
Canadian Alex ‘Bubz’ Massie had an incredible debut season in 2014-15, riding to bronze in the men’s snowboard-cross SB-LL2 at the 2015 IPC Snowboard World Championships.
His best finish before that was on home snow in Big White, where he finished just off the podium in the banked slalom.
He also reached the podium in the prestigious X-Games in 2015, winning a bronze in the adaptive snowboard-cross in Aspen, USA.
Last season, Massie finished sixth in the World Cup overall rankings.
Massie lost his left leg below the knee in a wake-boarding accident in 2011, but continued snowboarding and will now take on the likes of US Paralympic champion Evan Strong and Finnish world champion Matti Suur-Hamari in the 2016-17 World Cup circuit.
He will also get the chance to represent his country on home snow at the 2017 World Para Snowboard World Championships in Big White, Canada.
At the age of just 20, Massie is a promising prospect for his country for the coming seasons and in the lead-up to the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.
Biography
Impairment information
Further personal information
Sport specific information
General interest
At 191 centimetres tall and weighing more than 100 kilograms, he says people are often surprised to hear he is a snowboarder. Before his accident, he played ice hockey at AA minor level in Canada and football with the Barrie North Collegiate Sr. Wildcats. "I'm not the same size as most guys [who snowboard], I'm a lot bigger so I ride knowing that I'm bigger, and that I don't get pushed around out there and so it allows me to go into a corner [strong]. I try to race smart and not do risky things that are going to endanger anyone but you know, if you're in a corner and there's a guy beside me and we touch, I know that I'm probably going to ride away and he won't." (ctvnews.ca, 12 Mar 2018; cbc.ca, 14 Mar 2018)
FAMILY CREST
He wears a ring with his family crest and motto on it. "It's my family crest. The motto at the bottom is 'Fac et spera', and it means 'Do and hope'. My dad once told me when I was a little kid, it's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. So, go out there, try it and hope it works out." (cbc.ca, 14 Mar 2018)
OCCUPATION
While based in Canada during the northern hemisphere summer months, he has worked for his family's waste collection business by driving a garbage barge. "It's a business I actually inherited from my older brothers, so that's one of the kinda cool things. I live up in my cottage in the summer, and everybody that's up there lives on islands. So, there's no way really for them to get their trash to the station, and so like 40 years ago someone had the great idea that there needed to be a garbage man." (Athlete, 07 Mar 2018; paralympic.org, 19 Nov 2016)
Results
Unit | Date | Rank |
---|
Event | Medal | Unit | Date | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Men's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2015-02-24 | 3 | |
Men's Banked Slalom SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2015-02-28 | 9 |
Event | Medal | Unit | Date | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Men's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2017-02-04 | 4 | |
Men's Banked Slalom SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2017-02-07 | 6 |
Event | Medal | Unit | Date | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Men's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 | Final | 2018-03-12 | 11 | |
Men's Banked Slalom SB-LL2 | Final | 2018-03-16 | 10 |
Event | Medal | Unit | Date | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|
Men's Banked Slalom SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2019-03-27 | 6 | |
Men's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 | Race 1 | 2019-03-30 | 4 |