The intellectual property lawyer (62) from the United States is a part-time Wanaka resident and grandfather of three, and is the oldest competitor in the Burton New Zealand Open.
He is proud to represent his country at snowboarding events around the world.
It has been a long trek to the top for the masters athlete, who took up the sport only 10 years ago and hated skiing when he first gave it a go as the father of a young, ski-mad son.
Yesterday, Schulze did not make it past the competition's qualifying round, despite accomplishing the alley-oop and a frontside 360.
His half-pipe turns were moderate in comparison to the rotations achieved by his youthful high-flying peers but Schulze was not daunted.
There were 64 on the qualifying list and only the top 19 went through to the semifinals on Saturday to compete against 20 professional riders on the invitational list.
"I was really concentrating on trying to get altitude but I wasn't doing terribly well," he said.
Schulze doesn't expect to win; just getting selected to ride has provided him with enough highlights to keep talking about the sport he loves for a lifetime.
"I started 10 years ago. At that time I never really thought much about it but I found young people were pretty amazed," he said.
He instantly loved snowboarding, despite his earlier dislike of skiing, and at the end of his first season he was sad that he had to wait another five months for winter.
In 1999 he was thrown an opportunity.
The company he worked for, Hewlett Packard, split into two companies and he was appointed to a management position in the Asia-Pacific region for one of the off-shoot companies, Aglient.
Schulze planned a trip that took in a week's holiday in Wanaka, which coincided with a week-long whiteout, which he loved.
So he bought a house and has come back every winter since.
His New Zealand experiences prompted him to take on a secondary career as a snowboard instructor in the US, but despite qualifying at home it took another six years before he was able to obtain a New Zealand instructor's qualification, which he finally passed last last year.
Last year, he also left his full-time job and now works part-time with the US law firm Holland and Hart.
In 10 years of snowboardingl Schulze has had just one serious accident, injuring the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
He now wears body armour while competing and, after a particularly heavy crash several years ago, is glad of the decision.
Otherwise he is in perfect health - since taking up snowboarding he has also run 12 marathons.
Schulze's first application to ride in the NZ Open was unsuccessful but last year he was put on the bottom of the waiting list.
He never believed for a moment he would ride but several athletes did not turn up and, to his amazement, his name came up.
"I didn't believe it was going to happen so I didn't go to the practice," he said.
He crashed and got "banged up a bit" but, undaunted, he applied and was accepted on the waiting list for Burton's Australian Open.
Again, he didn't think his name would come up, but it did.
The same thing happened in Switzerland, Japan and the US.
Before he knew it, he'd competed in all five events of the global open series and had spent a fortune.
But he also had sponsors and teams anxious to take him on.
"Because of my age, I drew far more attention then my riding skills deserved," he said.
The top men's qualifier in the qualifying rounds at the NZ Snowboard Open at the Snow Park yesterday was Brennen Swanson (US), while Jiayu Liu, of China, dominated the women's field.
Paula Mitchell, of Wanaka, was the only New Zealander to qualify yesterday and will join her pre-ranked compatriots Juliane Bray, Kendall Brown, Mitchell Brown, Ben Stewart and James Hamilton in the semifinals later this week.
The competition continues today with slopestyle qualifying rounds.
