Freestyle Skiing

If you thought an early berth on the 2010 Winter Olympics squad might generate a few back flips from Canada's top freestyle skiers, you'd be mistaken.

"It doesn't really change much," ski cross racer Ashleigh McIvor said.

"It's business as usual," said Steve Omischl, an aerialist and two-time Olympian.

Added moguls star Jennifer Heil: "I don't really pay attention to the qualification process."

The Canadian Freestyle Ski Association said yesterday that all three athletes had scored spots on the Olympic team for Vancouver in 2010 after posting the highest results at three high-profile competitions this season. The rest of their teammates - a talented squad that earned 33 finishes on the podium and a fistful of medals at this month's world championships in moguls, aerials and skier cross - will have to duke it out for 15 more spots to be finalized three weeks before the Games.

For McIvor, Omischl and Heil, the berths mean less stress and more freedom to choose where and when to compete in the next World Cup season, before the Olympics. It also means a thrill for family and friends who are "pretty fired up," said McIvor, 25, a rookie Olympian from Whistler, B.C.

Still, as CFSA chief executive officer Peter Judge put it yesterday, on the eve of this weekend's Canadian championships in moguls and aerials held at Cypress Mountain in Vancouver, "This is only the start of the journey. There's hard work to do."

But not before everyone goes surfing.

A passion for big waves runs deep in the freestyle skiing world, apparently inspired by the team's ultimate surf nut, Heil's coach and boyfriend Dominick Gauthier. Last year, a crew of more than a dozen Canadian skiers hit the beach in Panama. Next month, a smaller group heads to Nicaragua, including Heil, Omischl, and teammates Warren Tanner and Warren Shouldice.

"It's like luxurious camping," said Heil, who won an Olympic gold medal in moguls in 2006.

McIvor will be riding waves in British Columbia, near her Whistler home. How so? She wears a wetsuit and surfs behind her boyfriend's boat, which is weighted on one side to create a long, continuous wave.

"It's so much fun," said McIvor, who took the gold at the world championships this month.

After those brief interludes on the water, however, it's back to work.

Omischl's summer "office," as he calls it, is a Quebec City training facility equipped with a jump that allows skiers to land in a lake.

Ranked first in aerials and third overall on the World Cup circuit, he'll work on tricks that push the limits of his sport, such as the quintuple twisting triple back flip, in which athletes twist five times in the air while doing three back flips. It's rarely completed in competition.

Omischl, a North Bay native, also looks forward to the stability of staying for three months in one place, Quebec City. "I'm not even in April yet, and I've been in 40 or 50 beds," he said.

Heil will drop in on the Quebec City facility - when she's not chasing snow. Her summer training regimen includes trips to a glacier in Switzerland, mountains in Argentina, and Whistler. She'll also spend time at home in Montreal, where she'll climb stairs and do other land training with teammate Alex Bilodeau, who won the Crystal Globe as the top moguls skier for the season.

McIvor plans to divide her time between the mountains (on her bike), the water (on a board), and the gym. Her sights are firmly set on the Games, less than 11 months away.

"It's cool to be a part of the first national [ski cross] team," she said. "I think everybody's going to be pretty stoked."