Flying through a slalom course, crashing through gates at more than 50 kilometres per hour, this 16-year-old Bala teenager doesn’t need a licence so much as a finely tuned pair of skis to drive him from A to B.

The Cranberry cowboy, or North Johnston to his parents, is a young skier to watch for in the future since moving up a step from K2 to the FIS (Federation International de Ski) this past year.

Johnston isn’t necessarily Superman, standing at five-foot-10 and weighing 165 pounds, but he’s made a giant leap and is on his way to realizing a childhood dream of skiing for Canada on the world stage in the World Cup.

The oldest of four children, Johnston, who is an honour roll student at Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School (BMLSS), is a model of determination and focus. He remembers his first race at eight as the start of it all.

“I think I fell three times on that run. I’d fall and get up, climb up the hill (to get to the gates missed) and ski another three gates and then fall again. I would climb up again . . . I became so frustrated and determined that I was going to finish that run,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave it at doing bad. I was determined to get better at it.”

A self-proclaimed, all-or-nothing kind of guy, who loves the technical discipline of slalom and just “loves to whack the gates,” Johnston goes all out no matter what the course or the conditions.

His aggressive style hasn’t come without challenges. In a sport where the balance of success and disaster stands on the edge of a ski, the risk of injury is always there.

Both he and his parents are aware of such dangers. This past year he suffered his hardest crash, suffering a concussion during a training run at Georgian Peaks Club on Rogers Run, just prior to the new year.

“It was these awful conditions. There were tonnes of mogul sort of cement packs, really dangerous. I figured, you know what, rather than complaining (about them) and side-slipping the hill, I’m going to give it full-out 100 per cent. I thought it would help my technique. The next thing I know I’m on my couch at home going what the hell just happened?”

He added he doesn’t remember the 90 minutes before the crash and four hours after.

“It took me a bit to get myself back to training that course. The first time I tried to train there, it took a lot out of me to just look down (the run),” he said.

The injury left him off his skis for six weeks with nothing except schoolwork to occupy his time.

His mom Wendy Hogarth understands the dangers, but trusts her son.

“The kids have to live with that reality. Ultimately his coaches say, ‘Get over it. Be all in or go home.’ When you’re going those kinds of speeds, doing downhills, you can’t be tentative. He’s had a bit of a taste of that. He’s learned to overcome it,” she said.

Although the teenager has yet to post any significant racing results, he believes he is progressing and making the necessary strides toward his goals. He finished the season in the top 40 for points in the giant slalom and slalom disciplines in Canada.

Johnston’s concussion tested his resolve and it frustrated him to know his team was racing while he was catching up to regain everything lost during his six-week layoff.

When he started racing years ago, he remembers psyching himself up, yelling and screaming at himself in the start gate.

“I remember I used to growl in the gate,” he said.

Last year a coach told him to calm down and relax because he was trying too hard and was “jamming each gate”.

“It took a bit of convincing because it was a lot of fun, yelling, screaming and stomping my feet,” he said.

One race he took his coach’s advice to the extreme by getting to the start gate with poles and gloves off and boots unbuckled. He stepped into his bindings in the gate with just 30 seconds before the start.

“I made sure I didn’t panic. I slowly put my gloves on. Then they said 10 seconds so I did my boots up. Then three, two, one and by that point I had my poles on and kick-started and went. I didn’t have any time to think,” he said.

Despite his coach’s misgivings about the approach, Johnston is considering the idea as a regular method for starting, since his finish was “pretty good” and he has never felt so relaxed.

His best finish was last year when he won a K2 Collingwood Series slalom race at the Alpine Ski Club.

His method to improving is simple, though.

“You look on the positive side. You look at the runs you did well at. You ask yourself what did I do differently from the run before? You try to, rather than dwell on mistakes and amp yourself and get frustrated, work to move forward off of it,” he said.

Looking for that perfect run, like any racer, is on his mind and keeps him driven.

Armed with a little notebook, he makes notes from every run, describing what worked and what didn’t to apply to the next race.

When you have two avid skiers for parents, skiing is practically a birthright. Johnston started skiing when he was two years old. At 10, he started in the Nancy Greene Ski League when his love of racing blossomed, said his dad Murray.

When he joined the league his parents thought it would refine his skills and allow him to meet children his own age.

He added the Greene program held an emphasis on enjoying the skiing rather than focusing on the races.

Murray has been the regular driver, logging thousands of kilometres every year, delivering his son to training and picking him up after from the Collingwood area.

In the off-season he works the family farm, working the acres of cranberry marshes famous to the Bala area at Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh. Most of his earnings go toward the training and equipment costs for the ski season.

When he has finished with racing, he is looking forward to taking over the family farm.

Sometimes his dedication and fervour for the sport has left his parents in disbelief.

“Wendy and I look at each other sometimes and say, ‘where did he come from?’ All joking aside, we’ve helped him, but a lot of it is him. He knows what he wants and goes for it,” his dad said. “For him, it’s not about just winning. It’s about being out and engaged in it and learning. The winning is a nice bonus, but it’s not the reason why he is there.”