I am locally sponsored but i need more support to become on an international team of a snowboarding company.

by Andrew El Khoury
(Beirut, Lebanon)

I started off skiing at the age of 6, and started off snowboarding at the age of 12. i am now 21 years old and locally sponsored by Burton Lebanon, and Sports Experts. I used to be a backcountry freerider and by that i mean i shred some extreme lines. Snowboarding has been my passion ever since i was a kid. The problem in our resorts is that there is no proper maintenance, we do not have parks, we are sometimes kicked out of the slopes just because we build kickers to jump off; however, we managed to become what we are now. Our snow condition is very bad because we only witness 2-3 days of powder and other than that its all icy snow as hard as a brick. I, for one along with my team have managed to become on of the best riders here. We are freestylers and we all so have a snowboarding school. Our ambition is to make it to bigger and better sponsors and to be able to have the video parts that we deserve and I'm talking some sick mountains like AK, BC, Kamchatka, Andes(Chile), and a lot more. We also want to be on the contest side. We're all in our early twenties and i have been in meetings with Energy Drink representatives. They were really good with me and my team but they told me that I'm too late because of my age. I do not believe that age has to be a standard here. I wasn't lucky enough to be born in a country that has the perfect snow season with the perfect conditions and the perfect resorts. I am trying to make it out of Lebanon. Me and My Team(Technical Riding Crew) have been training non stop with whatever that we have here and we were able to master it so I'm kinda sure if a sponsor put us on some kick-ass mountain with lots of powder we are able to do a lot more.

As for injuries, icy snow here has been hell for us, even with all the protection, I've managed to dislocate my shoulder, injure my waist, my leg, and neck. i had to go back then to the hospital. but as for now i might encounter some injuries while trying new tricks but I'd still get up with all the pain that i am suffering just to hit a jump a couple more times just to get a trick perfectly done.
I, for one, don't want a huge company to directly sponsor us but i would love and appreciate to see some support. my email is andrewkhsixx@gmail.com for those who would like to contact me. I am Andrew Kh on fb. and my instagram is andrewsixxkh