Words: Cayley Alger
“She’ll be right” a phrase the epitomises Kiwi ingenuity and coincidently the cornerstone of this grass roots snowboard event…That and it just rolls off the tongue quite nicely.
It was an event that evolved from a lack of female representation in New Zealand’s ‘snowboard media world’, and I’m not just talking about those females in front of the camera.
It’s a weekend of riding and shooting, that brings together (most of) the female contingent of the Kiwi snowboard industry. Some of the girls we’re professional snowboarders, some were from the national development team, others just rode because (snowboarding is rad) and they’re chasing progression. We had a whole team of female videographers, photographers, social media experts, sales reps, graphic designers, park crew (the only two females park crew in the country). Most importantly we had the killer women who run your favourite snowboard stores there, with their expert staff to really help pull the entire day. Female fire.
Walking into the weekend (as with any new grassroots event), everyone was a little uncertain as what to expect. Some of us met for the first time that day, some of the production team were new to shooting snowboarding and some of the riders we’re new to snowboarding with a lens pointing at them. Nevertheless, we gave ourselves two days, no weather window and a whole lotta naivety to pull this thing off. The only thing that was certain, was the old faithful kiwi attitude that everyone brought to the day.
“She’ll be right”…Not only New Zealand’s national phrase but the weekend that brings together the standout females of New Zealand’s snowboard industry.
Day one started on a cold grey-bird morning at Cardrona, not that the weather was deterring anyone for even a second. The whole crew was fizzing to get out and the park set up was way too fun to not jump straight into things. Game on.
With some undisclosed beef that needed rectifying (Kaiya Collins may or may not know what I’m talking about here) the whole crew set up shop by the rainbow rail, and after a little inspiration from the front lip pro herself [Christy Prior] all the riders put that rail back in its place. This was a rainbow to admire and destroy at the same time.
Now I’m not sure what resort you ride at, but a team of 20+ females lapping and shooting outside of the ‘baby park’ is unfortunately a bit of a sight for sore eyes (at least it is in the south island of New Zealand). We spent hours hiking this more plaza style section of the big park, with a waterfall rail, roller, hip and up tube. Coincidently there was an orchestra of motivational heckling coming from the chairlifts and surrounding areas as the crew followed each other through possibly the favourite line of the day. Some well-deserved attention I say.
By the afternoon although the sky was a little clearer (we could refer to it as a blue ish grey-bird sky) the wind was still…well, lets just say it would’ve been a good day to fly a kite. Now did that deter the crew from still sending it on the big line well ‘yeah, nah’. We even had Zoi Sadowski-Synnott met us at the top, who despite a serious case of food poisoning not even 24 hours prior was able to fire up both the riders and everyone shooting with her effortless style.
By the end of our day at Cardrona everyone was beat, but most importantly amped for the following day at The Remarkables.
The weather couldn’t have been better for day 2, not a cloud in the sky and not a day to miss putting on your sunscreen (which I did of course and now have a tragic goggle tan to show for it). We had 2 extra Queenstown based photographers join us for the day. Julia Russ and Jamie Rochester, Sophie Maxwell had held it down at Cardrona keeping everyone (in her words) ‘juiced’ all damn day!
The new park chair got everyone lapping quickly and inevitably chasing the person in front of them. Caitlin Hodgen (who you can usually find raking the lips of your favourite feature in the Remarks park) grabbed a go-pro and somehow turned into gimbal god for the morning. It was the weekend of trying something new that’s for sure.
So as the afternoon rolled around and the park got busier and slushier, it was a perfect opportunity to sneak away to the other side of the mountain.
Now as they say. ‘You can take the park rat out of the park, but you can’t take the park out of the rat’… or something like that… you know what I mean.
We may as well have just been surfing all afternoon as because anything that even remotely resembled a wave was hit, slashed and jumped over. All the riders got a little creative and had videographers, Te Rina Adams and Zyanya Jackson running around like headless chickens to capture all the action.
Inevitably as the lifts stopped turning and energy levels started to waver, we all stopped for one final hit in the gully. Though one drop after another, it was clear no one was really done. Riders started hiking and everyone with a lens in front of their face found a better angle. Everyone worked their ass off to get a shot in here, and the hard work really paid off. Especially after Cool Wakushima shut the zone down with a massive front three off this side hit.
As people’s legs finally turned to jelly, camera batteries started dying, and well the mountain staff wanted to finish up operations for the day, it was time to ride off into the sunset. With a little more certainty around what exactly this grass roots event actually was… A fun opportunity for the ladies to really show off all their hard work.
Stay tuned for a full video re-cap of the weekend…dropping soon! Plus a check-out with the standout rider from the weekend.
She’ll be right!
