Freestyle ski club hoping to build a year-round facility at Optimist Hill in Saskatoon 

The Saskatoon Freestyle Club is on a mission to build a year-round freestyle ski facility in Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan is the only province without such a facility, according to club volunteer Michael Gouveia.  

Gouveia said freestyle skiing kicks it up a notch when it comes to skiing, going from edge control and speed to more acrobatics.

"It's really pushing the limits of what's possible on skis. So these kids are doing flips, they're doing moguls, they're doing half pipes. Anything that you see causing all the ruckus and commotion on a ski hill? That's freestyle skiing," he said. 

He said the club wants to build an Optimist Freestyle Training Zone at Optimist Hill in Saskatoon, on a part of the hill that is unused.

"We will put an airbag site, a dual Olympic trampoline site, a clubhouse for the users and volunteers, there'll be a dry slope, which is just a synthetic ski hill basically that in the summer time, we can practice edge control moguls and rails and such," Gouveia said. 

Once the facility is built, it will be accessible to everyone including skiers, snowboarders, gymnasts, and others. He said that freestyle skiing athletes from Saskatchewan are succeeding at a higher level than most of the provinces at the national level but they don't have the right facilities to go further in the sport. 

To fund the facility's construction, the club has launched a GoFundMe campaign, with an aim to raise $500,000. Gouveia said the facility will not only cater to aspiring athletes but also allow current coaches and athletes to stay and train in Saskatchewan.

Athlete-turned-head Coach Lauren Ryan said she has been involved in freestyle skiing since she was 9 years old and went skiing for the first time. 

"We did one day on skis, fell in love with the sport and we've been skiing ever since," she said. 

Ryan said that having this facility in the city would be a phenomenal opportunity for coaches, athletes, parents and it will help in growing the freestyle skiing community in the province. 

"As an athlete, we had to do all of our training out of province, especially once we hit Team Sask. We needed to have those higher-level facilities. So it meant missing school and traveling for a week or two at a time to Alberta or B.C. to do our training, so it was really difficult. " Ryan said. 

She added that younger athletes look up to older athletes but because of the lack of a facility those older athletes are usually sent to other provinces to train, leaving younger athletes with no role models.  

"One of my biggest pride and joys about this sport is I grew up as one of two female skiers in the province, which was really difficult for us," Ryan said. 

"We were kind of playing with the big boys and it was difficult to keep up. So for me, one of the things that I like to focus on is keeping girls in the sport and having that female presence within. And so I'm really proud to say that our club is 63 per cent female and it just keeps growing." 

The construction of the Optimist Freestyle Training Zone is on the agenda at the city council in Saskatoon on Oct. 2. The decision will most likely be out at a later date.