Be forewarned this post is huge, but it’s a topic that really means a lot to me. I decided to write my thoughts on the matter after the release of this article by Kristi Leskinen on ESPN.com advocating for smaller jumps and women only courses at major events. Read both, read neither, do as you wish, but feel free to voice your thoughts in the comments below.

In 2006 I began competing on the pro circuit. I competed in events like the Vans Cup, US Open and my first ever Winter X Games. At every single one of these events there were smaller jumps, next to the normal ones and they were always dubbed “the ladies tee”. Every event there were big debates over what should be scored higher; technicality and progression on the small kickers or clean and simple on the big jumps? How can you judge a contest fairly when a small portion of the field is hitting a different course? Almost every time there were complaints about the judging and about who won.

My entire career I’ve stood strong in my opinion that there shouldn’t be small sides at contests, even at my very first X Games I stepped up and hit the bigger jumps. Of course I was scared, but that was the direction I wanted to take my snowboarding in. In 2008 X Games eliminated small sides from the slope style, forcing every girl in the competition to hit the same jumps. There was a lot of protest in the beginning and the level of riding suffered as women adjusted to hitting bigger jumps on a consistent basis. The following year Dew Tour came onto the scene and debuted in Breckenridge with one of the biggest courses, very early in the season and with no small sides. The following two Dew Tour events also didn’t have small sides and all the ladies stepped up to the plate and made it happen. In all honestly this stunted the progression of women’s slope style for a few years, but now, four years later, we’re seeing the highest level of female slope style riding we’ve ever seen. Technical tricks and big spins on the same jumps as the boys. No more ladies tee. We’re finally getting the respect we’ve worked hard for and I couldn’t be prouder to be a female in snowboarding right now.

I guess this is why I become distressed when I see articles like the one recently written by freeskier Kristi Leskinen on ESPN.com advocating for smaller jumps and women only courses. She makes some valid points and conducted a survey polling people across skiing and snowboarding. She believes, and apparently the majority of women believe, that the jumps are too big and that girls are getting hurt more often then men because we don’t have our own course. These results surprised me because the courses this year were on point at almost every event and from what I saw the women thrived in this environment. The level was upped at event after event and the riding we saw at X Games in Tignes was by far the best from a full field of ladies ever. Leskinen also points out that all traditional sports and even some action sports offer women some sort of difference in the way their sports are run. Women golfers hit from closer distances, surfing has it’s own tour, tennis has shorter matches, girls play softball not baseball, the list goes on so why shouldn’t girl snowboarders and skiers have separate courses and separate events that are tailored to our needs? It’s a valid question, but how do these women only tours and sports differ from the men?

Women’s golf has the LPGA which is entirely separate from the PGA. They hit from closer tees and on courses that are anywhere from 700-900 yards shorter than the men’s. It’s been this way for years, as has the extreme gap in prize money. The total tour purse for LPGA in 2010 was $41.4 million while the men’s PGA tour purse was over $250 million. Women are considered too weak to play the same greens as men, their swings not fast enough or they’re game not sharp enough and there’s a thousand stats to prove it. Despite this common thought that women physically aren’t strong enough to tee off on a men’s course, they’re still allowed to play on tour if they can make the cut. A few women have tried over the years, but no woman has ever played regularly on the men’s tour. Michelle Wie hopes to change that, she’s publicly stated that she dreams of playing in the PGA Masters, one of golf’s most prestigious competitions. Michelle has it made, lucrative deals from sponsors like Nike and Sony and a place on the tour competing with the best women in the world, so why would she want to put herself into the grinder against the best men, where she’s almost certain to fail? She wants to break the barrier, she wants to be the best she can be and in turn make women’s golf the best it can be. If one woman breaks down the door, anyone can step through it.

What about women’s surfing though? It’s an action sport like snowboarding and skiing, but it has it’s own tour.  Most of their events don’t coincide, but for the ones that do, they don’t receive equal prize money. At the US Open of Surfing, Kelly Slater walked away with $100,000 for his win while Stephanie Gilmore took home $50,000 for surfing the same wave. Was what Stephanie achieved that day really worth half as much as what Kelly did when they were surfing the same spot? This year was also the first time in nearly 20 years that Hawaii didn’t host a female surf event. The Vans Triple Crown for women didn’t happen due to sponsor cut backs even though the women’s market for surf products is actually more lucrative than that for men. Roxy pulls in more gross than it’s male counterpart Quiksilver so why are the women being left out to dry? Carissa Moore was given the chance to compete against the men this year with two wild card invites to the Hawaiian Pro and the Vans World Cup, but does this solve any of the woes that women’s surfing is struggling with? It’s inspiring to see her compete against the men, but at the end of the day women’s surfing needs more sponsorship money to get itself back on track.

