Girl Gets SoCal » Snowboarding

Interview with Spacecraft Co-Owner: Sarah O’Brien Parker

Bekah — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:51:42 +0000

Sarah O’Brien Parker is the co-owner-entrepreneur-behind-the-scenes-woman-in-charge at Spacecraft. And, I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet up with her at the super sweet new Spacecraft headquarters in Ballard. The entire place –with its work rooms, art everywhere, and views of the sound–is saturated with creativity.

If you haven’t heard, Spacecraft is all about creating art and making it accessible through hoodies, beanies, iPhone stickers, and traveling art shows. It is built around inspiration from snow (the logo is a snow cat) and the people and culture in Bali, where a lot of the knit beanies are handmade at small family-owned businesses.

THE BEGINNING

I wanted to find out Sarah’s story, which starts by working as a fisherman in Alaska to save up money for trips to places like El Salvador, Nepal, and Bali. After lots of winters fishing, and then going on trips, it was on a trip in Nepal in 2001, when she realized she was burnt out. In a journal on her plane ride back to the States she wrote, “maybe I’ll start a wholesale company.”

She was in Skykomish, her home, and she wanted to stay. It was then that she met Stephen-who lived to travel. He was going back to Asia and he wanted her to go with him. Instead, she took out a loan–her first for traveling–and went to Panama. Stefen came back from his trip with handmade beanies, met up with Sarah, and the idea for Spacecraft was built.

In 2002, she invested $10,000 in the company. She said, “I thought I could spend $10,000 and be done. I didn’t know what would happen, but then everything unfolded.”

What got you so involved with the project?
There was a big demand for the product. I wanted to do something and I was looking for a project, so I put everything of myself into it.

What keeps you interested?
Just supplying product isn’t enough of an interest for me. I want to balance the product with the art. I think that people are looking for authenticity and that is what we have. Over 2,000 hats are handmade in Asia. When we first started, we knew everyone that made our products. We met them as artists and travelers. We also helped them with mass production. Now in the industry that is more the norm, but at the time it was unusual.

What is the hardest part of your job?
Leadership and management. It is easy to lose sight of the vision and get lost in the day-to-day. When you are a smaller company you might not have it perfect and you have to wear a lot of hats. When you are bigger, you have to spend time on things like HR.

Do you find it difficult to be a woman in a male dominated industry?
Because I grew up in a male dominated industry, I don’t really notice it. I owe a lot to my parents for making it seem possible that I can do anything. The way I was raised, I didn’t even realize I was a minority. Also, on fishing boats most women aren’t physically as strong as men so you learn how to use your talents strategically. Instead of carrying a bunch of crates, you get a hand truck. Overseas I experienced sexism, however it was more cultural. Once the relationship with our vendors had developed I was treated equally as Stefen was, however at first I was ignored.

What have you learned as an entrepreneur?
Being proactive is a huge thing, motivating people to find solutions, and organization is a huge part of the job. There is a time to make a quick decision and a time to take your time with making a choice. Knowing when to do what, is critical.

What are you interested in right now?
Right now I’m reading Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Being at the helm, there’s so many things you have to balance. I’m learning about myself–what I can do and what I can delegate.

Do you have any tips for people who want to be an entrepreneur?

Setting a mission, vision, and values may seem cliche, but knowing what you want to do really helps.
Have your finances in place.
Find advisers –they can help you.
Don’t be overly cautious. If you feel passionate about what you are doing, you’ll find your way.
If I knew how hard or how great it would be I might not have done it, so if you really believe in it–go for it.

Thanks Sarah!

Watch for Spacecraft’s upcoming art shows and check out their work in person.

*All images from Sarah.

Molly Hawkins: Evo Strategery

Bekah — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 01:53:46 +0000

Strategery is Molly Hawkins’ title–in corporate/web 2.0 speak that’s community manager and she works at Evo, a rad core shop in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. (Check out Shayboarder’s post on Evo for the full scoop on the shop.) Evo is known for its community events-whether it be a game of S.K.A.T.E., coordinating rides up to the mountains, or the craziest premier party Seattle has ever seen.

