Austria (November 26, 2013) - While many people in Canada dread the dropping temperatures and snow that eventually signals the start of winter - Andrew Matthews can’t wait. In fact, this year Matthews didn’t wait. He just got back from Europe where he got an early start to his winter. He had been snowboarding on what seemed like the top of the world. The glaciers in Austria are able to stay open year round because of their elevations of 3,000 + meters! 

This year they followed rumours through the grapevine about a snowboard park with a 5 jump line in October. That’s amazing for a time that is typically spent waiting for the snow to fly in North America. Matthews got some great training in but struggled with a lower back injury which limited his riding. 

After 2 weeks at Stubai they packed up and drove halfway across Austria (not that far) to Dachstein for Matthews' first competition of the year. It was a 4 star TTR slopestyle with 2 rails and 3 jumps. Despite very challenging conditions and dealing with his injury Matthews was happy with how he rode in the competition. It just wasn’t his day though. Matthews' last run came down to the last jump on an inverted 720. The trick didn’t come around properly which ended his chances of making the semi finals.

Matthews stated that "the level of riding was very high because there aren’t any other competitions at that time of year. It was great to see what the international field was throwing down in their runs. Now its time for me to get out there and learn the tricks I need to consistently make the finals at events like that". Matthews is now heading to Colorado for another training camp in a weeks time to do just that!

For More information contact:

Andrew Matthews
www.andrewmatthews.ca
www.andrewsnowboarding.blogspot.com

Lyric Sandhals
Executive Director, NWT Boardsport
(867) 669-8396
lsandhals@sportnorth.com