Speaker 1: 0:32

he just looked at me and he smiled and he's like I like you. He's like let's do this. And I was like, okay, and so anyway. He was just like well, let's get a contract signed. He's like he had a gal that worked for Mary at the time and he's like Mary's going to drop a contract and let's get this going. Okay, I like this. He's like let's go show you the space.

Speaker 1: 0:52

There was one space that was available and it was a brand new building that hadn't been built out yet, so it didn't have drywall or anything, it was just a they call it vanilla shell actually, and I didn't know what that meant. Vanilla shell I thought that was kind of a funny word. But they're like yeah, it doesn't. You know, you can build it out the way you want. So anyway, I went and checked out the space and I was just like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. It's this big, huge 2,500 square foot like space, but it was beautiful. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be so cool.

Speaker 1: 1:20

And I don't know I I guess I must've been crazy, but I signed a contract and I didn't have a name for the bill, for the for the business yet, and, um, I had to get on the road, like for me it was just like all right, let's get this part done, because I got to go race. I got to go race my bike and I sent out a list of names to a bunch of friends and I emailed them and I just said hey guys, I'm starting a store. These are my. Had put vanilla on the list was because A, they called that building vanilla and I thought a vanilla shell condition or whatever, and I thought that was so different. I didn't know.

Speaker 1: 2:06

But also there was used to be a snowboard clothing line that was attached to Joyride Snowboards called Vanilla, and to me I was like, and it had gone out of business, but I was like to me that resonated with like men and women and like I just kind of liked the name. So but everybody liked it. So I was like, okay, vanilla, it is. Here we go and things were bad.

Speaker 2: 2:29

There's a silver lining behind every cloud. Just four people, that's all we were trying to make a living out of Blackland dirt. We grew together in a family circle, singing loud.

Speaker 3: 2:47

When April Lawyer opened Vanilla in Ben's Old Mill District back in November of 2005, no one could have predicted it would become one of Central Oregon's most beloved retail destinations. Vanilla isn't just about a curated selection of goods. It's about the community April has built. As Vanilla celebrates 20 years this November, the story of Vanilla is a testament to how success often comes from embracing the unexpected. On episode 64, I have the pleasure of sitting down with April as she shares stories from the many chapters of her life, from growing up in Big Bear Lake, california, to her time as a professional snowboarder and downhill mountain biker, to eventually transitioning into life as a business owner. April takes us through the pivotal moments, relationships and experiences that helped shape her path, and we hear from a few key people who played a significant role in her journey. Stick around after the show credits, as April contributes to our community art project, where we explore art embedded with meaning. And she shares one last story about her time as a bike stunt double in Hollywood. Yo, april, thanks so much for your time today. I really enjoyed our conversation. It might be one of my favorite yet.

Speaker 3: 4:15

I've been looking forward to this because I haven't been podcasting like at all in the last. For a while I was trying to do an episode or two a month. And then I have this other side business that's starting to catch traction, which has taken a lot of time and where we got invited and we're part of the new the 2025 Bend Outdoor Works cohort. Do you know Bao Bend Outdoor Works cohort? Do you know Bow Bend Outdoor Works? Yeah, so part of my business that I'm developing is in the podcast space. Basically, it's it's called Story Booth. We go to weddings and we set up a podcast booth and we create a podcast series of your wedding based on the stories told from the friends and family there, and we create this really fun kind of unique family heirloom podcast series that's like it's so fun. I love that.

Speaker 3: 5:04

Yeah, so get that thing closer, like oh, yeah, yeah, and real like you can adjust it, so it's straight on. Yep, just there you go okay yeah, perfect, I love that.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Yeah, all that's when, when we got married randomly we didn't have like a big budget or anything like that, but, um, we didn't have any, we didn't hire any photographers or anything. But we had all these friends in like the industry that were like going to be there and they were like, well, my gift to you is I'm going to take photos or whatever. And we had one friend that took video, like he videoed things and he put it on like a cd. That's how we used to see videos yeah, cd anyway, um, on a dvd anyway.

