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After that first experience, Dalacker realized he needed some coaching,
so the family signed up for the Ravens (now the Snowhawks) program.
His parents would drive him to the carpool each weekend and he’d travel
up to Blue with the team. After a few years in the program, Dalacker had
progressed to another level. The family heard about the Shreducation
program and decided tomake the switch in 2008. “Jesse saw that I was
progressing really quickly. Inmy first year, I went from doing board slides
to back sevens and some bigger tricks. I was in the program from 2008
until 2012.”
Dalacker credits Blue’s lift-serviced park with allowing him to put in as
many laps as possible every weekend. “The fast chair laps were awesome,”
recalls Dalacker. “You could do 50-plus laps a day if you really wanted to…
versus some places where youmight only get 20 in. That was a key aspect
of riding at Blue. The 360-degree view from the chairlift was awesome too.
Your coaches could see you at all times while you could have the freedom
to do some hot laps on your own.”
Later Dalacker travelled on his own competing inWhistler and Colorado
and at the Junior Worlds in Spain. “Along the way I got a few concussions
and that’s what started leadingme towards coaching,” explains Dalacker.
“I coached for one year tomake a little bit of money and then I just kept
coaching and realized I was decent at it. So I kept at it and I shifted to
filming instead of contests—mostly street riding and urban stuff which I
really loved doing with the Moss Culture crew.”
One of his favourite moments happened at the last stop of the Canadian
Shield Tour held at Blue. “The coach who coachedme the most was Kevin
Konings with Icarus—and I always told him that I wanted to beat him,”
says Dalacker. “He said that if I beat him he’d retire. We always joked and
called him old Kev—because he’s 30-something and still sending it. I ended
up beating him at that contest and it was the perfect way for it to happen
because I came first and he came second. He never did retire.”
For those looking to get into competitive snowboarding, Dalacker has some
solid advice. “Picture where you want to be but have fun getting there and
work your butt off,” says Dalacker. “If you actually want to go somewhere
with it, you have to worry about your fitness levels. Nowadays the stronger
andmore fit you are the more you are going to be able to ride. You are
going to be able to take harder beatings when you fall and get back up
and not get injured.”
Asked about his proudest moment, Dalacker feels he’s living it right now.
“Making the leap to have my own business and taking over Icarus is what
I’m proud of,” explains Dalacker. “I loved the program growing up and it
was a big part of my life. I’m glad I get to not just be a part of it, but to
run it and bring it to where I want it to be. I’m just trying to give the kids
as much knowledge as I can give them. You have a short window tomake
it nowadays and I’m going to put my heart and soul into helping them.”
JoelDalacker'ssponsors:GNU,MossCulture, SanctionSkate&Snow,Bent
Metal BindingWorks, Skullcandy,Hides inHand,MyPakage,Oakley.
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