Girl Gets SoCal » women

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.

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!

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?

Day 20: Shred and Big Air Fiesta

Bekah — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:13:12 +0000

Unknown rider at Stevens Pass Big Air Fiesta

Last Saturday I was up at Stevens and met up with some of the guys from the motor-home lot. It was sunny, spring conditions and lots of fun cruising around with the guys. I think we were setting speed records down the mountain. Off groomers was soft and poofy on top with sheets of ice underneath…so we ended up staying on the groomers. It was great to meet the crew.

Stevens Pass had been busy setting up a big air jump and a wall feature for their Big Air Fiesta. It was for pro and am skiers and snowboarders and was fun to watch in the afternoon. Two ladies represented in the snowboard category: Megan Ginter (1st place) and Shasta Smiley (2nd place).

Megan Ginter hits the wall at Stevens Pass Big Air Fiesta

It was pretty rad watching a comp in just a hoodie, instead of all bundled up in my gear.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCXx-Zgc7c

Big Air Fiesta Snowboard Results 2010

Women

1st- Megan Ginter

2nd- Shasta Smiley

Ams Men

1st- Marvin Pingesa

2nd Matt Christie

3rd- Tony Richards

Pros Men

1st- Matt Penny

2nd- Andy Bergin-Sperry

3rd- Derek Lever

Ride Shakedown

Bekah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:01:53 +0000

Friday Night

Izzy Lalive, Friday night's female Rail Jam winner.

Friday night Austin and Izzy won the Rail Jam. By far, the best feature to watch during the rail session was the totem pole. Riders were airing over it, landing on it, doing fastplants. The other features were a downrail and a straight rail with a squared-off end, they were good, but it seemed like the riders were able to be the most creative with the totem pole.

Austin Hironaka took it home with a 360 Miller flip tailgrab transfer.

Saturday

Saturday we got up to the Ride Shakedown in the afternoon, and driving up it was pouring rain. But, like it does in the mountains, a couple more miles up and it was nuking. The qualifiers were going on and riders were having a really hard time. The snow was sticky and slow, fog had moved in making it hard to see the jump and the landing, and the flying snow made the visibility worse.

While the snow forced the quals to slow down, I headed over to the vendor tents to see what was up. Ride had a big tent with a heater (yes!) and a couple of games to play for swag, Evo’s crew was there and had a game and more swag, Contour HD was doing helmet cam demos, and SnoCon was there too.

Hana Beaman, 2009 Ride Shakedown champ, and Izzy Lalive, 2010 Rail Jam winner.

Before the main event started, I got a chance to talk to Hana Beaman and Izzy Lalive. I asked Izzy how it felt to win the night before. She said, “Its my first big win, and it was a real cool surprise to win.” It is only the second year that women have been invited to compete in the Ride Shakedown and I wanted to know what it was like. They said that most of the guys at the event are really cool and supportive of them competing.

There were five women competing in the Ride Shakedown final, four of which were Hana Beaman, Izzy Lalive, Megan Ginter, and Megan Whiteside.

Seventeen men competed, Austin Hironaka was a crowd favorite.

By the time the competition started, the sky had cleared and it had gotten colder so the snow was fast and the visibility was good. Shay of Shayboarder.com was hanging out and it was fun watching the riders throw down big airs. One of the first jumps, someone called a 1260, and after that it seemed like it was game over. Riders started really pushing themselves and there were lots of falls. Once done with the big air, riders played it a little safe in the rail section–not doing anything too technical, but just riding solid.

The format of the competition was a lot like a game of pool, requiring the riders to call out their trick and then hit it. They had to be accurate and there wasn’t any room for faking it. If they called out a 1080, but didn’t get in all of the rotations, they would get a zero for the jump section.

2010 Ride Shakedown Winners

Results:

Women-

1st Place- Megan Ginter
2nd Place- Hana Beaman
3rd Place-Megan Whiteside

Men-

1st Place-Matts Kulisek
2nd Place-Manuel Diaz
3rd Place-E-Man Anderson

Ride Shakedown 2010-Qualifiers

Bekah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:30:20 +0000

: Manuel Diaz, Tanner Davidson, and Colin Clarke- three ams going on to compete with the pros in Saturday’s Shakedown.

I arrived at the Ride Shakedown with the qualifiers for the jump portion of the Shakedown going on. Ams were spinning frontside and backside 7′s with a few throwing down Rodeos.