Speaker 1: 5:43

But that was so special to like, you know, because there was really not so much the ceremony itself but like seeing all the people behind the scenes and their stories and like all these little things that happen that when we were getting ready and stuff that you would never see, it made it so, so special.

Speaker 3: 6:01

Yeah, it's a fun way to capture and like, just voice and again, like what I've learned in here and trying to recreate that in a comfortable environment where the, the couple, creates these open ended prompts so that the guests of the wedding get to hear from the couple. Because one of the biggest problems at a wedding you don't feel like you really get to connect with the couple that much At all yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:21

So this is a way that kind of fills that void in a unique way. But then you know people are in the booth for 20 minutes and you get like it's a. I'll tell you more about it.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Yeah, that's really exciting it.

Speaker 3: 6:32

So back to I haven't been podcasting because I've been doing so much work on the business development right. Like just all the different you know um nuances of that man, it's it's layered with complexity which you are very familiar with Well, yeah, but also I will tell you, I still feel like I don't know how to do all that.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Like you know, you never stop learning, so I have a hunch hunch.

Speaker 3: 6:57

That's why you're so good at what you do, yeah. So okay, I wanted to cue up a little audio because there's a story behind it and I want to make sure. Nice. Yeah, come on, this is funny this is great.

Speaker 1: 7:19

This is perfect.

Speaker 3: 7:22

He's probably going. What is going on? I asked him earlier do you know who this is?

Speaker 2: 7:24

He's like nope Blue jean baby LA lady Seamstress for the band Pretty eyes, Pirate smile. You're marrying music man.

Speaker 3: 7:48

So tell people about this song.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Like this song, compared to what you were sharing with me, this song kind of holds a special place in your life does, and I thank you for opening it on this, because it sort of lends itself to what this the purpose of this song is to me. Um, I was really nervous to come here and do this today and god, I'm gonna get emotional just listening to this. But, um, that song was sort of pivotal in my racing career, my mountain bike racing career. I used to get really nervous when I'd be before a race. You know you'd have all the jitters and all the things and a big part of before you get in the gate. You know you want to warm up and get your body all ready and you know, know all the things and everybody would have their headphones in and their iPods and all that. And that was back when iPods were like the thing and you know, listening to, you know whatever song would pump them up and get them ready to get in the gate. And I found that, no matter what, if I listened to a song that would pump me up, I'd get in the gate and I'd just be so nervous and almost always would crash out in the race. And so I was like I got to figure out some way to calm myself down. I have to figure out a way to just really get myself in the zone.

Speaker 1: 9:09

And a tiny dancer somehow entered the chat and yeah, I was just practicing one day on the track and that song came into my head and as I was going down the track I started, like you know, sort of singing it to myself and I was like maybe I need to just listen to a chill song like this before I get in the gate. Maybe it'll just, like you know, sort of calm me down and get me in the right frame of mind. So I started listening to Tiny Dancer on my iPod before I'd get in the gate, and usually a big part of racing is, you know, visualization. So as before I get in, you know, before I'd get in the gate, I would go through every nook and cranny of the course. You know it's sort of a dance and you would sort of just, you know, go over like okay, I'm going to pedal. You know three pedal strokes here, break here a little bit of front, break that you know every little nook and cranny, make sure you pop off that little root and you know all the different parts of it.

Speaker 1: 10:02

But it is, it's kind of a dance as you go down the course. And so tiny dancer sort of made sense, you know, as, as you know, you'd go through it, but because of the cadence of it, it just there was something about it that really relaxed me and I would, you know, visualize the course to the song and then ultimately, every single race run. As I went down, I was just sort of doing the dance to tiny dancer and choreographed to like every little, like okay, when it gets to the crescendo I'm, you know, doing this and this and and uh, that just kind of stuck with me. I did it for many years.

Speaker 1: 10:35

Like that was like every single race run tiny dancer. There we were.

