Jess Kimura: Where were you born? Maria Thomsen: In a town called Esbjerg, in Denmark. It’s an old fishing town but there’s not much [of that] going on there anymore. My mom and dad still live there in the same house I grew up in. My mom [Dorit] is a nurse and my dad [Mogens] is an oil rigger. He manages a rig, I think. He’s working in Africa right now. Where do you live these days? In Pemberton, BC, just north of Whistler. I first came to Whistler in 2008. I was 19 years old. Three of my friends were doing a season there. I took two weeks off school to come visit them, just to try snowboarding. Had you skateboarded or surfed or anything? No. I played handball. How did you like snowboarding at first? At first I hated it. I didn’t hate it, but I was hurting everywhere. I went back home and finished business school. Then I went on a holiday with my girlfriends to this Greek and Turkish island. When all my friends were going home, I was like, I don’t have anything to go home to, I’m gonna stay here. I got a job at a nightclub. It was kind of sketchy. I was selling tickets for people to go to this after-party club, and I ended up making so much money. I was going to go to Whistler with that money, but I came home. I got sidetracked and decided to go to dancing college. Had you danced your whole life? Nope. I had never danced. I had gotten this DVD at some point, [about] learning how to break dance. I got rid of my bed in my room because I was really set on learning how to break dance. “It was one of the last days filming for X Games Real Snow 2019 and I was pretty desperate for a few more shots. It was really cold. Dave Walcer had to have the car running to keep batteries charged and stay warm. We set up most of the spot late the night before. I had Marjorie Couturier helping with the setup, and she boarded with me, which helped with motivation.”—Maria Thomsen Screen grab: Dave Walcer Did you learn how to dance? I learned a few ballet moves, but nothing great. On this one trip to New York I had to do this modern performance in front of a school in Harlem—we did a performance for them, they did one for us, and they were kicking ass. Some of the girls in my class were really talented dancers, but modern dance wasn’t for me, so I went back to Whistler. I was 21. I got a one-year working visa and went straight to the park. My friends kept sending me off jumps—I was this guinea pig and clown. You know the people who go off the jumps, full beginners, and they hardcore knuckle? All my friends would laugh and I was like, “I’m so cool.” I thought I was so good. I got a bunch of comments like, “Wow, you’re progressing so fast,” and that sparked a fire. I was like, “Yeah, I can learn this. I wanna do this.” Were you looking for something to excel at, like when you were at the dance school? I think so. I needed a passion. But I blew my knee the first season overshooting the last jump in the Whistler park. My insurance paid for me to fly home and have surgery. I had surgery in October and was back in Whistler by January. I was trying to be smart about snowboarding again, but probably not really. I broke my wrist that winter then broke my tailbone and went home again that summer to recover. Then, I went to Austria in the fall and broke my elbow really, really bad, and had surgery in Austria. Still, I went back to Whistler three months later. 062 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
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