Olympic Zone: Ferguson brothers embody snowboarding culture

Ben Ferguson, a 23-year-old Bend native, came within 2 points of the podium at Tuesday night’s men’s snowboard halfpipe final, finishing fourth.

He’s no stranger to being close — he narrowly missed qualifying for the Sochi games four years ago. Since then, he and his brother Gabe, who joined him this year in PyeongChang after barely missing the cut for the U.S. team, have been riding all over the world.

The goal was not actually to medal in the Olympics — that’s an added bonus.

“It’s not an end goal, by any means,” Ben said. “It’s more of like a stepping stone.”

Instead, Ben and Gabe represent the true culture of the sport.

“Me and Gabe, we’re snowboarders,” Ben said. “We love to snowboard. We love being in the back country and riding pow. The whole vibe. We’re not just up there to win medals.”

There are few better places to do that than the slopes of Mt. Bachelor, where the Fergusons got their start.

They credit their dad for putting them on this track.

“When I was like, 6, he took me up to Mt. Bachelor for the first time, and I’ve kind of been doing it ever since,” Ben said. “Gabe was 4, I think.”

“Yeah, I started skiing at 3, and then the whole family boarded,” Gabe said. “So I switched over to snowboarding at 4. I don’t remember learning how to snowboard.”

They also give big props to their mom, who they said sacrificed a great deal to get them to this point.

“My mom would take us on road trips, because Bachelor is an amazing freeride mountain, but it’s never really had the sickest halfpipe, I would say,” Gabe said. “So my mom would just take us for a couple weeks and we’d go down to Mammoth or Tahoe or something.”

The two brothers were on a fast track from the minute they first strapped in.

“We were both sponsored at a pretty young age,” Ben said. “I think I was 10 when I got hooked up by Burton, so it was always a dream of mine to be a professional snowboarder. I was getting the gear and everything, and we were going to all the contests and doing pretty well.”

After barely missing the cut for these Olympic Games, Gabe will keep an open mind as the 2022 Games get closer.

“I’m definitely going to keep riding,” he said. “I don’t know how long I’m going to keep riding halfpipe, because every snowboarder’s dream is to get out there, film a video part, just be in the mountains and ride pow all year.”

Before the 2022 Games, you’ll see plenty more of the Ferguson brothers. They’ll be on the X-Games circuit, and if you don’t watch that, you still may see them riding at their favorite spot — Mt. Bachelor.