I guess what I’m getting at with these examples is that although these sports operate differently to cater more to women the prize money is much less as are the sponsorship dollars that go into them. It costs an incredible amount of money to build a slope style course and it doesn’t make sense economically to build two courses when the women are capable of hitting the same one as the boys and are excelling on it. If this is the road female snow sports takes and say one day we decide we also need our own tour, it’ll eventually lead to less opportunities and less money in our sport. We’ll end up like women’s surfing, watching the men from the sidelines or like women’s golf, getting paid 5x less. Why purposely turn the spotlight away from our sport when it’s inspiring so many girls to get out there and ride? Sharing a tour means more media attention and more publicity for our sports which in turn equals more opportunities for female athletes.

Of course our sports aren’t perfect, but the main issues are not female specific, they effect everyone on tour. We need to have weather days so people aren’t forced to compete in poor conditions that sacrifice our safety. The courses need to be built in the safest way possible, to benefit every rider and so they’re clearable in all conditions. It’s not a matter of size, it’s a matter of how the jumps are built. A jump can be 80 feet, but if it’s built properly then it’s just as safe as one half it’s size. Safety is everyone’s concern and injuries aren’t just happening to women. We compete in a sport that involves high risk and we all make choices every day in regards to our personal safety. It’s up to us as riders to come together and voice our opinion if something isn’t right or isn’t safe. These issues don’t mean that we need our own course or different jumps, they mean that we need to come together as athletes to voice our needs to the organizers and come up with standards that every top tier event must follow.

Female sports have been plagued  with inequality for all of history. We’ve always been considered too weak or too slow to play with the boys and not exciting enough to be marketable to a mainstream audience. Snowboarding and skiing have broken down some of those barriers and I’m proud to say that I hit the same course as the men, that I go as big as they do. The past two years have been the most exciting in the history of women’s snow sports. Kelly Clark landed the first 1080 in competition, 15 feet out of the pipe. Kaya Turski was the first woman to do a 1080 in a slope style competition, and she did it switch. Kelly Sildaru is 9 years old and already spinning 900′s. Who’s to say what that little girl can’t accomplish if we don’t put limitations on her and her talent in skiing. The gap is closing and female snow athletes are riding better now than they ever have before. I truly believe that we’re on the right path, I don’ think smaller courses are the answer and I don’t think taking a step backwards will propel the sport forward.

Clearly, I enjoy big jumps. 80 ft of amazingness, one of the best jumps I've ever hit.

Thanks for reading, talk soon.

S.

The tour was crazy this year, contests back to back all over the place. By the time European X Games came around we were all pretty exhausted and having to jump from continent to continent wasn’t making things much easier. I took off the day after slope finals at US Open with Sage Kotsenberg and Silje Norendal to Gevena for our final comp of the year in Tignes, France. Nike hooked us up with a great spot to stay and some awesome chalet hosts who also happened to be all time cooks. Tignes blessed us with insane weather, I’ve never seen any comp with weather that good. It was warm and sunny with no wind every single day, perfect conditions to ride one of the best courses of the year.

X Games only invites 10 women, so we all go straight to finals. It’s nice to only have to concentrate on your final run but at the same time 10 isn’t very many ladies so I feel like it eliminates a few girls who should be there. When I compete I want all the best in one spot, I think it helps to push everyone and makes you do your best. It’s a shame when there aren’t enough spots for all the best to be invited, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Either way we had a great crew of ladies and it was as super fun week of riding.

We competed on the final day of X Games in the perfect window, 1 pm. The course was just soft enough and the sun was shining, everyone was pretty stoked to compete. I’m going to say right now that this was by far the best level of women’s slope style riding I’ve ever witnessed or been apart of. I think almost everyone landed a run and a sick one at that, it was tough to break into the top 5 even. Jenny Jones came out for her first event of the year and rode like a champ, it’s like she never even left us! Home girl stomped the only 9 of the day, but she was lacking a bit on the rails so she didn’t place super well. Either way I was so stoked to have her back competing, she is an awesome girl to be around and such a good rider. Aimee Fuller also had an epic run going, but fell on a back rodeo! Props to that little lady this season, she’s riding well despite some injuries, a really good showing for her first X Games. Charlotte was on fire all week but it didn’t come together for her on comp day, she did throw a 10 though which was super sick! In the end it was Jamie on top, me in 2nd and Enni in 3rd. That’s kind of been the podium this year in some order or another, it’s amazing to get to ride with those two girls, they are absolutely destroying it and I’m so proud to able to stand next to them on the podium. Jamie’s run was the best run I’ve ever seen a girl do, cab 270, board slide to fakie, cab 7 tail, switch backside 5 mute, frontside 7 mute, board slide 270 out. Huge props to her on an epic season! I landed a run I’m super stoked on, I got in a few new rail tricks and got to send a front 9 on my last run. I need to work on those a bit more ha! My run was half cab 5-0 back one out, front board, back 5 melon, switch back 5 mute, frontside 7 indy and nose slide pretzel out. Ennis run was also super sick, she laid down a switch board slide to 270 out, 5-0, back 5 indy, cab 5 indy, frontside 7 mute and a front lip to finish it off. All the girls rode so good, I’m so stoked on how everyone is riding and so stoked to finally get back on the X Games podium! It’s been a long time coming! Thanks to Sam, Jon, Jan for taking care of us in Tignes and to Gunny and SPT for building one of the best courses of the season.

