Ava is a member of the Snow Sports NZ Development Team. She competes in Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air and has had some fantastic results in 2022 and 2023 at FIS level events.
World Rookie Tour Snowboard Halfpipe 2nd place (Grom Division), 2nd place 2022 FIS Slopestyle at Copper Mountain USA, 3rd place 2022 Winter Games NZ FIS ANC Slopestyle, 3rd place Cardrona NZ Nationals FIS ANC Slopestyle.
Ava was born in Hamilton before moving south with her family to Te Anau. When Ava was four years old her dad taught her to snowboard at The Remarkables in Queenstown, and when she was seven years old she started getting snowboard school lessons at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
Her love for snowboarding developed and she was recommended to try the High Performance Programme (HPC) at Cardrona, training with her coaches Olly and Manny. She took her first snowboard trip to the Northern Hemisphere when she was 11 years old to continue training and competing.
Ava spent four years training with HPC before being selected to the Snow Sports NZ National Development programme in 2022, where she trains with coach Nick Brown. In the 2022, at the age of 13, she competed in her first FIS ANC events (the level below World Cup) and took two 3rd place finishes.
In 2023 she claimed a 2nd place finish at the prestigious World Rookie Tour Finals in the Grom Division.
Ava's biggest snowboarding inspiration is her Dad, when she was younger he always encouraged her and he was her number one snowboarding buddy. She remembers one time when she was nervous to attempt a large rainbow rail so her dad took his snowboard off and held her hands as she went over the rail.
Ava has big goals for her snowboarding; in 2023 she achieved one of her goals of representing New Zealand and the FIS Park and Pipe Junior World Championships.
Longer term Ava hopes to be invited to compete at the Natural Section Tour and at the prestigious Aspen X Games. She also aspires to be someone that other young women can look up to.
