{"id":24610,"date":"2019-05-31T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2019-05-31T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T23:44:00","slug":"chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Waker finds a snowboarding home in Summit County, named U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery\" readability=\"6.8348457350272\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-366674-904\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard | Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman&#8217;s Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119.jpg\" alt=\"Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard | Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman&#8217;s Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-1.jpg\" alt=\"Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-2.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Christopher Waker | Summit County local and snowboard coach Christopher Waker (second from left) poses for a photo at a Rev Tour event with his Kirk's Camp snowboarders Luke Winkelmann (far left), Will Healy (second from right) and Eli Mcdermott.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Summit County local and snowboard coach Christopher Waker (second from left) poses for a photo at a Rev Tour event with his Kirk&#8217;s Camp snowboarders Luke Winkelmann (far left), Will Healy (second from right) and Eli Mcdermott.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Christopher Waker<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-2.jpg\" alt=\"Summit County local and snowboard coach Christopher Waker (second from left) poses for a photo at a Rev Tour event with his Kirk's Camp snowboarders Luke Winkelmann (far left), Will Healy (second from right) and Eli Mcdermott.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard | Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman&#8217;s Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/SBCoach-SDN-060119-3.jpg\" alt=\"Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman's Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Christopher Waker\u2019s snowboarding journey is a quintessential Summit County winter sports story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It\u2019s one that, at its heart, includes an engagement at the same chairlift at Breckenridge Ski Resort where he first met his fiancee. It\u2019s one that includes days at the county\u2019s terrain parks coaching some of the country\u2019s \u2014 and world\u2019s \u2014 best young talent. And it\u2019s one that added its most recent chapter last month when Waker was named U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard\u2019s Domestic Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For a guy who has made a lifetime out of teaching and hucking tricky inverted rotations on a snowboard, it was in the lead up to his acceptance speech at the U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress in Park City, Utah, when Waker experienced some of the strongest nerves of his life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cDuring the dinner there was a list and you could kind of see when you are going to go up on stage,\u201d Waker said. \u201cAnd I knew I was within two people to go. And, all of a sudden, my heart was racing like crazy. It was pretty funny, I\u2019ve never had my heart rate spike by sitting still.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Waker, originally from Vermont, moved to Summit County 13 years ago for the same reason so many others do: to progress his snowboarding career on the state-of-the-art terrain parks. For a few years, Waker saved up money during the summer while working for his father\u2019s plumbing and heating business in order to build up his budget he\u2019d live off of while training in Summit County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Leading up to 2010, Waker competed on the Grand Prix and World Cup circuit with an eye on qualifying to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Though he missed out on qualifying to represent Team USA in Vancouver, Waker stuck with the snowboarding life and community, as he pivoted to coaching the sport he loved. Luckily for Waker, he had a previous connection with Ian Kirk, one of his coaches during his teen years attending Stratton Mountain School in Vermont. Kirk was able to help Waker coach an Australian development team based in Summit County, an experience that not only enabled Waker to get his feet wet in snowboard coaching, but one that also made him realize he could make a career out of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The wheels didn\u2019t come in motion for Waker to become a year-round resident of Summit County until a fateful moment on the 5-Chair lift at Breckenridge Ski Resort. While lapping the two-person chair along Breck\u2019s Peak 8 park and pipe terrain, Waker filled into the singles queue for the 5-chair. Moments later, he found himself riding up the lift with an aspiring Swiss snowboarder, Darien Giedd. The two hit it off that day and the following weekend when they again bumped into each other and rode a two-person chair at Keystone Resort during a subsequent competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When Kirk founded the Kirk\u2019s Camp snowboard club in 2013 under the philosophy of providing \u201ca support system for radical lifestyles\u201d Waker followed. Based in Summit County \u2014 where Waker now lives full time with Giedd \u2014 but operating worldwide, the club quickly attracted some of the top young freestyle snowboarding talent, including Nik Baden of Steamboat Springs, Luke Winkelmann of North Carolina and eventual Olympic gold medalist Red Gerard of Silverthorne.