Snowboarder Ryan Is Sharp On The Slopes

By Andy Hutchison

Sean Ryan isn’t a student having a typical semester. The Sandy Hook resident, in fact has been on the slopes rather than in the classroom.

For the past few years — going back to his high school days, in fact, Ryan has juggled snowboarding and books. A sophomore at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Ryan is taking the spring semester off to focus his attention on catching air and racing down mountains on the Global Open professional snowboarding circuit.

Ryan, 19, has a Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour ranking of 30th and he is enjoying traveling to major competitions both in the states and overseas.

The Sandy Hook native first snapped into ski bindings at the age of two (his family has a home in Vermont). After seven years of skiing, Ryan decided he wanted to try something a little different.

“I switched over to snowboarding at the age of nine,” he said. “As soon as I started taking snowboarding lessons I was like ‘this is so great.’”

At the age of 15, Ryan started getting serious about snow boarding. During his junior and senior years of high school, he attended Okemo Mountain School in Vermont. He took classes at Newtown High School in the fall and spring — he also played soccer and lacrosse at NHS – and, in between, spent his winter months in Vermont. During his time at Okemo, Ryan took classes from 7:30 to 11:30 am, then spent the rest of the day on the slopes.

What about falling behind in the classroom? — you might ask.

“I was able to keep up and, actually, move along faster than in my public school,” Ryan explains. He also got to travel to area mountains for competitions.

Ryan said the opportunity to balance classes with slope time each day “gave me a lot more free-thinking experience and travel. I think it really helped me grow a lot as a person.”

Ryan has spent the past several summers attending camps — including in Argentina and Canada — and has been to Colorado to compete. He has to pay for travel for competitions but has some sponsors that help offset the costs. Ryan said he plans to work on more serious deals with sponsors to get a travel budget.

Last year he took 12 credits in the spring semester and made time to snowboard. “This year I decided to take second semester off and really focus on snowboarding,” said Ryan, who trains out of Breckenridge, Colo., and flies to competitions around the globe. “I’m really committed this year.”

But don’t confuse Ryan with a someone who doesn’t want to be in school.

Ryan is studying business and says he really enjoys his studies and looks forward to getting back into the classroom soon enough. “I love it. That’s one of the hard things about taking second semester off. I really enjoy school. I love all of my business classes.”

He was inducted into Skidmore’s Thoroughbred Society as a scholar athlete. As a freshmen, he was a member of the Skidmore varsity soccer team and maintained a 3.7 grade point average.

Last April, he took second place in the CBS collegiate open snowboarding championships, which was held at Copper Mountain, Colo., and televised on CBS national TV. Ryan took fifth place among 105 riders in the slopestyle competition at the Aspen Open, held on the ESPN Winter X games course at Aspen, a week after the X Games. He flew into Denver the night before and had only two practice runs because he was taking an exam at Skidmore the day before the competition. He competed in the New Zealand Open, the first stop on the global open series.

There are a variety of types of snowboarding, including slope style, which is Ryan’s focus. He describes it as a combination of jumps and rails, and half pipe. “It’s fun. It’s such a rush,” Ryan said.

As smooth as Ryan can make snowboarding look it’s also a bit of a rough activity from time to time.

“Throughout the week you’re going to get banged up — you’re going to get sprains and bruises,” said Ryan, adding that he’s suffered some minor concussions, and bad sprains but hasn’t had any serious breaks. The longest jump Ryan has landed is 90 feet, he said.

“It can be scary at times,” he admits, adding that there is only minimal fear. Ryan enjoys snowboarding and will go as far as it takes him but isn’t banking on making snowboarding his profession.

He would like to run his own business and is in the process of figuring out just what his career will entail.

“Snowboarding’s a risky sport. You never know if you’re going to make it in the sport – or if you’re going to get injured,” said Ryan, adding that the career can carry the best into their late 20s and into their 30s but that the profession isn’t likely to support someone for life.

In the meantime, however, Ryan is enjoying the ride (or, in his case, the runs on the slopes).

“It’s not like I ever didn’t want to do it. I love every second of it – it’s so much fun,” Ryan said.