Women's Snowboard Federation Blog

Words: Eve Northmore, Photos: Erin Helstern

In between coaching on Thursday and Billabong Flaunt It on Saturday, we found some precious moments to get out off the hill for an adventure. With the Billabong crew in town for the event and a limited time frame, we set up an easy spot at a playground in Collingwood. Richard Roth had taken me here years ago to shoot when the Rugged Riders crew came to town from Quebec. Gasp! Yes I doubled up. Those pics never surfaced and it was about 5 years ago, so I figured it was back on the market. If you live, ride, or are under the age of 12 in Collingwood, you probably know this spot. It has several great swing sets, slides and forts as well as an infamous rail heading out to Georgian Bay nearby. The concrete tubes are a mellow hit, easy to get to and also is lit up. Banger, I thought and a banger it was. Good times ensued.

Jackie working hard, however, not really hard enough to break a sweat. More like working at a medium pace.

Cold certified chillin’. The crew wondering what the heck concrete tubes are doing scattered around a playground.

Towing into the abyss. Banshee Bungee. A must have. Watch out or it will take your mittens off!

Jessica Woolsey. Hit after hit, everyone got many turns rotating between dropping in and towing the bungee out.

Laura Brace.

Billabong Rider Victoria Marshall.

Erika Langman.

Eve’s Coach Demo 1: How to successfully gap a concrete tube.

Eve’s Coach Demo 2: How to unsuccessfully gap a concrete tube.

Gap to side impact landing. This ended my participation portion of the activity and was the start of a new late night adventure.

Hospital visits, that’s what friends are for.

4 painful hours later an X- Ray showed no damage except for some deep bruising, which has now since reared it’s ugly head on my body. It hurt to stand, it hurt to sit, mostly, it hurt to laugh which was especially noted when there happened to be numerous x rated ailments going on with other patients around me. As soon as we could we booked it out of there, driving over the hospital curb in a truck convoy to save on the parking tab, only to get dinged outside my house later that morning. Karma.

We made it home with 4 hours of sleep left before we had to be up and on hill for Flaunt It. We were judging, so the day wasn’t too taxing on our bodies, just our brains. All in all, a very successful night to lead into a very successful weekend!