Christophe Lavigne, VP of Engineering and Design at Groupe Beneteau Americas, on his family of skiers and snowboarders

A perfect winter weekend starts with 8 inches of fresh power on a Friday night. As passionate skiers and snowboarders, my wife, three boys and I spend plenty of time at our local ski resort, Caberfae Peaks.

My youngest son started skiing at 18 months old (a day Mom was in Grand Rapids shopping). Now at 4-years-old he is skiing totally by himself.

Our other son, Leo, learned to ski in Canada. Now an active member of the Cadillac High School ski team, he is fast, agile and impressive on a slalom course. This year, he won multiple ski races despite not weighing very much. As much as he likes racing, he is also a scary (for his mom) free ride skier. Both he and his brother Elliot, our middle child, won the Big Air contest!

Elliot is my snowboarder. He is also a member of the ski team and the only snow boarder on the team. He races with the skiers and free rides on the snow board park with his friends. His best day this year: winning the Big Air contest.

And myself…well, I learned to ski in the Alps in France and Switzerland. It was great, the mountains were marvelous. While we don’t have mountains like that here, I still punched my ski card more than 30 times last winter! To follow my kids, I learned snowboarding a few years ago and I loved it.

I truly appreciate the skiing and snowboarding opportunities you have in Cadillac. From a family oriented resort to a thrilling competition oriented race team, it is a lot of fun.