Calgarian part of 1st Canadian team to play on snow volleyball world tour

Volleyball shakes off the sand and tries out being a winter sport Calgary's Claire Crossfield is working out at Winsport to prepare for life playing winter volleyball in Europe. Glenn Campbell reports.

Calgary — Looking up at the ski hill at Winsport, one doesn’t exactly think about playing volleyball.  But for Calgary’s Claire Crossfield, it’s the perfect spot.

That’s because she’s getting in a final snow volleyball workout before heading overseas to play for Canada in the Federation International Volleyball World Tour.

Crossfield says it’s super exciting.

"I have some friends that I play against on the U.S. team. It looks amazing and they love it," she said.

"So when Canada said they were willing to send a team, I was the first one to say, 'this is something I would totally like to do'."

Snow volleyball has been big in Europe for about a decade.

Claire Crossfield

It’s hard to believe with our climate it hasn’t caught on. But Crossfield is hoping to change that. This is the first Canadian team to be sent to compete on the world tour.

Crossfield will be joined by Jaelyn Visscher of Edmonton and Kumi Chow of Vancouver.

Crossfield says it’s an honour and privilege to represent your country.

"I’m super excited to go," she said.  "To be the first, hopefully we represent Canada really well.”

So what is the difference when you play volleyball in the snow? Well, number one you have to wear warmer clothes. And Claire says you also have to have different footwear.

"The real difference is you’re not playing in your bare feet and you’re not playing in your court shoes. We have cleats on so we don’t slip."

Another cool thing about the world snow volleyball tour is all the games are played at ski resorts. First stop on the tour for Crossfield and her teammates will be Kayseri, Turkey from March 12 to 15. Then it’s off to Austria.

And you never you, the tour may even come to Calgary. Winsport says they’d be interested in hosting an event in the future.