Adrenalin-packed day for Canadian snowboarders
28 Aug 2009
Canada’s snowboarding elite took some time out from the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games to relax Queenstown-style - jumping off bridges and careering through canyons.
Halfpipe team members Brad Martin, Justin Lamoureux, Dustin Craven, Dominique Vallee and their coach Dennis Bannock have been in New Zealand taking part in the inaugural Winter Games.
With the Winter Games halfpipe competition over, the snow sports stars spent yesterday (27.08.09) bungy jumping at the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bungy Centre, jetboating with Shotover Jet and finished off their adrenalin packed day at Shotover Canyon Swing.
Amazing fun stuff
"We absolutely love coming to New Zealand to train, and ending our time here with a day doing fun stuff like this has been amazing," said top-ranked snowboarder Brad Martin.
"The Winter Games has been an event on par with other international competitions and it’s been great competing alongside some of world’s best athletes like Shaun White.
"New Zealand really holds its own with winter sports facilities, that’s why we come back each season - and of course because we think the people are amazing."
Adventure activities
Justin Lamoureux, the first of the Canadian team to qualify for the Winter Olympics, has been coming to New Zealand for the past five seasons but has never taken time off the ski-fields to do any of the resort’s adventure activities.
"It’s been great having some time to do crazy stuff like this, New Zealand is such a special place," Lamoureux said.
The majority of the team are winding up their time here and heading back to Canada this week.
Winter Games NZ
Destination Queenstown CEO Stephen Pahl said it’s been fantastic having so many high profile athletes in the region for the Winter Games.
"The Winter Games coverage has given us the opportunity to showcase Queenstown internationally as not only a world-class winter sports destination but an exciting holiday resort," he said.
"I’m delighted some of the athletes could take time out from training and competing to sample some of the activities which give us our reputation as the adventure capital of the world."
More information:
Snow stars swoop in for Winter Games NZ
Flying high in NZ Winter Games
Queenstown region
These topics may also be of interest to you
|
