Favourites: Leanne Pelosi
Finding out the all important what, where, when, who and why with the Canadian pro snowboarder.
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Everyone has their own favourite things. And so in this spirit, we ask the great, the good and the downright talented about the things that mean the most to them.
HUCK caught up with Canadian pro snowboarder Leanne Pelosi fresh after her part in Standard Films' new movie, TB20, to find out what she is into.
What?
My circa-1970s camper. We bought it off this guy whose landlord said it was an eyesore. I like to call it a diamond in the rough. It's been redone on the inside, cedar planks and teal green appliances. A few winters ago, there was too much snow on it and it fell over, so we patched it up and fixed the wood rot. We also drove it from Vancouver to the Mexican border and the vinyl siding popped out from going too fast on the highway. It's been through a few rough patches with me, but I love it because it's my home away from home. I even filmed my intro to my video part this year with Standard Films in it.
Where?
The Whistler backcountry. It sounds like a cliché to say that, but it really has a special place in my heart. I've spent roughly 10 years exploring the surrounding area and to me it's a snowboarding dreamland. Last season, I spent a few days sans snowboard just cruising around on my snowmobile in awe of the serenity there. My favourite days aren't the sunny ones either! It's when I can look out my window and see the snow just coming down super hard right down to the valley floor - which is rare. That's when you know its going to be a good day.
When?
I got into a crazy car accident with eight friends and six of us had no seat belts on. We were all OK, but this was a pivotal moment in my life as I went from being an up-and-coming national team soccer player to becoming a sponsored pro snowboarder. I shattered my humerus in that accident and got cut from the national team shortly after. Since I couldn't really do anything about it, I figured I'd go on shred vacation to Whistler for one year with my friends after university. Against my parents' wishes, my gut instinct took me there. That was almost 10 years ago and I haven't looked back.
Who?
My boyfriend of many years, Jeff Keenan. We went to Bora Bora, Tahiti for vacation one year and we decided to go off the beaten path and climb to the second highest peak of the island, which was 2300ft above sea level. I ended up having a freak panic attack on a rope that was about 100 feet long that went straight up. I was stuck in the middle, freaking out because I didn't want to go up or down. It was raining and there was basically a waterfall coming down on me. Long story short, that was really one of the most worrisome moments of my life and Jeff helped me get through it. We ended up getting stuck up on top of the mountain for a few hours longer than anticipated because of a freak rainstorm. I shed a few tears up there. We get to the bottom, covered in mud and the locals did not believe that we got up there and I guess the week prior another tourist got stuck up there solo for a few days with a broken leg! We laugh about it now, but I am so glad I had Jeff there to comfort me. He's my tougher half. Ha!
Why?
The mountains are so vast that you could devote an entire lifetime to them and do something different every single day. That's the mystery of it all, and why I keep coming back. The other day I was splitboarding in Squamish, BC and I had the chance to come eye to eye with two timber wolves about 100 feet away. I somehow managed to fumble for my camera and get a photo of them. We had about three minutes to stare at each other. That was a moment that I will never forget. I could easily have been street meat to them for all I know but it's moments like these when you realise it's all about the journey. As a pro snowboarder, I've been given this insane opportunity to explore undirected, and I'm very thankful for that.
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Favourites: Leanne Pelosi (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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