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 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...

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Keith Stubbs – Snowboard Division Rep

Keith Stubbs – Snowboard Division Rep

Works for CAMP3 Snowboarding 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...

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Luke Gillett – Snowboard Committee Member

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...

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Sean Thompson – Snowboard Committee Member

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...

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Richie Johnston – Snowboard Trainer and Coaching Rep

Richie Johnston – Snowboard Trainer and Coaching Rep

Works for CAMP3 Snowboarding Richie loves to shred with friends, family and people who believe in the sport / lifestyle. His first Snowboarding experience was at 12 years old in the wind, sideways snow-fall and icy conditions, and he loved it! In between his studies...

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Jamie Middleton – Snowboard Trainer

Jamie Middleton – Snowboard Trainer

Growing up in Wellington, Jamie learned to ski at Mt Ruapehu from the age of 3. With a strong desire to learn to snowboard but a whole family of skiers, finally Jamie convinced her parents to let her put a board on at the age of 12 and never looked back. Joining the...

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Greg Overall – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Rich Waldie – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Kain Mcwaters – Snowboard Trainer

Kain Mcwaters – Snowboard Trainer

Works for NZSki Kain grew up in country Victoria, immersing himself in garage punk rock bands and enthusiastically skateboarding throughout his youth. However, it wasn't until his mid-twenties that he discovered snowboarding through close friends and a hand me down...

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Ollie Midgley – Snowboard Trainer

Ollie Midgley – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Guy McCully – Snowboard Trainer

Guy McCully – Snowboard Trainer

Works for NZski Guy started snowboarding in the early 90's when he was nine. 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 One cert and...

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Dave Pearse – Snowboard Trainer

Dave Pearse – Snowboard Trainer

Snowboarding started for Dave in the late 90’s as a teenager at Turoa in the North Island. An instant love for sliding sideways on snow followed with seasons in the states while studying art and design at Auckland Uni. Achieving Level One and Two with AASI before...

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Carlo Taurino – Snowboard Trainer

Carlo Taurino – Snowboard Trainer

Carlo hails from Italy, in his younger days you could find climbing a tree, building a fort or kicking a ball. Always in motion, never still. After graduating from High-school, he knew he wasn't looking for a "real" job or a "normal" life. In 2013, Carlo made the bold...

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Nick Lamont – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Gareth Smith – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Billy Roberts – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Andrew Mowat – Snowboard Trainer

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....

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Greg Samson – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Tony Macri – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Josh Taylor – Snowboard Trainer

Josh Taylor – Snowboard Trainer

Josh first skied at 3 and snowboarded at 12, but his Journey to enlightenment began in 2007 when he undertook Snow Trainers’ 11 week programme and achieved his Level One and Two. After that, he spent one season instructing at Copper Mt, Colorado, and then another few...

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Rhys Jones – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Mark Perana – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Kyle Kostohris – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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James Lea – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Glenn Bradley – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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Ricky Otaki – Snowboard Trainer

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...

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