by Trevor Greenway
Griffin Mason is starting the year on top – the very top of the snowboard cross circuit in North America – after he earned gold and silver at the first two NorAm Cup races of the season in B.C. Jan. 4 to 5.
The 20-year-old Wakefield snowboarder has already qualified for the Quebec FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup this upcoming March, a berth he didn’t earn until well into the season last year.
“It was awesome,” Mason told the Low Down after returning from Sun Peaks Resort in B.C. with two medals around his neck – one gold, one silver. “I’ve been looking for a win and podium spot for a while now racing in the NorAm races, and it was awesome to get it done.”
It’s the first time Mason has landed on the podium in a NorAm race and he said he’s hoping to keep the streak alive throughout the season. And with Olympic gold medalist Jaycee Jay Anderson’s new, innovative board strapped to his boots, he said he thinks he now has the best shot at doing just that.
“I’ve been working with Jaycee for a while now designing border cross race boards, and this year I went a little bit longer,” said Griffin, explaining that his snowboard went from 169 centimetres long to 175 centimetres – the extra six providing that additional speed he needed to zip past his competition. “[The boards] are solid. They carry a lot of speed through the berms. I brought both boards to test them at Sun Peaks, and the longer boards are faster. That definitely helped.”
Snowboard cross is a fast-paced sport in which four to six racers head down a narrow, winding track at the same time, with the first to cross the finish line named the winner.
Mason praised Anderson’s work, crediting the six-time Olympians’ attention to detail that can turn a 10th place finish into a podium spot, with every millisecond counting.
“Normally the races are pretty close, like the first few spots are within a second,” said Mason. “My boards were going really fast in the time qualifications, that’s for sure.”
Mason said his recent NorAm races – especially the one he won – are extra special this year, as a knee injury sidelined him for several races last season.
“It was the first one where I was back feeling 100 per cent,” added Mason with excitement.
Mason’s mom, Carly Woods, couldn’t be in B.C. to see her son earn the biggest win of his career but was able to watch the race via video, and said she and her husband, Tom Mason, were “on cloud freaking nine.”
“Tom and I are both literally,” she paused. “I don’t know how else to describe it. I was able to watch him finish and win like I was there. My kids said I shook the house from jumping and screaming so loud.”
Woods said seeing her son reach the pinnacle of his snowboard career is extra special, given how hard the young snowboarder has worked over the years. He has been dedicated to hours of weekly training with his Mont Ste-Marie snowboard team and earned a spot on the Quebec provincial snowboard team.
And snowboard racing isn’t cheap. Woods said a race typically costs a family around $3,000, but Griffin has been selling hoodies and running local fundraisers to help his career, like the recent spaghetti dinner at the legion last December, which raised just over $3,000 – money that directly funded his trip to B.C. this January.
Griffin’s next NorAm Race is in Colorado in early February, and the family will be launching another fundraiser in the coming days, likely a raffle for some ski and snowboarding gear. Mason does have a number of local sponsors, but consistently needs financial support to keep his season going every month. Supporters can donate to Griffin online at www.griffinmason.com
“I’m kind of always looking for more sponsors,” added Griffin. “It’s been an expensive enough sport, and the more races I can get to, the better I will get. There is lots of travelling and staying in Airbnbs and tuning boards and all that,” he explained.