I got a chance to meet up with Molly to check out the revamped shop and find out more about what a community manager actually does -the good and bad parts, filming and photography, where women are at in snowboarding, and what tips she has for being able to do what you love.

So, what does a work day look like for you?

It was hard to create a title since I do so many things, so we went with strategery. So what I do is engage customers in a meaningful way and promote Evo through blogs and social networks. I work with vendors to promote events and get products to give out at those events. Basically I do events, social networking, PR, store ads, and work with the team.

How did you get started at Evo?

I was managing an event company and running my own videography company, but I had aspirations to link my passions to the snow industry. I worked at Mt. Hood Meadows and competed. I moved to LA to get video editing skills with the dream of making snowboard videos. Then I moved back to Seattle. I had this great idea to start an e-commerce company. One of my friends was looking for a job and came across an internship at an e-commerce company in the snowboard industry and she thought I should check it out. I had worked at that point for awhile and wasn’t really wanting to be an intern again. I checked them out online and it looked like a cool place to work, the crew looked cool. When I met Bryce (owner of Evo), he had such contagious energy. I loved that the environment wasn’t intimidating, it was super open and inclusive on the business side and on the community side.

What is the best part about your job?

People come to mind right off the bat. There are so many perks to working in an industry that I am so passionate about. I get to shoot photos, video, snowboard, be around product.

When I get to see someone light up because of what we have done, is my favorite. I love being in the store and seeing people light up when they find new gear or talk about their latest trip up to the mountain. At the end of the day, I like being able to help other people get into the sport.

I also have a lot of freedom. Evo is pretty progressive, it’s young and nimble, and we have an ability to try new things easily.

What is your least favorite part about what you do?

Having to be on stage all of the time, it wears on a person. Being so connected on the ground, I feel like I am a conduit to the company–that takes a lot of work. It also takes a lot of coordinating, remembering all of the people connecting everyone. But, despite that, I love my job and I love connecting people and getting them excited about things.

What got you interested in filming and photography?

Not sure if any one single event or any one person got me interested, but I know that my interest really came at an early age. I was always begging my mom and dad to let me take photos or to command the old VHS Camcorder when we’d go on family trips. As I look back on my childhood now, I think it came from my inability to really communicate in words the beauty in all of the things that I had been experiencing and seeing around me as a kid and as I started venturing out further and further into this great big world. Not just the big things though… I was amazed by and still am amazed by how awesome you can make the “small things” seem thru still imagery. Haha, but also some would say its inherently an Asian trait, which maybe so since my interest goes back as far as I can remember.

How did you get your skills? Did you go to school and take classes or did you pick them up on your own?

Well, I definitely wouldn’t call myself a pro or anything. Most of what I know I learned by trial and error, through books, and from friends and mentors that I have reached out to over the years. I’m not shy about asking people questions, and if I’d see someone doing something I liked, I would ask them how they did it. Now I guess you can Google everything, but there is something about the “human touch” and the context that you can get from a conversation versus reading a book or Googling.

Any tips for someone learning how shoot on the hill and do video edits?

My best advice would be to “just do it”…Nike was really on to something! :p

No really though, I’d take a few minutes to watch your favorite films. Jot down what you like, what you don’t like, what you think you could do better, and make a simple script/outline. Grab whatever camera you have available and just go do it. You will learn so much as you apply yourself and through trial and error. When you are filming, make sure you are keeping the editing process in mind though. Think about how each of the clips you are shooting will “seam” together.

Women have always been a smaller segment in the industry (gear, films, photospreads, actually on the mountain, etc), where do you think we are at when it comes to board sports?

