Words Colin Wiseman obin Van Gyn has an alter ego. Her name is Athena Ride. Robin’s a bit reluctant to talk about Athena, but she’s also proud of her. Because without Athena, Robin may not have won this year’s inaugural Natural Selection Tour. Or quit her main sponsor of over a decade to better align with her core values as a person, as an athlete, as a snowboarder. Or continued her progress toward backcountry guide certification. Or produced Fabric , a film project of depth, focused on empowering women on boards and beyond. R Robin had a big year. Probably her biggest ever since she became a pro rider. Her winter required multiple quarantines and many calculated risks, but they paid off. She put a lot of pressure on herself. That’s part of Robin’s personality, a self-described Type A individual from a family of Type A’s who, as Robin puts it, are “crazy in the right way.” They’ve had their share of problems, as any family does, but nowadays they’re as tight knit as ever. Now 38 years old, Robin is just hitting her prime. She’s an ac-complished big mountain rider, as evidenced most recently by that Natural Selection win, and multiple standout video parts from her work with Runway Films to the “P.S.” webisode series, then back-to-back TransWorld SNOWboarding Women’s Video Part of the Year wins for her riding in Full Moon (2016) and Depth Perception (2017). She’s actively pursuing a mentor role. She’s got the support of big brands like Yeti, Yakima and Ford to complement her endemic portfolio, and a new board sponsorship from Jones. She came into the game late, not even strapping in until she was nearly out of high school, not finding a viable career path until her mid-to-late 20s. But Robin has always operated on intuition. She’s not afraid to wing it—some of her friends lovingly call her “Robahawk”—and she also knows how to stand up for herself and others and make things happen. Whatever her goals, Robin just goes. 064 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 19.1: Page 64
