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Mavik MacKinnon has reached the podium in all three of his events at the B.C. Freestyle Ski Championships.

The Championships took place April 7-10 at Whistler.

MacKinnon, 11, competed in the U12 Male category and won silver in Slopestyle, Moguls and Big Air.

MacKinnon said it felt 鈥減retty good鈥� to achieve the silver sweep in the U12 category.

His dad, Sean, added 鈥渢here was a lot of ups and downs, actually. He came in un-coached. He hasn鈥檛 been in a program for the last few years. When you鈥檙e self-trained 鈥� we didn鈥檛 know where we would land. I was kind of watching everything going on and could see the building excitement and the increased 鈥� like, the respect from his peers and even anticipation from coaches. So it started to look like he was going to land pretty high. It was very exciting when he did.鈥�

鈥淚t was best of two for the slopestyle competition and he made a mistake or had a bad landing on his first run, so he knew it wasn鈥檛 a good run and there was a tremendous amount of pressure on his second run, because slopestyle is his favourite sport. My heart rate went up too,鈥� he added.

鈥淭here was lots of pressure on my second run,鈥� recalled the young Mackinnon.

鈥淭hat was the event I wanted to do well in.鈥�

Under all that pressure, he pulled off a great run and scored 91.0, incredibly high for the category. In the end though, it was only good enough for silver (gold had 94.6, bronze had 89.6).

April 9 was the Moguls event. There were terribly icy conditions by all accounts and it was very hard to ski 鈥� all athletes were challenged. MacKinnon had two good runs, with the second one being a little better and he skied well, doing a 360 off the jump in the moguls course. This again earned him a second-place finish (with 73.3 points 鈥� gold had 80.0, bronze had 61.3).

The final day, April 10, was the Big Air comp 鈥� one of MacKinnon鈥檚 favourites. The day brought cooler but better conditions. The event was a best of three, which allowed for bigger risk-taking by the athletes 鈥� and it was apparent. Many were pushing hard, driven by the high level of competition. MacKinnon did a Switch 720 for his first trick, which scored really well. He then did a 900, getting an even better score, and for his third trick tried a Switch 900, which went well until just after landing, where he spun out a bit.

The announcer went wild after seeing the Switch 9 (but not the spin out), and in the end it was Mavik鈥檚 second run that again earned him a silver medal. He scored 95.3, while gold scored 96.0 and bronze 90.0. MacKinnon had missed gold by a mere .7 points.

Along the way, MacKinnon made a few new friends at the Championships.

鈥淚t was pretty great because most of the kids, like, knew each other and they all like, took me in,鈥� he related.

For MacKinnon, the season is almost over.

鈥淲ell basically, yeah, but at Sima there鈥檚 still, I think, one more weekend. And then the season is basically over,鈥� he said.

As for what he does at Mt. Sima, 鈥淚 usually practice stuff because that鈥檚 basically what I like doing,鈥� he stated.

鈥淗e skis park, park, park all day long. He鈥檚 very dedicated to the jumps and the rails,鈥� related the elder MacKinnon.

MacKinnon spends most of his time at Coyote Park, the advanced terrain park.

鈥淗e does hit everything, but the scale for the competition was kind of scaled down for that age group. He鈥檚 able to hit everything at Sima. We鈥檙e also very lucky to have 鈥� sometimes he goes to a place like Whistler and is disappointed ... we鈥檙e very graced with a world-class park here, really,鈥� said Sean MacKinnon.

Young Mavik found that Whistler has smaller features in it鈥檚 snowboard park.

鈥淚t was nice because on smaller features I can do more tricks, so smaller features are better.鈥�

MacKinnon likes action sports.

鈥淚n the summer, I mountain bike and I like trying new stuff.鈥�

MacKinnon does most of his mountain biking downhill.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just downhill that he likes,鈥� added his dad.

鈥淗e likes very technical trails, with the way they鈥檙e built these days 鈥� purpose-built ... with rollovers and wooden structures that you either roll over or hop off of.

鈥淪ima has at least four to six purpose-built lines there and three or four of them are pretty technical,鈥� added the elder MacKinnon.

He added 鈥淲e feel fortunate to have Mt. Sima as a home base and particularly with the quality of the terrain park there.鈥�

Mavik also goes mountain biking at Mount McIntyre, which is right behind their house, as well as at Montana Mountain near Carcross.

As for the young lad鈥檚 future, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to be a professional freestyle skier but I don鈥檛 know how possible it is. It鈥檚 probably one of my goals,鈥� he said.

鈥淢ore realistically, I鈥檇 like to compete in the Canada Games, but I鈥檇 also like to compete in like, the X-Games or the Olympics.鈥�

鈥淗e would like to do more provincial competitions, like this one he just completed,鈥� added the elder MacKinnon.

鈥淚鈥檓 not part of the club here, except in Whistler, we got a coach for the week I was there. I got some coaching there,鈥� said MacKinnon.

鈥淚 think it would be fair to say he would like to end up in Freestyle Yukon ... he could register but for now we鈥檙e self-training and being accommodated by other clubs just to compete. You have to be club-affiliated and have a coach to work with a team,鈥� said Sean MacKinnon.

Since MacKinnon isn鈥檛 affiliated with Freestyle Yukon, he competed under a Freestyle Whistler club affiliation at the B.C. Championships.

The elder MacKinnon doesn鈥檛 give his son any formal coaching.

鈥淏oth his parents are passionate skiers as well, in all disciplines, so that鈥檚 part of where his roots come from. We help and guide and support but we鈥檙e not really coaching.鈥�

鈥淗e has been in the past, and will be in the future, most likely (in Freestyle Yukon),鈥� added MacKinnon.

The MacKinnons are hoping Mavik can get a spot on the Freestyle Yukon development team next year. The age group for that level is 12 years and up.

Of course, the young MacKinnon has his heroes.

鈥淭here鈥檚 Etienne (Geoffroy-Gagnon) who鈥檚 now a professional freestyle skier,鈥� said the young MacKinnon.

Geoffroy-Gagnon is a local freestyle 麻豆社区that competes for Team Canada and lists his club as Freestyle Yukon.

Swedish freestyle skier Jesper Tj盲der and Swiss super麻豆社区Andri Ragettli are another two of MacKinnon鈥檚 heroes.

In addition to being a freestyle star, Mavik MacKinnon would also like to be a videographer or a photographer someday.

-With files submitted by SEAN MACKINNON