Raewyn Reid interview
After checking out her stand out part in recent all-girl snow movie, Stance, HUCK grabbed a chat with the DC-sponsored rider about snowboarding, gender division and US immigration.
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HUCK: Your part in Stance was filmed in just 28 days. What was the story behind that?
Raewyn Reid: Well, in the beginning of January, I got stopped at the US border and ended up getting denied. They put a big red flag on my passport and told me that I couldn't go to the US until I had a visa so I went home and got a lawyer and applied. The visa took about three months to go through and when it finally did, my application got turned down. By then it was about the end of March, so I got a bunch of documents together that proved I was a permanent resident of Canada and booked a round trip ticket. The border guy ended up letting me in, so I got to hit up the Roxy Chicken Jam and Ms. Superpark. The first day of Ms. Superpark on April 2 was my first day of filming and May 11 was my last. Between travel days, weather days, and days off for little bumps and bruises, it worked out to be about 28 days.
Are you happy with the result?
Definitely. In the beginning of January, I pretty much thought that my season was over. I would have been happy with even a half part or something so to have a full video part is a bonus for sure.
And your part is twice as long as the rest?
Yeah, I am really stoked about that.
You seem to be mocking 'Yo' at one point? How do you feel about that side of snowboarding?
I don't really feel very strongly one way or another. Snowboarding is snowboarding no matter how baggy your snow pants are. As long as you are having fun, that’s the only thing that matters. I guess I wasn't making fun of 'Yo' style so much as I was making fun of myself. I think sometimes people get the wrong impression because they are always asking me if I listen to rap. My grandpa asks me when I am going to get a belt every time he sees a picture of me snowboarding.
How important is gender in snowboarding nowadays?
I wouldn't say that it’s important really because I have a ton of friends who are dudes who I really like to snowboard with. It is different for sure in exactly the same way that men's soccer is different from women's soccer. They are two completely different leagues. You can’t really say that dude’s snowboarding is way better than women's snowboarding because it's like comparing black and white. If you played the national men's hockey team against the national women's hockey team it would be the same outcome, that’s just athletics.
Some consider the idea of 'all-female' to be divisive, how do you feel about that?
I think it probably is. I don't really see that as a negative thing though.
You grew up in Calgary, having the Calgary Olympic Park nearby must have helped?
Yeah, it helped so much. I could go snowboarding every day after school until 9pm and it was so fun growing up there. It was almost like a little community where everyone knew everyone so you could show up by yourself and do one lap and find like five of your friends to shred with. It’s a super little hill too so you could do so many laps so fast. You get tired after, like, two hours of snowboarding just lapping the same rails and jumps all night.
With its manufactured terrain, does that make you more comfortable in the park?
Yeah, I guess. There are definitely a lot less consequences to hitting a park rail than a street rail. You don't have to worry about the outside factors either, like not having enough time to get comfortable on a rail or something because you are going to get kicked out. It’s sure nice to not have to worry about avalanches too. Those things are scary.
How much interest will you be taking in the upcoming Olympics?
Well my older sister Sarah Reid is actually a high performance skeleton athlete (skeleton is like head first luge). She is currently trying to qualify for the Olympics. I will definitely be kicking around Vancouver and
Whistler if she qualifies and so we’re all crossing our fingers. She has worked really hard and deserves it a lot.
Finally, what are you plans for the season?
I just got my US visa so that means there will be no problems going back and forth this season which is awesome and really leaves the window wide open. I am hoping to be filming a ton and getting out to some contests too but as of right now, nothing is set in stone really. I’m just excited to be snowboarding again and I am looking forward to good friends and laughs.
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Raewyn Reid interview (text) by Ed Andrews is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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