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Being a member of the Ski in Luxury team<\/a> means that sometimes you have the opportunity to meet some pretty incredible people from the ski industry, and this week was one of those special occasions.<\/p>\n I was lucky enough to be put in touch with Jamie Barrow<\/a>\u00a0who at the age of 24 is already breaking speed records on a snowboard around the globe! It was amazing to get an\u00a0insight into his story so far, and what inspires him to keep pushing on and breaking boundaries within his sport. Now Britain’s fastest snowboarder<\/a> and with an everlasting hunger to keep smashing through any obstacle that is in front of him, we give you his story and exclusive interview.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Will –<\/span> What was it like being born in Switzerland and growing up with the mountains at your doorstep?<\/strong><\/p>\n JB –<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>It was\u00a0amazing! I actually\u00a0thought from a young age that it would be good to snowboard in my back garden and\u00a0couldn\u2019t get enough of it. It was very easy for me to go to the hill on the weekends so I progressed quite quickly. However I don’t think I really ever appreciated it enough until I moved away.<\/p>\n Will –<\/span> When did your obsession with speed and snowboarding begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n JB –<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>I have always been\u00a0obsessed with going fast, not just within snowboarding. One year at the Brits (British championships, I cant\u00a0remember how long ago it was) in\u00a0Laax, they had a Garmin Challenge. This was where they\u00a0gave you a GPS watch and tracked how fast you could go. I ended up going faster than anyone else, even the\u00a0skiers. I think it was something around 124 kph. However I knew I could go faster and that is when I started looking into places to do it.<\/p>\n After an injury in January 2013 which resulted in me dropping out of the British\u00a0team in\u00a0boarder cross, and at the same time caused me a lot of pain\u00a0constantly, I still had that drive to go fast. So\u00a0just a few months after my injury I went to Verbier and set the British\u00a0snowboard speed record and from then on I was hooked and wanted to continue to find different ways to go fast.<\/p>\n Will –<\/span> Can you tell us more about your back injury in 2013 and how it changed the path you were on with Freestyle and Boarder Cross? What encouraged you most to continue to push boundaries in the sport and not give up?<\/strong><\/p>\n JB –<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>My back Injury\u00a0completely changed my path in snowboarding. It\u00a0happened during a\u00a0boarder cross\u00a0competition in January 2013. I was\u00a0doing a training run and while i was going\u00a0around a bank corner I lost my\u00a0edge, slipped out on my heel edge and crashed pretty hard. I knew straight away that i had\u00a0done\u00a0something pretty serious as I was struggling to get up. After going to the hospital they told me that I had\u00a0completely destroyed a\u00a0disc in my lower back. They went on to say that the injury was such that they\u00a0couldn\u2019t really do\u00a0anything to fix it and that I would probably be in some sort of pain for the rest of my life. They told me I would struggle to run again never mind snowboard\u00a0again. It was\u00a0devastating for me and it meant I had to drop out of the British\u00a0boarder cross team which was everything to me.<\/p>\n However, I was determined not to let it stop me doing what I love which is snowboarding. It actually gave me more of a motivation to prove the doctors wrong, that I could still snowboard. I didn’t\u00a0want to just come back and snowboard, I wanted to push myself.\u00a0Going fast was pretty much the only thing I could do due to my injury. As I was in a lot of pain I thought that if I went straight downhill for\u00a0about 20 seconds, I\u00a0could put up with the pain and set a record. So that was exactly what I did.\u00a0After that I was hooked and looked for different records I could break and I wanted to also continue to push myself despite my injury.<\/p>\n Will –<\/span> Can you tell us how you became a Lloyds TSB local hero and Sky Sports Living for Sport athletes mentor and what you enjoy most about the roles? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n JB –<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span>I can’t actually\u00a0remember how I became a Lloyds TSB local hero as it was quite a while ago but it got me into doing motivational talks. When the Sky Sports Living for\u00a0Sport program came up with the charity the Youth\u00a0Sport Trust, I saw it as an\u00a0opportunity to try to inspire others to do what they love! At the same time this was supporting me\u00a0financially to help continue doing crazy stunts in order to inspire people.<\/p>\n I think what I love the most about the program is seeing the change in the young people from when I first meet them, to the end of their program. It is incredible to see the change they go through\u00a0and they actually end up inspiring me to do more. The Living for\u00a0Sport program is great, as a charity it is free of charge for schools so it is able to touch some of the less\u00a0privileged kids.<\/p>\n Will –<\/span> What was more of a challenge, being towed by a plane, breaking the speed record in GB or riding with the electric jet engines? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n JB –<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>It\u00a0has to be breaking the downhill speed record. This is because all the other stunts I\u00a0have\u00a0done, if anythings seems like it is going wrong I can just let go at the\u00a0top or stop accelerating with the jet engines.<\/p>\n With the downhill speed record, you have a narrow track you\u00a0have to go down, and once you get going you cant really slow down\u00a0easily at those speeds without getting down to the flat bit at the bottom. As soon as you point the board down the mountain you have to be\u00a0committed and hope that nothing goes wrong. It was very scary but at the same time that was what made it so exciting and keeps me\u00a0coming back for more.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.skiinluxury.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/EPRL-16-02-364.jpg\" "\\"Born")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.skiinluxury.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/spray.jpg\" "\\"Jamie")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.skiinluxury.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/behind-car.jpg\" "\\"Need")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.skiinluxury.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/off-piste.jpg\" "\\"Jamie")
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