Emerging freeski talent Joey Elliss dreams of flying high
Published Fri 08 Oct 2021
When you can’t remember when you fell in love with skiing, chances are you started pretty early. Freestyle skier Joey Elliss grew up in Thredbo and has been on snow since he was three years old, taking to the slopes every weekend with his sister Arkie before entering the freestyle pathway through the Thredbo Mountain Academy slopestyle program.
Now 15, Elliss is one of the young Park and Pipe athletes enrolled in Snow Australia’s Emerging Talent Program, hoping to soon transition into the performance pathway.
“I don’t exactly remember when I fell in love with skiing because it was so long ago,” Elliss admitted. “But I assume it was just around when I started because I always wanted to be up the hill skiing whenever I could.”
Elliss is coming off a fruitful domestic season during which he managed to train well despite the lockdowns. He is grateful that resort staff worked hard to ensure that parks were available as much as they could during the winter as they constantly navigated restrictions and uncertainties.
“I felt that over the season I progressed a lot with the help of the coaches from the ETP program. I am thankful that crews still had amazing parks up all season and they had them up and ready the day we came out of lockdown.
“They also worked really hard to get events up and running when possible. It felt good to be back in a bib after a whole year without competition,” he said.
Thanks to the efforts of the resorts, Elliss had an opportunity to measure his progress at a few park and pipe events like the Thredbo Rail Jam - where he topped the Male Junior Ski category - and the Perisher Park Showdown, where he finished first and second in the two Rookie slopestyle events and fifth in the Big Air.
đŸ“· | Joey Elliss (centre) on the podium at the Perisher Slopestyle event
As he tried to make the most of his time on snow, Elliss also had a chance to ski alongside some of the best Australian park and pipe talents, both on skis and snowboard. He said that training with more accomplished athletes made him appreciate the value of hard work, as he tries to develop his own individual style along with technical and athletic abilities.
“I’ve been skiing with some insanely good skiers,” Elliss said.
“Even just watching them makes me excited to be on that level someday. Watching their work ethic has made me work harder as well.
“The thing I love most about skiing is how creative you can be with it. There are no boundaries, you can pick any line, hit any feature the way you want to - it’s all about creativity.
“Spending time with the best taught me that I don’t need to make my skiing identical to theirs to be good, but to have my own style and ski the way that I think looks good on me and what feels good for me to do,” he said.
With so many great skiers coming out of Australia, there is no shortage of role models for the young Elliss. He was lucky enough to work with Winter Olympian and slopestyle World Championships medallist Russ Henshaw, who also took the time to help him with his own progress.
“Russ has definitely inspired me to believe in myself. When he was coming up, there weren’t the same opportunities that there are now and he had to believe in himself to make it to where he did,” Elliss said.
Elliss has spent a few years on the ETP and was one of the first recipients of the ETP Award at the inaugural Snow Australia Community Sport Awards in 2019, when he was just 13.
“I remember having to make a speech, which was terrifying because I didn’t know what I was going to say and was lost for words because of how excited I was to win that award!
“But I was proud of myself because I was working really hard that season. I was pushing my boundaries and I was happy that all of it paid off,” he said.
Awards aside, the young Thredbo talent is thankful for the opportunities the program offered, like the ability to travel overseas, getting access to dryland training and receiving valuable support to develop the mental side of the sport, also setting goals for each season and working towards them with some of the best coaches in the sport.
“The program also helped me push myself a lot with my skiing and I think it’s important for up and coming skiers to have a similar support from a young age,” he said.
As he admits to already looking forward to participating in some big competition like the X-Games and the Winter Olympics, Elliss knows he is only going to get at that level through hard work and consistent improvement over the next few years. In his journey, he is also grateful for the support of the park and pipe community, a positive environment where people push each other to get better and develop their own skills and abilities.
“Listening to the hype that people give each other when somebody does a new trick is awesome and such a good feeling,” Elliss said.
“I am definitely going to try my hardest to make it into those competitions, but my goal is to become the best skier I can be.
“There are no limits to that and I am hoping that I can become one of the best - as it’s always been a dream of mine since I was 8 years old.”
With such a solid foundation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to soon see Joey Elliss perform big front flips or back flips on the international stage.
“Those are my favourite tricks,” he said. “They just make you feel like you’re flying.”
About Snow Australia Emerging Talent Program
The Emerging Talent Program (ETP) is Snow Australia Talent Identification and Development (TID) program which aims to identify, support and enhance preparation of potential performance athletes for transition into the performance pathway programs. It is made possible by funding from the AIS Performance Pathway funding stream and with generous support from The Lind Partners and the Hancock Family.
The Lind Partners is a US-based institutional fund manager and leading provider of growth capital to small and mid-cap companies, including many Australian businesses, particularly in the mining sector. The partnership between Snow Australia and The Lind Partners is designed to nurture emerging talents and help them unlock their full potential. Lind Advisory Board member John Hancock made a further pledge to support Australia’s next generation of snow athletes via ongoing program donations, which will enable additional investment and support of the ETP. The generous support of both John and Gemma Hancock and The Lind Partners, through its founder Jeff Easton, will make a substantial difference to the capability of the ETP.