Created: 14 January 2021
“I have Autism and so many friends I made through snowboarding helped me overcome Autism” explains twenty-five-year-old USASA Catskill Series member, Zach Elder.
At two-years-old Zach Elder was diagnosed with Autism and despite the physical therapy, occupational therapy, and applied behavioral science at six years old he still was non-verbal. Parents Rich and Karen Elder along with Zach’s older brother Douglas were avid skiers and spent their weekends up at Windham Mountain, NY enjoying a respite from the New York City hustle and bustle which opened some of the first doors to Zach’s snowboarding career. Windham, NY is also home to the Adaptive Sports Foundation (ASF), an organization that provides sports and recreation opportunities for people with physical and cognitive disabilities which seemed like a perfect fit for Zach. “It was great to get him on skis and he loved being on snow” Rich remembers, but three years later, Zach was ready for something new. Zach, who was still non-verbal, made it very clear that he was done with skiing and wanted to snowboard. “I saw kids enjoying themselves snowboarding and I let it be known that I wanted to do that too” Zach recalls.
At the time snowboarding wasn’t an offering of the ASF but it was clear that this was Zach’s single-minded focus and he became the first snowboarder in the program. “Zach has a passion for snowboarding -- and we have followed this passion,” Zach’s father Rich said.
Danny Davis and Zach Elder celebrate their X Games silver medal performance at the 2016 Winter X Games.
Now nearly sixteen years later, Zach’s passion has taken him and the community of athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) to new levels. Zach, a decorated USASA athlete in all five disciplines, has competed at three Winter X Games Unified events where he nabbed two X Games medals -- a silver with Danny Davis and bronze with Scotty James -- and is slated to compete at his first Special Olympic World Games in Kazan, Russia next year.
Zach's passion has also led him to be a pioneer and an advocate for more opportunities and inclusion for ID athletes. In 2020, he was invited to Park City, Utah by the USASA Big Mountain West Series to be the lead rider and launch the first Rail Jam event for ID athletes. In 2019, Zach spearheaded the USASA National Championships Snowboardcross ID event, the first of its kind. And with sights set on supporting the next generations of athletes, Zach helped to found the Ride2Live Project, an initiative coordinated with ASF to introduce Autistic and cognitively delayed children/teens to snowboarding.
Zach Elder and fellow SBX ID competitors prepare to drop into the first USASA National Snowboardcross for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
“USASA has really opened the doors for me and let me take on something I’d never done before,” Zach said, reflecting on the support from Bob Basil and the Catskill Mountain Series crew. “Being included and treated like everyone else and the friendships I’ve made supporting each other over the years. That is my favorite part of USASA”
Rich concurs, “The whole interaction and the inclusion part of USASA is huge, to be in the group and race and compete and accomplish. A lot of kids with ID don’t have that opportunity and it showed Zach that he could do things like neurotypical kids.” Rich remembers how everything changed because of the interactions at USASA events and because of snowboarding, “his speaking and mannerisms and everything changed, he became a better snowboarder and better with Autism, I don’t know where Zach would be without it.”
Zach’s focus and passion are still single-minded and honed in on a better future for snowboarding and for athletes with ID. He’s got big goals -- slopestyle, boardercross, and rail jam at Special Olympic events, more athletes with ID snowboarding and drive that ensures he’ll get it done.
Click here to learn more about Zach, ASF, and the Ride2Live Project.
Created: 07 January 2021
(January 8th, 2021)--United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA), along with Copper Mountain, a POWDR resort, announced today that the annual USASA National Championships, originally scheduled for March 26th-April 8th 2021, has been canceled in support of COVID-19 safety regulations and guidelines. Both organizations are optimistic that the event will be able to be held in the 2021-2022 season.
This historic two-week long celebration of the USASA competition season had been held continuously for 30 years before the streak abruptly ended last year due to COVID-19. Each year the USASA celebrates the top freeski and snowboard athletes from all 31 USASA series with coveted invites to the Championship event. The largest event in the world of its kind, this annual celebration hosts over 1000 athletes each week across all age groups, competing in halfpipe, slopestyle, cross, and rail jam, as well as giant slalom and slalom for snowboarders.
