Alaska boarder takes on the world

Stassel is on the other side of the globe with 43 American teammates at the 2010 Snowboard and Freestyle Junior World Championships.

If he's successful in the biggest competition of his life, Stassel (pronounced STAY-sell) should cement his position at the forefront of a group of young Alaska boarders coming up behind the state's snowboarding Olympians -- Rosey Fletcher, the 2006 bronze medalist in Italy, and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, who competed this February in Vancouver.

"We left our fishing site on a Sunday," said Steve Stassel, Ryan's dad and a Cook Inlet setnetter. "He got on the plane 24 hours later. I think he fished 21 days of 30 we were there. And when he wasn't fishing, he was on a trampoline (at the site) trying out different maneuvers."

Ryan Stassel is a rising star in slopestyle, where competitors perform tricks descending the course as they move around, over, across, or down such terrain features as boxes, rails, jumps and jibs.

Ryan's dominating No. 1 ranking in the U.S. Snowboard Association Revolution Tour for slopestyle, atop 73 other riders, assured his invitation to Junior World Championships. A U.S. Ski Team press release on the event describes Ryan and teammate Caty O'Connor of California as "slopestyle extraordinaires."

Which is something dad has been thinking quite a while.

"The first event he went to was when he was 8," said Steve Stassel. "I dropped him off at Hilltop, and he came back with a gold medal around his neck. The second time it was another medal."

Dad wasn't alone in the assessment, either.

"Ryan was pretty young when I could see a difference between him and the other kids," said snowboarding coach Jeremy Puckett, Ryan's coach with the Big Alaska Snowboard & Freeski Club. "All the other kids in their motor development, they looked like kids. He looked like a man.

"He's really determined, and that's what it takes. It's hard to learn these things. You've got to get the technical part down, and you've got to look good.

"He's kind of long and lanky. He can tweak his board, and he's graceful through the air. He has that calm, cool collectedness that sets him apart."

The Service High senior has spent big chunks of time Outside recently, both competing and training. When he won the 12-13 age group at the 2006 USASA National Championships in Lake Tahoe four years ago, he was on his way.

"He's pretty much been traveling or competing during winter the last couple of years," Puckett said. "When he was here, I'd push him way harder than the other kids -- until he was pretty sick of me.

"It's fun now because he's showing me stuff. He's going against the big boys."

Where it will lead is anyone's guess. Slopestyle is not an Olympic discipline yet, but there are indications it may be before long.

New Zealand's Junior World Championships mark the first time slopestyle will be included in a International Ski Federation (FIS) Championship-level event.

"Being able to do the first Junior Worlds slopestyle is really exciting," Ryan said in a U.S. Ski Team press release.

And the FIS has requested the International Olympic Committee include half-pipe skiing and snowboard slopestyle in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games in Russia.

FIS contends the events are "very youth-driven and will appeal to future generations."

The IOC has included both events in the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games, set for 2012 in Innsbruck, Austria. It is expected to consider the FIS request for Olympic status by the end of the year.

The strong TV ratings snowboarding has delivered since its Olympic introduction in 1998 suggests the IOC might fast-track the decision.

"It would be huge for the freestyle guys," Puckett said.

And a stellar performance in New Zealand would be huge for Ryan, too.

"He thinks he can win it, and I don't think he's being cocky about it. He has capability of beating any junior athlete on any given day. It's just who puts down the best run on that day," Steve Stassel said. "That's pressure, but he thrives on it."

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.