Sam Stillman, sophomore, is no stranger to national snowboarding competitions.

“Being a nationally ranked snowboarder isn’t that big of a deal to me, because I’m more focused on having fun with what I’m doing rather than trying to win a sport with no rules.”

He has already made the trip to Copper Mountain, Col. twice, and hopes to return this spring.

To get to nationals, Stillman must compete at regional competitions held by the United States of America Snowboarding Association (USASA). The competitions are held at local ski hills in Minn. such as Hyland, Buck Hill, Afton Alps, Wild Mountain and Giants Ridge. The region is called The Upper Midwest.  Based on the national rankings, the top 70 go to Copper Mountain for Nationals.

Stillman has put in many hours to get where he is at today. He has been snowboarding for 10 years, and he practices four times a week on a team called G-Team.  G-Team is a snowboarding team from Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area. He practices mainly at Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area in Bloomington, Minn.

The journey for Stillman has had struggles along the way that he has had to overcome.  The struggles he faced were things he could not control.

“Up until last year, I wasn’t very tall and didn’t weigh much, so I couldn’t build the momentum I needed to do bigger tricks, making it super hard to progress,” Stillman said.

Stillman is looking forward to his future in snowboarding.

“My goals for the future are to continue snowboarding for as long as my body will let me and I hope to keep progressing.”