If you’ve ever stood on the back of a boat and watched the wake peel away, you know the feeling of freedom the water gives you. But for Ryan Dodd (@rdodd260), that feeling isn't just about gliding on the surface, it's about leaving it entirely.
At Shuswap Ski & Board, we are stoked to support some of the best athletes in the world, and few names carry as much weight (or catch as much air) as Ryan Dodd. He’s been a @Shuswapsnb team athlete for over a decade now, and to us, he isn’t just a sticker logo on a ski or a name on a leaderboard; he’s a close friend.
From the flooded cow pasture to the most prestigious podiums in our sport... Ryan’s story is the kind of grit-and-glory tale we love. He didn’t grow up training on a tropical coast; he grew up in Olds, Alberta. In fact, his start in the sport came from training on a lake his father famously dug out of a flooded cow pasture on their farm.
That prairie work ethic propelled him from chilly Alberta mornings to the top of the world stage. Today, Ryan is a legend: a 5-time IWWF World Jump Champion and the current World Record Holder a feat that underscores his decade long dominance of the skys. On Canada Day in 2017, he launched an astonishing 254 feet (77.4 meters). To put that in perspective, that is nearly the length of a football field... on skis!!!
What impresses us most about Ryan isn’t just the 28+ professional wins or the pile of gold medals from the Masters or being named WSWC’s Male Athlete of the year nearly a dozen times, it’s his resilience. A few years ago, Ryan suffered a life-threatening head injury, including a skull fracture and brain bleed, that would have retired most athletes. Instead, he fought his way back to health, returned to the ramp, and proceeded to have one of the most dominant seasons of his career. Whether he’s stopping by the shop in Calgary or hitting the water, he’s always pushing the sport forward and encouraging the next generation of jumpers.
Ryan represents the pinnacle of what’s possible when you combine talent with the right gear. Beyond competing, he’s a businessman and the founder of Stealth Gloves, a high-performance brand used by many top-tier skiers.
If you want to see what makes Ryan tick, check out his feature on The Locker Room in the video below. He sits down with Aj Ramos to dive deep into the highs and lows of professional jumping. It’s a masterclass in mindset for any young rider looking to go pro, discussing what he’s learned from the sport and how he applies those lessons to his personal life.
