Gabe Ferguson grew up snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor ski area, following his older brother Ben around the mountain.

“That’s basically how it still works,” says Gabe, 13.

Now Gabe has followed Ben, 17, all the way onto the U.S. Snowboarding Rookie Halfpipe Team. The brothers from Bend make up a quarter of the eight-member rookie team, a sort of feeder squad for the U.S. Pro Halfpipe Team.

While Gabe has made a name for himself in the halfpipe, he admits he got noticed because he is Ben’s little brother.

“They (U.S. coaches) saw me riding, especially because I’m always with Ben and he’s on the team,” Gabe says.

Gabe, the youngest member of the rookie team by nearly two years, found out this past spring that he was selected for the squad. Ben is in his second year on the team, coming off a stellar 2011-12 season during which he won the halfpipe event and finished second in slopestyle at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Austria.

“It’s good to have him around,” Ben says of Gabe. “Last year I definitely wasn’t riding with him as much, and I’ve got a good traveling buddy now, so it’s good, for sure.”

Ben started snowboarding at Bachelor when he was 6. But Gabe started when he was just 4.

“He’s really talented,” Ben says of his kid brother. “It’s always kind of been easy for him. He’s had natural talent forever.”

The Fergusons have spent the past three weeks training with the team in the halfpipe at Copper Mountain, Colo.

Halfpipe snowboarders are judged on the difficulty, execution and amplitude of the aerial tricks they perform as they soar in and out of the U-shaped pipe.

Ben is qualified for the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Jan. 9-11. The first Grand Prix event, originally scheduled for this Friday and Saturday in Park City, Utah, was postponed until Feb. 1-2 due to lack of snow. Just 10 U.S. riders receive invitations to Grand Prix events, which include some of the country’s best halfpipe boarders, such as two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White.

Gabe is not yet old enough to compete in the Grand Prix events, so this season he will take part in the Revolution Tour, a halfpipe and slopestyle circuit for riders who are not invited to the Grand Prix.

Gabe, who takes online middle school courses so he can be free to snowboard, says he developed his riding style by following the model of his big brother.

“He goes big and he’s got good tricks,” Gabe says of Ben.

Ben says he often gives Gabe tips and advice, but Gabe can be a bit stubborn, according to their mother, Jennifer Ferguson, who is currently in Colorado with her sons.

“He (Gabe) doesn’t like to be told what to do, especially by his brother,” Jennifer says. “But Ben has definitely helped him.”

Adds Ben: “Sometimes he doesn’t take the advice too well, but when he listens to me, usually I can help him out.”

Ben, who attended Bend’s Mountain View High School, has earned a GED diploma and will begin taking classes at Westminster College in Salt Lake City starting in May. All members of the U.S. Snowboarding Team get a free four years at Westminster to earn a degree.

For now on the mountain, Ben is focusing on perfecting more double-cork tricks, which involve two off-axis (diagonal) flips. The double-cork maneuver has become a must to place high in elite-level halfpipe contests. And Ben has a long-term goal of one day making the U.S. Olympic team.

“I’ve been working on some new double corks and trying to go higher and just ride stronger: powerful, stylish and smooth,” Ben says.

While Gabe looks to Ben as a role model, Ben says he tries to learn from several different snowboarders, including some Bend pros who make their living free-riding for snowboard films rather than competing.

“There’s so many good snowboarders out there and so many different things you can take from each one of them,” Ben says. “I definitely look up to some of the pros from Bend, like Austin Smith, Curtis Ciszek and Josh Dirksen. They just free-ride. In the long run, that’s definitely what I want to do. But right now I’m super focused on contests and everything.”

And his little brother is right behind, emulating him.