Speaker 3: 10:39

Yeah, man, I can completely relate with like doing like a bank slalom or some sort of like snowboard event and having like the music that pumps you up. But it also, like you know, fast is smooth and smooth is fast Right. Right and smooth is fast, right, right, and sometimes that energy that you need, you excel when you're listening to certain types of music kind of pushes back against you when other times, like, like, there's a way to absorb it different right, like I totally know what you mean I mean, ultimately, you want to be pumped when you get in the stargate, especially for downhill.

Speaker 1: 11:12

You know it's not. It's not a, you know, mellow sport not at all.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So you want to have that aggression, you want to be ready and you want to be pumped, but at the same time it's it is very calculated, like people look at a sport like that and they think, oh my god, these people are just crazy just flinging themselves down the mountain.

Speaker 1: 11:28

But by time we actually get to the, the actual race run, it's so calculated. I mean, like like I, like I said we, we know, you know exactly where we're putting on, putting on the pedals, where we're going to put the brakes on, what you know everything down to like every nook and cranny, every rock, every rut, where you're going to, you know, use something to gain speed, and so, um it, by time, you, you know we've get to that final race run. We've already been, we've walked the course, we've walked certain sections, we've done sections over and over again, we've done multiple race runs or practice runs. So you know the track by the time you get there and it is very calculated. But it is definitely a bit of a dance as well and there's a lot of noise. You've got fans out there yelling and screaming and it's easy to really get like in your head. So, if you can, just you know, like I said, put on a little Elton John and enjoy it it just makes it all that much better.

Speaker 3: 12:26

I like using these audio prompts to share stories because there's something it just you know there's some especially music Like I can think of a bunch like my song would be a Tom Petty. There's a few of them, but everybody kind of has that song or artists that imprinted on them in a certain point in their life in a unique way, and I think it's fun to tap into that.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Yeah, totally yeah. I mean I don't think that very many people would probably pick Elton John or Tiny Dancer to be that and you know, obviously I think Elton John's amazing dancer to be that and you know, obviously I think Elton John's amazing and such a great artist. It just, it just sort of happened and and like I said, that song will forever. You know, even when I'm now, when I'm in the shop, and that song comes on.

Speaker 1: 13:06

I'll just like you know a little sparkle in my eye and it's like it's go time, like this is awesome yeah.

Speaker 3: 13:12

It's, it's, it's hardwired. Yeah. Well, we're going to like. Your story is amazing and I'm excited to share it with people for a lot of different reasons, but I thought that we could start with. You got me in touch with your very good friend, tom Spiegel, and I thought that we could start with a little audio I put together of him sharing a message and go from there. All right, so here you go.

Speaker 4: 13:49

So April lived down the street from my wife and I and our two boys when the boys were young and she's a couple of years older than my oldest son and she was just a little kid in the neighborhood blonde hair, little, cute little kid running around the neighborhood and eventually she actually babysat for us, for the boys, when they were young. And that was kind of my first introduction to April as far as just growing up and being a responsible young adult was babysitting for the kids. And from that that morphed into when we had the bike shop at Snow Summit that we were looking for someone to run the bike shop and I realized she wasn't that old at that time and I'm going to guess she was 17 or 18 and she basically ran the bike shop for us at the ski resort, which is a very busy place. At that time we had 50, 60 rental bikes, we had a couple of employees. The same time we were doing bike races and so she was an amazing individual in the fact that at that young age my business partner and I, pat, recognized the fact that she was that sharp of a person to be able to manage and run a rental shop. And if you've ever been in the rental business. Dealing with rental customers can be very difficult and April had a great knack and ability to handle even the roughest of adults, shall we call them. It's kind of interesting because most of the kids that worked for us eventually started riding bicycles and it just seemed a natural fit for somebody like April, who was a snowboarder, to be a mountain biker. And at that time there weren't a lot of women in the sport, although in the women's downhill field which April competed in, it was a stacked field. The top 10 girls were all world-class, top-level athletes and April immersed herself right in the middle of them all.

