out his new prize.
Over the Christmas holidays, he went snowboarding for the first time at the Georgian Peaks Ski Club in Thornbury.
It's a typical story of an eager kid hot to learn a new sport. The ending, however, is not so typical. The veteran snowboarder now has his sites on the Winter Olympics in 2014, and coach Sam Marcotte said it's not an unattainable goal.
"Mike's extremely talented," said Marcotte, who has been coaching young snowboarders for the past 10 years. "Mikey thrives under the pressure of competition. Some kids can't handle it, but it doesn't phase Mikey. He actually excels."
Mikey is a member of the Simple Snowboarding elite training team which operates out of Mount St. Louis.
Coaches like Marcotte aim to take young snowboarders' park, super-pipe, free riding and rail skills to the next level.
Team members travel around the world to ride new terrain and progress in new environments. These elite snowboarders from across Ontario also compete in a wide variety of local, national and international competitions throughout the year.
Mikey has been doing 12 to 15 competitions a winter on a regular basis since he was seven. The highlight so far was a seventh in the Under 13 category of the world superpipe competition. The super-pipe is a semi-circular ditch or built ramp -- usually on a downward slope -- with 18 to 23 foot walls. Competitors perform tricks while going from one side to the other and while in the air above the sides of the pipe.
Snowboard judges consider altitude, style, rotation and combinations, or tricks.
The world competition featured 84 competitors. A Japanese snowboarder claimed the crown; Mikey was the only Canadian to compete in the finals. The Ancaster youngster is already doing 360 rotations, 540s and 720s, and is aiming for 900s and 1080s as he gets more training and competition.
This summer Mikey will travel to New Zealand for the New Zealand Open. He'll watch the pros and train for four weeks.
"My goal is just to keep learning more tricks and finishing better," said Mikey.
His idols in snowboarding include Ancaster's Brad Martin, one of Canada's top snowboarders who competed in his first Winter Games in 2006, and Shaun White from California, who won gold in the Olympic Halfpipe in the 2006 Olympics. White was also the first person to compete in the Summer Games for skateboarding and Winter Games in snowboarding.
White first started snowboarding at the age six, won almost every competition he entered, then turned pro at the age of 13.
"I like him because our birthdays are a day apart and we both started snowboarding at the same age," said Mikey.
During the summer, Mikey hones his skills through wake-boarding, water skiing and skateboarding.
He also works out regularly, doing situps and pushups, and using equipment that strengthens his ankles and balances his inner core.
As an acknowledgement of his talent, Mikey has already picked up sponsorships from Burton, Anon and Trace Apparel.
Coach Marcotte said the sponsorships, plus the fact Mikey has two more years in the 13 and under category, bode well.
"Mikey's already turned a few heads and got some sponsorships. I really think he's got a good future in the sport," said the coach. "He's also one of the smartest 10 or 11 year olds I've ever met.
He's got a really good head on his shoulders."