Created: 30 October 2020
The hand built, custom crafted Winterstick line up shines below the vintage Winterstick classics of the 1980s.
Photo: Courtesy of Winterstick.
Winterstick Snowboards has a long legacy in the history of snowboarding. In the mid-1970s before snowboarding became mainstream or was much more than a kids’ toy, Dimitrije Milovich dropped out of Cornell University, moved to Utah, and started Winterstick. This was 5 years before Jake Burton Carpenter launched Burton Snowboards, making Winterstick the first snowboard company in history.
In the nearly 50 years since its inception, Winterstick and snowboarding have weathered my changes, but the dedication to building perfectly crafted boards that Dimitrije fostered is still at the heart of Winterstick. Today, Winterstick has returned to its roots of making custom-built snowboards for every rider on the mountain swapping its Utah home for a Maine mountain factory at the base of Sugarloaf. Winterstick hand presses every board in Maine, contrary to the industry trend of outsourcing to other countries.
Created: 03 November 2020
USASA North Tahoe Series rider Cole Valles joins SNU's Snowboard Team making it one of the largest in SNU history.
Sierra Nevada University is gearing up for winter with one of its largest ski and snowboard teams in the university’s history. Twenty-six athletes will make up the 2020/21 SNU Snowboard and Freeski teams with sixteen snowboarders and ten Freeskiers. SNU’s alpine team has seventeen athletes, fourteen of whom are international students. “We are a well-known school in Europe,” SNU Head Alpine Coach and Slovenian native Mihalea Kosi said. “SNU offers athletes from all over the world an amazing opportunity to study while also continuing their competitive careers,” Mihaela, an SNU alumni who graduated in 2018 with a degree in environmental science and global resource management, speaks from experience. SNU is a well-known supporter of student-athletes in the World Cup ski and snowboard communities. 2014 Olympic gold medalist Maddie Bowman is a recent SNU graduate.Current US Ski Team member Lila Lapanja is pursuing her Global Business Management degree at SNU while balancing the FIS World Cup circuit's demands.
Created: 20 October 2020
Meet Ali Sacash-Johnson and Leslee Schader, USASA’s newest Series Directors of the Mt Hood Series. 
USASA is a family affair! Leslee Schader and family ready for comp day (left) Ali Sacash-Johnson maximizing some Northwest sunny ski days with her daughters (right).
Ali Sacash-Johnson and Leslee Schader met when their kids who are about the same age (9-12) were a part of the Mt. Hood Meadows Freeride Team. Ali’s kids freeski, Leslee’s kids snowboard. Soon enough they were spending their weekends standing at the top of USASA event courses or taking laps between heats with the whole gang. So when long time Mt. Hood Series Directors Mike and Jen Fitzsimons decided it was time to move on Leslee and Ali swooped in and volunteered to take the wheel.
Created: 21 September 2020
Big Mountain West freeskier Bennett Balogh is making big moves on and off the hill. Photo: VAST 2019 Nationals.
Jackson, Wyoming is known for its natural terrain and elite pedigree of big mountain snowboarders and freeskiers which is exactly why 15-year-old freeskier Bennett Balogh grew up dropping cliffs and hitting jumps versus doing cruiser laps through a mini-park. It wasn’t until he was 10 years old that a USASA Big Mountain West event came to Jackson Hole and his view of what freeskiing was forever changed. “I didn’t think competing in freeskiing was a thing you could do,” Bennett said. But once his eyes were opened by his first USASA competition Bennett set his sights on the competitive path.
Created: 02 October 2020
Three-time Olympic Coach and owner of BK Pro Progression Camps, Bud Keene chipping in support of USASA.
The 1st Annual USASA Golf Classic presented by Devil’s Head Resort and Alpine Resort teed up at McHenry Country Club this past Friday with a star-studded cast of Olympic athletes who raised over $20,000 for USASA. Olympians Kelly Clark, Justin Reiter, and Tricia Byrnes were on-site to support USASA’s continued fundraising efforts along with Bud Keene, three-time Olympic coach and owner of BK Pro Progression camps. “It is so great to come out and support USASA, and have a little fun at the same time”, said Keene, adding “USASA is such an important part of the development of athletes on their journey through sports and life, and I’m proud to be a part of that.”