Oh man, you’re asking me to open Pandora’s box here! It’s a tough one. The industry has come a long way in catering to women but I think it will be awhile until the playing field is more balanced. I do question whether women will ever really rival men in the marketplace though. At the end of the day, men and women are motivated by different things and the question remains, are there an equal amount of women who want to participate in these sports as men at the same level that would warrant an equal amount of gear produced, exposure in the media, etc. In my opinion, the stage is set but its going to come down to marketing to women properly, educating them on how to purchase the appropriate gear so they have a good experience and want to come back, as well up to existing participants and athletes and ambassadors to really reach out and extend a hand to new participants. Gosh, that conversation could go a million different directions and on forever in each!

What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects you’re working on?

Just continuing to grow the Evo brand. I’m really excited to take what we’ve built around the community in the Seattle area, bottle it up, and share it with other communities around the world.

Hmmm, what else? Other than that, I’m just always looking to challenge myself and continue to grow in the areas that excite me….the greatest challenge is finding a balance between work and play.

What tips do you have for someone who wants to do what you do?

I grew up in a small rural town in southern Washington. I wonder sometimes, how did I turn into this? It blows my mind. But, what I’ve come to is that it was the people. There were people that inspired me as a kid, they gave me something to dream about and aspire to. They were people who thought outside the box. When you are young and impressionable, like I was in high school, I did what I was supposed to do. I followed the track of college and a job. There was a point, I think most everyone gets to this point, where I stepped back and took stock of my life. I asked…What am I doing for me? I asked, what am I passionate about: film, music, snowboarding.

Do an internship. Take a look at the companies you are interested in working for and contact them.
Snowboarding is no different than any other industry, there is manufacturing, sales, marketing. Spend time and immerse yourself with the people and the culture.
Be willing to learn. Reach out to people who inspire you. Take them out to coffee. I’ve done that a lot and its paid off. I’ve been blown away by the number of people willing to share their knowledge.
Self educate. There is so much knowledge out there, you don’t have to re-create the wheel.
Believe in what you are doing and find something you are passionate about. Be open, because its a changing market.
No one is going to knock on your door. And if they do, you are damn lucky.

Thanks Molly!

Interview with Randa Shahin

Bekah — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:01:31 +0000

I met Randa Shahin, a local Pacific Northwest pro, during a weekend up at Stevens Pass with Ride Snowboards. It was fun to hang out, talk about gear, and how to get more women interested in snowboarding. She was kind enough to take some time and answer some questions I had.

Where are you from?

Well in a nut shell, my mom is Russian and my dad is Egyptian. I was born in Kuwait., then I moved to the United States when I was six. Dallas, Pennsylvania is where I grew up until I moved to Oregon in 2002.

What is your home mountain?

Montage mountain, which has a new name now. Snow Mountain I think? Even though it is not a mountain….more like a rolling hill. I spent a few years working at Big Boulder. Both resorts are in the Poconos of Pennsylvania.

How long have you been snowboarding?

About 10 years now.

What first got you interested in trying it out?

I had some friends in high school that convinced me to join ski club at school. The school basically took us to the mountain each Friday night for 6 Fridays in a row. I started out skiing but I was super motivated to learn to snowboard.

What keeps you motivated to keep riding?

Support and personal satisfaction. Every time my sponsors extend an increased amount of support, I get super motivated to keep that support increasing. More significantly, every time I learn something new I gain an extreme sense of happiness and self satisfaction that keeps me searching for that feel more.

So currently you are down at Mt. Hood, what are you up to out there?

I live here year round which is the beauty of Mt. Hood because you can snowboard here 12 months out of the year. Currently the summer snowboarding is amazing and I have been taking full advantage. I’ve been snowboarding about 3-4 days a week and skating, camping, golfing, and kicking the rest of the time.

You also work with Cilla, what got you interested in the company?

Pat Corelli who is currently the NW Rome rep introduced me to the company. He knew Priscilla Levac, founder of Cilla, because she was a pro snowboarder for Ride and Pat was a rep for them as well. He referred me to Priscilla as an athlete to sponsor and she was kind enough to hook me up. After riding for her for a season she presented me with the NW sales position which I happily accepted because Cilla is an amazing company.

