Bend teen snowboarder makes U.S. rookie team

This past week local Bend snowboarder and MBSEF Full Time rider Nate “Duder” Jacobson was invited to be on the US Snowboard Halfpipe Rookie Team.

This esteemed nomination came from many years of hard work culminating in an amazing season for the 16-year-old athlete.

Nate started riding with MBSEF at the age of 7. He started competing in the local USASA Enter the Dragon series when he was 8 and at age 10 started winning many of the competitions, qualifying him for the USASA Nationals.

At age 12 years things started to click and Nate landed his first 720 at Mt. Bachelor, boosting his confidence and eventually leading to a 3 rd place halfpipe podium at USASA Nationals in the Breaker Boys (12-13) age division. He began training full time with the MBSEF Competition team at age 13 and started competing in the USSA Revolution Tour series.

Over the past three years, Nate has developed into a talented rider. This last season and a half has been one of leaps and bounds for Nate in his progression in the sport.

At the end of last year, Nate qualified for the finals at USASA Nationals in the Open Class division for Halfpipe. He placed 6 th in a group of Olympic hopefuls including one of this year’s Olympians Taylor Gold.

This momentum carried into this season earning him a spot in the Burton US Open Halfpipe Qualifiers at Seven Springs, PA where Nate laid down a successful first run which was good enough to hold onto 6 th place and earned him a spot at the US Open in Vail, CO. He continued his success on the USSA Revolution Tour making finals in the first 2 stops and grabbed a 3 rd place podium at Mammoth, CA.

After Mammoth, Nate competed in Vail, CO in the Burton US Open. For snowboarders this event is comparable to the Olympics and X-games with a field of International riders and multiple Sochi Olympians. In Nate’s first year at the event he showed composure and skill boosting 18 plus feet out of the pipe with a stellar run, for which he was rewarded with a 22 nd place finish among the top pipe riders in the world.

He finished his season off with a bronze medal in the USASA Open Class Nationals halfpipe in Copper Mtn, CO, standing on the podium with local rider and former MBSEF athlete Australian Olympian Kent Callister.

Nate is the son of Brad and Mari Jacobson and has a sister Brandi a senior at Summit High School. Congratulations to Nate for making the US Rookie Snowboard Team!