Kristine White - PARA-SNOWBOARD

      When you think about snowboarding, you don't necessarily think of Northwest Indiana. There are no mountains, or ski areas to speak of within 50 miles. However, this doesn’t bother Valparaiso resident and Army Veteran Kristine White as she continues to do what she loves, despite the lack of snowboarding resources available to her after a military injury, Kristine was told sports and physical activities would be limited, but Kristine chose to challenge what was possible.

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      After utilizing Para-Cycling and Para-Triathlon as a way to get her fitness back, Kristine was looking for something to do in the winter.Enter Challenge Aspen Military Opportunities with a chance to learn to snowboard. Jumping at the chance to try something new, Kristine was introduced to "Para-Snowboard" in December of 2012 by Ryan Latham and the Challenge Aspen Staff at the Women’s Military Retreat. After that week of crashing, falling, and learning. Kristine was hooked, to say the least. While still learning fundamentals, Kristine knew that she wanted to take this as far as possible. While still in 2012 Para-Snowboarding was not yet a Paralympic sport, but there was talk of it being included in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi Russia.

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      That winter she attended 2 additional winter sports camps for Para-Snowboard, one in Telluride with Telluride Adaptive Sports, and an additional camp at DSUSA Far West in South Lake Tahoe. With the close of her first season of Para-Snowboard brought the news that Para-Snowboarding would be included in the 2014 Paralympics.Here is a quick review of the 2013 to 2014 Season and 2014-2015 Season 2013-2014Season December when she was invited to the High Performance Camp at the Hartford Ski Spectacular. 1 of 17 Para-Snowboarder’s invited to work at being developed into the best competitive snowboarder possible. While Kristine’s skills were still developing, that week she trained the best she could and did her first competition on a GS course. While she did not place individually well her team placed 4th, and everyone had fun.The following week she returned to Challenge Aspen to take part in the Women’s retreat, this time as a mentor.

 

     Upon returning home to Indiana, Kristine made for the hills of Southwest Michigan where she could work on being consistent in training and getting time on snow. In February 2014, Kristine attended the Paralympic Development Camp at the National Ability Center. Where she was able to further her race training with the Paralympic Coaches on staff.

2014-2015 Season

• November- Officially became a team member of the National Sports Center for the Disabled Competition Center.

• December - Attended the Hartford Ski Spectacular

• January – Trained on my own at Swiss Valley and Cannonsburg

• February- Spent at the NSCD Comp Center Training, and Racing in the Wells Fargo World Disabled Invitational Placing 2nd in the snowboard division.

• So while Northwest Indiana lacks many of the necessary components for snowboarding, what it doesn’t lack is local companies and people who support people like Kristine do this.
   

• To contact Kristine, you can email her at kristine.white.iaact@gmail.com

• My Team:
  My Parents Paul and Debbie White,I have been very fortunate that my adoptive parents have supported me financially in every endeavor over the years.
  For those of you that are parents you know what a struggle this can be. I personally want to thank my parents and all parents for supporting their children’s dreams. I have now reached a level of Competition that requires me to seek additional support from outside sources. This is not an easy task, but with your help and support, you can be a part of making someone’s DREAMS become a reality! YOU will be a part of my SUCCESS. add your own text and edit me. It's easy.