Batchelor Party Scheduled for 2010
If you happen to be in the vicinity of Goodes Hall on February 17, 2010, there’s likely to be a noticeable buzz that will have nothing to do with post-Valentine’s Day chocolate overload. It will, however, have everything to do with the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, where it is expected that Jeff Batchelor, Commerce student and member of the Canadian National Snowboarding Team, will represent Canada – and by association, Queen’s – in the halfpipe event.
The 20-year-old Oakville, ON, native is an up-and-coming member of the 10-person national team thanks to a series of recent strong finishes in major snowboarding competitions, including first place in a 2007 World Cup event in Sungwoo, Korea, and a trio of second-place finishes in 2008,most recently at the Canadian National Championship in early April.
Fusaki Iida, DMK SNOWBOARD INC.For those unfamiliar with the sport, picture riders gliding across the snow on something resembling a surfboard. In the halfpipe event, riders perform aerial stunts by launching themselves off a concave ramp that resembles the cross-section of a pipe. A crowd favourite, the halfpipe attracts vocal spectators who roar their approval when snowboarders soar over the top of the rim and perform acrobatic moves that seem to defy gravity. Snowboarders earn points for the complexity of their stunts, known as tricks, as well as for achieving tremendous height (or “amplitude” in snowboarder parlance). Jeff is currently working on a trick he calls the Backside 1260 – an incredible three-and-a-half rotations in the air – with a clean landing, of course. Other stunts in Jeff’s repertoire include the Corked Frontside 900 and the Linguine.
Some of Jeff’s recent success can be attributed to his decision earlier this year to take a leave of absence from the Commerce program to focus on snowboarding full-time. Since beginning his Commerce studies in the fall of 2006, Jeff had found it increasingly difficult to juggle the rigourous workload with his demanding training regimen. Given the lack of snowboard training facilities in the Kingston region, he resigned himself to the fact that he had to step away from his studies temporarily if he was to fully commit to pursuing his Olympic dream. Since then, he has split his time training with his teammates (four men and five women) at the Whistler, B.C. facility and competing in several major events throughout the world. He describes a typical week as travelling on Monday, training on-site for the next three to four days, and participating in the actual competition, usually on a Saturday.
Jeff acknowledges his decision has been made easier by the tremendous support he’s received from Commerce administrators. A bonus has been his ability to put his business training into practice. With funding an ever-present challenge for amateur athletes, Jeff says his marketing background has helped him attract potential sponsors.
His business acumen, particularly a fondness for entrepreneurial endeavors, was evident at a young age when he took up washing windows for $2 an hour so that he could buy his first snowboard. In recent years, he has opened his own wakeboarding instruction school – the JBatch Wake School. He comes by his entrepreneurial tendencies naturally; his father David owns his own company, Algario Communications, a Toronto-based performance improvement company that is – perhaps not surprisingly – one of Jeff’s principal sponsors, along with Icarus Skate and Snow and Burton Snowboards.
Jeff on the podium in Japan, celebrating a silver medal finish (Koichi Kamoshida)David isn’t particularly surprised by his son’s accomplishments. “From the time he was four years old, Jeff was more likely to be outside playing than sitting in front of a TV. He demonstrated a passion at a young age for rollerblading, skateboarding, skiing and anything else that challenged him athletically.” Ultimately, snowboarding emerged from the pack as Jeff’s favourite, due in large part to the unparalleled sense of camaraderie that he says the sport fosters among riders.
Jeff plans to resume his Commerce studies this fall while continuing to pursue his Olympic dream. While he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of continuing to compete in both amateur and professional snowboarding events post-2010, he also has designs on earning an MBA in the not-too-distant future and has thought about succeeding his father in a leadership capacity at Algario Communications.
These long-range plans will have to wait. Jeff has his Commerce studies and the upcoming Vancouver Olympics in his sights, and nothing short of his personal best on both fronts will do.
“I’ve been thinking about the Olympics since I was eight years old,” he explains. “It’s the height of competition. You’re competing against the best snowboarders in the world.” Given the string of strong results he’s produced of late, this ambassador for Canadian amateur sport and Queen’s School of Business seems destined for a place on Canada’s Olympic squad.