Manuel Diaz (from Wild Card’s How the Northwest Was One video), Tanner Davidson, and Colin Clarke placed in the top three spots and will be competing with the pros in Saturday’s main event.

: Three of the nine women competing in the rail jam quals, Megan Middleton on the left and Raelynd Tarnove, center.

It was great to see the ladies representing during the rail jam qualifiers. Megan Middleton landed hard on the downrail stairs half-way through, injuring her shoulder and was out of the rest of the competition. Raelynd showed solid riding and moved on to the Friday night Rail Jam.

: Raelynd in the quals. She moved on to compete in the Rail Jam finals on Friday night.

The ams pulled out a lot of huge air during the qualifiers. There was also a lot of carnage.

Pillow Fight: Day 3

Bekah — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:32:38 +0000

Sunday morning came early and I was sore from Saturday’s pow session. But, I was too excited to lay around in bed, so I stiffly threw on my gear, brushed my teeth and headed to the Kingfisher Lodge at the Sleeping Lady to have breakfast with all of the other awesome Pillow Fight ladies.

It is so great to be able to talk snowboarding over breakfast with a bunch of other women. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is so much fun.

After breakfast we sped over to Stevens Pass to meet up with the rest of the crew. I grabbed my Forum Sauce (which I love, it is so much fun…especially after riding a Burton Custom for so long) and met up with Mercedes and the rest of our little group for some park riding! Mercedes decided to teach park on Sunday since it had rained (boo!) the night before. The sun was starting to come out from behind the morning clouds as we headed up the Hogsback chair for a warm-up run.

Sam and Lori checking out a kicker in the progression park.

We were all pretty much beginning park riders so Mercedes started with the basics–ollies. As we rode down to the Brooks chair to get to the park we worked on popping off our tail and landing flat. Landing on an edge is what kills me when I hit jumps (I always end up eating it), so it was really good to practice landing flat on the board on a mellow run.

After ollies, Mercedes had us work on popping– jumping straight up into the air and landing flat. This was going to help us on our take-offs, when we hit the jumps in the park.

The first run through the park Mercedes had us ollie off the knuckle of the jumps. She went first, demoing, and then watched each of us from below as we hit the knuckle, telling us if we were landing on our edges or landing flat. It was so good to have her watch us, because I thought I was landing flat when I really wasn’t.

Mercedes on the sidelines reminding us to ‘bend our knees!!‘

At the middle of the run, we cut over to the pipe. We learned how to ride through the pipe, when to bend our knees in a deep squat (center of the pipe) and when to straighten a bit (walls). My first drop into the pipe I was thrown off by how fast I got going and I had so much going through my head between flexing and extending and turning my shoulders and trying not to get too freaked out by the speed. The first run was really awkward. It took time to figure out that you really don’t need to force the turn with your upper body or legs (at the top of the pipe wall), it can be a very subtle movement. One of the girls in our group looked like she was riding a bowl in a skate park–she was so fluid and flowed with the pipe instead of fighting it. It helped to watch her and try to incorporate her smooth riding.

We hiked up the pipe a couple of times and each time it all made a little more sense about how all the movements fit together than the time before.

Molly and Shayla checking out her 180? (can’t quite remember) whatever it was, it was sweet.

To take a break we rode up Brooks chair for another run in the park. We met up with Molly from Evo who was the photog/videog extraordinaire for the weekend and she caught us as we were perfecting our ollies over spines and moving onto the jumps. After every one or two jumps we would all group together and Mercedes would give us each a goal for what we needed to do next time…bending our knees, landing flat, getting more speed to hit the jump.

Getting together for a group ride down the mountain-50 ladies cruising.

After getting lunch and lots of water, we went back to the park to work more on our jumps. My biggest issue right now isn’t taking off or landing on my toe edge, it’s too much speed checking. I need to get over this fear I have of launching myself off of a jump, getting too much air, and ending up in crutches. Its all psychological, which makes me so crazy. I am pretty good about getting over mental stuff, but this one isn’t giving up easy. I really wish I would have had an instructor back when I was throwing myself off of kickers and hurting myself (one time ending up in crutches and getting a ride down in a sled). Because all that stuff that happened so long ago is coming back and I haven’t yet been able to shake it. (Do they have therapists for snowboarders?)