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In his time with Kirk\u2019s Camp, Waker has passed on quite a few young riders to the U.S. Rookie Team. Waker\u2019s riders in the camp have also represented the nation in slopestyle at FIS Junior World Championships, such as Will Healy, Eli Mcdermott, Alex Atno and Winkelmann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Winkelmann is at the top of Waker\u2019s coaching success stories. The young rider relocated to Summit County to train in the winter, a far cry from riding dry slopes and a little hill in North Carolina. But with an adept background on rails, Winkelmann worked with Waker over several winters to improve his jump skills on the slopestyle course, to the point where Winkelmann finished in an impressive fourth place at this year\u2019s Burton U.S. Open at Vail Mountain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHe\u2019s kind of been the next up-and-comer, which has been amazing,\u201d Waker said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy for him. He got rookie of the year for the U.S. Open. It was a huge feat. I really try and build up a program of athletes who are motivated and who push each other and have fun. I feel like with me personally growing up as a competitive snowboarder, I always excelled when my friends and peers were pushing me. So I really strived to build a program where kids were pushing each other. When most of our athletes learn tricks are those days when everyone is super excited and just pushing each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Waker also emphasized keeping it fun for young riders like Healy and Winkelmann. Waker said the pressure of constantly taking the next step as one of the country\u2019s best young Olympic snowboarding hopefuls can prove daunting and exhausting at times for the riders he coaches. Doing things to prevent the kids\u2019 mental burnout is perhaps the most important part of Waker\u2019s job. That\u2019s why Waker said it\u2019s a point of emphasis for him to cultivate rewarding, fun, full-team moments when out on the mountain by filming the exact moments of successful trick progressions for young riders. And, of course, filming the fun of powder days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey do a lot of dangerous tricks,\u201d Waker said, \u201cgoing upside down twice now \u2014 double- and triple-corks \u2014 so it\u2019s about providing the right environment and making sure they have the correct fundamentals to make it to that next step. Because if you have other friends, close competitors next to you, telling you \u2018you got this,\u2019 when they see their fellow teammates pushing the envelope and pushing their skills to the next level, that\u2019s kind of when they get fired up and really want to throw down too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Waker doesn\u2019t shy away from the fact that he\u2019s an emotional person, and he said that\u2019s a main element of his coaching: to maintain excitability while out on the mountain. And, sure, there is excitement when proteges such as Winkelmann win, say, this year\u2019s Rev Tour slopestyle circuit. Despite all of those successes with Kirk\u2019s Camp, though, Waker\u2019s best moment while on the snow in Summit came last spring on the 5-Chair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI made the lifties stop the chairlift, and I proposed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was six years since we met on that chair, lapping the park, two singles going up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now engaged to Giedd and rooted here in Summit County, Waker will launch his own snowboard club next season. Dubbed \u201cTru Snowboarding,\u201d the club will be based in Summit and build off of Kirk\u2019s Camp\u2019s foundation as Kirk signed a three-year deal to coach China\u2019s international team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For Waker, it\u2019ll be the next chapter in his Summit County snowboarding story. Under a new team name, Waker will continue to coach elite young talent with his same energy and emotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI feel like that kind of emotion feeds them,\u201d Waker said. \u201cThey want to excel because they get that rise from me. They get so stoked and, when they land a trick, it\u2019s like I landed a trick. So that\u2019s where I feel like I\u2019m, that\u2019s kind of where I add to them. That\u2019s where my kind of coaching comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/sports\/chris-waker-finds-a-snowboarding-home-in-summit-county-named-u-s-ski-snowboard-coach-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech while accepting his U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Coach of the Year award at the 2019 U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Congress Chairman&#8217;s Awards Dinner last month in Park City, Utah.Courtesy Sarah Brunson, U.S. Ski &amp; Snowboard Summit County local Christopher Waker, left, gives a short speech [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 09:54:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}