What does a snowboarder do during the Australian summer? Well if you’re Variety Heart Scholarship recipient Ocean, 17, you take your board to Colorado.
Ocean found a love of the snow early in life, says proud mum Melissa “I took Ocean on a snow holiday when he was around 10 to Mt Buller. He loved it so we started to go up more so he could get some time on snow. He just used to ride around the Mountain the first two years and our last year there I put him in Team Buller Riders so he could get some professional coaching. From there he wanted to train in Park so we moved to the Snowy Mountains where they have the best Parks in Australia so he could train in Slopestyle at Thredbo and Perisher.”
Whilst working hard to complete his schooling, Ocean is currently in Year 12, whenever he can be he’s on the snow.
“I traveled to New Zealand in October 2018 for the New Zealand Nationals at Cardrona placed 1st in the Freeride event and 3rd in Halfpipe. I trained in Colorado for the 2018/2019 Season with the Method4life Team, I traveled to Mammoth, California and Sun Peaks, Canada for the Rev Tour Competitions”.
The year ahead is full, with a long list of goals Ocean is focusing on coming top three placings in his upcoming competitions, train to continue to build his bag of tricks and create films to attract sponsors. Always Ocean is focused on remaining in the Top 10 Australians on the World Snowboard Tour.
In 2018 Ocean received a Variety Heart Scholarship in Sport for Snowboarding.
The Scholarship was awarded to cover training, supplies, resources, registration costs, and travel.
“The Scholarship helped me try to achieve my goals by helping my mum out financially with various things. It made me believe that someone else was also supporting me which made me feel good.”
“I love meeting people from different places and going to new places. And because I love snowboarding and its feels good when I stomp new tricks”
“Ocean feels happier about receiving the scholarships because he feels I didn’t have to work as hard (haha he actually has no idea how much all his traveling and training costs) but he feels happier so that’s the main thing.” Said Melissa.
If you, or someone you know, have a demonstrated talent in The Arts or Sport be sure to let us know you’re interested so you’re the first to know when we launch! If you have any questions contact the Kids Support team by email or call 02 9819 1000.