That’s it, that’s all! No more contest posts for this season! I am so happy it’s over, I’m pretty exhausted  and excited to shred this spring. I’ve got a few shoots coming up so check back for updates on those.

Talk soon,

S.

Following WSC, I was floored to say the least so Possum Torr and myself headed to Mayrhofen, AT for some shredding and down time before European Open. We dubbed our week our Austrian Vacation because we were both too worked to actually snowboard and ended up just enjoying Mayrhofen. Let’s just say lots of cruiser laps, sleeping in the sun, Andudlers, schnzitel and strudel went down.

Once we were done fattening ourselves up we heading via train to Laax SUI with Jamie Anderson and her boyfriend Martin for the Burton European Open. It was awesome to travel by train in Europe with a good crew. It’s kind of the stereo typical thing to do in Europe but for some reason I had never really done it. It was fun and less draining than flying. Laax was amazing, we were greeted by sunshine, warm temperatures and an epic course. The sunshine stuck around all week and everyone rode so well. The boys contest was insane, back to back 12s got you 5th place! I made it through to finals, but was only able to put down my safety run and ended up in 4th. I’ve been telling myself all year not to do safety runs…should’ve stayed the course I guess. I’m stoked on my run though and all the girls rode really well. Big ups to Jamie, Enni and Isabelle for making the podium. Thanks to Burton for a fun week, they really know how to take care of riders at that event, it was cool to get so much hospitality! Also thanks to the TM posse for making mini park laps so much fun. Jon Weaver, Hasi, Sani and Keller were on fire all week long, I think a few of those guys need to make some comebacks.

I had to fly out right after the event to Stratton, VT for the 30th Anniversary of the US Open. It was a typical US Open, we were greeted with ice, sun, slush, snow and more ice. Hey, at least you get a bit of everything when you come to Vermont. The week was pretty fun, thanks to maple lattes and another epic mini park, but my US Open curse continued and I wasn’t able to make podium. I had fun though and it was one of the better US Opens for me. I also got a few cool shots from the contest, check them out below. Check back soon for a post on Euro X Games!

Talk soon,

S.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what qualities make athletes successful. Is it purely talent? A god given gift that a select  few were lucky enough to receive? Or is it based more on drive, passion and determination? Some athletes build their careers on longevity and humbleness, others on flash and arrogance. Is one way a better recipe or is there no rhyme or reason to how people rise to success?

Muhammad Ali has been one of my favourite athletes for a long time, not because he held 3 Heavy Weight World Titles throughout his career or because he was the greatest fighter to ever live. His outspoken personality and belief that his gift could change the world for the better are what drew me to his story. He had a blind faith in himself. Even against the most immeasurable odds, he truly believed he could win. He was cocky and arrogant but he was genuine and possessed a way with words that captured people’s attention almost more than his fighting skills did. His entire career he was either idolized or vilified for his honesty and bluntness when it came to his beliefs. He never hid from anything or anyone.

Beyond his success in the ring he was highly outspoken in his political views. He spat in the US governments face, refused to fight for a country that had repressed him and his people and subsequently was stripped of his title and ability to fight for four years. He inspired and fought for the African people and throughout his career this was his ultimate motive. He outfought and outsmarted numerous fighters that everyone thought would destroy him. Ali was about so much more than just boxing; he was a politician, a cultural leader, a hero.

Maybe it’s silly to think that any sport or athlete can have an impact on the world, but I think Ali’s story shows that it’s possible. To be an athlete of any kind requires immense amounts of determination, strength, devotion, humility and self belief. The inner struggle athlete’s go through isn’t shown enough and it’s easy to think that it’s something they were born with. Ali didn’t wake up one day and win a Heavy Weight Title, he spent his entire life working his ass off. The training, devotion, time, emotion, and determination that goes into trying to be your best is insane, no matter what sport you do, but to work hard for something that you truly love to do is a great feeling.

So many great athletes have made sacrifices to do what they do. For Ali he sacrificed one of his greatest gifts, his voice, to fight. In the end boxing took his ability to preach to the people he loved so much, but his impact on sport and the African American culture are profound.

When I think about Ali and the qualities he possessed, it reminds me of Sarah. It sounds a bit crazy, he was a boxer in the 60′s and she was a freeskier in the 00′s, but her drive to be the best and to initiate change parallel that of Ali. She was a fighter like him and no matter how many people told her she couldn’t, or that women couldn’t she never backed down. Her career in freeskiing was about more than being the best, it was about showing the world what female skiers were capable of and getting them the respect they deserved. Since her passing I’ve been thinking about her daily and when I started writing this blog, I didn’t think it would end up being about her. The more I watched and read about Ali, the more I realized that she was one of the greatest athletes of our generation. To take sport and use it to initiate change is an amazing thing.

At the end of the day the only thing that matters is how hard you work and how bad you want it. It’s the work that goes into it that determines the kind of athlete you become. I think about these kinds of people when I approach my sport and I hope to derive even an ounce of what they possessed. I think about Sarah, I try to be like Sarah was.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
― Muhammad Ali

S.