A ‘really cool thing’: Snowboarder, 11, making his mark
Even as Brady Bulino swapped winter gear for baseball mitts, he was already thinking about the next snowboarding season.
Even as Acton’s Brady Bulino and his family were spending spring break transitioning from winter gear to baseball mitts and cleats, thoughts of the next snowboarding season abounded.
“The kids’ excitement for winter was all still there” during a spring break visit with “winter family” in New Hampshire, Brady’s mother, Laura Bulino, told The Acton Bridge in an email.
“They saw Ragged Mountain, pointed out their favorite trails, and wondered which still had enough snow cover to make it down,” she wrote. “They talked with friends over dinner about what tricks they are going to work on next winter and who they are going to ride with — and yes, they are already signed up for the 2026-27 Freestyle Ski and Snowboard program.”
That enthusiasm has manifested as early success for the Willard Elementary School fourth grader.
Brady, 11, is ranked 17th in the nation in snowboarding and was among 45 competitors at the national championships for 9- and 10-year-old “grommets,” held at Copper Mountain in Colorado — before his April birthday.
“It was a really great experience,” Laura said in an interview from Copper Mountain just before flying back to Massachusetts with her family. “I’m really proud of [Brady]. He worked really hard. This is only his second year competing, so he’s put a lot of work and a lot of effort into it.”
Brady was 4 years old when his parents first put him on skis at Ragged Mountain resort in Danbury, New Hampshire.
“It was a year before Covid started,” said Luke Bulino, Brady’s dad. “It got him used to being on the snow at the mountain, making turns. The next year Covid hit, and we switched over to snowboarding. It was a nice activity to get outside and do stuff.”
Brady took to snowboarding, preferring it to skiing and, at age 7, asked to join the competition team at Ragged Mountain.
Rocky Mountain high
Brady said he was amazed by the expansive views of Copper Mountain from the starting gate, compared with the more modest mountains of the East Coast.
Competing in three events, Brady finished 33rd in boardercross, which has snowboarders race directly against each other down a narrow course with jumps and turns; 16th in the giant slalom; and 12th in the slalom.
“Personally, I like the giant slalom best,” Brady said. “My snowboard is really good for that. The course wasn’t too icy, and I had really good wax and really good edges, and it never slipped out.”
Luke, a lifelong skier and snowboarder, prepares his son’s board the night before a competition. During the competition, Brady’s coach from Ragged Mountain, Peter Thorndike, handles any adjustments to the board.
“The boardercross course was three times longer than any one I’ve ever raced in, but it wasn’t icy; it was perfect conditions,” Brady said. “The slalom was kind of icy, mostly ice, but I’m used to that because of the East Coast.”
Thorndike, who graduated from the famed Stratton Mountain School in Vermont in 1996 and competed in snowboarding in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, runs the youth competition program at Ragged Mountain. He described the resort as a “neat little community,” with about 25 kids in the program.
‘One of the best’
“Brady is one of the best kids we have,” Thorndike said. “He’s there almost every weekend. He loves snowboarding. As a coach, that’s what you like to see — somebody who loves the sport. Those kids who love what they’re doing are the ones who are going to succeed.”
Brady is a multi-sport athlete; his favorite depends on the season.
“In the winter, it’s definitely snowboarding,” Brady said. “In the fall, it’s football. In the spring, soccer or baseball.”
This spring, it’s both: Brady will play baseball in town for the Padres and soccer with a club team, Strikers United East.
Before leaving for Colorado, Brady was both excited and nervous about going up against the best in the nation in his age group, saying it’s a “really cool thing to do,” and that he hoped to do well. Now that it’s over, he’s satisfied with his performance.
“I think it went really well,” Brady said. “I think I maybe could have done a bit better, but I made a lot of new friends, and it was really fun. I hope to keep getting better and keep competing.”
