All of our Roxy athletes inspire us, but this winter two riders in particular have really been moving mountains. 19-year-old freeskier Dara Howell only just recently joined the Roxy team, and she has not wasted any time getting down to business. Four years ago Dara was inspired to start freeskiing when she saw a photo of Sarah Burke. Sarah was a pioneer of her sport, and while she passed away in January 2012, skiers like Dara have done a great job of furthering the progression that Sarah established. In the last year Dara was on the podium at 5 World Cup events and won 2 X-Games Bronze medals. But Dara really made her mark when earlier this month at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games she won the Gold Medal in the first ever Olympics ski slopestyle event. In a fitting move, Dara dedicated the award to Sarah, both for the groundbreaking skier that she was and for all she did to get freeskiing admitted into the Olympics.
Like Dara, Torah Bright also spent the last year breaking boundaries. In January of 2013, this 2010 Olympic halfpipe Gold Medalist decided to tackle 3 snowboard disciplines: halfpipe, slopestyle and snowboard cross. While she’d been riding halfpipe and slopestyle for years, she was a completely inexperienced in snowboard cross. She worked hard all year training and competing in as many events as she could. Many said she couldn’t do it, that she was spreading herself too thin, but Torah proved them wrong. Over the course of the year she won the Dew Tour halfpipe, a World Cup halfpipe, received 3rd in the World Championships of slopestyle, and placed in the top ten at a World Cup snowboard cross event. In January of this year all her hard work paid off when she became the first and only person ever to qualify for 3 Olympic snowboard disciplines. Torah put on a grand performance at the 2014 Sochi Games, placing 7th in slopestyle, holding her own on the snow cross course, and winning a Silver Medal in the halfpipe event.
Congratulations Torah and Dara and thank you for all that you do, you lift us up with your courage and show us that anything is possible!
