Just three years ago, then-8-year-old Ben Lucas had never seen snow. Last month, he landed his first double wildcat on his snowboard, a complicated trick involving a double backflip on a sideways axis with a melon grab to boot. In layman’s terms, an impressive feat for an 11-year-old Parkite. Luc as grew up in Orlando, Florida, where his backyard trampoline and local skate parks led him to compete in BMX and scootering. “In BMX, he was the only 5-year-old who would jump the tabletop and land it,” said Samantha Lucas, Ben’s mom. “They would give all the kids nicknames right for the back of their jerseys, and there was one race where the announcers shouted, ‘There’s big air in the rider from two. Oh, that’s Ben. That’s Big Air Ben!’ And that’s where it all started.” Ben Lucas saw snow for the first time in 2022, the same year he learned to snowboard. Credit: Photo courtesy of Samantha LucasBen has amassed a following of over 13,000 followers on his Instagram page, bigairben67, where he shares his training and trick success year-round. Just six months after their first visit to Woodward Park City in 2022, when Ben took his first lap ever on a snowboard at the Woodward bunny hill, the Lucases had left Florida to pursue Ben’s newfound love for the snowsport.“I learned with my friend, Samuel. He’s a BMXer, and he kind of taught me how to snowboard a little bit. Then my dad would film me, tell me what I’m doing right and wrong,” said Ben. “Then it was looking up Youtube videos like ‘How To Carve.’ I had never really seen a mountain or snow before.” Ben is on Woodward’s development team, where he meets with coaches and other riders three times a week to learn tricks and tips to being an athlete. Ben Lucas, 11, is on the development team at Woodward. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“It’s just such a supportive place for what he does, and that’s not necessarily attributable to any one coach. At Woodward, the atmosphere is intentional,” said Samantha. “And that’s the game changer. We had a backyard trampoline in Orlando, but it didn’t give us all that Woodward has.” Ben now trains almost daily at Woodward, using the full range of facilities, from foam pits and trampolines to roller boards and their terrain parks, to develop his skills in a safe and structured environment. The Lucases were spending so much time at Woodward, Samantha decided she might as well work there, too. So she does, in guest experience. “I always start on trampolines, then on the roller boards and then on the snow,” Ben said. “If I didn’t know how to double flip on the trampolines, I wouldn’t do it on the roller boards, and I also wouldn’t do it on the snow.”Ben’s latest double wildcat trick was the product of months of preparation. “I practiced that one nonstop this season,” he said. “I did hundreds of double wildcats into the pit before I went out and threw it on snow.”For Samantha, this progression model that Woodward enables has taken a lot of the fear factor out of watching Ben’s aerial tricks. “The way that my husband and I approach it, we break it down for him, and he is always supported by coaches on the floor even if he’s just hanging out around there. A lot of coaches here will step in and help out, and pros will come through and offer advice and tips to him too,” she said. Ben also learned a lot from Woodward’s clinics, which gave him the chance to learn backflips, corks and how to bail in a safe environment that he implements into his training for every new trick, he said. “The Woodward coaches are also just really healthy people. They promote taking care of ourselves and being an athlete. They focus on maintaining a right frame of mind, a right body sense, to fuel yourself and be able to do these hard things,” said Samantha. Ben performed his first successful double wildcat on snow in March. Credit: Photo courtesy of Samantha LucasFor Ben, it’s about practice and repetition. “There’s always going to be some way you can get hurt on a trick. It’s really focusing on getting your mind wrapped around the trick. It’s calculating everything I do. It’s building up to it and technique and analysis,” said Ben.Though Ben’s commitment and excitement for snowboarding has earned him a serious following online, even garnering the attention of two of his biggest snowboarding inspirations, Zeb Powell and Benny Milam, he’s still just in it for the fun, he said. “I just want to be the best that I can be and see where that takes me. I don’t know what I’ll be like when I’m 15 or 16. I’m just thinking about the present right now. It’s about getting better, but it’s also about making friends,” said Ben. With more than 100 days at Woodward this season, Ben has three more tricks in the works he’s hoping to throw on snow by the time the snow melts.“He’ll tell you that his best and biggest sponsor is his dad, so he’s not too concerned about the sponsorships always because he knows he’s always got the support of his dad,” said Samantha. The post Woodward brings 11-year-old snowboarder from first turns to pro appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less