Were you getting good enough at snowboarding to have sponsors? I did a few years of slopestyle, and went to the Danish championships in Norway and I won that [in 2010]. I got on the Danish national team and they wanted to send me to the Olympics, but I wasn’t that into it. Then I had some ankle problems, had surgery on that, and that kind of threw me off. I didn’t jump anymore, for a while. How did you get into riding street stuff? Samuel [Currie] was really into filming street. You met Samuel in Whistler, and he became your boyfriend… We were riding the park together, but suddenly he became obsessed with wanting to film a street part. We were on a trip in Tahoe and he said, “We should buy a bungee. We should film down here.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, let’s do it.” How’d it go? So bad. We went to this up-rail and I had never tried a bungee before. I couldn’t figure it out, I kept flying off the ground. I got so mad at him. What made you try it again? The year after, me, Samuel and my friend Cynthia went to Montreal in February. Was Tao around at that time? No, he was made on that trip. We weren’t planning on having babies, but… You found out you were pregnant—what’s your first thought? I was freaking out. I wasn’t ready at all, but I also loved Samuel. He was young, but he was like, “Whatever you choose, baby, I’ll support you.” You kept filming that year? I filmed in Kelowna [BC] on mellow spots, but at this one school I strapped in and was like, “Oh my god, I’m so sick.” I had to run behind the school, I was puking. I went back to strap in, and then had to run over and puke again. Did all your friends or the film crew know you were pregnant? No. I wasn’t far along. I wasn’t even showing. I had just found about it and was kind of freaking out. Did you tell your parents? Yeah. I had good talks with my mom, debating what to do. I was 26 at the time and felt really young, but I also knew that if I was going to bring a kid into the world, I would love him or her. I knew that I was going to be a mom at some point; I just wasn’t planning on it at the time. At 26 in different cultures, or times, you already would have four kids. But to us [snowboarders] that’s like, “No, I’m not ready. I got shit I wanna do.” I still feel like that. I’m 32 and I’m like, “I’ll have more kids one day—not in the next seven years. I need to snowboard more.” The first time I saw you, I was on the chairlift. You were doing a back three off a jump and someone said, “She’s pregnant,” and I was like, “What?” They said, “She says she only does safe tricks, like front boards.” You were riding with no hesitation. Was there stuff where you backed off? Definitely. I didn’t try to learn new tricks. I just wanted to be out there snowboarding. It made me happy. MARIA THOMSEN 063
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 17.2: Page 63
