MY STORY
After High School, Maxwell was offered a coveted instructor position with a new snowboard program and moved to Bethal, Maine. There he joined a team working on the first “perfect turn” instruction manual program at Sunday River. Those years of snowboard instruction laid the foundation for his teaching style today.
Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Maxwell was always wanting to be outside and looking for adventures especially in Winter.
It's no surprise that in 1986, as a young teenager, he found snowboarding. The small hills of Maine were perfect for learning this new activity. His learning curve happened quickly. Through self-teaching, he learned to link his first turns one afternoon and was catching air by the first week.
Always looking for the bigger hill and longer ride, a small group of friends requested and gained access to surface lifts at the home ski hill, Pleasant Mountain. Throughout high school, the weekends were filled with snowboarding nonstop. Before long, he was entering local race contests hosted by the famous Sunny Breeze snowboard shop.
Quickly gaining mountaineering experience, skills and avalanche education, Maxwell positioned himself at the forefront of splitboarding.
He was the first snowboarder to complete all Avalanche Level I, II and III training with American Avalanche Institute.
He founded the first snowboarder-focused avalanche program in North America.
He has been featured in various publications from National Geographic to Transworld Snowboarding.
In 1993, Maxwell moved to Utah. Upon first sight, the mountains in the West were awe-inspiring, like nothing he had ever seen.
One fateful encounter put Maxwell on his path to splitboarding. He met Brett "Cowboy" Kobernik on New Year's Eve 1995. Brett suggested Maxwell go down to Voile and inquire about this new backcountry snowboard system they were calling the "splitboard" DIY kit.
The years that followed, Maxwell found his true calling. After each winter in Utah, he traveled to the Pacific Northwest to continue his pursuit of the endless splitboard winter. Washington, Oregon and Alaska became annual pilgrimages.
From 1995 to 1998, Maxwell began a quest to summit and splitboard solo the "Pacific Ring of Fire" from Mount Baker to Mount Shasta. Many of the ascents/descents to this day are considered a first for splitboarding.
Most recently, from 2018-2022, Maxwell helped build the Cardiff Snowcraft brand as a core team member. Over the past 5 years, he held the position of Director of Education, Events and Outreach. He created instruction and learning programs: teaching backcountry essentials, splitboard skills and splitboard 101 courses with the Utah Avalanche Center.
Currently Maxwell is owner of Utah Adventures Unlimited featuring experiential education and adventures, such as The Winter School in Utah. He is a ASA certified sailor, AAI Pro 2 certified, N.O.L.S. WFR certified, travels the globe as a splitboard athlete/ambassador and ticks off his ongoing list of the 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America.