Speaker 4: 15:52

Little-known fact that most people don't know that. First of all, most people don't know that the first X Games you obviously do remember that the first X Games, winter X Games were at Snow Summit. Most people don't know that. I don't just doesn't seem to come out. During that X Games, april actually was the only female athlete at the event to compete in both the two mountain bike events and the snowboard events. They actually had a film crew follow her around during the X Games because she was obviously a young and upcoming star and she had the ability and the talent to do both snowboarding and mountain bike because we actually had mountain bike racing on the snow, we had a speed event and we had a slalom event, and back then I didn't follow snowboarding so much. You'd have to find out from her. I can't remember she might've done slope style, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but yeah. So that's actually a pretty huge honor for somebody to be able to say that they were in the first X Games. They were the only female athlete to actually compete in both snowboard and mountain biking at the first X Games and I was always so proud of her for that because she did it so well. She was just, you know, here's this crew film crew following around from ESPN and she's right in the middle of everything and she just handled it all so well. So my name's Tom Spiegel. So well. So my name's Tom Spiegel.

Speaker 4: 17:16

I own a company called Team Big Bear Mountain Bikes which was started 41 years ago by my business partner, pat Follett. I've been doing it for 39 years, still putting on bike races for a living. We've probably produced Team Big Bear's probably produced over 600 bike races in the last 40 years. We owned a bike shop at one time at Snow Summit. I'm a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and April Lawyer was one of my earlier employees.

Speaker 4: 17:47

I will always say that for myself, without the employees that I had over the years and April being one of those in the top five that without those employees I would have never gotten to where I'm at today, because you're only as good as your help and they've all become family. I look at them as family, I look at them as my kids, and so, april to you, hats off to your success at Vadella, hats off to your relationship with Shep and hats off to an amazing life you created for yourself away from big bear, and I'm proud of you and I love you very much that's a a lot to.

Speaker 1: 18:28

It's a lot to unpack there, but, um, that was really really wonderful thanks. Thanks for for um, thanks for talking to him. He's.

Speaker 3: 18:39

That guy's a legend man. That made me cry, like I listened to that and it's just so genuine, you know and there's so much that that's a long time ago. You know, and I don't know about you, but the older I get, the relationships that were um formed during, the relationships that were formed during the foundation that sets the trajectory for your life, kind of hold this incredibly special place. Yeah. You know so like. Thanks for putting me in touch with him.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Oh, I'm so glad you were able to get in touch with him. Yeah, honestly, I'd say I mean one of the most influential people in my life. You just, you know, talking to him, you got to know that. But he really is a true legend for so many reasons. But I mean just an amazing human and he really really like laid the path for me, not just as an athlete but as an employer, like I literally reference him in every team meeting that I have with my team, every one-on-one I have with my girls. I'm always referencing Tom Spiegel, like he's kind of a legend just in vanilla. And the girls.

Speaker 1: 19:49

They would all tell you that he's just a great, incredible guy, but he helped me get through some pretty rough times as a kid. You know I knew he knew me since I was a kid.

Speaker 3: 20:00

Totally.

Speaker 1: 20:00

And you know I went through kind of a lot, you know, with my family. My mom left when I was pretty young and you know, there's just always kind of acknowledge when he could see that I needed some correction or maybe direction I guess more would be the better word and he would pull me into his office and he'd just be like hey, I'm going to take the boss hat off for a minute and I'm going to put the friend hat on and we're going to talk what's going on, like what can we do? I can see you're struggling, I see you need something, and he was just always there and he'd always find a way to pull the tears out of me and he would cry too, which is like, you know, such a testament. I mean, he just had such a big heart he still does and the legacy he's created with all the you know bike races, he's put on and all the I know so many people he's touched in the industry.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I mean that's why he's in the Hall of Fame. He is like mountain biking. If you looked up in Encyclopedia there's Tom Spiegel, because he really is and he's just such an inspiring person. But he as an employer, oh my gosh man. I can't even tell you how lucky I am that I got to work for him. He not only just empowered everyone that worked for him, fun and such a family and such a, you know, unique working environment that like it didn't matter if we were, you know, on a big race day, we were working 16 hour days, like you just wanted it to keep going because they just always made it so much fun.

