Wintertime snow in Iowa usually brings complaints from those who have to deal with its presence — but for the ISU Ski and Snowboard Club, when it snows, it’s time to celebrate.

Four-year club member Reid Morris said the snow puts him in the mood to strap on his skis and do some tricks.

“It might as well be warm if there isn’t going to be any snow on the ground. It’s useless weather if it’s cold and there is no snow on the ground,” Morris said.

The ski and snowboard club practices three or four times a week at Seven Oaks Ski Resort near Boone. With more than 200 members involved, it’s one of the largest clubs on campus. Despite the size of the club, there are only 17 people competing this year: one freestyle skier, seven ski racers, five freestyle snowboarders and four snowboard racers.

Morris, senior in marketing, said the competitions aren’t for everyone.

“We have a lot of recreational members. They want to get better or just learn how to ski and snowboard. They just want a group of people to ski and snowboard with,” Morris said. “Also, we have some guys that ski but are not able to do competitions because of their schedules.”

Although there are a few first-class resorts in or near Iowa, Morris said the best resorts are in northern Minnesota or Colorado.

“We took about 115 members to Copper Mountain, Colo. over Christmas break,” Morris said. “It was a very successful trip, and we all had a lot of fun.”

On Jan. 15 and 16, the first freestyle competition of the year was held at Fun Valley in Montezuma. Morris earned first place in both the slope-style and the half-pipe freestyle skiing competition. In the freestyle snowboard men’s division for 18- to 19-year-olds, John Hines placed first in slope-style and second in the half-pipe.

Last weekend, competitions were also held for the freestyle and race teams at Snowstar in the Quad Cities. Morris and Hines also took high honors. Morris earned second in the men’s ski slope-style, while Hines recorded a fourth-place finish in the 18-19 men’s snowboard slope-style.

Freestyle skiing is fairly new to Iowa. The club spends time grooming the freestyle terrain at Seven Oaks. The terrain contains metal railings, making freestyle skiing and snowboarding similar to another extreme sport.

“Freestyle competition is like skateboarding on railings. We do the exact same thing, except on skis,” Morris said.

The race team had their first race of the year in La Crosse, Wis., during the weekend and came out with promising results. Ross Eberlein, freshman in pre-architecture, finished 29th out of 111 racers. Also competing for Iowa State were Mike Bray, who finished 50th, Joe Brockman, who came in at 69th, and Adam Kehoss, in 82nd. The team score was good enough for eighth place out of 15 teams.

The race team is somewhat new to the club, and Morris turned to Bob Shuman, senior in mechanical engineering, to help get it up to snuff.

“We really wanted to get the competitive racing team going,” Morris said. “It was something that we had in the past, but it kind of fizzled a little bit. I thought it would be good to have both competitive freestyle and racing teams.”

“I joined to race,” Shuman said. “Reid needed some help with the race team because he was doing freestyle, so I offered to help him.”

Shuman is also a member of the ISU Waterskiing Club. The Wisconsin native said the sports are similar and he uses snow skiing as a crossover sport.

“I snow skied for four years in high school,” Shuman said.

“This year, I just want to have fun. I don’t care if I win. It doesn’t help that I haven’t been [snow skiing] for three years. It’s been too long.”

Both teams compete in nearby venues: Seven Oaks in Boone, Fun Valley in Montezuma, Snowstar in Davenport and Sunburst in La Crosse, Wis.

On Feb. 12, a freestyle competition will take place on Welch Avenue between Chamberlain Street and Lincoln Way. The first Campustown Rail Jam will be open to anyone. It will include freestyle skiing and riding on the rails.