Maria and her son Tao on Mosquito Lake in Pemberton, BC. Maria balances motherhood, a full-time job and snowboarding, yet continues to push the latter forward. Photo: Valerie St-Arnaud Were you worried things were going to change drastically once your baby was born? Yes. I remember people saying, “You’re not going to snowboard any-more, ha-ha-ha.” I got pissed off. I was like, “I’m going to show you.” Snowboarding is such a big part of my life, so there was no ques-tion. I’m not going to stop snowboarding because I have a kid. I’m going to introduce him to all the stuff that I love too. When was Tao born? September 25, 2014. I’d probably plan it the same way if I had another kid. It was perfect. I wasn’t too pregnant all winter—I was really pregnant all summer and then he came out in the fall. You get a few months there with the baby where you’re home and breastfeed-ing, and then you can snowboard. When did you start boarding again? November. I knew that I wanted to be active so I pumped milk the whole time. I had milk stored away in the freezer for people to help me. I was so stoked to be snowboarding. Previously I’d been able to snowboard every single day, but then I had to plan it out. I felt so free when I’d go. You didn’t feel guilty? No. I’m a human too, and I’m allowed to do what I want. Some moms feel like they lose their identity when they have a kid. They have this guilt that stops them from doing stuff. It’s called “mom guilt,” and it is a real thing. When I was in Quebec this year, it was the longest I’ve ever been away from Tao and was feeling guilty, especially on days where I was blowing it. That first year, I went to Quebec for a week. Samuel was there too, and he would watch Tao. Samuel came out a few times and filmed with Tao in a little basket. He was about 5 months old. It was so cold, but I would sit there with my milk and pump. You run out of milk if you don’t pump. This whole time, what was your plan with snowboarding? When I first started talking to you in 2016, I could see how talented you were, but you couldn’t verbalize your goals. Did you have any sponsors? I’ve always been sponsored by GNU. I used to be sponsored by West-beach, and they put me in contact with Barrett [Christy Cummins], and Barrett was like, “Yeah, I can send you a free board.” I was trying to film, but not putting much effort into being sponsored. I’ve never been good at that whole side of snowboarding. The business side—keeping in contact with your team managers, or even knowing what your team managers want from you. You’re kind of oblivi-ous to that side of snowboarding. Totally. It’s never been on my mind either. I never thought, “I can make money off pro snowboarding.” I was more like, “Whoa, I get a free snowboard? That’s sweet!” MARIA THOMSEN 065
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 17.2: Page 65
