Do hockey moms belong in snowboarding? Pete Andersen finds out.

The dreaded "hockey parent" has been around as long as children have been involved in competitive sports. I guarantee there was a cave-mom out at the local rock-throwing court giving her kid's coach shit for not playing them enough (or perhaps giving them irregularly shaped rocks). Many a coach has cowered under the verbal onslaught an angry parent can dish out when they feel their so-called "star" child is being slighted. As snowboarding becomes increasingly competitive with the Olympic spots and six-figure contracts up for grabs, it seems that hockey parents are popping up more and more at events around the globe. It's a fine line between being supportive and destructive when it comes to an offspring's snowboard career. Let's explore this line for the sake of young snowboarders everywhere.

Ken Achenbach's Camp of Champions

Arguably the most famous snowboard mom on the planet is Hilary Achenbach, the mother of Ken Achenbach. Ken, who is widely credited with introducing snowboarding to Canada, is the founder of both the infamous Snoboard Shop and the Camp of Champions. As Ken has said many times, "without my mom and her credit card, snowboarding in Canada probably wouldn't have happened!" Hilary, a hard-working single mom with four kids, three of them boys, spent most of her winters shuttling back and forth between home and the local ski hill. And when snowboarding first reared its ugly head, Ken sprang into action.

"Like any 15 year-old that wants a snowboard," Ken explains, "I said, ‘Hey Mom can I borrow the credit card?' I picked up the phone and called Tom Sims' phone number. In the good old days you could phone up direct and get a snowboard. [laughs] I got a board and was instantly hooked, so the next day I ordered six more. That was the beginning of the Snoboard Shop!"

E-Man at Camp of Champions:

Hilary was infinitely supportive, but let Ken do his thing without being overbearing. Ken elaborates, "I can't even count how many times she has mortgaged the house to make the shop go, or to make Camp of Champs go.  That's pretty punk rock for a single mom that didn't have much to go around. She was a nurse and also sold encyclopedias to make ends meet."

Paul Rak is a certified FIS snowboard judge with over a decade of experience under his belt. Each year he also head judges ump-teen other action sports events around the world. Paul describes a "hockey parent" as, "someone pushing their kid past their ability and usually into something that they don't want to be involved in. Hockey parents are looking out for their best interest and not as much for their kid's."

Competition at COP, Calgary.

Paul has been accused of everything from bribery and conspiracy to downright sabotage by over-zealous parents. "There are always a couple bad apples," Paul explains, "but for the most part the parents are pretty good." He offers some advice to parents to keep them evolving into this hideous beast: "Meet the other parents and observe what they are doing. Realize that you can't always be right. If a kid is anywhere near being sponsored, or is sponsored, then they should get to know the team managers, but realize it is up to the kid to choose who they want to ride for. Most importantly they should give their kid advice and make suggestions but don't go making deals behind their backs."

Another super-mom in the shred world is Judy Rencz, mother to powder-phenom Mikey Rencz. "My Mom has helped me with everything," Mikey states. "She would take me and all my friends to all the local contests, she would also load up our motor-home with eight kids and drive to Whistler for summer camp, stopping at all the skate parks along the way. She even put my resume together to get a government grant so I could travel around and do contests. There is no way we would have been able to afford it otherwise. She would even book a bunch of us flights to US Open on her Credit Card points."

When asked if his Mom ever pushed too far, Mikey answers, "She never overstepped her boundaries but she definitely embarrassed me sometimes! [laughs] She is the one that actually got me my first real hook-up with Burton. Without her, it probably wouldn't have happened. She also gave me control over my sponsors and stuff once I was 16, which was really important and forced me to learn about all that stuff nice and early. I think some parents take it way too seriously and forget that it's supposed to be about the snowboarding and the fun their kid's are having doing it and not about them."

2008 Grand Prix over-all champ, and all-around shred thug, Louie Vito has been lucky enough to have the ultimate family support group when it comes to his snowboarding. He recalls how his dad Lou's own addiction to shredding helped fuel his fire.

Louie Vito's "Stay In School" pitch:

"Luckily for me he fell in love with it even before I did, so growing up he was always stoked to drive to different mountains and he took me on a lot of trips to experience other resorts," Louie says. "If he wasn't into it, I probably would've been stuck in Ohio riding the local hills until I was old enough to drive."

Always going the distance, Lou and mom Judy enabled Louie to ride every day and attain his high school diploma at the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont.  Lou, a consummate professional and businessman, handled the business side of things from day one, so Louie could concentrate on snowboarding. "My dad is really good at separating being my father from all the business stuff," Louie explains. "Eventually it all became too time consuming, so he had to get me an agent. Now my dad just kind of oversees everything, and makes sure that everything is going good for me. My whole goal with my dad, and now my agent, Todd Hahn, is too really not have to focus on the business side of things so I can just snowboard and do my thing." With a win at the first stop of the 2009 Grand Prix series the Vito master plan seems to be right on track.

Kale Stephen's mom, Diane, is another super-mom who still shreds to this day!

There are many tales of fights amongst over-zealous parents in the stands of snowboard contests, of parents ruining relationships with sponsors, and even some getting their offspring banned from certain contests altogether. Hopefully this article will help clear up the line between being a supportive snowboard parent and being a destructive one. Remember: it's all about having fun on your snowboard. Period.