Speaker 1: 21:48

And he was the first person to you know if it was a really long hard day to you know, he'd crack open the register and he'd pull a stack of 20s out and hand a $20 bill to every kid that worked for him, every person just saying thank you, thank you for being here. You're amazing, you know.

Speaker 3: 22:03

He just really he's a good leader.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Yeah, such a good leader and just had a way about him that just made it so much fun. And you know, he really did. You know, at a time when I was quite young, like he said, I think that, like direct, that really gave me direction in life that I needed, like my home. Life at home wasn't great and I've always been a hard worker. I always had like two or three jobs at a time. I was just one of those people that always, you know, worked. Maybe it was an escape from life, I don't know, but it definitely set the groundwork for my, my work ethic.

Speaker 1: 22:44

But working for him made me want to be better, like just watching him. And and the best part about Tom was he was such a hard worker and he was always there in the trenches with his team, like the guy, like he wasn't the guy that sat there and just said you do this, you do this and delegate, Like he was there in the trenches with us doing it and he was the first one to show up every morning and the last one to leave. And and he, he really but also, on the same token which makes me, you know, really love him, is he? He also had that whole work hard, play hard mentality, mentality. He still would make a point to like let's go ride our bikes, let's go, you know, get outside. Let's go, you know, let's, let's live life.

Speaker 3: 23:55

And um, that's really stuck with me over the years, for sure all of that sounds very familiar after talking with hannah, and just the way you run, vanilla and in the trenches and leading by example, like you know. Um, yeah, he, he imprinted on you for sure, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 24:12

I'm super. I was stoked to start kind of this episode with him because, from an outsider's perspective, kind of learning your story, it was very clear to me that he played a major role in the beginning in setting you on this trajectory that exposed you to the opportunities that influenced Vanilla and all of that is the story of Vanilla, yeah absolutely. It's really cool stuff. He's also the second Hall of Fame mountain bike guest I've had on this podcast, the other being Paul Thomas Berg, who was inducted the very same year 2004.

Speaker 1: 24:48

And they were buddies too, totally yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:50

And I think Tom's business partner, Pat, was also inducted that year as well, when I was looking into it. So small world I guess for a local community podcast, you know.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Absolutely. And I do want to say I mean, pat was also another great leader and someone that was, you know. I think I had a more personal relationship with Tom. Sure Just especially because I knew him prior to working for him, and you know his wife played a big part of that as well. But Pat was amazing as well. They were a great partnership because they both kind of played different roles and, yeah, it was fun to see them see them, you know, do their thing.

Speaker 3: 25:33

it was definitely, yeah, pretty cool, that's rad big bear lake yeah, yeah, man yeah um, you and I have so much in common and and I like I was reading or listening to something within the last few months about this concept where, as we develop as individuals, there's kind of these trends and it tends to be a little younger and females and males but these these life experiences that kind of imprint on you and give you this first sense of empowerment in terms of, like, whoa, I can do this and it feels good and like there's some theories that that kind of develops this subconscious drive to kind of pursue that same feeling. And you shared with me this story of how a lemonade stand that your grandfather helped you build morphed into you selling all sorts of concessions out of your bedroom window in your neighborhood growing up. And I just want to hear you tell that story because to me I have this theory that that might've been your first experience with, like, retail and customer service.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Absolutely, and you know it's funny because I kind of forgot about that story. Until you know I was, you know, putting together some some thoughts before about that story. Until you know I was, you know, putting together some some thoughts before doing this podcast, and you know it's, it's, it's pretty funny. I basically, you know every kid wants to have lemonade stand, you know sort of like a thing.

Speaker 1: 27:02

Yeah, start a little side hustle sort of thing. And first, first of all, we grew up pretty humble. Like we, my family didn't have a lot of money and it was pretty, you know, known to me from a very early age that if I wanted something I was going to have to figure out how to get it, like it wasn't just something that was handed to me.

Speaker 3: 27:23

And we're talking like what, like early 80s here.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Oh man, I have to do math. Yes, early 80s definitely.

Speaker 3: 27:29

Big Bear Lake, california, early 80s. Here like, oh man, I have to do math. Like uh, yes, early, yeah, definitely. Big bear, late california, early 80s that's paradise it was I'm.