So, the last hit of the day Mercedes said my goal was to hit the jump without speed checking. I instantly got sweaty-nervous. I took a couple of deep breaths and she gave me a couple minutes of sitting above the jump until I was ready. I got up, pointed my board to the jump and took off. I hit the jump and cleared the landing, getting a baby grab in, landed and rode away. At the bottom, I was so happy I did an ollie off of a little feature. When I slowed down to talk to the group I realized I was shaking. But it was such a good feeling to get solid air and ride away clean–especially as the last run of the day.

The Pillow Fight crew.

Everyone was there to have fun and it made the weekend so much better. I love hanging out with people that love to have a good time and aren’t trying to one-up each other and this group was definitely that way. Coming in not really knowing anyone I was nervous, but after a weekend of solid shred I had met a lot of awesome ladies and had a bunch of new friends. I can’t wait for next year. PILLOW FIGHT!

Pillow Fight: Day 2

Bekah — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:00:25 +0000

If you haven’t been to Pillow Fight at Stevens Pass…GO! Today was so, so awesome. There were about 50 women and we split up into different groups–beginner, intermediate, intermediate-advanced, park-beginner, and park-advanced. The groups were small and each had an instructor, and everyone I talked to said their instructors were great.

Here is our rad instructor Mercedes telling us to pick out our line and keep our front shoulder downhill.

This was the first time I had ever had any instruction and I was really looking forward to it. I feel like I’ve kind of come to a standstill in my riding and wanted some new tips to get to the next level. I joined up with Mercedes, the instructor, and a group of women in the advanced group. I was thinking of joining up with the beginning park group, but we had gotten so much snow, I couldn’t let all that powder go to waste.

We were able to demo Burton boards too, so I grabbed the Feel Good ES –it was a 52 I think. The first run we did was underneath the chair at Hogsback. We learned how to go over rollers and be light on our feet so we rode over them and onto the next one, instead of getting shot in the air–like it was a kicker. The chute we were going down was a little tight and I found it was hard to navigate with a longer board–I am used to a 47.

After a couple of runs down in the trees at Hogsback we headed to Tye Mill. At Tye Mill there is this 15 foot cliff underneath the chairlift. I’ve always checked out the run wondering what it was like. Mercedes got the group together and we went on the run I had always looked at. We didn’t launch off of the cliff…fortunately…but we did go down it taking an easier route. It was at this point, with all of the good snow, that we just had to point the board and go. This completely freaks me out. Pointing it. But we all did it and it was so much better than falling leaf or side slipping. I learned that if you keep your knees soft and plan your line, it’s not a death wish. It was a little scary, but so much fun.

Another place I’ve always wanted to check out was Tye Bowl. I’d always see it on the lift and it looked like fun. And we ended up heading over there. It was sweet!

On 7th Heaven, Solitude

Lunchtime and I switched out the Feel Good for a Forum The Sauce. The Feel Good was just to big for what I was used to and was very stiff (which was good for charging), but in stuff that was tight it was difficult to maneuver.

The group of ladies I was with were amazing!

After lunch we decided to check out 7th Heaven. I have never been up there before. It’s double-blacks and from what I have heard, it’s only good when there is fresh snow.

Hiking up to get to Solitude

We had to hike up with our boards on, and then traversed to Solitude chute. We worked on planning our line, and turning with our front leg –I had been trying to turn with my back leg all this time–dang…using your front leg is so much easier. Being up on 7th, I realized how easy it would be to fall and then keep going down the hill–unable to stop.

We ran Solitude a couple of times and then took 7th Heaven to Tye Mill. It was a bit of traversing, but a lot of powder and super fun. From Tye, hiked up a cat track and rode down through more pow. By the end of the day the snow was really heavy and sticky, but we had deep snow all day long.

We hit almost everything on the mountain that I’ve always looked at and wanted to try out. It was so, so sweet. Plus everyone was super supportive and encouraging. Some parts of the day (like getting off of the chairlift at 7th Heaven and charging straight down some narrow chutes, I thought I was going to die), but I did it! Yeah!

Getting instruction was so good, I felt like I was learning so much faster and I knew that I wasn’t going to go off a cliff accidentally. Mercedes pushed us all just enough so that we went just beyond our comfort zone…but not too far that we got frustrated. Maybe I can get more lessons for my birthday…or Christmas…

I can’t wait for tomorrow, although I’m not sure if I’ll do the same freeride class or go over into the park. These are the kind of decisions I need to have more of.