The Far West Ski Association (FWSA) is honored to announce its 2026 Snowsports Builder Award recipient is Henri Rivers III, President of the National Brotherhood of Snowsports (NBS). The award will be presented at the Awards Banquet on June 13 at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley, California during SkiCon 2026. The FWSA Snowsports Builder Award is
presented annually to an individual who has made an indelible, positive impact on snowsports.
Henri Rivers is a native New Yorker, and an avid skier and outdoor enthusiast for over 50 years. His credentials include: professional ski instructor, certified master teacher, eastern alpine trainer, and children’s specialist. In addition, he is a U.S. Ski & Snowboard alpine coach, jury advisor, referee, official and United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) coach. He has coached in the alpine race program and the skier cross program at Windham Mountain in the Catskill region of New York since 2001.
An engineer and project manager, Rivers is the founder of Drumriver Companies, a New York-based renewable energy company. He joined the National Brotherhood of Skiers in 1996, and has held many positions within the organization. As club President of The International Sisterhood of Skiers and Athletes, the first international NBS club (Negril, Jamaica), he moved on to become the Mid-West Regional Competition Director, coach for the national team of NBS and Olympic Scholarship Fund Administrator. In 2016 he was appointed the National Competition Director, and in 2018 elected NBS Executive Vice President. The Western Region of NBS partnered with the Far West Ski Association as a member council in 2018, to increase cultural awareness in snowsports and create opportunities to educate and expose member clubs and councils to diversity, equity and inclusion concepts.
Henri Rivers was elected National President of the NBS in 2020, and drove to change the name to the National Brotherhood of Snowsports in 2022, to welcome all snowsports disciplines and confirm inclusion of all members. He was elected to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Foundation Board of Trustees. During his first term of office, 2020-2024, Team NBS grew to 29 athletes in multiple disciplines. Henri grew the NBS sponsorship program in both number and amount of
sponsorships. Club membership increased to 58 clubs and the winter outreach programs grew to 13 clubs with a grant budget just under $500,000. Henri was the inaugural recipient of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Award in 2021. NBS partnered with Women of Winter (WoW) and the Professional Ski Association of America – American Association of Snowsports Instructors (PSIA-AASI) and offered 12 scholarships for the 2023-2024 season to the NBS membership to obtain a PSIA-AASI Alpine or Snowboard Level 1 instructor certification. Serving his second four-year term as NBS President, 2024-2028, NBS welcomed the Nubian Ski of the United Kingdom, as a Charter