Women

Q & A

1. Years as a professional:

   I have been professional since 2000.

2. When did you start snowboarding?

   11 years old

3. Who/what inspires you?

   Balance inspires me.

4. If you were not a pro snowboarder you would be?

   A pro surfer...that didn't have to surf scary waves.

5. Favorite Books

   The Power of Now

6. To me, Oakley is

   Thermal nuclear! It's a family that helps all of us look really really ridiculously good all of the time.

7. What are your favorite songs currently loaded onto your thump?

   Loving Kings of Leon right now and always a Jack Johnson fan.

8. Do you have any other special talents (music / write / draw / paint)?

   I can hang a spoon on my nose.

9. Favorite Films

   The Notebook

10. What is more important to you than snowboarding?

    My friends and family.

11. Favorite TV shows:

    Dancing with the Stars...go Louie!

12. Favorite drink:

    Flat wine.

13. 5 items I can't live without:

    I phone, Macbook, The entire Gretchen Bleiler Collection, Sigg water bottle, Visa card.

14. Party animal or mellow TV on the couch?

    Party animal converted to mellow TV on the couch person.

15. Favorite Oakley products:

    Umm well the Gretchen Bleiler Collection.

16. How do you see yourself? Are you rebellious? Quiet? Wierd? Why?

    You're weird.

17. What is the greatest lesson you have ever learned?

    To be yourself.

18. What is the greatest thing you have taught someone else?

    To be themselves.

19. What are the greatest hurdles you have had to overcome in life?

    Deciding to become a professional snowboarder was a big risk for me and at the time I definitely had my doubts. But in life when you take the greatest risks sometimes you receive the greatest rewards.

20. What do you hold the most valuable to you in life?

    My friends and family, this life would not be as sweet without them.

21. What are you passionate about?

    I'm passionate about learning because once you stop learning you stop living.

22. What fears do you have? How do you deal with them?

    Being a professional snowboarder, fear is something that I deal with regularly because it's my job to walk the line between progression and stupidity! And it's when I'm able to push past fear and land a new trick or do something that I've never done before that makes what I do so satisfying and exciting.

23. Favorite must have beauty products:

    My sweet vanilla lip balmer from Mission; you gotta get some it's so yummy and moisturizing!

24. What book are you reading right now?

    The Way of the Peaceful Warrior

25. Favorite place to snowboard? Surf?

    Aspen/Snowmass and Dominical Costa Rica

26. Best phrase to describe you?

    It's always sunny in babeland.

27. You never leave the house without...

    my water bottle.

28. What words or phrase do you most overuse?

    Liesl says 'babe'

29. What is your most treasured possession?

    My husband...he's a possession right?

30. What does perform beautifully mean to you?

    Performing beautifully to me is pushing past your fears and pushing past your comfort zone and basically looking at your fears straight in the face and then pushing right past them. And being successful is totally satisfying.

31. Every athlete talks about having "on" and "off" days in regards to their performance. How do you perform your best when it counts?

    There are definitely moments when I know I’m on and I know I’m not on. And when I’m on completely everything is just easy and it’s flowing perfectly and I’m completely focused and in the moment and everything just comes to me. And I know those moments and it’s a really good feeling. I’ve been snowboarding for a long time now and I’ve learned sort of through out the years how to bring that feeling to me in any scenario and that’s an important part of competing and why I think I have been so successful throughout the years is just turning it on at the right time. It involves using the energy and pressure of the fans as a positive and rising to the occasion rather than the negative and thinking of it as a threat.

32. When did you figure this out?

    When I first started competing I definitely let nerves and pressure and hype get to me, but I remember the moment when I learned how to get past that and that was at X Games in 2003 in Aspen. I was the favorite to win and in qualifiers, on my first run, I fell on my first hit and completely choked and I remember just feeling really down on myself, thinking negative thoughts. I was thinking that here I was supposed to win this contest and now I’m not even going to make it to finals. And I remember just thinking, just taking a step back and looking around at my surroundings and hearing the crowd and realizing that this mountain is where I learned to snowboard. Then just realizing that I love to snowboard and this isn’t brain surgery and dropped in and just thought about giving everyone a good show. And from then on I just realized that’s the way to do it. Just keep it light and fun and usually when I’m having fun I do my best.

33. What are you working on?

    This past summer and fall I’ve been working on everything. But a big part for me is working on my overall amplitude and making sure that my amplitude on the right wall was as big as on my left wall so that everything is equal height and that all of my tricks are big. It’s been a really great summer and fall. A breakthrough for me. And I feel like I’m riding better than I have maybe ever. I'm working on tricks that have been giving me problems for a while and kind of getting through them and just becoming more confident. It is more about instinct and thinking less which is very important in snowboarding.

34. What were your goals when you first started snowboarding?

    I guess for me when I decided to become a professional snowboarder my goal was to see how far I could take myself in snowboarding. I wanted to be the best snowboarder that I could be, but also take advantage of other opportunities that presented themselves. For me, because of the success that I have had on the mountain I have had other opportunities that completely opened up doors and broadened my horizons. Working with Oakley on my signature collection, the Gretchen Bleiler collection, has been amazing and I learned so much and it has kept me very very busy off the mountain. It’s such a rewarding experience, working all winter on a collection, the back and forth, the dealing with all of the little things here and there and then seeing it for the first time is so amazing. And then not just seeing it for the first time but the next season seeing it on other women.

35. What inspired the Snow Angels Invitationals?

    An Oakley photo shoot. We were shooting in April and we had the entire buttermilk mountain all to ourselves and the half pipe all to ourselves. And it was beautiful, bluebird days, warm perfect conditions and it was so much fun. It was a very very progressive photo shoot, but it was just me, and I thought this would be amazing if I had all my friends here to session with me. And Aspen/Snowmass came to me and wanted to start a contest together and I just told them right off the bat we have to do a contest at the very end of the season when it’s just beautiful and warm and a progressive time of year. And we created the snow angels invitational and it’s not just a half pipe contest. It is that. It’s very progressive. It’s a jam format where all of the best women’s half pipe riders from around the world come together and push each other. But its also about sort of pampering the girls at the end of the season. Everyone gets amazing accommodations for free and these amazing luxury gift baskets filled with product and yoga mats and cosmetics. It's such a girls weekend. Facials, and yoga sessions and holistic workshops and then on top of that we do an environmental workshop too. So it’s just a week of progression, pampering and a little bit of education as well.