Local snowboarder Brandon Markert is definitely making his presence known a short time into his first season of boarder cross racing, taking the gold in the first two RBC Riders races of the B.C. Snowboard Association’s Northern Event Series.
Last year Markert took part in the local Nancy Greene program, but decided he wanted to compete in more competitions, so he’s racing all the events he can get to this winter. The RBC Riders series is a grassroots competition series across the province, including a northern series that, for now, bypasses Smithers.
“This is my first year with actual sanctioned events,” he said.
This season, he’s been travelling to the Northern Event Series, winning the 13-14 age group races at Tabor Mountain and Murray Ridge so far. The grade nine Smithers Secondary student is also competing at Provincials with the school’s ski and snowboard team, missing one of the RBC Riders races. However, there are still two more in March, at Tabor and Troll Mountains, before the series finals at Powder King on April 3.
At the Tabor event, Markert had the fastest time of the day, even beating the coaches entered in the race.
“I’ve just always been into going really fast,” he said.