Luke Dutton lives in sunny, humid KZN, but it hasn’t stopped the 15-year-old from beating those from icy climes at snowboarding.

 

The Grade 10 Kearsney College student, who was named the youngest ever South African junior men’s snowboarding champion in 2011, leaves next week for contests in Bosnia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Spain.

 

He returned on crutches recently after five weeks’ training and competing in Whistler, Canada, where he won two “rail jam” competitions in the u17 section. The second contest caused his ankle injury, from which he’s now recovered.

 

Next week he leaves to train in Slovenia with his coach Iztok Sumatic, ahead of a competition in Bosnia and potentially also one in Slovakia, and then the British championships in Laax, Switzerland at the end of next month. Luke has dual citizenship, allowing him to compete in these contests.

 

Coach Sumatic will be head judge for Snowboard Slopestyle at the Winter Olympics in 2014 – the first time Slopestyle will be an Olympic event.

 

Luke has been selected to compete at the Junior World Championships in Spain during April, where he will represent South Africa, together with a rider from Johannesburg.

 

Last year Luke was named the SA snowboarding champion of 2011, having won the SA Junior Slopestyle title and beaten all South African adults to take the Men’s Slopestyle title. He was beaten only by the invitational pro rider from Slovenia.

 

For the past two years Luke has spent over 100 days on snow, in South Africa and overseas. This is principally his training. Apart from trampoline training and general physical conditioning there is not much else he can do when he is off snow, putting him at a disadvantage in this regard.

 

Johannesburg riders have Joxi  X to practice bag jumps and the small artificial slope at Ceder Square in Fourways.   Overseas there are snowdomes to train in out of season.

 

“In KZN we don’t have either, so training is a bit of a constraint but he’s fortunate to spend plenty of time on real snow,” said dad Andrew.

 

Luke learned to snowboard in Iran when his family lived in Dubai for three years.