Snowboarding toddler takes slopes in stride

CBC News

Posted: Jan 2, 2013 11:57 AM ET

Last Updated: Jan 2, 2013 12:25 PM ET

Nevek Rancourt's presence on the ski hills of Quebec rarely goes unnoticed.

His skills, they're developing. His balance needs some work.

But that's to be expected given that he's still in diapers and part of his snowboarding gear is a pacifier.

The 18-month-old is one of the youngest boarders most have seen chugging up the lift to head down the bunny hill.

"I'm going on a different hill every week so I want to bring him and his sister everywhere I go," said Keven Rancourt, Nevek's father, who started snowboarding himself at eight-years-old.

"He loves it."

Navek has been out tearing down the slopes for an hour a week since the start of the season.

His sister, three-year-old Abygaelle, started her own snowboarding career last year.

"She's the one asking, because he doesn't talk yet, 'When are we going snowboarding?'" Keven Rancourt said.

The kids are stars on the slopes, and quickly attract attention when they strap in to their pint-sized boards.

"They're impressed," Keven Rancourt says of those who pause to watch his son. "They're always asking, 'How old is he?'"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... video.html

While this may sound "cute" I have concerns over this young age even on the bunny slopes.

There are little to no injuries to kids under 6 as long as they don't have poles.
They don't fall. They keel over as in the video at the link.

When I clicked on the link there was no video... just a copy of what you posted in your OP. I'll go look again.

Found the problem Oskar... it's my computer... just so slow these days in pulling up entire articles. 2nd time it did show the video. The little fellow looked tired towards the end but it's a darling video and after watching it makes me feel better about his being there.

The only problem with the little ones is that they don't understand the elements of controlling the board, so they are fine out in the open but could not consciously stop themselves from running into a tree or other obstacle. My girl started skiing at age 2, snowboard at age 5. She could ski the black diamonds (with us) at 5 but not snowboard independantly until about age 8.

For sure. But they don't hit any significant speed until after age 5-6 so the risk is minimal.
The longer the arms and legs get relative to the rest of the body the greater the risk of injury.

I dunno. When my daughter was 18 months old, there were a few times I would happily have duct taped her to a board and sent her hurtling down a mountain.

Heheheh... and then you'd have broken a leg digging her out of a snowbank, unharmed.