Sunburnt and stoked: Val Guseli feels the love in Nonno's Garden

Perhaps a bit too much of the latter if the peeling face and itchy back are anything to go by.

After the champion snowboarder returned home from his incredible efforts at the Winter Olympics, he grabbed his surfboard and hit the local breaks.

Then on Saturday, February 28, a sunburnt Guseli met with fans at his grandparents' nursery in Bodalla, Nonno's Garden.

He signed autographs, chatted with fans young and old, and caught up with family before taking off on his next snowboarding adventure - Japan.

ACM sat down with Guseli to learn more about his recent exploits.

He said he enjoyed the chance to get back in the ocean with his surfboard, despite the sunburn, and also loved catching up with Nonno and Nonna (aka Guido and Glenda Guseli).

Guseli said he was really feeling the home-town support, which saw Dalmeny changed on a lot of street signs to "Valmeny", and kids at the local schools wearing green and gold and donning curly-haired wigs to cheer on the Olympian.

"I'm really feeling the support from home and everyone coming out today.

"It's pretty awesome. I definitely saw lots of that stuff online and I'm super honoured that the community has supported me so much. All I want to do is just make them proud, you know."

At the Milano-Cortina Games, Guseli placed fifth in the snowboard halfpipe competition and 10^th in the big air, an event he was called up for only 24 hours prior.

"When it was confirmed, I just knew I wanted to make the most of it," he said.

"I was super stoked to kind of do the best riding that I'd done on a jump in a long time and make it through to the finals, and then really have a shot at getting on that podium.

"I think if I landed my last jump, I probably would have been there, but that was a trick I'd never landed before.

"In that moment you just have to go for it. I was proud that I went for it and have no regrets."

Guseli said he put everything he had into his runs at the Olympics, he just wished he had landed his "best stuff".

"But even after a massive injury took me out of the sport for eight months, and then in the biggest competition of every four years that I was that close to being there is a good indication of what's possible.

"I'm looking forward to the next few years of trying to be up on the top step."

Guseli is known for his altitude on tricks in the halfpipe. In 2021, he broke a long-standing world record when he reached a massive 7.3 metres above the coping (which is itself about 7 metres above the pipe floor).

At the Olympics he was also hitting heights of more than 6 metres above the lip.

So what goes through his mind when he's 14 metres in the air?

"The best thing you can do is not use your brain, basically," he said with a chuckle.

"When you think about it, it gets too complicated - how technical and how minimal the room for error you have.

"So what I try to do is just not spend too much time up there thinking about it and just drop and go for it, and trust my body to do what I've taught it to do over 17 years of practice."

And he's not done yet, with the sport renowned for athletes always improving and throwing down something new in competition.

"Our sport's constantly evolving, so I'm looking to be one of the people that's pushing it forward."

Guseli said the team environment was amazing, with the Australians having their best-ever Winter Olympics results in terms of medals.

Among the gold medallists were Cooper Woods from nearby Pambula Beach, and Josie Baff from Cooma.

"Josie is a crazy one because I've known her since I was probably six," Guseli said.

"Her dad was Peter Baff - he's a bit of an Aussie legend among all the snowboarders, and he's the person who told my dad to take me overseas to pursue a career in snowboarding.

"Now Josie's got a gold, and it's insane that someone you grew up with is winning a gold medal.

"Hopefully, we can share that experience after the next Olympics."

Before hitting those slopes in France in four years' time, Guseli said he had his eyes on plenty of other prizes in the meantime.

"I think after the Olympics it's nice to kind of keep meaning in your life. I don't know what I would do if I just didn't have anything to work towards anymore.

"So I'm actually going to Japan on Monday to go and do another World Cup, and then I'll do a bit of training over there as well.

"Then after that I'm going to go back to Europe for some more World Cups. So the season goes on and I'm looking forward to it."