The 2022-23 winter snowboard competition season has also officially come to a close. 

Beyond success from Summit’s Chase Blackwell and Chris Corning throughout the winter season, youth ski and snowboarding development teams like Team Summit, Team Breckenridge Sports Club and Worldwide Snowboarding also saw widespread success.

Despite having fewer athletes than other teams in the area, Worldwide Snowboarding head coach and founder William Rivera said this winter still proved to be fruitful for the young, burgeoning team.

Summit County resident and Worldwide Snowboarding team member Kaitlyn Adams was a standout in her first season on the World Cup circuit.

Adams began her season with perhaps some of the biggest snowboard competitions of her young career. The 17-year-old rider competed at the Edmonton Big Air World Cup competition earlier this year before traveling back to Copper Mountain Resort for the Visa Big Air World Cup competition. 

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Adams placed 13th in Edmonton and put together a series of strong runs at Copper in order to finish 15th among a stacked field of competitors.

Toward the latter part of the season, Adams had a handful of podium finishes on the U.S. Revolution Tour and the Nor-Am Cup circuit. She also competed at the Winter Dew Tour at Copper.

Adams concluded her season on a high note at the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association nationals at Copper back in April, where she placed second overall in the open class women’s rail jam.

She finished on five podiums throughout the International Ski and Snowboard Federation season with a total of one gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals. 

Adams’ Worldwide Snowboarding teammates Jaden Freitas and Jackie Clemente also recorded impressive finishes at nationals, placing second and third respectively in the open class men’s slopestyle competition. 

“They went two and three, which is cool,” Rivera said of Freitas and Clemente. “Kaitlyn did well on the Nor-Am tour and finished this season with a podium at nationals.”

Like Adams, Freitas and Clemente also competed on the U.S. Revolution Tour and Nor Am Cup circuit. Freitas’ highest finish at a Nor Am Cup competition was 10th while Clemente’s was 11th.

Outside of competitions, the team also spent a fair amount of time trying to build a strong team culture and team atmosphere. 

Rivera and the team took a preseason surfing trip to the East Coast — where many team members surfed for the first time  — and also traveled to Saas Fee, Switzerland, in order to get ready for the upcoming season at the Stomping Grounds Projects’ terrain park.

“That was our first time as a team and as a coach being out there and seeing that camp,” Rivera said. “It is geared towards kids who are riding some bigger features and some kids who are trying some bigger tricks. It was good to see the team getting in that mode of putting together some bigger stuff in the early season and getting prepared for what was ahead once the season started.”

While in Saas Fee, Rivera said many team members stomped double cork and triple corks (an off-axis rotation trick where the rider inverts two or three times) for the first time in their careers, which gave the athletes confidence heading into the season.

The team also grew closer after a serious injury to team member Jaxson Moon. The team came together to support Moon while he was recovery in the intensive care unit, which sparked a greater outpouring of love for Moon from the snowboard community.

“With the unbelievable emotional support from the snowboard community, as well as their support on his GoFundMe page, he’s on the road to, hopefully, a full recovery,” Rivera said. “We look forward to seeing him on a snowboard soon.”

Ultimately, Rivera is hoping the success and fun events of this season helps the team to continue to grow and produce stellar riders over the next few seasons.

“My goal is to become another successful program in this area and create talented snowboarders and awesome human beings,” Rivera said. “I would like to see it grow. There are plenty of awesome choices out there, but I want parents to have another choice for a program that may have a little bit more flexibility and a little smaller coach-to-athlete ratio.”

Rivera is already looking toward next season. The team has plans of traveling to Mammoth for a camp, as well as New Zealand for training, early-season competitions and the Junior World Championships for Adams.

“Kaitlyn will be competing in junior worlds, which is in New Zealand this year,” Rivera said. “That will be at the end of August into September, and then the rest of the team will then travel out there for some early events as well. That will kind of kick start the winter that always feels like it never ends, which is a good thing.”

To find out more about Worldwide Snowboarding, visit WorldwideSnowboarding.com.