Nicole Birkhold, Freeskier magazine
Nicole: Roz, let’s start with you.
How did you get into skiing and which athletes did you look up to?
Yeah, so I didn’t ski for four years.
So I started the freestyle program.
And one of the first ski heroes I met at one of the first ski events I went to.
A girl named Chelsea Henitiuk, who is still on the Canadian mogul team.
She is from Alberta, and she wasn’t competing ?
she just came for fun.
So at that point I was like, ?okay, this is what is possible.
This is what I want to do.
This is what I want to start pushing myself in.?
And then as I grew up in the club and then the Alberta team ranks.
Nicole: Nice, yeah, D!
Roz: Yeah D!
I watched her for an entire summer do perfect back crosses.
I continue to be impressed by Sarah [Burke].
She is always learning new tricks and learning them so fast ?
like flairs both ways.
Nicole: So fast!
She learned those out of nowhere.
So it’s those things that I continue to be inspired by.
Nicole: The progression that each girl is able to bring to the table?
Megan: I started skiing when I was about nine or ten.
My mom was a big skier when she was younger but I was born in Atlanta.
So I lived there until I was five.
and when we moved to Ontario, I started riding around, just ripping.
And when I was nine my mom put me in this Jumps and Bumps group at Horseshoe Resort.
And then we moved to Calgary and I got into this freestyle program out of COP.
There’s just not as many of us women in this industry.
I was a big-mountain skier for a long time until I started doing more pipe and slope.
Nicole: I think there’s more room in skiing right now.
Megan: Yeah, exactly.
There’s more opportunity in women’s skiing I think.
It’s hard to get noticed in skating.
But in skiing there’s more room.
Of course my hero ?
one of the people I admire ?
Obviously she’s the face of women’s skiing.
I think I’ve looked up to her since I started skiing.
She skis like a guy and that makes me so pumped.
I just want to ski like a guy.
Nicole: Or like a girl who skis as well as the guys.
Roz: Yeah, why not be proud to ski like a girl?
Nicole: Yeah, a girl who is as good as the guys.
But I understand what you’re saying Megan.
the compliment in its own right.
Nicole: Exactly, we should be working towards retiring that comparison.
But you know, it’s the way it is right now and I understand.
Yeah, I’ve never been to a contest like it.
It was crazy but in a good way.
It was such a good experience.
All the older girls who had been there before were so supportive of me.
Nicole: Roz, how about you?
What has that meant for you and for women’s skiing in general?
?but as we see ourselves in bigger competitions girls are pushing themselves more and pushing each other more.
I think that’s really important.
This year, five out of six girls tried nines.
And I think two-thirds of the field were doing unnatural spins on their uncomfortable wall.
Nicole: What do you guys think about the Dew Tour?
There was a stop for you on that and a full field.
Did it measure up?
Roz: Well, almost.
There wasn’t equal prize money.
Nicole: That’s true.
And there wasn’t a slopestyle event.
Let?s talk about the pros and cons of how the Dew Tour handled it.
Roz: Well, I was really disappointed at first?definitely.
I felt that the women had proven ourselves last year, especially in slope.
The girls threw down.
I don’t ski for myself.
I ski because I love being in the air.
And I obviously hope for next year they will look at how that went.
Megan: I think the women?s competitions this year were crazy.
Girls are getting gnarly?gnarlier than before.
But the one they had this year was awesome.
The organization was good and I was happy we got to do at least one Dew Tour.
Looking back to five years ago, women’s skiing has obviously progressed.
Megan: Well, five years ago I was 12.
Nicole: [Laughter] That’s true.
How about over the past couple years?
What has helped you learn new tricks and what’s next for you?
Megan: Obviously, watching the guys do tricks pushes me a lot.
For slope, I?d really like to compete in that more.
What do you think about that?
Roz: I’m definitely into that.
I think it’s extraordinarily hard to change.
Megan: I definitely agree with the second part.
But I always put my edits on Newschoolers.
I make a run at make a lot of edits, usually with Kelti.
But I think one of the areas where the attitude toward female skiers has digressed is in film.
Hopefully, Kaya will be in there this year.
Megan: I agree.
It sucks that there are no girls in movies.
Nicole: It definitely feels like the standards are higher as far as what makes the movie.
And women are really good at selling product.
Marketing research has been done and women like buying product from women.
Because women buy product?even for men.
Nicole: It is a weird and schizophrenic industry when it comes to women.
They?re going on in your home country!
Roz: Oh man, the Olympics are so important to me personally.
I don’t even know where to begin with it.
I think there would be an outburst of young female halfpipe skiers.
Nicole: Megan, 2014 isn’t that far away.
You’ll definitely be at the top of your game then.
Is that something that you think about?
I agree with Roz totally on everything she said, especially the increase in girls skiing.
Girls will want to be involved in halfpipe skiing if they see girls doing it.
Nicole: I always struggle with that?the chicken or the egg scenario.
contests are there, then will more girls come?
Or does there need to be more girls before the contests are offered.
And I really think one thing to spur it would be the Olympics taking a stand.
It would change skiing but I really think it could be for the better.
It could really help move things forward and make it a true international entity.
Megan: It’s always, “Oh!
You snowboard.” Like always!
?You obviously aren’t a physicist!?
Hopefully, 2014 works out.
Megan: Hopefully, more X-Games.
Getting my run solid.
Being a girl but skiing like a guy.
And just progressing women’s skiing.
And just having lots of fun.
Nicole: Sounds good, and good luck!
What about you Roz, what’s on the Roz G five-year plan?
Roz: I can’t release that to the public, Nicole!
[Laughter] I’m just kidding.
I think for me just being in the air as much as possible.
That’s why I ski.
That’s why I always have such a hard time with rails.
[Laughter] But definitely I always have the goal to do more slope events because I love jumping.
It comes so much more naturally to me than half pipe skiing.
Nicole: Thanks so much ladies, for your time.
It was great to talk with you both.
