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Steve Fairbairn started his snowboard involvement in Nova Scotia in 1990, long before it was considered a legitimate “sport” by anyone. Despite a lack of major ski hills and a relatively short snow season in Nova Scotia, Steve grew the sport and the NS Snowboard Association to the point where Nova Scotian athletes were able to compete in national and international competitions. There has been a NSSA member participating at every Winter Olympics since snowboarding became an event in 1998 (four consecutive Olympics).

At Ski Martock, snowboarding now accounts for 35% of total visits. He started the Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors which went from a few members in 1992 to over 20,000 today.

From the introduction of a new sport, bringing it to the hills of Nova Scotia, to creating National Champions and Olympians, all in only 20 years (18 of which was as a volunteer), and with a resume too long to mention everything, Fairbairn is one of the very few sport people in Canada who can say they’ve had such an impact on the initial development of any sport as a coach, administrator, developer, and ambassador.

 

Annual Program

“I think young athletes, if they get good guidance and good coaching, they get a leg up on the rest of the planet for how to deal with adult life,” says Stephen Fairbairn, who has not only coached Olympic athletes but also blazed the trail for competitive snowboarding in Nova Scotia, taking the sport from its unwanted presence on the slopes to its status as a formal organization.

“Adult life is full of struggles and disappointments,” he adds, “and I think sport, if it is done right, can really prepare you for those.” Steve has definitely done sport right. He founded the Nova Scotia Snowboard Association (NSSA, now Snowboard Nova Scotia) and acted as its first president, coached and managed teams at national and international competitions, and served as a board member of Canada Snowboard for 20 years.

Natasha Burgess, manager of sport development for Canada Snowboard, says Steve proved that “it doesn’t matter that you are a small province—as long as you could do the work you could go somewhere with it. ”

When Steve started working at Ski Martock in Windsor, snowboarders were only allowed to use the hills with a special pass, and Steve spent much of his time fielding complaints from skiers. However, by 1991, he had developed beginner lessons for snowboarders at Martock and organized the first snowboarding competition in the province.

“There was very much an attitude that snowboards shouldn’t be allowed on the hill,” says Natasha. “It must have seemed crazy to go from that to competition and making it a formal organization.”

Steve also initiated training for a provincial team that included future snowboarding stars like Olympian Trevor Andrew. He organized instructor certification and became the Atlantic Canada regional coordinator for CASI (Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors), travelling to remote communities like Wabush, Labrador to certify instructors on their local hills.

Steve worked to secure a full-time snowboard coach position for the NSSA, holding the position from 2008 to 2011. He also acquired funding for a year-round start gate at Martock, showing up with a garden shovel to help install the ramp himself.

Steve says that the many hours he volunteered on the slopes never felt like sacrifice because he was doing what he loved and was surrounded by other dedicated people.

“He had us skateboarding and doing workouts at home with whatever equipment we could use,” says Olympic snowboarder and Snowboard Nova Scotia coach Sarah Conrad, explaining how her former coach overcame the challenges of a short snow season in Nova Scotia.

Steve also extended training time by organizing pre-season training camps in Europe on a shoestring budget, which he says is one of the most satisfying things he did as a coach.

“Above all, I think the one thing I really saw in Steve, even when I was 15 or 16 years old, was his passion for the sport,” says Sarah, who now sits with Steve on Snowboard Nova Scotia’s board of directors. “He was always running around with tons of stuff in his hands, setting up courses, waxing boards for athletes and still finding time to actually make it down the race course himself.”

“Seeing someone who started with me eight years prior and the next thing I know I am in Italy and she is an Olympian was pretty amazing,” says Steve, a provincial titleholder himself, as he looks back at his time coaching Sarah. He has also coached national champion Alex Duckworth and Norm-Am Cup winner Kristin D’Eon.

Steve taught athletes to focus on the process and not the outcome. “When you take care of all the other things, the outcome takes care of itself,” he says. And his theory has proven true: he took care of every aspect necessary to make snowboarding a successful competitive sport in Nova Scotia, and the outcome has been a roster of high-caliber athletes and a place for Nova Scotian snowboarders on the world stage.

“You suddenly realize that twenty-three years have gone by and a lot has happened. Yet, at the time you aren’t necessarily thinking about it in those terms,” says Steve. “It is always about the next challenge.”

Annual Program Courtesy of Katherine Wooler