Photo:Josie Clyde at Dropstitch

Photo: Josie Clyde/Dropstitch

You’ve just won the award for best rookie rider at the Union Awards – how did you feel about that?
I didn’t have a clue – I didn’t think I would win it with the other people in the category. Last year there was a female rookie and a male rookie and for some reason this year they put them together – so I thought I stood even less of a chance.

What does the award mean to you?
It shows that all the work I have done throughout the year has paid off – people have noticed, which is good. And I was really pleased that I could actually go and pick up the award myself.

What have you got planned for the forthcoming season?
In a couple of weeks I’m going out to train in Tignes then I’m going to Davos. We’re doing a Europea cup over there. I’m trying to build up my FIS points so I have enough to do World Cups. I think all this is just building up to the Olympics in a couple of years.

Who do you travel with when you’re training and doing competitions?
I travel with the Great Britain squad literally all the time and our coach Craig. I’m on the Great Britain development squad – I think that’s the next best team after the Olympic team. We train for whatever competition is coming up – we’ve done some kicker training to prepare for Board X and I guess we’ll be training in the halfpipe for Davos because that’s a halfpipe competition. We also do fitness stuff as well. It’s good training – Craig is a really good coach and I’ve learned so much from being around him.

How do you fit it all in around school?

Photo courtesy of Board X

With difficulty! My school are really good about it – they let me have pretty much all the time off that I want and they set me work to do when I’m away. If I miss out on stuff then it’s my choice about whether I do after school clubs and stuff – which I would if I got that behind. My tutor said to me the other day that I’m basically doing school for snowboarding. If I work really hard then I get all the time off that I want - which is pretty good. They’re a sports college as well so obviously they’re a bit more lenient with anything to do with sport.

How do you feel about the fact that many of the girls you’re competing against regularly are much older than you?
It doesn’t really bother me that they’re older than me – the only thing I ever think of is that they’ve been boarding much longer than me. But I’m good mates with all of them.

At Milton Keynes you're one of the few girls hitting the rails regularly - what's it like riding with the guys?
All the sports I’ve ever done are male dominated sports – football, I did judo and now I’m doing snowboarding so it’s what I’m used to. I think if I had just been riding with girls I probably wouldn’t have pushed myself as much but I think it helps riding with the guys. Their bodies are stronger than ours so if I want to keep up with them it’s hard for me – which is good because it stops me from getting bored.

You went on the filming trip to Iceland organized for the all-girl snowboard movie Dropstitch – how did you get involved with that?
I got an email from Lesley (McKenna) one day saying they were thinking of doing a girls video and I thought it sounded cool so I told her I was interested. Then she told me they were going to Iceland and she asked me if I wanted to come.

What was that like?
It was amazing – so good. We were snowboarding at two o’clock in the morning and stuff – it was so beautiful. In some of the photos you’ll be going off a rail and in the background there’ll be the most beautiful sunset. Obviously it was light 24 hours a day when I was there which was weird – we stayed out until 2 o’clock in the morning one day and it could have been 12 o’clock in the afternoon for all I knew.

How do you feel about the business side of snowboarding – dealing with sponsors etc.
For me I need the sponsors to keep doing it. My family’s not that well off so any bit of help moneywise is good. It can get a bit polticy sometimes but since I have Stu (Brass) as my manager now that helps a lot – my sponsors talk to him now and he sorts stuff out. I’m not really that involved with it at the moment – I get free stuff which is wicked – and just try to get in magazines and publicise them as much as I can since they’ve helped me so much. I do think that if you’re sponsored you should try to get publicity because you have to help them to help you – if you know what I mean. When I get in magazines I always try to say thanks to my sponsors.

In the US Scotty Wittlake has just given up riding professionally – the pressure seems to be really ramping up on riders to perform for their sponsors these days.
In American it’s a lot more pressurised – here we haven’t got the mountains and all the big big competitions . I think here sponsors are a bit more ‘Yeah, ride and get us a bit of publicity’ but in America you have to do this competition and that competition. But for me at the moment, at my age, it’s just great to have some help.

Do you ever worry that you might burn out or get bored with snowboarding?
I do sometimes. At one point earlier in the year I was away for a week, back for a week, away for a week and then back again and I thought if it’s this bad now… I always think that if I did get bored with it, or burned out or whatever I could take a break. I’m quite capable school-wise so I’ve always got that to fall back on. It’s not like I don’t have other things in my life either. I think if I did just have snowboarding it would get a bit monotonous but I’ve got other things. I play football for a team on a Sunday and obviously I’ve got school as well. But at the moment I’m not bored in the slightest so I don’t have to worry about that.

How did you get in to snowboarding?
They built the Xscape (in Milton Keynes) – which was about five minutes from my house. It was just coming up to my birthday so my Nan bought me a little taster session. So I did that and I sort of wanted to learn it. I get really frustrated really easy if I can’t do something so I though – either I’m going to have to forget about this or learn to do it. So I bought five lessons to get me up to recreational standard and just took them. So I just rode around Milton Keynes for a few months. I kinda lost interest in football a bit more so I had more time for snowboarding. I just took it from there until I got on the MK squad and had to go specific nights for training.

So how does your Gran feel about her birthday present now?
She’s really supportive – but she does think that me wearing hats all the time is not a good thing. All my family are really supportive – even if they’re not that interested they’re still really supportive.