There’s an old joke that illustrates just what it takes to excel in an area of interest.

A guy was wandering the streets of New York City, looking for a famous building that he couldn’t find. Finally he asks a stranger, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice,” came the smart-ass retort.

Practice never hurt anybody trying to excel in music – or in sports, for that matter, as Corey Farber’s recent success in snowboarding attests. Farber, a Grade 11 student at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Academy of Toronto’s Richmond Hill campus, finished first in Level II of giant slalom snowboarding, the highest for his age group, at a recent competition that brought together the  very best high school snowboarders in the province, under the auspices of OFSAA, the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations.

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He scored top marks in the giant slalom, beating his second place challenger and he flamed out on the second of two runs, by nearly three seconds.

A week later, Farber finished ninth in the Snowboard Ontario PSL Provincial Championship, competing in the open category against guys years older than himself.

And next week he’s slated to compete in the Alpine and SBX Nationals in Quebec.

All that success didn’t just happen. Farber, 16, loves his sport and dedicates lots of time and energy to it. On weekends he spends much of two days on the slopes of Blue Mountain, training with the other members of the Alpine Ski Club.

Back at CHAT, he works out with the help of his gym teacher, focusing on balance and strengthening his core. He’s got a gym in his home and once a week a trainer shows up and puts him through his paces, working on leg strength, core and conditioning.

Now in his third year of competitive snowboarding, Farber has seen the hard work pay off. Besides winning the OFSAA event, his ninth place finishes at the provincials, in both slalom and giant slalom, marked a significant improvement over his results last year, when he finished 14th.

“That’s a pretty big leap,” he said.

Slalom and giant slalom races take place over courses of the same length, though there are more gates to navigate in slalom races. There were 20 gates to passing the OFSAA giant slalom and he did it in around 36 seconds, going past a gate just about every two seconds.

That’s where the experience of previous competitions comes in, Farber said. Every course is different, conditions can vary and so you’ve got to make corrections as conditions dictate. You’ve got to feel your way around the course, keep your head up and look ahead at least a gate or two. “You can’t be late on the turns,” he said.

When he first started with the sport, “it was a little nerve-racking to turn the board,” he said. “As the years go on, you get more experienced and learn how races work and what you should do. It really is in technique. The smallest of errors can cost you the entire race.”

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Farber got his start on the slopes at seven years of age. After a couple of years on skis, he switched to snowboards. “It’s new, so all the kids want to try it… We thought it was much cooler.”

As Farber vaults into provincial and national levels, he finds the sport takes him further and further afield. He’s skied competitively in events in Colorado, British Columbia and across the province.

But why stop there? Last year, he missed out on making the junior national team by 25 points. He figures he could make up that difference by improving his performance in as little as three races. Once on the national team, the sky’s the limit.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics. It would be just amazing if I could represent Canada,” he said.

And unlike the guy looking for Carnegie Hall, he knows how to get there – through practice.