James Streater - Head Coach and Business Owner

The driving force behind Maverix is to help riders to be the best they can be at a sport they truly love. There’s nothing like seeing someone’s face when they achieve that first turn or a trick they might have been working towards for ages. It’s that expression of surprise mixed with a real sense of achievement. You can almost hear the thought ringing in their head “I never thought I could do that”.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most gifted of athletes. My physical education school reports talk of trying to get away with minimal effort, I guess I was more interested in having fun than making a mark as an athlete, so it is surprising that I find myself heading up a coaching company.

For my sins I started snowboarding late, which has meant that every ounce of progression has been a tough and creative battle, yet that has given me a unique perspective and acts as a source of inspiration to riders and coaches that developing skills older in life need not be painful or a waste of time.

For me, making a change from a secure and planned career path was not an easy one, but I kept going round in circles. There was something about snowboarding that provided a constant challenge and release from day to day life. You strap on your board and it’s you battling against yourself to achieve something new. Even as a Marketing Manager for a major IT consultancy in London I never found that level of adrenaline and challenge.

After numerous years teaching part-time in the UK I chose to focus all my energy on getting some decent snowsports qualifications and seeing what I could achieve. After completing some foundation BASI exams I headed to the states for a hardcore two seasons where I trained hard and got my ISIA qualification. That meant I could teach anywhere in the world (except France in the winter). I was all set to head back to the USA when the visa crackdown in 2008 started and my planned role at Heavenly in Tahoe fell through. I was gutted.

It meant I was stuck in the UK. Luckily I secured a teaching position at Milton Keynes SNO!zone, but with my mums home base in Essex and the wages being so low I had to resort to sleeping in my Peugeot 205 in various car parks around Milton Keynes to make ends meet and claiming tax credits.

That’s when I sat back to review where I was at. I needed a solution. I had a great bunch of skills, loved snowboarding, but had little money coming in. I had run the Burton Progression freestyle camps at my resort in the states, and they were great fun. Yet in the UK the best on offer was a crowded, over booked academy night. That is when I came up with the idea to develop my own freestyle courses.

My initial plan was to run a few events in the winter providing an all-day freestyle coaching course. The first of its kind on the UK to provide a bit of extra cash to help things along so I could get out of the car and rent a flat. I remember thinking, that if I get 4 clients a month I’ll be sorted.

I developed a basic web site, planned out the session and got the go ahead from SNO!zone. I posted a link on SCUK to see what would happen. Luckily a good friend of mine (Maddie) had some training with me at SNO!zone previously and she sang my praises on the forum. The first course was an instant success. I had to pull in another snowboard coach as we ended up with 16 people on the first session.

Since those early days I never took that initial success for granted. I had been given an opportunity and I was not going to let it pass me by. I want to create the most comprehensive and professional coaching package in the UK. This has resulted in us being the first to offer instant online booking, online videos of courses, top level course photography and smartphone apps. This is on top of having one of the strongest UK based coaching teams.

Yet I feel this is just the beginning of what we can provide for you…

Primary Snowsports Qualifications

Level 3 ISIA Snowboard - 2008
Level 3 ISVI Snowboard - 2010
Level 4 Snowboard Coach - 2010

Additional Qualifications and Positions of Interest

Head Freestyle Coach for the Royal Air Force Snowboard Team
Herts County Council Coach Mark Certified 2011
Level 3 BASI Teaching - 2010
Level 2 BASI UK Freestyle Snowboard Coach - 2010
Level 3 BASI Off Piste Mountain Safety - 2010
Level 2 AASI Freestyle Accreditation 2008
Level 2 BASI Snowboard - 2006
Level 1 BASI Ski - 2007