You’ve done a lot of competitions in the past, are you going to be doing some this upcoming season?

I am planning on competing but not a lot. I’d really like to focus on traveling and filming.

What would your ideal day on the snow be like?

An epic pow day with good friends.

What would you say to female riders who are thinking of snowboarding this winter or who are just learning?

Function over fashion. Snowboarding is a cold sport and you really need to consider your gear and making sure you stay well insulated so you can tolerate the cold. Also most importantly, don’t give up. Snowboarding can be extremely difficult to learn initially which means it can be extremely frustrating. Don’t give up. It will get easier every time and then eventually you are going to have the time of your life.

Sponsor shout-out?

Ride snowboards, Smith Optics, Pow, Spacecraft, Evo gear, Cilla, Shredbetties.com, & Kind Bars.

New Knife Show– Gnarcade: Check It!

Bekah — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:09:07 +0000

A new game out by Knife Show. Sweet!

Gnarcade from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Last Day: Stevens Pass

Bekah — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:55:43 +0000

Sunday was the last day at Stevens Pass for the season. Le sigh.

After a late start, Afton, who has come to think of himself as quite the mountain dog, Mitch, and I drove up to find bluebird skies, packed parking lots, and warm weather at Stevens.

Afton ready for another day in the mountains.

I was all set to watch the pond skim, snowboard, and hang out with friends. On the way up to the mountain we got news that the pond skim was canceled because of a huge tear in the plastic. The Snohomish fire department was out trying to fix the leak, and it looked like it might be on, but in the end it had to canceled.

Firefighters trying to fix the leaking pond.

Despite the lack of the pond skim, it was a fun day. I took a couple runs, running into Coco from Pillow Fight and her fiance. Then met up with Shay of Shayboarder.com and her friend Anj on the backside of Stevens.

Shay

The backside was sketchy, not because the snow was slush, but because people must have thought it was the bunny hill. After a few close calls, Shay and I headed over to the park. It was fun hitting jumps knowing it wasn’t going to hurt. For closing day, there wasn’t really any dirt showing through the snow…all we saw was some patches in the pipe…not bad for the last day of the season.

Shay in the pipe.

At lunch I found Melissa, who I spent opening day riding deep pow with. She started the season on skis and from Ladies Shred Day has decided to keep snowboarding! I also saw Mercedes, our coach from Pillow Fight, who was back in the park despite a knee injury from dropping a cliff and landing flat (oy) as well as one of the campers and her daughter.

Live band at Stevens.

It was great seeing a lot of people that made the season amazing and meeting new people too! I’m already looking forward to next year. Is it November yet?

How was your last day? Or are you still riding?

Pillow Fight: Recap

Bekah — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:31:12 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-92lmOjqczE

Molly from Evo filmed the Pillow Fight weekend at Stevens Pass this past February and the video weekend recap is up. Take a look and, ladies, be sure to come next year!

Get Over It! Stevens Pass Photo Contest

Bekah — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:46:16 +0000

Submit your best photo to the Stevens Pass photo contest for a chance to win a season pass for the photographer and rider!

How to win:

Submit your photo to marketing@stevenspass.com between April 1st, 2010 and April 30th, 2010
Include name of photo, photographer name and skier/rider name
If your photo is chosen the photographer and skier/rider will win a 2010/11 season pass to Stevens Pass!
Judging will be based on originality and creativity

Simple Rules:

Photo must be awesome and taken at Stevens Pass
Photos must be submitted as a JPG (max 5MB)
Photos must be G-rated
Only one photo submission per rider/photographer combo
Submissions may be used by Stevens Pass on www.ridestevenspass.com or www.facebook.com/stevenspass

See entries submitted so far

Get on it!

