Claire Frost interview
HUCK caught up with DC sponsored snowboarder Claire Frost about the Brits, being part of team GB and her trip to the DC Mountain Lab.
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How did you get on over the past season.?
Yeah, we travelled to a few different competitions; I won a big air comp in Switzerland in the first month. I also went to Italy for the first ever world cup slope style at the Olympic slope in Bardonecchia. That was really cool ‘cos the plan is to get slopestyle into the Olympics, hopefully the next one. I did a couple near Mayrhofen, that’s where we’ve been based this season, and there was one when the rest of the British team had gone to China. It was just me left in Mayrhofen, and I decided to go to a comp by myself. It was a big adventure, it was all snowy, and I ended up winning and drove back with 400 Euros.
So, am I right in thinking your original plan was to go to Breckenridge this season?
No, actually, my original plan was to work through the winter and do a full year as a graduate structural engineer. But, when winter came I just had to go snowboarding. I think it was because of the British team; they called me a few times asking me to be on the freestyle team, so I couldn’t say no.
You ended up in the states anyway this year didn’t you?
Yeah, we flew to Salt Lake City for the UK DC team trip, and got to ride the DC Mountain Lab too. That was crazy, we stayed three nights and it’s like your own private park. It was awesome of DC to hook this up. I’m really happy with my sponsors, they’ve invested in me this season, which I’m stoked on, and K2 as well - their boards are awesome.
You did pretty well at the Brits this year right?
Yeah, I came 3rd in the Slope Style and 2nd in the Big Air. Last year, I won both of them, but Jenny Jones came over for the Slope Style and Laura Berry wasn’t injured this year so the competition was a bit harder I guess, but I’m happy with how I did. Next year I want to compete in the TTR so this year was spent trying to build up a slopestyle run, that means getting used to the big jumps and spinning. So at the Brits I only hit the big ones!
Did you get to ride in Scotland much? What do you make of the snow scene in Scotland in general?
I did, it was so good to start the season up north in Cairngorm. Plus, I hadn’t been riding in Scotland for about 5 years before that. It’s really good, we’ve got some really talented riders and the mountains have that authentic gnarly edge.
Do you ever think about climate change affecting snowboarding, does it concern you at all?
I definitely do, especially being a snowboarder and flying around the world all the time, I want to grab it and enjoy it while I can, so it’s difficult to know what to do. But also, I’d say there are different snowboarders like the freeriders, they are going to be more in tune with nature, the environment and therefore much more likely to care, compared to freestyle riders who are just in the park all day. But, we are all outside, and we are all riding snow we all notice when the snow’s not so good, so I think we are all quite aware and we’ve all got little bits that we can do to help.
Are you planning on training at the Snowdomes now you’re back? What do you make of these indoor places?
Yeah, I’ll definitely get the SNO!zone in. They’re just great places, especially for developing rail skills. The UK’s got really good jibbers and that’s pretty much because of the snowdomes, they’re really valuable. It’s where the scene is year round, and you build up your little crew there.
Any summer plans?
I’m going back to NZ to carry on the progression. Also, Lesley McKenna is doing her girls camp over there, so I might be helping out with that. Plus I want to do the NZ Burton Open, and my friend Rupert’s going out, and he’s a photographer so I’d like to get some nice shots in, and maybe some decent filming, cause it’s always good to look at your own riding and see what you actually look like when you are snowboarding. Hopefully I’ll do a bit of filming with the Whitespace guys out there, they seem to be the only guys doing a UK film this year.
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Claire Frost interview (text) by Ruth Carruthers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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