Mark McMorris and his brother Craig are on a mission to make snowboarding more accessible to kids in Saskatoon.
After a few tons of snow where trucked onto Optimist Hill, the McMorris brothers did flips and jumps with locals.
“Look how many kids are out here riding. There’s a huge community and I’ve been lucky enough to forefront a lot of it,” Olympic medalist Mark said Wednesday at Saskatoon’s Optimist Hill.
“If these guys could have a chance to ride all the time it would be so much better, and we’d breed definitely more snowboarders.”
“Me and Mark started in our backyard, we had a little drop that was only eight feet high, and we hit one rail, and we just spent hours and hours and hours, and there is no secret, it’s just practice,” Craig added.
They’re working with the Optimist Hill campaign, a project which aims to increase the height of the hill at Diefenbaker Park by over 30 feet.
READ MORE: Saskatoon’s Diefenbaker Park grounds tested for new recreational venue
Once complete, one section of the slope will be used for a ski and snowboard hill, and the other for tubing, complete with a rope tow.
The backside will remain a tobogganing hill.
“We really believe that the more we can engage kids in the city, the more we can keep them active and keep them out of trouble, the better it is,” Rob Letts, co-chairman of the campaign, said.
The campaign still needs to raise $900,000, and hopes to break ground this summer. If all goes as planned, it could be up and running for next winter.
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