HVCHS grad takes giant slalom title at snowboarding championship.
By: Tim Falls
Anna Weber has taken her passion to greater and greater heights.
That’s what it takes to become a snowboarding champion. Weber’s love of the sport has helped take her from a small hill to huge mountains.
The 2002 Hopewell valley graduate won the gold medal in the giant slalom snowboard competition at the USA Snowboard Association National Championships, held March 25-April 1 at Northstar-at-Tahoe, in California.
The former Hopewell Valley Central High School student began her career by taking advantage of the winter weather whenever she could and snowboarding down a hill behind her parent’s house on Carter Road.
"It was really just going sledding and standing up on the sled," said Weber. "It was just really fun."
Weber has come quite far from those days sliding down a hill on toy-like make-shift board.
Weber joined over 1,300 competitors at the National Championship where she participated in the Women’s ‘Jams’ 18-22 age group and won the giant slalom.
The giant slalom is a timed event where the snowboarder’s times from two heats through two different course configurations are combined and the lowest total wins.
"Your not necessarily racing against the person next to you," said Weber. "You’re racing against your own time."
Long before snowboarding competitively, Weber began her climb from the hill behind her house to her first real snowboarding experience with a trip to Big Boulder and Jack Frost in Pennsylvania for her 13th birthday.
"It was painful," recalled Weber of her first actual snowboarding experience. "It was like trying to learn how to ride a bike without any training wheels. It’s painful to learn, but when you get it, it’s great."
In high school, Weber managed to snowboard in the Poconos five weekends a year. Of course, while waiting to take on mountains, Weber played field hockey and softball all four years and was a varsity player for three years in each sport.
Throughout high school, Weber went on snowboarding excursions and tested herself by trying new moves and pushing her limits.
Now as a senior at the University of Maine, Weber has embraced her passion and has worked the past four years at Sugarloaf Mountain, not far from her campus. After working as ski instructor for a year, Weber became the snowboarding coach for Carrabassette Valley Academy and this year is the head coach for its weekend program.
Her passion for snowboarding has taken her to many renown venues, including Torino this February, where, as a spectator, she gained the opportunity to ride the official snowboarding course.
Weber reached the National Championships by winning the snowboarding cross at the United States Snowboarding Association Maine qualifying series. Weber won every race within her women’s ‘Jams’ 18-22 group to become the top qualifier at Nationals.
In 2005, Weber competed in the United States Snowboarding Association’s National Championships held at Copper Mountain, Colorado and finished sixth in the final heat of the snowboard cross

