CADS Festival Celebrates Adaptive Snowboarding

Dozens of adaptive snowboarders and skiers recently came together for the CADS Festival at Sun Peaks, BC!

The 5-day event focused on specialized on-snow instruction and coaching, while equally serving as a platform for participants to meet other members of the adaptive snowsports community. Activities also included a chance to ride with members of the Canada Snowboard (CS) Para-snowboard team.

“I think the CADS Festival is hugely important in order to connect Canada Snowboard with athletes, primarily because it gathers so many para disciplines in one place,” said CS NextGen Para Team member Dan Shoemaker. “The CS Para Program is still fairly new, and the CADS Festival helps us raise awareness of it and recruit potential new individuals to be part of our programs.”

Previous editions of the CADS Festival had focused only on skiing, with modules and instruction for sit-skiing, 3 and 4 track skiing, and skiing for athletes with cognitive impairments. Christian Hrab, Executive Director of Canadian Adaptive Snowsports (CADS), commented on how the recent inclusion of snowboarding represents an important addition to the CADS Festival.

“The adaptive snowsports family is now complete,” said Hrab. “Coaches and instructors connected to talk shop, and participants had a chance to exchange experiences. The CS Para Team athletes were gracious with their time and guidance to all festival participants. Everyone, including skiers, sit skiers and snowboarders, enjoyed the perfect snowcross track built perfectly built by Sun Peaks Resort.”

Special thanks to Carole Stubins for capturing the best moments of this year’s CADS Festival.

To learn more about the Canada Snowboard Para-snowboard Program, please visit canadasnowboard.ca/en/programs/parasnowboard.

photo: Eric Escaravage