Ian
Lockey

From snowboarding, mountain biking, to surfing, Ian Lockey’s life has always revolved around enjoying sports and going fast. At age 25, a serious crash while snowboarding in his native New Zealand resulted in a severed spinal cord and minor head injury. Lockey is now a standing paraplegic with 50% use of muscles from the waist down. As he says, “It has left me a little physically different, but no less amped or keen.”

Lockey grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Rossland, British Columbia, 12 years ago. He got involved with the Canadian Snowboard Federation Adaptive Snowboarding Program in 2006 and hasn’t looked back. He has, he says, “had the privilege of helping to make history and watch the program grow as the younger athletes find out about and join the program.”

Performance highlights include first overall at the 2009/2010 USASA Nationals, third in the 2010 Para Snowboard World Cup at Mont-Tremblant and third in the 2009 Para-Snowboard World Championship in New Zealand. He also competed at the 2011 Winter Adaptive X Games at Copper Mountain, USA, though a shoulder injury kept him from finishing.

In May 2012 it was announced that snowboarding would be included in the Sochi Paralympics in 2014. Lockey, who competed at those Games placing 21st in the snowboard cross, called this “a dream come true for me and my fellow teammates, adaptive athletes and all those who have supported us along the way!”

PERSONAL

FAMILY: His father Frank and brother Ross were both provincial champions in golf in Auckland, New Zealand. He thanks his wife Natasha Lockey for years of unfaltering support.

GETTING INTO THE SPORT: Won a silver medal in his first para-snowboard race in 2006 at the BC para-nationals Sun Peaks BC (first ever competitive event). 

ODDS AND ENDS: First job was as a milkman… hobbies include gardening, snowboarding, mountain biking. He is a mountain bike coach and co-founder of Kootenay Mountain Bike Coaching. He owns and operates Kootenay Mountain Shuttle, a ski/mountain bike transport company.

Lockey describes himself as: stubborn, committed, aggressive.