Snowboard Staff
The SBINZ team of Examiners, is vast and varied. Many of our staff work around the world as instructors, trainers and coaches, with some also examining for other associations internationally. Read about the individuals themselves below.

Ben Clarbrough – Snowboard Course Manager
Ben found gold (a snowboard) at the end of the “Rainbow” in 1994. He qualified in 1996, and made the move to Mt Hutt in 1998. Mt Hutt helped propel Ben into the Northern Hemisphere and further into the grasp of the SBINZ. He gained his Level Three in 1999 and then...
Keith Stubbs – Snowboard Division Rep
Keith (a.k.a Stubbsy) has spent the majority of his adult life immersed in the world of winter, following the snow around the globe. Stubbsy has been in the snowboard industry since 1999, clocking up countless seasons across four different continents. First qualifying...
Luke Gillett – Snowboard Committee Member
Originally from England, Luke now spends most of his time snowboarding in Japan and New Zealand. Having previously worked around the Southern Lakes district since 2008 at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, he's now happy to call Cardrona home where he works as an ITC...
Claire Dooney – Snowboard Committee Member and NZSIA Vice President
Claire has been in the snowsports industry since 2002 when she trained with the Otago Polytech at Cardrona. Since then Claire has instructed, coached freestyle/race, represented NZ, trained ITC students at Cardrona and examined SBINZ Children's Cert, Level One and...
Sean Thompson – Snowboard Committee Member
'Thomo' hails from the Central Coast, NSW where he spent most of his days in the water surfing at his local break Wamberal. This is where he found his love for standing sideways. Transferring his sideways skills onto snow, Thomo started his endless winter in 2003 and...
Richie Johnston – Snowboard Trainer and Coaching Rep
Works at: Cardrona/TC Division: Snowboard and Coaching Works for: Cardrona Alpine Resort Love to shred with friends, family and people who believe in the sport / lifestyle with me. My first Snowboarding experience was 12 years old in the wind, sideways snow-fall and...
Paul Philip – Snowboard Committee Member / Fundamentals Manager
Winter 1990 at Turoa, Paul comes to a realisation after his first few times snowboarding - unlike surfing in the winter, you get to stay relatively warm when snowboarding and can ride all day. You don’t have to paddle out and suffer the inevitable ice cream headache...
Greg Overall – Snowboard Trainer
Works at Mt Hutt. A former sea-kayak guide of the Abel Tasman National Park, Greg found his love of snow whilst studying tourism at Christchurch Polytech. Since attaining his Level 1 and 2 in 2006 he has enjoyed 23 seasons between NZ, the USA and Japan. Currently a...
Hamish Barker – Snowboard Trainer
Works at Cardrona Hailing from a small surf town in the north island, Hamish got his first taste of snowboarding at the age of 12 at whakapapa and has been hook-line-and-sinker ever since. It wasn't until 2013 when he moved to the US that he got his first instructing...
Rich Waldie – Snowboard Trainer
Works at Mt Hutt Rich started teaching snowboarding in Canada in 2010 on a gap year, that year quickly became a decade spending winters in NZ, Japan and the United States. After a stint at Turoa, in 2014 it was time for a move to the Mighty Methven where he now lives...
Ollie Midgley – Snowboard Committee Member
As a grommet, Ollie grew up surfing and skating on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. In 2009 he decided to take a gap year from University and started to shred the frozen wave in Queenstown. That first season, Ollie was living with some snowboard instructors, who were...
Jame Howe – Snowboard Trainer
Profile to come...
Guy McCully – Snowboard Trainer
Guy started snowboarding in the early 90's when he was 9. After growing up and attending High School in Timaru, NZ, Guy moved to Queenstown and trained to become a snowboard instructor at Coronet Peak in 2002. After Gaining his Stage 1 cert and working for 2 years at...
Dave Pearse – Snowboard Trainer
Mountain: Remarkables Who work for: SBINZ, NZSki, Small Business owner Snowboarding started for me in the late 90's as a teenager with mates at Turoa, followed by seasons in the states while studying art and design at Auckland Uni. Level 1 and 2 with AASI before...
Ryan Nott – Snowboard Trainer
Profile to come...
Carlo Taurino – Snowboard Trainer
Profile to come...
Nick Lamont – Snowboard Trainer
Works at: Cardrona - High Perfromance Centre After skiing for 4 years, Nick did his first snowboard lesson with his Dad at the age of 7 at Mt Ruapehu. Both of them were instantly hooked. Nick continued to go on the annual family trip, and once Snowplanet was built in...
Gareth Smith – Snowboard Trainer
Works at Remarkables/Coronet Peak I’m Gaz from North-West England but now living full time in Queenstown. What originally sparked my interest in snowboarding was a copy of SSX on ps2 when it first came out. Now, there’s not many places to ride where I grew up so that...
Billy Roberts – Snowboard Trainer
Works at: Mt Hutt Hailing from Manchester in the UK, Billy first got a taste for sliding on a dry slope aged 13. Following trips to Austria and France with school, at 17 he landed himself a job at an Indoor Slope, working lifts and rentals. He gained his Ski level 1...
Andrew Mowat – Snowboard Trainer
Andrew Mowat also know as Drew hails from bonnie Scotland. With skateboarding from his early teens Drew decided to try snowboarding out with his first school trip to Italy. Ever since that adventure to Italy he was hooked on snowboarding and the winter environment....
Greg Samson – Snowboard Trainer
Greg hails from Dunedin, where he lived until 2011 when he left his office job as a Draftsman and made the move up to Wanaka to become an instructor through the Cardrona Polytech Instructor Training Course. He's since been chasing winter to various corners of the...
Tony Macri – Snowboard Trainer
Tony has been snowboarding since 1998. After getting his qualification in the US, he visited New Zealand for the first time. He spent his first four years at Whakapapa training instructors as well as coaching the North Island’s first Development squad. He then moved...
Rhys Jones – Snowboard Trainer
Rhys "Jonesy" comes all the way from Wales; a keen skateboarder from a young age he could be found skating around the mean streets of his home town Cardiff. Rhys first strapped a snowboard on his feet in 1996 at his local Dry Ski Slope where he thought it would be...
Mark Perana – Snowboard Trainer
Mark is originally from Christchurch and in his younger days would spend any opportunity that was on offer to ski the surrounding fields. He was introduced to snowboarding in the early 1990's and shortly after he attended and passed the first ever NZSIA Snowboard...
Kyle Kostohris – Snowboard Trainer
Kyle hails from the U.S. - but let's try not to hold that against him! He started his instructing career in 1995 teaching skiing at Crystal Mountain, Washington. Teaching snowboarding soon followed. Instructing gave Kyle the opportunity to travel to NZ in the late...
James Lea – Snowboard Trainer
James has been working in the snowboard industry since 2001. During this time he's worked in the South Island of New Zealand at Cardrona Alpine Resort, Bear Valley in California, Vail in Colorado, and Snowplanet in Auckland. James' years in the industry have involved...
Glenn Bradley – Snowboard Trainer
A born and bred Hamiltonian, Glenn was a relatively late starter when it came to Snowsports, scoring his first day on snow at Coronet Peak as a uni student at Dunedin. Back again at Coronet 10 years later Glenn started his snowsports career as a Rookie Instructor. At...
Ricky Otaki – Snowboard Trainer
The first Japanese Examiner to join the SBINZ ranks, Ricky began teaching skiing when he was 18 years old in his home country Japan. He moved to New Zealand and started to teach skiing full-time in 1996. Ricky began as a Snowboard Instructor around the same time and...