Western News: October 07, 2021

WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday October 7 2021 7
A chance to jump on the world stage
Ruby to
take on the
best skiers
• By Fiona Ellis
RUBY HEWITT has been
hitting the slopes since she was
just three-years-old, and her
hard work is set to pay off as she
prepares to pit her skills against
the world’s best young skiers.
The 15-year-old has been
chosen to compete at the 2022
Freeride Junior World Championships
in Europe.
This will be the first taste of
international competition for
the Rangi Ruru student, who
last month won the under-18
women’s ski category at the New
Zealand junior freeride nationals.
Being selected to represent
New Zealand in Europe came as
a shock to her, because usually,
those who were chosen were
in their final year of the junior
category.
“Just to get there in this Covid
world will be amazing,” she said.
While competing in Europe,
her aim was simply to make the
most of the experience.
Although she was not looking
further into the future than this,
she had no plan to hang up her
skis.
“Skiing will be a lifelong passion
for me. I would love to juggle
competing and a career.”
She was drawn to compete in
the sport because of the friendly
atmosphere of the competitions,
she said.
“There is a really great group of
girls who are all super supportive
and fun.”
The skiers she looked up to
included New Zealanders Janina
Kuzma, Jess Hotter, and Craig
Murray, and Italian Arianna
Tricomi.
In spite of injuries and near
misses, she believes a day on the
snow is better than a day off it.
AIRBORNE: Rangi Ruru Girls’ School year 11 student, Ruby Hewitt, 15, has been named in the New Zealand freeride team
that will compete in the extreme sports event in Europe next year.
PHOTOS: MARK BRIDGWATER ​
However, love of skiing was
not instantaneous for Ruby.
When she was first introduced to
it, she “hated” the sport.
She changed her mind after
picking up on the enthusiasm of
PASSION: Ruby
Hewitt loves
freeride skiing,
although this
was not the
case when she
first began the
sport.
those around her at the skifield
near her family’s holiday home.
“Skiing is one of our family
sports but skiing with friends
made it more fun and we had
a great group of kids at Mt
Olympus to push each other and
improve,” Ruby said.
Freeride skiing was her
preferred style because of the
creativity it allowed.
“It’s not like in ski racing
where you have a set path and
turn between the gates. You have
to choose your path and what
you’re going to jump off and
decide what trick you’re going to
do in the air—it’s really fun.”
Picking her route to follow was
the most challenging part of the
sport, because of the uncertainty
of how it would work out, but
was also the most rewarding
when it went well.
While in action, she had three
key words on her mind: “focus,
fluid and fast.”
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