Kade Martin of the Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team is the first athlete for the 2026 Zions Bank 'On the Rise' series.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s “On the Rise” series, presented by Zions Bank, highlights athletes throughout the season. Through community service, sponsorships and charitable donations, Zions Bank is committed to fueling economic growth and enhancing the quality of life in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.
Securing his career-first nomination on the halfpipe pro team for the 2026-27 season, Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team’s Kade Martin is one to watch heading into the next Olympic quad.
With 11 World Cup starts to his name, Martin's best result came at the 2026 Calgary Snow Rodeo, where he punched a ticket to his first career World Cup final and earned a respectable 11th place against the best in the world. Later in the season and back on home snow, Kade took back-to-back wins at the Mammoth & Aspen Nor-Ams to secure a personal World Cup spot for the upcoming year.
Known for boosting huge out of the pipe, Martin's determination to succeed at the highest level of the sport is what sets him apart from his peers. Always composed yet intensely focused, his work ethic is primed to take him to the next level in his young career.
Martin's younger brother is 2026 Olympian Ollie Martin, who competed in snowboard slopestyle and big air in Milano Cortina. The two are each other’s biggest supporters and enjoy mountain biking, skateboarding, motocross and playing with their cats when they’re not strapped to their snowboards.
We caught up with Martin at the start of the off-season to discuss his goals and aspirations as he heads into his first season on the Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team pro team roster.
Q: What initially drew you to the sport?
KADE MARTIN: My mom and dad were both snowboarders, so naturally, I became one as well. I was also lucky enough to live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, so of course, I either had to ski or snowboard.
Q: When you were younger and getting into the sport, what were your goals?
KM: All I wanted to do was to be a pro and win all the competitions. I looked up to the pros and imagined what it would be like to be them. I really didn’t have any goals for new tricks I wanted to try.
Q: What is your biggest accomplishment?
KM: My biggest accomplishment is paving the way for my younger brother, Ollie, to be a snowboarder as well, so he could eventually ride better than me.
Q: What is your ultimate goal?
KM: My ultimate goal within the sport is to go to the Olympics, but after that, I want to live a life where I can snowboard for as long as I can. Outside the sport, I want to be an airline pilot or an astronaut and travel the world or explore unknown places. (And of course make lots of money!)
Q: Who are your heroes? Both in & out of the sport.
KM: My biggest heroes in the sport are Scotty James, Travis Rice and Arthur Longo — I’ve looked up to them for a long time. Outside the sport, my heroes are still my parents and my cat, and very unrelated to snowboarding: people like Neil DeGrass Tyson and Hank Green, who have shaped the philosophies that I live by every day.
Questions sponsored by Zion's Bank.
Q: You win $5,000 in prize money: What do you do with it?
KM: Definitely invest it and save it for my future.
Q: Do you budget or follow any structure related to spending?
KM: The main spending-related structure I follow is that I put any money I don’t need to spend in my brokerage account to save it. This helps me cut costs and save money.
Q: What’s one money habit you follow?
KM: A big money habit that my mom taught me was that whenever I really wanted something new, I should wait a week or two and see if I really wanted it. This has helped me numerous times in not making unnecessary purchases of things I wanted in the moment.
Another habit is the “price-to-value ratio,” I like to call it. Basically, what thing has the best value for your money, and if that value is enough to justify the cost. I also applied this to training camps, for example. I wasn’t going to do the Mammoth spring training camp because I couldn’t justify the cost for the results I have seen in the past.
Keep up with Kade on Instagram, HERE!