Speaker 1: 27:36

So I do want to say too I am so, so incredibly grateful to have grown up in a small community like that. I mean, there's there's. You know definitely good and bad of everything, but that at that point in time Big Bear was magic.

Speaker 5: 27:50

It was pre.

Speaker 1: 27:51

You know Airbnbs and and and you know a lot. That's happened over the years and Big Bear is still really magical, but, oh my gosh, what a like incredible time to be alive and just growing up. I mean, we just didn't have to worry about anything. It was, it was so great. But, yeah, I wanted to start a lemonade stand and my grandparents, my mom, left when I was 11.

Speaker 1: 28:14

And my dad, you know, was kind of struggling. He, he was a business owner, he was an electrician, and so he was really just trying to make ends meet and was pretty busy. And so my grandparents, who lived not that far away they lived in Running Springs, which is kind of like halfway up to Big Bear they really took a role in helping. Like you know, my brother and sister and I and my grandpa was a builder, he could do anything, build anything, and he had heard that I was, you know, doing this lemonade stand with my little fold up table, and so he, you know, kind of got the idea and he built me this awesome lemonade stand and it was.

Speaker 1: 28:51

It was really great. But it kept blowing over in the wind and it kind of had some issues, and so it served its purpose for a while, but the elements took its toll and I was like man, how am I going to, like I want to keep this going? And we lived in an old gambrel house so the windows kind of popped out and I was on the lower floor, so I had that like little pop out window, and so I was like wonder if I could make it like a drive through. Like you know, I was picturing it to be, like you know, like a drive through.

Speaker 3: 29:18

Yeah, man, yeah, like you know, drive through. I see it in my head.

Speaker 1: 29:21

Every kid wants to like work in a drive through, right, and so I got some milk crates that we had small milk crates and I put them down, like lined them, so that you know, kids could step up to the window. And my grandma was so sweet, she took me to Price Club, which is like Costco of today and we got like tubs of gummy worms and, like you know, bubble, hubba, bubba and like all the things. We had a bunch of different candies and stuff and I made a little sign and I made a little like store out of my bedroom window and kids would come and they'd knock on the window and I'd slide the window open and you know kids would be like oh what do you have today?

Speaker 1: 29:56

You need gummy worms, you know whatever, and that was really fun. I don't know that my dad completely loved having kids like constantly knocking on the windows, sometimes like hours that maybe they shouldn't have, but it was really fun and it created, you know, such a great opportunity to me to understand, like, like you know well, I have to put those profits into overhead yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:18

More, more, more inventory. And so you know my grandma, would you know, she'd come and be like, okay, once a month she'd take me down and we'd go back down and get more supplies and kind of figure out what people were liking and not liking. And you know I had to make sure I was not undercutting the grocery. You know having my prices you know set and not. You know having, you know too inflated of prices but not you know enough.

Speaker 3: 30:41

And all skills that you have developed over the years.

Speaker 1: 30:44

Yeah, so it was my first introduction into retail and how retail works, but also, like you said, customer service and talking to people and just sort of figuring out. You know, because that's the stuff right there is just understanding people and figuring out what they want Totally was just like all right, this is getting a little too crazy because it got pretty busy. We were, you know, after a while we just had kids in the yard and knocking at the window constantly and you know. But it was a good, it was a good chapter for sure.

Speaker 3: 31:17

Yeah, again, I can relate with that Growing up in a rocky home and I started a popsicle stand. So I grew up in Coeur d'Alene, idaho, and I was fortunate enough to grow up down by the lake and in the summer I started this little popsicle stand called shortstop and the first year it was a sandwich board and I stapled like Otter Pops you know what those are. Oh, I loved Otter Pops Like.

Speaker 3: 31:42

Mr Freeze and the same thing my parents. When my mom would take me to Costco and we'd buy them in bulk for a hundred you know it was like 10 bucks for a hundred or something I'd sell them for 25 cents each and then the next year a friend of my mom's built me like an actual like wheel cart with pop-up things and that's how I bought my first snowboard, cause I can relate Like I want a snowboard, that thing that you know, gnu chaos is 350 bucks. You know, like that was. We didn't have that. So it was like you want it, you better figure out a way to do it.