April Pow Day 1

Bekah — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:39:48 +0000

The past week or two, Stevens Pass has been getting hit hard with snow…finally! I was able to get up two times and play in some deeper stuff. I think I can say I met my season goal of getting better at riding in pow, but I’ve still got a lot more to learn.

Snow clouds

Saturday driving up to the mountain was crazy. No one was ready for the snow. All season the roads have been pretty dry up to the mountain-Saturday was a different story. First off, there was a huge line of cars. Second, at a certain elevation point, traffic came to a standstill on the four-lane road. The roads had a solid layer of ice and everyone was spinning out. Since cars couldn’t move to the side of the road, people were just putting chains on wherever their car ended up stopping. It was a free-for-all.

Once I finally got to the mountain, I took a couple runs by myself on the front and then headed over to the back thinking that it was going to be amazing. But there were so many people up on Saturday hitting it that moguls were already starting to form. I took off for the frontside after one run.

A couple runs later I ran into Julie. We spent the rest of the day finding good, relatively untracked snow. I definitely got a lot of practice with traversing. Sometimes it felt like I was on a roller coaster, the rollers were so steep and fast on some of the traverses, it was fun.

April snow at Stevens Pass

There were so many people getting the goods that every single chair was full on the lifts. But almost every place we went away from the main runs was good. The snow was deep, soft, and floaty.

There were a lot of natural kickers and -while we didn’t hit them-we saw a group of skiers come through and hit them with lots of style…maybe the Salomon Jib Academy was taking a break from the park.

For one run we headed up the Seventh Heaven chair. Getting off of that chair always freaks me out a little bit, but on Saturday, it was smooth and easy to one-foot it. I guess everything is good on a pow day.

I’m getting a lot better at figuring out what line might lead me to a flat and leave me stuck in the snow and digging out. Always good information to know. I also worked on leaning down the hill and keeping my knees soft…something that helped me a lot with keeping my board underneath me.

There was so much fresh snow it made for awesome riding and we were spent by two in the afternoon.

Touring Ride Snowboards

Bekah — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:00:26 +0000

This past weekend I got to visit Ride Snowboards located down in the industrial district of Seattle. Ride falls under the K2 umbrella and its offices are in the huge K2 building. The building has to be big–it houses all of the offices, machines for developing prototypes and testing, and has a warehouse to store all of the products for most-if not all-of the products made by all of the K2 brands.

We started out touring the front offices. When we walked in the front door it was easy to see that we were surrounded by people that loved to ski and snowboard. There were skis and boards hanging on the wall that showed the progression of design that’s happened, there were old advertisements and posters everywhere. One wall had snowshoes. Here, Molly was checking out the bike pictures.

Molly getting the perfect shot.

Cubes were lined with boots and bindings.

: Ride snowboard boots.

Then we checked out the marketing and development offices for K2 and Ride. The K2 office was definitely going for the old west vibe.

K2 marketing and development office.

One thing that was really cool to see was all of the design comps hanging for board graphics. Here you can see the light box and a rack of designs. There were two racks like this.

Snowboard design comps for the top sheet and base graphics.

Once we were done in the front offices, we headed down to the production area. Ride is set-up so they can design and create prototype boards in house. Once the boards are ready for blind testing, they head out to the Summit for some riding.

Rolls of different types of fiberglass.

The best part of the whole tour was seeing how snowboards are made. Paul made a complete, ride-able board while we watched. In one board there are 20-30 different layers all held together with epoxy. Each layer is different and certain combinations of wood and carbon make boards that have varying degrees of snap or stiffness. The board we saw being made had three different types of wood. Certain wood was chosen for its lightweight quality and others were used for their durability. Each layer was so thin. Watching a board in production it was easier to see how a poor coating of epoxy can make a board delaminate.

Paul showing us how a snowboard is made.

Once all of the layers were added to the board, it was sandwiched in between fitted metal plates. The plates hold the layers in place as it is heated and pressed together by the machine below. You can see the curve of the press where the tip and the tail of a snowboard are. They use air pockets to make sure the board stays smooth throughout the entire pressing process.

