Barbara Lawlor

Nederland

When Adir Sharon began teaching snowboarding at Eldora Mountain Resort, he noticed that not all of the students were into following each other down the hill, making the same turns, working hard on technique over and over again. Some of them wanted to catch air, to catapult themselves in the terrain park, to slide along rails.

They were more interested in the tricks, the flipping and twisting and the freedom to choose their style. They didn't want to adhere to the pizza slice mantra.

Instead of trying to mold these athletes into traditional style and competition, Adir encouraged them to seek their own goals, to fly in their own wind. Without limits, the skiers and snowboarders became more adept, sought challenges and began to win competitions beyond anything they had imagined.

Extreme Pink was born and thrives in its second season of competition. One of the main reasons for its success is that Adir listened to the kids.

Born in Israel, Adir has dual citizenship in America and Israel. He learned to snowboard at Loveland when he was 25 and being both a surfer and skateboarder, he became proficient rapidly.

In 2008, Adir left his corporate cubical as a financial audit to pursue his passions. He created his own business, Big Paw Services, and supplemented his income by working at EMR as a full-time snowboard instructor. He had planned on teaching for one season, but that one season convinced him he had found what he was passionate about: teaching children about life, the universe and everything snowboarding.

While he was a snowboard instructor, he created a way to differentiate himself from the 300 other instructors. He wore a pink helmet. During his first season of teaching a beginner Trek class, he marked his student's helmets with a pink duct taped X, to find them easily and to create in them a sense of team unity.

"I also wanted to keep their experiences focused on the fun part of the fundamental, so I encouraged a camp-like atmosphere by creating team names, cheers and songs for the groups. This fun atmosphere has become a well-known staple of Eldora's ski school reputation," says Adir.

After one season with the children, most of them returned to the program to continue with Adir's Trek Class. In the 2009-2010 season, the name Extreme Pink Team was born through a unanimous team vote.

The young Trekkers improved and progressed to higher levels. To continue to work with them, Adir became certified as an AASI snowboard instructor. He is now certified at Level 3, at level 200 USSA coach, freestyle specialist, children’s specialist and is a snowboard mountain trainer at Eldora. He is the Extreme Pink head coach and director of the program.

During last year's season, Adir's students entered a few competitions with the goal of learning that the secret to getting ahead in life is simply getting started and to win with humility, respectfully and to lose gracefully, learning from the experience and trying again and again until they succeed.

In their first season of competition, 2014-2015 the team won 32 out of 35 possible medals.

Last summer, 2015, the Eldora Mountain Ski Club asked Adir to create a competitive freestyle/free-ride pilot program. Last season, 20 Extreme Pink athletes won 79 medals.

EMSC is a top alpine racing program, producing professional athletes at the world cup level since 1970. Recently, the development and popularity of freestyle and free ride disciplines have created a demand for the programs, but there was no one to develop and operate it until Adir and his Extreme Pink team along, with their phenomenal success.

Last year many snowboarders and skiers in the Alpine Junior racers switched over to test out the pilot program. Adir explains the reasons: "Not all children are the same. Some are ambitious, focused and enjoy beating their own personal best times running gates. Other children are wired differently with different motivations or drives. These are kids that want to explore, experiment, socialize and have fun on the snow with minimal drills."

Another reason is the popularity of the freestyle ski or snowboarding world. There are X-games, video games, Warren Miller films, all of them touting the freestyle and freeride disciplines.

Adir's coaching philosophy is simple: "Be brave. Take risks. Have fun. Nothing can substitute experience.

"Our unique training methods are focused on achieving self-awareness and confidence through mastering problem solving skills. Learning through experimentation boosts children's sense of accomplishment and they retain more information through doing than through lectures, because they were a part of the solution process."

Quinn Boutot, 13, began snowboarding at Eldora with his parents when he was four years old. "I thought I was pretty good at that time. I could do what I wanted and had a sense of freedom."

When Quin participated in the Nederland Elementary School Winter Adventure days, he was put into Adir's class.

Adir remembers, "He said he didn't want to take lessons, that he was already good."

Adir headed down the hill, gliding over the bumps, hitting some speed, and Quin decided he wanted to do the things that Adir was demonstrating and became a part of Extreme Pink. He was part of an advanced group that entered slope style competition, catching big air, working on the rails and in the half-pipe.

Quin says his present goal is to perfect his one and a half spin and to ski moguls and cliff drops.

Tanner Dawson of Boulder was a racer with TREK until last year. "I got tired of go left, go right, go left. My parents heard about the freestyle team and I joined, but I wasn't that good. But after awhile, I did really good."

Adir says it is all about letting the kids explore for themselves, that is a change occurring all over the nation, a new type of program. "If they focus on having fun, the side effect is that they win."

Tanner said he is involved in many sports, has been told he has a lot of energy. His goal is to complete a 540 and to become a professional skier.

Adir says he is growing with the kids, going with them to get to advanced levels. There are six coaches in all, teaching at all levels.

Evelyn Chandler, 14, said she skis at Keystone and would go to the terrain park and watch other kids doing tricks. "I thought it was so awesome and I wanted to do that." Her parents, who are friends with Matt Tomasko of EMSC, learned about the freestyle program last year and signed up. Adir says she is the only girl on the team who can do a 360, and is better than most of the others, even the snowboarders.

Evelyn says, "It feels really good to do a trick, and it feels great when I am in the air. It is most awesome when I land well. I would like to do the X-games and it will be hard but I like listening to Adir, how he tells us how to learn."

This year's tryouts will take place on November 20th, with the Sunday program running through April 9, 2017.The Saturday training program is booked with 100 percent return rate.

All entry level competitive athletes will train at Eldora and will need an EMR season pass or a Colorado Plus pass. Advanced Saturday groupoffs will train at Copper and Winter Park. Skiers and snowboarders between the ages of 7-15 will be part of the competitive freestyle and free ride development programs.

For more information, you can visit EMSC’s website at emsc.lertprograms.com, call the office at (303) 447-8014, or email Adir Sharon at freestyle@lertprograms.com.