Speaker 3: 32:20

And uh, that was my first exposure with kind of entrepreneurship and when it's funny, at the time you don't even realize like either. You have that like kind of curiosity and that wonder you said that word, wonder, love, that word like I wonder if right, like um, I think I always encourage people to explore that because you never know unless you just try you know, definitely and like what you learn, maybe it doesn't work but it there's always opportunity to grow and develop through that.

Speaker 3: 32:44

Stuff being curious and yeah and I did the same thing a few years and then kind of kind of faded out and got started working at a shop, you know, so I can relate with you in that regard as well. But um, yeah, it's cool, it's super cool. You shared another like growing up in Big Bear. Obviously you were exposed. I mean Snow Summit Big Bear, I'm trying to think, is mountain high, that's kind of like further away, but in the same. Yeah, sort of it.

Speaker 1: 33:11

It was pretty much uh well, at the time snow summit and bear mountain were kind of competing mountains.

Speaker 1: 33:16

They ended up getting sort of merged together. But um, we did go to mountain high for sure, that was definitely not as much I think for for us in big bear, like if you were going to venture you'd more likely go to mammoth yeah that was kind like if you were going to venture, you'd more likely go to Mammoth. Yeah, that was kind of like the, you know like, oh, I'm going to Mammoth for the weekend. You know that was a big deal.

Speaker 3: 33:34

But your first exposure to getting on the slopes was not like going snowboarding. It was going to like the free day of skiing through the public school district right, yeah. Yeah, talk about that Because I again I can relate with that and that's I feel like bachelor used to offer that, but like that that hearkens back to this time where, like skiing and snowboarding and being on the mountain, felt a little less exclusive, you know the whole industry is morphed into totally different ways for a lot of reasons, but there was a time where there were free days and that was your first exposure.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Absolutely so. Again, family didn't have a lot of money and you know that just wasn't. You know my dad wasn't a skier you know.

Speaker 1: 34:24

So it wasn't like something that our family, you know, did and you know, I remember going to school and there'd be the kids that you knew were on like the ski race team and you know they'd have these. We used to have like a letter system and you'd get these like letters that you'd put on your jacket that would like show like where you are and stuff. And I remember being like, oh man, you know he's got three B's and it was. You know, it's such a cool thing and it was such a cool thing and definitely I think maybe I had a little bit of a complex about that because I didn't, you know, know what that felt like or anything.

Speaker 1: 34:56

But they did start doing like ski free day for skis. I think they did it like once or twice a year where you could get free rental. You could get your rentals for free and you could ski. And so I just remember like I didn't even have like the proper ski gear, you know what I mean. I remember like my icy, you know, glasses and just going up there with like not even a proper jacket or anything, but just having the time of my life like not, you know, just falling more, more than anything, but just really enjoying it, and that was really cool.

Speaker 3: 35:27

You fell in love with the fun, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:29

It was just so fun. And then it was. Finally, it was a while after my dad or my mom left, my dad decided I think at that time he just really wanted to connect with us and so he ended up getting us night passes because that was another thing, I think in Big Bear, like going night skiing was like the thing all the kids on a Friday night, it was like Wednesday, and then Friday, saturday nights there was always night skiing and they had a pretty robust, like you know, the lights were pretty good, it was a good, it was a good thing. And so my dad ended up getting passes for us finally, like it was kind of one of those things where we had been like come on, dad, like we want to. You know, we want to do this and so we got night passes and that was really cool.

Speaker 1: 36:14

So I kind of got a little bit more of a taste. Definitely, you know, had no business, like no instruction or anything like that. I definitely would just go straight down and be a bit of a daredevil, but that was really fun. And that was where I started seeing like okay, like I want to work here.

Speaker 1: 36:34

Because, you know, then you get a pass right, you can go anytime you want.

