A Cariboo teen nabbed second-place in big air at the BC Timber Tour freestyle competition at Panamora Resort the third weekend in January.
“I did a 720 tail grab,” said Seamus Zirnhelt, 13 of his winning jump. “I also did a 1080 — which is three rotations — but I didn’t grab so it actually didn’t go as well.”
Seamus competed in big air, moguls and slopestyle.
Athletes had two tries in each event and the judges took the best score.
It was the teenager’s first time competing in freestyle and his first time skiing at Panorama.
Mom Shannon O’Donavan said he is part of the Northern BC freestyle ski club, but as no one attended from the club, he went with the Sun Peaks team and their coach.
He was competing for the north, she explained.
“When they went to announce his very first run, the announcer said, ‘this is Seamus Zirnhelt he’s from, where is Seamus from? I guess Seamus is from B.C.’”
Seamus started skiing when he was two-years-old, but did not get into freestyle skiing until about two or three years ago.
He mostly trains at home in Beaver Valley where he and his dad have built a rail and some other features on their rural property.
“It’s pretty neat,” Shannon said. “He’s got a trampoline that he convinced us to put in the shop. He jumps from the second story onto the trampoline to practice spinning and inversions.”
He successfully landed his first 360 about three years ago, but said it was “really, really bad.”
“Last year I landed some 720s, but they were also really bad. But they got better.”
When asked what he loves about freestyle, he said it feels good.
“I set my mind to it, complete it, then check it off the list,” he said.
He landed his first-ever 1020 half an hour before the competition in Panorama.
“Seamus woke up at 3 a.m. before the slopestyle like a kid on Christmas day and I said ‘Seamus you have to go back to sleep,’” Shannon said. “He finally went back to sleep after about an hour and then when he woke up he said, ‘this is the day I have been waiting for my whole life.’”
The next Freestyle Timber Tour will be at Mount Washington on Vancouver Island, March 1 to 3.
In advance of that, Seamus has been invited to be on the Cariboo-North East Zone 8 ski team at the Lhtako Quesnel 2024 BC Winter Games, Feb. 22 to 25. The downhill events will be at Troll Ski Resort which is a hill he and his family ski at when they can.
O’Donavan said Seamus pays for a portion of his skiing with his roadside cedar kindling stand business, Krazy Kids Kindling, that he started with his brother Finn as well as raises pigs with his brothers Finn and Lochlan to sell and helps with haying and ranching at the family Zirnhelt Ranch with his grandparents, dad, cousins and uncles.
Seamus also competes in cross-country skiing, and could have been on the Zone 8 cross-country team, but had to choose one or the other because he couldn’t do both.
He also plays soccer.
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