He was born south of the border in Chihuahua, Mexico. At age 12 he moved to Utah along with his parents and discovered his passion in the snowy mountains around Park City.
"We didn't have too much money, but I worked every summer and saved, just to be able to buy my pass and my gear for the winter," said Uriel Ruvalcaba, 20.
Ruvalcaba, a resident of Orem, was one of the participants on the first stop of the 2011 North Face Masters of Snowboarding, the largest big mountain snowboarding competition in the country, which was held last week at Snowbird Ski Resort.
Athletes from eight different countries gathered in Utah to be part of this major competition.
With amazing weather and 12 inches of fresh snow, the riders "kicked" a hill bathed in glorious sunshine. The crowd was cheering, blowing vuvuzelas and ringing cowbells as both men and women "went big" on Silver Fox.
"I'm absolutely blown away by the level of riding," said director Patrick Brennan on the first of two days of competition. "We wouldn't be here year after year without these talented athletes."
Josh Feliciano, 26, from Tahoe City, Calif., was one of the riders for the competition. In his 14th year practicing the winter sport, he is participating in his first Masters of Snowboarding. He believes snowboarding is more popular now than in the past.
"Snowboarding has become bigger in the last decade. I haven't seen so many people in a competition, this is my first time here and I can see that snowboarding is just more open to diversity; it's looking for different kind of snowboarders," he said.
With a field of 76 men and 40 women, Day 1 was filled with powder slashes, cliff drops and mind-blowing straight lines.
In the men's category, Josh Warnick gained the first place on the first day of competition with a score of 86.33. Matt Maloley was in second place with a score of 84.67, and Ryland Bell's run included some high speeds and a super-style 360 off a cliff that landed him in third place.
In the women's field, Mary Boddington led the day with an 83.00, followed by Salt Lake local Kaitlin Elliot with an 82.33, and last year's overall champ Shannan Yates highlighted again with an 80.33.
Of a big list of 106 riders judges measured difficulty and originality along the traversing and only 13 women and 35 men, made it to the last day of competitions. Finally only 5 women and 12 men, advanced to the super finals.
Last year's overall champion Aaron Robinson and Tahoe resident Maria DeBari achieved first place at the Masters first stop, earning a coveted Katana sword and a cash prize.
The Masters of Snowboarding will continue Feb. 6-9 at Crystal Mountain, Mich., and March 3-6 at Kirkwood in Tahoe.
e-mail: tnavarro@desnews.com