Doug, our tour guide, explaining how the press works.

Once the board was done, we headed over to the printing room where we got to see how graphics were made. Ride has both a screening processes as well as a digital printer.

Sample of a board graphic.

Ride also tests durability in house. One of the ways they test their boards is to see if they can hold up to -4 degrees F. The freezer reminded me of restaurant freezers but it was about the size of a trailer. It was, obviously, cold.

Testing boards for cold durability.

After seeing the manufacturing section of Ride we walked through the cavernous warehouse they use for storage. All of K2′s US products are stored here. The picture below is about 1/4 of the space. Despite the amount of room needed for storage, they were still able to squeeze in a bowl and a basketball hoop.

Ride's warehouse

Thanks to everyone at Ride for inviting us out, especially Doug , Paul, Casey, Angie, and the rest of the design and development crew.

Snowboarding with the ladies

Bekah — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

This season I’ve ridden with more girls than all of my previous years riding combined. Mostly, I would ride with a bunch of guys–the same way most every other girl does–but this year from Ladies Shred Day, Pillow Fight, and then this past weekend, I’ve ridden with lots of rad chickas.

All of the ladies I’ve ridden with have been super stoked about snowboarding and push themselves to get even better…they don’t just go to the mountain to be a snow-bunny.

This past weekend I was hanging out in a cabin near Stevens Pass as a part of Ride Snowboards’ Ladies Collective. It was a group of women that Ride pulled together to think of new ways to get more girls into snowboarding and support the female side of the sport…something I would love to see happen.

The first full day, we headed out to Stevens Pass. I was set-up on a Ride Promise, my first time ever on a Ride board–so I was interested to see what it was like.

Kelly, Megan, Tess, and Sarah waiting to go ride at Stevens Pass.

We started out as a group for a couple of morning runs, hitting up the backside a couple of times. The snow was good, and it was way better than the rain that had been predicted than the night before. Riding in a group of 15 or so girls is a pretty sweet time, especially since it doesn’t happen that often. We left a lot of surprised people in our wake.

I liked riding the Promise. I felt like I could keep a lot of control at high speed down runs but if I wanted to ollie, it had a little snap in the tail. So it was a stiffer board with a little pop in the tail.

Part of the crew at the bottom of a run.

We met up with some of the product designers for Ride. It was fun seeing everyone’s riding style. I was just trying to keep up–but a lot of the girls were killing it on natural features.

Natalie, softgoods designer for Ride snowboards.

After cruising through the trees on a fun bordercross-style run, we split up–some girls went over to Big Chief and some of us headed over to the park. I’m just a beginner in the park and the girls that were heading into the park had skills–so I thought I would tag along–even if I wasn’t going to be hitting the bigger features. Megan Ginter, from the Ride team, was such a speed ninja I didn’t get to catch her in action. I got a little faster with my camera work and was able to catch Megan Middleton, Evo and Rome team rider, with this nice grab.

Megan Middleton in the park at Stevens Pass.

The next run, I decided to put away the camera and hit a couple of the features. I’d been having problems doing too many speed checks before jumps, so this time I thought I would try a jump without speed checking. It worked! The first jump I tried, I resisted doing a speed check, I sailed over the knuckle and landed right in the sweet spot. Landing on the landing is a million times better than the flat.

After a morning of snowboarding we headed back to the cabin to talk about how to get more women involved in the sport. There are a lot of barriers to starting out…it can be intimidating, it’s more expensive than some other sports, if your gear doesn’t fit well it can make it harder to learn, sometimes it’s hard to find people to go up to the mountain with…

I didn’t ride for a long time because I was a broke college grad and I had just moved to the PNW so didn’t really know anyone to ride with. I know it can be hard to get out there.

I’d love to see even more women out riding and kicking ass on the snow. What do you think would get more ladies out?