Rachael Oakes-Ash hits the powder with the coolest nine year old in snow town.
Oskar Schultz is a happy little man.
He woke on his ninth birthday to a gift wrapped mini i-Pad, is hoeing into maple syrup pancakes for breakfast at The Central Road 2625 Cafe in Thredbo and is waiting to meet his new BFF, Joey Ellis (the eight year old son of Australian snow sports legend and Rip Curl retailer Reggae Ellis).
Oh, and he’s going to ski, a lot, and better than most kids twice his age and better than I could ever dream of.
It’s the school holidays and Oskar has signed up for the Perisher Freeski training program with Jesse Houghton as his coach. But for now, today, he’s just going to ski hard in Thredbo with his dad Adam, his mate Joey and Joey’s folks Reggae and Amanda and me.
Oskar Schultz may be nine years of age but he’s already on the Marker Volkl Australian Squire Team and is a sponsored mini pro. He loves Lego, doesn’t like too much maple syrup on his pancakes and thinks Russ Henshaw is a god.
His mate Joey also ‘lives to ski’ which is just as well as he calls Thredbo home.
Put the two side by side and you’d swear Oskar was a Chris Booth/Russ Henshaw hybrid with wild strawberry blonde hair and Joey a little Boen Ferguson (with chilled out positive persona and long locks to match).
Regular readers will know I love a kid who charges.
When I hear Oskar has set up his own terrain park in his backyard at Stanwell Park after a month at Peter
Baff’s Fast Ride Ski Camp in Mammoth last Northern Season then I am hooked. I simply have to ski with this kid.
“I love the terrain park” says Oskar between mouthfuls of birthday pancake. “I travelled to New Zealand last year for the Junior Nationals, my first competition, and I got third place in big mountain” he continues with a little encouragement from Dad.
He’s sponsored by Rip Curl, has his own Instagram account @OskarSchulz and a YouTube Channel (theoskarschulz) and completed his first back flip just last week. I mean check out what he was up to a year ago, when he was only eight!
When I ask Joey Ellis what he prefers he nods and says “big mountain.” This kid is uber chilled, the yin to Oskar’s yang.
Put them together on a t-bar and point them in the direction of the peak of Karels, the highest lifted point in Australia, and you’d swear they’ve been best mates since birth instead of mates for just a few short weeks.
“Oh I want to smash that” says Oskar pointing at a snow laden rock on the off piste skiers left of Karel’s t-bar, which has opened for the first time this season which means only one thing – fresh tracks.
So he and Joey do, smash it that is, like they’ve been hucking cliffs in their sleep.
What do you think of Oskar and Joey?
Join SnowsBest and Miss Snow It All on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
