Young Buchan blazes a trail in freestyle skiing world

BEHIND Murray Buchan’s house, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the Pentlands loom large, the hills seeming to start in his back garden. Covered in snow, they made quite an impression, and Hillend Ski Centre looked like Chamonix. Sort of.

The diminutive Buchan, the British freestyle ski champion in his age group and one of the top five in the UK in any age group, answers the door and sticks out a paw. He is shy but assured, and he is unfazed by the experience of being interviewed and photographed. He takes it all in his short stride, which is not bad for a 13-year-old.

Unsurprisingly, Buchan started skiing at Hillend five years ago when he was eight. Many start a lot younger, but he was a reluctant convert, only succumbing after much cajoling by his skiing-mad parents. He didn’t want to do anything that might detract from his number one sporting love, rugby.

Only now, in fact, has rugby become "a close second" to skiing. He still persists with the unlikely combination and today he’ll be pulling on the No.9 jersey to turn out for Boroughmuir RFC in their Scottish semi-final. Then - from muddy rugby pitch to pristine white slopes - a week today he will find himself in a completely different environment: Laax, in the Swiss Alps, contesting the Orange British Snowboard and Free Ski Championships and defending his British title.

He’s not your typical 13-year-old. Nor is he your typical freestyle skier. "My dad wanted me to ski so we could go away on holiday," he explains, "so I started with lessons at Hillend. But I hated it to start with. I didn’t enjoy skiing at all and just never wanted to do it. But now I’m making a career out of it."

Indeed he is. Buchan is dubbed Britain’s "youngest professional skier". Of course he still attends school but he is also part of the Line Skis/Nike ACG team. "I was ten when I really started to like skiing," he says, in a manner suggesting that this seems a lifetime ago. Which it probably does.

"I had done race training but when I saw other people jumping at Hillend I tried to copy them and that’s really how I got into freestyle skiing. By 2001 I was taking it quite seriously and I got some sponsors. Then they went bust. So I wrote to Line and they started sponsoring me in 2002. Since then I’ve also picked up Nike ACG. It’s freestyle that I love. I didn’t enjoy the race training. I didn’t really see the fun in it."

A year ago Buchan enlisted the services of a coach, Chris Asquith. Again, this illustrates a maturity that belies his age: he recognised the need for a second opinion and went out and sought help. Asquith lives nearby and is able to come to Hillend and watch Buchan practice his "360s, 360 grabs (inside and outside of the foot), straight 720s, ‘unnatural’ switches and blindside 180s". Much of his training, however, is in the back garden on his trampoline, where he can perfect these moves and try out some new ones.

"He’s so good that he just needs reassurance, really," says Asquith. "There are young American guys maybe doing more impressive things but for a British skier he’s absolutely phenomenal. It’s worrying to think that he’s been at the forefront of the British freestyle scene for the last few years - and he’s only 13!

"He has so much potential and if he gets time to concentrate on the sport then he’ll fulfil that," Asquith continues. "What is in his favour is that he learnt the basics through race training first; that has given him a platform. A lot of kids just go and throw themselves off jumps, but most good skiers have a history of ski racing, or race training - and Murray is a very good skier. He’s quiet and quite shy; he realises he has talent on skis but he doesn’t get carried away with it."

In this respect he doesn’t match up to the stereotype of the freestyle skier. Yet Buchan insists that he’s comfortable being part of this scene. "It’s a different crowd but everyone’s very chatty and friendly. It’s definitely a different atmosphere to the racing scene, where everyone’s so focused and determined to win and they’re just focused on themselves. I like the fact that in freestyle skiing everyone talks to everyone else, no matter how good they are.

"Rugby is different too and I like the aggression in the sport. When you’re competing in freestyle skiing you have to be very focused but then when it’s over you have a good laugh."

After defending his title at the Orange ‘Brits’, Buchan has another engagement to look forward to: a three-week American tour with Channel Five. He is one of half a dozen British skiers selected by the TV channel to feature in seven half-hour films to be broadcast in the coming months.

Longer term, Buchan says his dream is to be a professional skier. "I’ll have to choose between skiing and rugby at some point," he states, "but now, while I’m still at school, I can do both."