Boden Gerry, a Falmouth native and senior at Carrabasset Valley Academy, has earned a spot on the U.S. national snowboardcross developmental team. Photo courtesy Carrabassett Valley Academy
One of the keys to success in the frantic sport of snowboardcross is how quickly can you process chaos? How fast can you switch your brain from muscle memory cruise control to sorting through how you’ll handle that next turn, the next jump or those fellow competitors catching an edge and falling directly into your line?
Boden Gerry sorts through that chaos better than most. That’s how he earned the opportunity he’s taking now, a spot on the U.S. national snowboardcross developmental team. The 17-year old Falmouth native and senior at Carrabassett Valley Academy will go to Park City, Utah for physical testing on July 30, before heading to Chile in mid-August to compete in four races. Gerry wants to accumulate points early in the season. Riders must be ranked in the top 80 in the world on the FIS points list to maintain their spot on Team USA. Gerry is currently ranked 60th.
Boden Gerry of Falmouth finished first in three consecutive NorAm Cup races in March. Photo courtesy Carrabassett Valley Academy
“I’ve been striving for this since I was a little kid,” said Gerry, who has been snowboarding competitively for eight years. Two years ago, he decided to specialize in boardercross after trying slopestyle and slalom events, too. Snowboardcross is the perfect combination of the other riding disciplines, he said.
It also helps that Seth Wescott, who won snowboardcross gold at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, is a Carrabassett Valley native who is eager to help local riders improve and grow the sport.
“When the blueprint is right in front of you, it’s easy to follow the plan,” said Freddy McCarthy, CVA’s snowboard program director and Gerry’s coach.
McCarthy and Gerry met when Gerry was in seventh grade, and the coach was immediately struck by how much the young rider wanted to make the U.S. national team.
“Boden, he’s an internally driven kid. I’ve never seen someone want something so much and work toward it. He’ll snowboard four hours with me for training, then go to school, then go to the gym. He’s dedicated to this goal.”
Gerry and Wescott are close, and have ridden together since Gerry was 8. Last year, before the season began, Wescott invited Gerry to his home, where he let the young rider choose a few of his old boards to ride. Most of them were boards Wescott used in training runs, including at the Olympics.
“Those served me very well,” Gerry said. “(Wescott) was stoked to see me on the podium with his boards.”
Whether he was riding Wescott’s boards or his own, it was a season of learning how to race against top competition. Gerry’s goal was to make podiums (top-three finish) in NorAm races, and he did that. Gerry took first place in a NorAm Cup race close to home at Sunday River on March 2. That was the first of three consecutive first-place finishes for Gerry. One day later, he took first place in an FIS race at Sunday River. On March 12, he placed first in an FIS race at Horseshoe Resort in Ontario.
Gerry said he and Wescott talk about snowboarding a lot.
“The best advice he’s given me is come back from a hard day or racing and not taking it super personally,” Gerry said. “That lets you learn from your mistakes rather than dwelling on them.”
When he’s on the course, Gerry tries to keep his mind clear and trust that the work he’s put in training will pay off. Unless there’s a specific course feature, a jump or a turn, if he has his line locked in, Gerry’s not thinking about anything other than how the snow feels underneath his board.
There are times that experience he’s gaining helps immensely. In a late-season race in Italy, Gerry was in fourth place and boxed in with no room to try to make a move. But he could see the two riders directly in front of him pushing each other. Garry instinctively knew he didn’t have to do anything. He processed the chaos.
“I hung back and let them fall, and I passed them both,” Gerry said.
Competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, is probably not a realistic goal, Gerry said. He’ll only be 21 in 2026, and that will be a hard push. Making the U.S. national team’s pro team by then is what he’s striving for. The 2030 Olympics, at a site to be chosen next year before the summer games in Paris, are on Gerry’s radar.
McCarthy appreciates Gerry’s personal timeline, but said he wouldn’t rule out anything.
“Everything seems like a long shot until you pull the trigger,” McCarthy said. “Now that he’s riding with kids who are even better than him, I expect him to level up. Boden has that clutch gene. I think he’ll just keep getting better.”
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