A Squamish resident heralded for helping athletes achieve great heights was honoured for his coaching talents at a ceremony in Vancouver last week.
Canadian half-pipe ski team head coach Trennon Paynter was recognized for his coaching excellence at the PetroCanada Sports Leadership Conference on Friday (Nov. 13).
Paynter, a former Olympian, was modest about his coaching achievements even though since launching his full time career in 2004, he's coached high calibre athletes including silver medalists, world champion half-pipe skiers Justin Dorey and Megan Gunning.
"I wasn't the one who put in the performance, they were the ones that skied the runs that earned them the world championships, so you don't want to feel like your taking credit for their hard work and their performance," he said, before adding: "Although I'd like to think that I might have helped."
The avid skier and hobbyist surfer said his initial reaction to receiving the award was something along the lines of: "Wow. Cool. Right on."
"Really it's great," he said. "It's always very nice to have some sort of recognition."
The Team Canada mogul skier competed in the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics, and said the upcoming 2010 Winter Games are going to be bit bittersweet for him and his six-person team because half-pipe skiing isn't an Olympic event yet.
But Paynter said the future for Olympic half-pipe skiing looks bright.
"It looks very promising that ski half-pipe will be in for the next Olympics, unfortunately for us it won't be in the Vancouver Olympics."
Paynter admitted there is a bit of frustration within the half-pipe community that the sport hasn't already been recognized as an Olympic event because half-pipe snowboarding has been an Olympic event for the last 12 years.
"And ski half pipe competitions have been happening that entire time at a lot of the major international half-pipe events. The Olympics is the last major event that has yet to add [half-pipe] skiing."
Since half-pipe skiing is a relatively new to the scene, Paynter said it's a very exciting creative time to be involved with the sport.
"Year to year, there's tricks being invented constantly. The level of everyone's skill is just rising so fast. We're at a point where runs that would have run last year, are barely going to make finals this year, because the sport is just growing so fast."
Paynter said he enjoys coaching because it gives him the chance to work with people and try to help them.
"If you feel like you've helped someone that's always a good feeling and that's what is the heart and soul of coaching trying to help people."
The die-hard skier added that coaching has also given him the opportunity to continue spending his days out on the slopes making huge jumps and clean landings.
"It's win-win."
