National Indoor Slalom Champs open category winner Jorja Van Pein.
Having a mountain in her backyard has helped make skiing a walk in the park for Napier Girls' High School (NGHS) Year 12 student Jorja Van Pein.
Jorja has just won the National Indoor Slalom Champs open category, held at Snowplanet in Auckland a couple of weeks ago. The 17-year-old says NGHS has been "super supportive".
"They have celebrated my success as they do with all sporting and other successes, and I'm super thankful."
Jorja, a boarder at the school, started skiing when she was 6 and racing with her school team at 8 years old.
"I live right by Mt Ruapehu and so the mountain being accessible to me has meant I've been able to ski and train easily during the winters."
During 2018 and 2019 Jorja skied as much as five days a week for the full ski season with TEam Ruapehu and in 2020 raced for the season in Queenstown with the Queenstown Alpine Ski Team.
"That was my second under 16 year, and my last year racing fulltime. Last year I decided to take a step back from fulltime training and focus on gaining my Level 1 and 2 ski instructor qualifications, and my first race coaching qualification which would allow me to become a ski instructor and/or coach."
Jorja says she trained weekends last season with the Northern Ski Team (NST), but due to Covid lockdowns wasn't able to train as much as she would have liked.
"Most, if not all, races in the North Island were cancelled. This season I've spent every weekend working at Whakapapa Ski Field teaching people to ski, and I spent the July school holidays coaching the junior portion of the Northern Ski Team on their camp at the Remarkables in Queenstown. This was alongside some of my old coaches and people I look up to, and it was an awesome experience."
With no training since last year, she says this race was harder than past ones.
"That being said, it's like riding a bike. You never really forget and I'm super happy with my results."
Jorja is no stranger to competition success, having won the U16 category in the indoor champs, placing second in NZ in the under 19 category across the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G disciplines.
"I had a great season in 2018, placing fifth in NZ (U14) and in 2019 and 2020 in the U16 category, placing sixth overall in New Zealand."
Jorja's love of the snow has also rubbed off on her family.
"Mum got into skiing when I started, and my younger sister did a few years after me, although now she snowboards. Dad doesn't ski, but supports me from the cafe."
She says if she could, she would ski all year round.
"Heaps of athletes go overseas during the southern hemisphere winter to catch the northern winter, but I stick to southern winters. I was meant to go to Mammoth Mountain in California in 2020, but unfortunately Covid meant that wasn't able to happen."
Even though they live in different parts of the country, skiing has meant that Jorja has made some lifelong friends.
"We all manage to stay in touch and catch up on the mountain. I chose to put school first last year hence I stopped training as much, and now being an instructor I'm easily able to fit skiing into my weekends while keeping up with school."
Jorja says her latest race was like her signing off — "like going out with a bang".
"From next season I want to be able to focus more on furthering my skills as an instructor and hopefully I'll be able to get the opportunity to coach with NST on their Queenstown camp again next season."
The competitive side of skiing will still be a lure for champion.
"Of course I'm still going to be competing in secondary school races and I'll probably still compete in the U19 category in races such as the North Island Champs and the Waimarino Cup race."
Jorja says skiing is a great sport which has become a big part of her life.
"It's a unique sport that I fell in love with when I was young simply because it's fun, and then I fell in love with racing because I love to be competitive, and the mountain is like my happy place.
"My goals are now to give back and to teach people to love the sport. Being able to teach skiing and also able to coach the next generation of racers is something that I really enjoy and I want to continue that and build my skills for the future."