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My name’s Nath Johnstone and I live in Mona Vale in
Sydney and I compete in Snowboard halfpipe.
Snowboard halfpipe is essentially like a big if you
think of a skate vurt ramp except this one there
twenty two foot high and they run about 150 metres
downhill on an eighteen degree pitch. You usually get
about between five to six hits and you’ve got to have
a combination of different airs, grabs, spins, flips
so now the tricks we’re all doing are double flips,
you know ten eighties, fourteen forties so the sports
getting you know progressing really quickly.
Well there’s about a five judge panel which will judge
you on all those things I just mentioned and if you
land you run clean with all those things you should
generally get a high score.
It can be quite dangerous but that’s why we train and
come to the gym so we’ve strong so when you do have
those falls you can bounce straight back. But you know
but it’s good fun. It’s one of those really exciting sports.
I was about six years old I think was the first time that
I was put on snow when I came down here with my parents
I think we actually rode up at Thredbo. I was on they put
me on skis and I think I skied up to about the age of ten
until I was a little bit bigger and stronger and because
my dad’s always surfed, snowboard and skated since he was
a kid he put me on snowboard from a get go as soon as he could.
Once I was a little bit older I joined the Winter Sports
program that Perisher has and you know you go riding
with kids your own age, have a coach and you ride Saturdays
and Sundays. So that was a really big turning point for me.
That’s where I ended up meeting my coach that
I have today, Ben Alexander.
When the NSWIS program kind of got up and running I was you
know with, with the first group of kids that kind of came
through into that program and Ben was the coach so from
there I spent a few years developing my skills,
going overseas competing until I was at a level where I
could be join you know the OWI program where I am today
and still going strong now.
Yeah so I broke my ankle I think about a month before the
2010 Vancouver games and at the time it was heartbreaking
you know like I was so close, my training was going really
well, I was in a good frame of mind and then I had that blow
and you know it set me back a little bit and I was kind of
a bit rattled for a little while but then going home,
hanging out with friends I got a little bit of summer,
I kind of recharged the batteries and I came back really
fresh and motivated and driven into that next season and
went on to have some of my best results in my career.
So essentially looking back on it now I’m kind of thankful
that it happened because it gave me a lot of prospective
on what I’m doing and what I want to achieve.
My main focus has just been getting to Sochi in you know
the best possible shape and mindset that I can be in.
Kind of once I get there and you know hopefully get a good
result and then I’ll just kind of see what happens after that.
You know I think just walking out at the opening ceremony
and seeing how many people are there watching you and just
all the other disciplines countries that are going to be
there that’s what really makes it so special.
I don’t think I’d actually be doing what I’m doing without
the help from the AIS and NSWIS you know all the OWIA,
without all their help there’s no way I could be doing
what I’m doing you know. They’ve helped me from grass
roots when I was back in NSWIS to where I am now so I
owe a lot of my success to them and a lot of their
support has really helped me along the way and I’m super
thankful for what they’ve done.
You know people are shocked at first but once they kind
of see us all riding and how well we can actually
snowboard and ski I think they’re quite surprised so I
think it’s, it’s slowly changing. People starting to realise
that Australia is a strong winter sports nation and
it’s pretty exciting to be a part of it.