MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2018

62 ML BLUE WINTER 2018 ML: Tell us about yourself. TW: I’m from Milton, Ontario but currently live in Collingwood. I’m 17 years old and I’ve been riding since I was around six. I learned at a small resort in Milton called Glen Eden. Do you compete? Yes: mostly rail jams and slopestyle. How much time do you spend in the Blue Mountain park during a season? In the winter I usually spend about six days a week at Blue. I work as park staff for Blue so I’m always there, whether I’m riding or not. I’m the kind of person who can’t sit still and needs to be doing something all the time. Blue is my happy place when I feel like I need to do something. I moved to Collingwood about four and a half years ago and I’ve been riding there ever since. I came to Blue once for Family Day, the year before we moved, and my family and I instantly fell in love. What does the Blue park offer that helps you compete and improve your riding? I’ve found that Blue has a lot of quality, technical features that you really need to think about before you hit them. It also has a very positive vibe that comes with it, along with a ton of very talented riders that motivate each other. The mix of the park and the people, and getting to ride it almost every day really helps me learn new tricks and improve my consistency for competitions and improve the quality for the videos my buddies and I put out. What do you most want to see in this year’s new park? I would really like to see some more transition features, more snow made features like bowls and hips and rollers—some real Holy Bowly–type features. They don’t take as much skill as they do creativity and that’s what I love. You could take a handful of people and tell them to do a trick on a Holy Bowly feature and every one of those one Plank tye wilson people will do a different trick because they all have a different sense of creativity and they all see the feature differently than the person next to them. It’s a new experience for everyone. There may be new challenges but there also may be more opportunities to build different things. The park is equally populated with skiers and snowboarders. Does everyone get along? I think everyone gets along just fine. Of course, you’re always going to find a little bit of a beef between skiers and snowboarders but for the most part everyone gets along. Often ski tricks blend into snowboarding and vice versa when we ride together. I have a lot of respect for skiers. I’ve tried it before and I can’t even imagine spinning off a jump let alone onto a rail. Especially with your skis on different feet giving you the ability to break your knees. You guys are crazy! Much respect! What are some of your goals for the 2017/18 season? My goals for this season would be to push my @tyewilson