Identical twin brothers from Bragg Creek are carving out their niche in the snowboarding world.
“We share the passion,” said Finn Westbury, 20, who shreds down the hills across North America with his twin brother, JJ. “It’s really cool.”
The Westburys were first introduced to the sport by their mom, who loved to snowboard at Nakiska Ski Resort, about an hour west of Cochrane, when the boys were growing up.
“She’d always drag us … and we didn’t want to go snowboarding,” Westbury recalled. “All of a sudden, something clicked – and we were beating her down the hill.”
The passion snowballed for the twins, and they continued to make snowboarding a family affair, hitting the slopes together whenever they had the chance.
While Westbury boards regular, meaning he puts his left foot forward down the hill, and JJ boards “goofy” – with his right foot first – Westbury said it came in handy to have the same body type as your best friend and boarding partner while they learned new tricks and skills.
“Every time I had trouble learning something, I would get my brother to do it – I could watch myself do the trick,” he said with a laugh.
As teenagers, the brothers took their hobby to another level and entered the Winsport day training program at Canadian Olympic Park in Calgary. Westbury said he and JJ completed half their high school courses online to make more room for the winter sport.
“From Grades 10 to 12, we were snowboarding every day,” he said.
As the Westburys’ skills started to make waves in the regional community, Cochranite Sam Stuart – the owner of Shredz in Historic Downtown – took notice and became the first to sponsor the boys.
Sponsorship is a big deal for sports like snowboarding, and it helped open the door for other, bigger companies to jump on board with the twins as well. Now, in addition to Shredz, Finn and JJ also represent well-known labels like Salomon Snowboards, Quiksilver and Howl.
“You never start out as a big pro – you start out getting sponsored by a local shop. It’s something you do to give back,” said Stuart, who has owned Shredz for nearly a decade. “(The Westburys) have obviously worked their way up … they always go to contests and do really well at that. They’re just really well known.”
Since graduating high school, the twins have made snowboarding the main focus of their lives. They put nearly 80,000 kilometres on their truck in the last two years travelling to California, Quebec, Utah, Oregon and beyond to snowboard. They work with Cochrane resident Liam Glass to film their tricks and create dynamic, exciting films to gain more exposure in the boarding world.
“I don’t go a day without thinking about it – it’s the driving force behind everything,” Westbury said.
All the work is paying off. Recently, Snowboard Canada’s magazine featured Westbury on the cover – a huge honour for the young man that he hopes to leverage for the future.
“It’s kind of iconic … It’s just a goal that you have … It’s a cool feeling to see something that you worked for in print and there forever,” he said. “That got me really excited for this season – (to) try to keep on holding myself to the same standard.”
Westbury said he and JJ plan to film another movie and “travel to where there’s snow,” as well as spend more time on the Alberta hills to become more engrained in their home boarding community.
He said he couldn’t imagine going on this adventure with anybody else.
“I’m proud to be a twin, very proud,” said Westbury. “Snowboarding is something that is best shared with friends – and somebody like my brother … it’s just worth it.”
-30-
