A Love of Snowboarding Begins Here.
A Love of Snowboarding Begins Here.
Snowball Effect helps resorts create kids snowboard experiences that build confidence, fuel participation, and turn first-time families into lifelong guests.
Snowball Park is a turnkey, mobile, play-based learning environment that’s easy to deploy and simple to operate. It’s designed to help resorts introduce kids to snowboarding in a fun, confidence-building way. Instructors lead learning and progression, while Snowball adds engagement and imagination, creating joyful first experiences that increase participation and bring families back.
Why Resorts Choose Snowball Park
Snowball Park’s portable, modular design makes it easy for resorts to extend the experience across disciplines, spaces, and seasons, maximizing ROI beyond a single program
Designed to Scale Beyond Snowboarding
While Snowball Park is built around kids snowboarding, its modular, portable design allows resorts to adapt the environment for skiing and other youth programs, as well as off-snow and offseason use.
Building Kids Snowboarding Pathways Around the World
25+ Countries · 1.5 Million Miles · 100+ Resorts
From first-time experiences to long-term participation, Snowball Effect work has helped introduce snowboarding to kids across diverse cultures, communities, & resorts worldwide.
Expertise: Extensive leadership in youth snowboarding and winter sports, with a proven record of designing first-time experiences that build confidence, joy, and long-term participation.
Reach: Over 1.5 million air miles traveled supporting resorts, schools, and communities across 25+ countries, bringing snowboarding to kids in diverse cultural and learning environments.
Impact: Collaborated with hundreds of resorts and ski areas to create scalable, play-based pathways that help kids start snowboarding and want to come back.
Global Perspective: Deep understanding of how kids learn, play, and progress on snow, shaped by hands-on experience across global markets, resort models, and community programs.
This experience is the foundation behind Snowball Park, designed to help every resort confidently introduce kids to snowboarding.
Success Stories
GRIT ‘N SNOW
This 2023 NSAA Award Winning collaboration was started at Mountain Creek when they collaborated with The “Y” in Lakeland Hills, NJ, the Mental Health Association (MHA), and Peapack-Gladstone Bank to develop a unique twist on the Riglet program that incorporated Mental Health components. The inspiration and goal was to help youth build resiliency (GRIT = Growing Resilience In Time) and to introduce kids to snowboarding, first inside the Lakeland Hills “Y” gym, and then take them to Mountain Creek’s slopes so they could apply those learned skills on the snow. Going into it’s second year, all GRIT Instructors received training from the MHA as Youth Mental Health First Aiders.
RIGLET
Burton Riglet products and programs are a game-changer for kids snowboarding. The Burton Riglet Reel, Riglet Park, Hover Cover and the Riglet K-2nd physical education program, kids snowboarding has never been easier! This was Boliba’s mission when he got to Burton in 2000, to break down as many barriers as possible for kids and to carve a path for creativity and innovation to happen globally. By empowering parents and teachers to introduce kids to snowboarding as soon as they fit into the Toddlers’ Mini Grom 7C kids boot, the smallest of kids are able to be introduced to snowboarding anywhere at anytime.
THE STASH
In 2003, Jake Burton Carpenter asked Boliba to help bring innovation and creativity to the way resorts were building terrain parks. His vision was to inspire more riders to explore the entire mountain and for resorts to utilize more of the natural features and habitat at resorts. This innovative Stash program launched in 2006 at Northstar at Tahoe and helped resorts progress park building, run design & the utilization of more natural materials. Stash Parks are located at a few select resorts globally and blend components of freestyle riding with flowy all-mountain lines for a snowboarding experience like no other. Learn more at the Discover section of the Burton website. The Woods are the Goods!
Testimonials
