Caught between a rock and high place, freestyle aerials skier Jay Nachbaur traded his skis for a video camera.
Nachbaur learned the art of plunging over a ramp into a snowy abyss in Prince George with the now-defunct Central Interior Freestyle Ski Club but his national team competitive career stalled in 2006 and he decided coaching would be a better fit.
Four years later, the 28-year-old has finally achieved the Olympic status he found so elusive as an athlete. Next month at Cypress Mountain he will be carrying a Prince George flag to the Vancouver Olympics as an assistant coach for Canada's freestyle air force.
"It's a pretty special feeling," said Nachbaur.
"When I was an athlete I didn't do everything right as far as following the process. I was young, my body fell apart, and I had some bad luck and bad timing, too. But that's no excuse for the way my career went down."
Now based in Penticton, Nachbaur competed in three World Cup aerials events in 2005-06. After the Turin Olympics in 2006 he thought about sticking it out to try for the 2010 Games, but got discouraged with the progress he was making with the development team.
"I didn't really have a (World Cup) spot and I was kind of in limbo," he said. "The development team was so young and my jumping was so far ahead of them it was hard for me jump with them and be a part of that team.
"I'm sure in the longterm I could have been a top-10 jumper, but I wanted to win. I know I didn't respect the process and I've made mistakes for sure, so now it's a lot easier to tell the young kids coming up where to go and not make the same mistakes I did."
The final team selections were to be made following Friday's World Cup freestyle events in Lake Placid, N.Y. Steve Omischl, the four-time World Cup champion, is the only aerials skier already selected for the Olympic team.
"The team that we will be taking will be between the ages of 29 and 30, with an outside shot that one of the younger kids can make it," said Nachbaur. "Most of them have been to the Olympics and they know what to expect. I'll be the rookie going in.
"It's the Olympics, plus it's the home Olympics, and these guys will realize they've kind of won the lottery being able to compete at such a prestigious event in their home country."
Nachbaur is in his fourth season coaching the national team. His job during the Olympics will be to offer instructions at the top of the in-run of the aerials venue, monitoring the speed of the slope, snow and wind conditions. He'll also be a calming voice for the athletes, the last one they will hear before they start for the jump.
"I just have to make sure they're in the right spot and in the right head space," said Nachbaur. "Most of them are the guys I grew up jumping with, they're mostly my peers and my friends, so it's nice to have a little camaraderie there."
Nachbaur's coaching talents as the team video technician are especially important to the national team athletes in the warm-weather months, when aerialists use his video analysis feedback to help learn their jumps on the water ramps in Quebec. The water provides a safer landing as they attempt their innovative tricks and try to master them before they put them into practice on snow.
The Olympic jump site at Cypress in West Vancouver is prone to wild weather fluctuations, which could make life difficult during the Games for the jumpers and chief-of-course Brad Suey, another product of the Central Interior Freestyle Club.
"We know what Cypress has to offer and the crazy weather, which can go from rain to snow to fog to wind, and how that affects aerials, where your speed coming in is so important," Nachbaur said. "There are a million variables and we have to make sure we're on top of it."
Athletes in aerials, moguls and skier cross are contending for the 18 freestyle berths Canada has for the Olympics. As many as four men and possibly two women could make up the aerials team. Omischl, defending Olympic moguls champion Jennifer Heil, and ski-crosser Ashleigh McIvor are the only confirmed Olympic team members.
Nachbaur has high praise for Canada's Own the Podium program, which resulted in more funding than he's ever seen for national-level freestyle skiers.
"It's a big help with the Olympics being in Canada -- the funding and the help we've received is bar-none," he said. "When I was competing, you paid for it. At every World Cup I went to, I paid my way there and you paid for everything. Now these kids have everything taken care of.
"So they're not coming back home and having to look for a job like I was and asking mom for money."
