The Aspen X Games is a very big deal if you’re a top-level snowboarder like local rider, Lucas Foster. It was a moment he’d been waiting for all his life.

Wednesday night the 20-year-old Tellurider stared down the massive, brightly lit superpipe at the Buttermilk ski area, its curved walls marked with blue lines and ready for each rider’s hits. Snow fell, not ideal for half-pipe competitions. His parents, Stephannie Van Damme and Steve Foster, and a coterie of vocal supporters waited breathlessly at the bottom. It was time.

In what could have been a nerve-wracking experience, the preternaturally calm and collected Foster shared what was going on in his head before he dropped in for the first of four runs in the elimination round for the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe.

“Actually, I was not that nervous,” Foster said. “I was feeling confident. I just wanted to do the run as best as I can. I felt excitement and gratitude for being there. Not too much pressure.”

He’s not being in the least ironic.

Foster was one of five X Game rookies in a field of 12 riders. The event’s format was a 45-minute time span in which the competitors would get in as many runs as possible — in this case, the swift execution of the round allowed for four runs each — with the top five riders moving on to the final round. In that round, those riders were be joined by last year’s three podium finishers. The goal for each run was to show the judges a variety of tricks exhibiting varying degrees of difficulty and style, with as much height as possible and with as many hits (the takeoff point on a half-pipe) as a rider could pull off within the length of the halfpipe.

Though he finished at the back of the pack, Foster was philosophical.

“A lot of the time, it doesn’t go your way,” he said. “I couldn’t land a full run. Just being there is a great milestone. I mean, it’s a cliché, but it’s more about the journey than the destination.”

Foster’s long-time skateboarding mentor and coach, Craig Wasserman, has known Foster since he was “grom.” Wasserman owns The Drop, a vibrant hub on Oak Street (below Taco Del Gnar) for local riders, and conducts skateboarding camps throughout the summer. In Foster, Wasserman has observed and worked with, a young person who possesses not only the raw talent for the sport, but who also keeps a laser focus on his goals.

“When he was really young he said, ‘I’m going to be a pro snowboarder,’” Wasserman said. “He has exceptional natural talent. He’s shown that since he was tiny.”

Training for the sport has its challenges, Wasserman said, and the necessary training encompasses not only the physical aspect, but mental toughness, too.

“He’s undergone lots of training for both his body and his mind,” he said. “He’s learning to deal with the pressure and learning to calm his mind, his body, his breath.”

Foster’s mother, Stephannie Van Damme, said that her son is “very obsessive,” throwing himself completely into whatever interested him. As a child, Foster delved into his interests with focus and intensity, whether it was acting, Harry Potter or motocross.

“But then, snowboarding took over,” Van Damme said. “It’s all he thought of.”

Van Damme said competing in the X Games was her son’s longest-held goal. The X Games, she said, is “the snowboarder’s Olympics.”

“My hope was really that he was just enjoying himself,” she said of his first X Games appearance. “He’s worked his whole life for this.”

And he’s clearly put in the effort.

“He’s willing to work hard,” Wasserman said. “He’s got the drive and ambition and incredible natural talent.”

And, also being a highly skilled skateboarder, Wasserman said, “gives him an edge.”

“He’s a kid who makes good choices,” Wasserman said, citing the example of Foster eschewing late night hangs with his buddies, knowing that early morning workouts would suffer if he did so. “He has all the ingredients.”

Being invited to the X Games, Foster said, “meant a lot.” Living in Telluride presents its challenges for top level snow sport athletes, so making it to Aspen this year was significant.

“There’s no clear pathway to get to this level (living here),” he said. “Without resources in Telluride, to get to this point, there are a lot of hurdles to jump.”

Though Wednesday night’s results were not what Foster hoped for, there’s a lot he’s looking forward to before the season winds down. He’s traveling to World Cup comps in Mammoth Lakes and Calgary — competing against the same group of riders — and the US Open in Vail.

“Just snowboarding and chasing snow,” Foster said. “Life goes on.”