MONROE — When you’re flipping fantastic, it’s not easy to remain grounded.
Stan Huber appears to have pulled it off.
Huber, from Monroe, has qualified to compete in boardercross for this week’s United States Amateur Snowboarding Association (USASA) National Championships at New Mexico’s Angel Fire Resort. But when he talks about the accomplishment, it’s humility not hubris that comes to the fore.
Consider Huber’s description of his victory in a boardercross race March 7 at Mount Hood, Ore. — a win that earned him his invitation to nationals:
"I credit what happened on the seventh to divine intervention," Huber said of the victory that came on his 21st birthday. "It was pretty much flawless and I’m not flawless."
If your image of a competitive snowboarder is that of a self-absorbed, devil-may-care hotshot, Huber will challenge your perception. He’s soft-spoken and reflective.
A former skateboarder, wrestler and BMX racer, Huber started snowboarding and skiing at age 11. Within two years, he dropped skiing to focus on boarding, but he didn’t enter his first competition until this winter, when he decided to try his hand at trick jumping and boardercross racing.
In trick jumping, also known as slope-style, contestants are scored on their ability to pull off airborne acrobatic maneuvers. Huber is edging ever closer to nailing down a double back flip. He’s also working on a back flip with a 720-degree spin, a dizzying combination known as a "Rodeo 7."
"Whether there’s fear or not, you just put it aside for a second," he said.
Huber’s forte in his inaugural season of competition proved to be boardercross, a madcap spectacle in which a half dozen riders zip down a twisting and turning obstacle course at break-neck speed.
"The best analogy is motocross," Huber said. "You have rollers, berms and jumps that can range anywhere from 10 to 30 feet."
Competitors usually are required to race in several exhausting preliminary heats before the main event. Getting a good start is critical in boardercross, where riders must fight cheek-to-jowl for position to successfully navigate up to 15 narrow gates on runs that range from 50 to 90 seconds in duration.
"At the start, I like to be one in from the outside on either side," Huber said. "In the middle someone usually gets squished and goes down. There’s not supposed to be contact, but you really can’t avoid it."
Contact is nothing new for the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Huber, who grew up taking nasty spills off his skateboard and BMX bike and qualified for the national freestyle wrestling championships at age 13.
"He was always just kind of a natural athlete," his mother, Anna Neuman, said. "We knew he had snowboarding talent, but he just took off and tore it up. When he came up against serious competitors, a lot of guys were amazed it was his first year."
For his initial boardercross event, Huber traveled to Colorado’s Copper Mountain, a hotbed for the sports elite, for two races in January. Instead of the expected powder snow, he found rough conditions on the first day — which reminded him of the Cascades.
"It was a very difficult course," his mother said. "But Stevens Pass is our home mountain and he was kind of used to the ice."
Huber placed fourth in his first race. Initially, it appeared he had won, but officials determined he narrowly missed a gate and they knocked the new guy down three pegs. Undaunted, Huber came back to finish second on fresh powder the following day.
This week’s nationals at Angel Fire is the capstone event for 1,200 riders who qualified with outstanding performances in one of the 36 USASA-sanctioned season series spread across eight regions of the United States. There are 32 separate divisions based on gender, age and ability. Within each division, athletes will participate in one or more of five events. These include the giant slalom, the slalom, halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross.
In order to earn an automatic berth to nationals in boardercross, Huber, who races in the highly competitive jam class for men ages 18 to 22, was required to win a season series. Continuous travel to Colorado was not financially feasible so he turned his attention to the closest available venue, which was the USASA’s Hood Series at Mount Hood Meadows, Ore. He finished fourth and second in February races. Had he finished second in the season finale on March 7 he would have been considered for a wild-card invite to nationals, but his victory clinched the season series and the automatic bid.
Huber took time off from the family concrete business to focus exclusively on training this winter in order to solidify his bid for nationals. He practiced five times a week at Stevens Pass and raced on weekends.
His practice sessions usually consist of four hours on the slopes, a 15-minute break to consume as much high-protein food as possible, then another four hours on the slopes. Sometimes he takes a second nutrition break, puts in another four hours and arrives home after 11 p.m., only to rise early the next morning to return to Stevens Pass.
"The way I ride requires multiple days in a row at the mountain," Huber said. "If you’re a little tired, you get up there and ride anyway."
Huber said he thinks he can be competitive at nationals, an event that started in 1990 and has become a proving ground for future Olympians. Snowboarding was added to the Olympic menu in 1998.
"The USASA National Championships attract some of the most talented riders in the United States," USASA Executive Director Tom Collins said in a press release on the organization’s Web site (www.usasa.org). "Many of the top riders go on to become Olympians."
"If I’m in the top-five I’ll be content," said Huber of the national championships, "but not happy."
Turning professional or qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team are his ultimate goals. "I don’t doubt it could go to that level," he said.
But regardless of how his career turns out, Huber expects to be "free riding" for many years to come.
"That’s when you get away from the crowd on the mountain and ride in deep powder, there’s nothing like the feeling," he said. "It’s incredibly relaxing, but also very humbling. You just get a sense of serenity from being up on the mountain.
"I intend to ride a snowboard until the day I die."
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