Matty Cox's first trip to the snow came as a family bonding opportunity two decades ago. Little did he know that it would set him on a path to one day becoming a Winter Olympian.
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But that's exactly what the Stanwell Park talent has achieved after being named in Australia's snowboarding team for next month's Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Cox will compete in the snowboard slopestyle and big air disciplines and it's a dream come true for the 23-year-old, who first strapped on a snowboard when he was just two.
He took part in his first official competition as a six-year-old and would go on to make his World Cup debut as a teenager in 2015, placing 29th in the half-pipe. The following year, he started regularly competing at World Cup events, and three years later finished fifth in the big air discipline at the Cup in Cardrona, New Zealand.
Cox has continued to compile impressive results and will enter February's Games full of confidence after placing 10th in the big air at last year's World Championships in the Aspen, US.
However, Cox's journey to competing at world events began from humble beginnings.
"His mum moved up to Coffs Harbour when he was five and when he came down, I thought if I took him down to the snow - because I used to take him when he was two - I could have a one-on-one connection with him, so we'd go down to Thredbo during school holidays. He started doing inter-schools and he did well, and he then got to go to a couple of Australian championships," Cox's father Steve said.
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"When he was 13, he decided he wanted to be a snowboarder, so we took him over to America and left him in a snowboarding coaching clinics. It was hard, he used to ring me up saying 'I miss you', and I'd say 'come home then', but he'd say 'no, I don't want to come home'. He started going over there for Christmas holidays but then stayed for extended periods of time, doing international coaching schools.
"He now can't wait to represent Australia (at the Winter Olympics), and his main goal is even higher. He wants to be the best snowboarder in the world, he's always said that. It's big ambitions, but you've got to have dreams."
Headlining the Aussie snowboarding team is reigning Olympic silver medalist Jarryd Hughes. 2018 Australian flagbearer Scotty James will compete at his fourth Games, while it will be Belle Brockhoff and Cam Bolton's third Olympics, and Emily Arthur and Adam Lambert's second. Cox will debut alongside Josie Baff, Adam Dickson, Valentino Guseli and Tess Coady.
"This is a snowboard team I know Australians will be incredibly proud of," Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic Team for Beijing, Geoff Lipshut said.
"These athletes have performed at the highest level on the world stage and is a great mix of experience and youth."