Snowboarding teen hopes to someday turn pro

When his older brother handed him a board at age 6, Chase Hoyer’s focal point turned to snowboarding.

The 14-year-old son of Richard Hoyer and Constance Malone is working hard to become a pro snowboarder, hoping to follow in the wake of Louie Vito, who turned pro at age 16.

Although the Libby High School freshman plans to play football this fall for the Loggers, he will skip basketball season to focus on snowboarding.

Hoyer hopes to increase his time on the slopes of Turner Mountain this winter. Last season he was able to get away 35 times. He participated in the High Cascade Snowboard Camp last month on Mt. Hood near Portland, Ore., in an effort to improve his skills.

Hoyer thought he was pretty skilled at snowboarding until his coach at camp, Josh Brown, got a hold of him.

“He improved my technique in everything I did, including spinning maneuvers, rails, boxes and overall riding,” said Hoyer, who added before the camp he had the main parts down, but was doing it the wrong way.

With about 120 total participants in his session -– just one of six the camp offers – Hoyer stayed in a chalet with 14 people, three of them his roommates.

“It was fun. Everyone was really nice. It felt good to be there,” he said, noting it was like meeting his family.

Hoyer said his favorite part of the camp was hiking a 40-foot jump with his snowboard to execute 540s - one-and-a-half spins - before landing at the bottom.

With a 10-foot base of snow, Hoyer said he was glad he was able to extend his snowboarding season another week. Mt. Hood is open 10 months out of the year and hosts a cross track used for training in the Olympics.

Hoyer tried to explain his passion for snowboarding.

“It’s the feeling of carving through the powder and hitting a jump and flying through the air,” he said, adding there is nothing like it.

Although he will only be a freshman at LHS this fall, Hoyer is already determined to head to a college in Colorado or California, close to the slopes.

So far, his favorite slope is at home.

“Turner’s powder days are incredible and there are plenty of natural jumps,” he said.

Hoyer said he also enjoys Big Mountain in Whitefish and wants to next visit Mammoth.

A video and DVD from the Mt. Hood camp features three minutes of Hoyer’s snowboarding stunts. He said he will use the footage to procure a sponsorship from a snowboard shop such as Stumptown in Whitefish.

Getting a sponsorship is the first step in turning pro, he said.

“When you go from being sponsored to going pro is when you get the really huge sponsors who send you to national competitions,” he said. “I see myself as being a professional snowboarder.”