Skiin' With Ian: Freestyle - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Williston, Vermont - January 4, 2012

They're tricks you might see at the X Games or in the Olympics.

"A lot of twists, a lot of turns, a lot of flipping," explained Robin Bourdeau of the Green Mountain Freestyle Center.

And they are being taught right here in the Champlain Valley.

"GMFC is a training center that we have developed to work with snowboarders, skateboarders and free skiers to really train them with aerial tricks," Bourdeau said.

The Green Mountain Freestyle Center opened up to the public this week-- the first of its kind in northern Vermont.

Green Mountain Gymnastics partnered up with Burton Snowboarding to make this new freestyle center a reality.

"With the tricks, how much they have progressed and how snowboarding has progressed so much, we needed a place like this," said Jeff Boliba of Burton Snowboards.

The center offers both public and private freestyle lessons for people of all ability levels.

"When kids come through the door and they get introduced to our facility, they are introduced to good, solid, basic skills and that good form is the building blocks of what all these tricks come from," said Scott Adam, a freestyle snowboarding instructor.

Instructors say the repetition the facility offers in a safe setting allows for unparalleled progression.

"Snow is unforgiving-- 100 percent. You fall on snow and you're probably going to get hurt, whereas you can fall here over and over, but once you get it right, you can take that confidence back to the snow," said Noah Labow, a freestyle skiing instructor.

"You get to feel what it's like to be upside-down while you're on a snowboard in the air," freestyle snowboarder Kirk Teare said.

The freestyle facility already contains three trampolines, a tumble track and a foam pit. And there are already plans for expansion.

"The future holds possibly some ramps, with some artificial surfaces that allow skiers and snowboarders to ride down and flip into pit," Bourdeau said.

"This will allow us to actually perform tricks with our equipment on our feet and that's incredibly exciting," Adam said.

But for the young people that love freestyle, the existence of this facility alone is enough to inspire some big dreams.

"I'm trying to make it to the Olympics and to the X-Games!" freestyle snowboarder Hans Huber said.

Reporter Ian Oliver: What do you have to do to make it there?

Hans Huber: I think I gotta come here, practice a lot, go to the mountain, practice every day. It takes 10,000 hours to be a professional, so I'm trying to make that goal.

Lofty dreams in big air.