Speaker 1: 36:37

It's not just on Wednesdays and Friday nights or whatever. And so when I was 14, again, I had lots of jobs. So this was just like my winter side job, cause I'd already worked a few jobs at that point. Um, I, I went to the job fair, they had a job fair and I, you know, was like okay, what can I do? And you couldn't really, at 14, get a whole 14, 15. Like, you couldn't really get a whole lot of the jobs there, but instructing was one of the things that you could do and obviously I wasn't a very good skier.

Speaker 1: 37:08

But kids ski school, a lot of it was like you were kind of just doing a pizza wedge on the bunny hill and so, anyway, I was able to like somehow rope into that job.

Speaker 1: 37:18

Um, so, yeah, I got a job as kids ski school and, you know, went through the grind of, you know, most of it was on foot, you know helping little tiny kids, you know holding their hands and stuff. But that was really cool and I got a pass. And so I remember, with ski school you'd have lineups. So you would have to go and you'd line up and then if there was a class, they'd divvy up the classes and if there wasn't, you could go skiing, which was kind of cool, and then you'd have your lunch break and that sort of thing. And so I can remember like going to lineups and there'd be like all of us in our, like, ski school uniforms and I'd look over and you know, there'd be these snowboarders and they had like the cool outfits. Their outfits were so much cooler and I just remember looking over at them, being like man.

Speaker 3: 38:02

Put a, put a timestamp on this, Like what are we talking again? Kind of like mid 80s, like late 80s probably like 88, 89.

Speaker 1: 38:10

No, yeah, I guess 89. Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably about that time.

Speaker 3: 38:14

So snowboarding was you out. All right, man, see you later yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:18

Nice to meet you.

Speaker 3: 38:20

Snowboarding was starting to kind of catch some traction. It was, but it was still kind of, I mean, I mean, yeah, I mean a lot happened quickly during those kind of five or six years there. It seems like when you go back and you study kind of the history of snowboarding. But yeah, you know, like that was. Uh, you know, I guess images that come to mind from like that for me are like Damien Sanders you know, and like, like, not soon.

Speaker 3: 38:47

Like I think it's Southern California Big Bear Snow that era. I think I like black flies and like just that whole kind ofboarding, because it was such an innocent and fun time to be part of the sport, obviously just getting started, but I'll back up a little bit.

Speaker 1: 39:17

Yeah, I looked over in those snowboarders. They just were so cool. And I was like man, those guys look like they're having so much fun. Their outfits are cool. You know the whole thing. I mean just looking at that, the whole package, I was like I want to do that and so, anyway, I didn't have a snowboard, but part of working at the mountain, you got free rentals, so I would occasionally rent a board and I'd go up and I'd just flounder.

Speaker 3: 39:38

Do you remember what you rented?

Speaker 1: 39:41

Oh gosh, Back then I probably was a, probably a burden performer. Yeah, Like I definitely remember it. Not having the best you know, in my I had Sorrell's, Sorrell's were in my boots, you know.

Speaker 1: 39:52

But I definitely remember, you know, falling a ton and just floundering but having the best to be a snowboard instructor, like that is. You know we'd be in the. They had like the locker room and so we're all merged together and I'd listen to those. You know those guys, and there was one girl that was on the snowboard instructing team and I thought she was so awesome and I was like I want to do this, like I want to get in. You know, I want to be able to do that, but Not prior to that. No, no.

Speaker 1: 40:55

And again, like so funny, because growing up in Big Bear, it's like I never played an organized sport. That just wasn't something that was introduced to me by my family. A lot of people like soccer, you know, all these things I never did. Like I loved, I loved being outside. And, and you know it's funny Again, backing up, I remember being in middle school.

Speaker 1: 41:16

I got voted most athletic In the yearbook. They took the picture and you know they're like oh, we're going to take a picture of you. You got voted most athletic and they were like here's a volleyball, hold this volleyball. And I was like this is weird, like I don't play volleyball, but okay, and in the picture I'm sitting there with like a volleyball on my hip and it's like April or most athletic, and I'm like this is so weird. But it was because in PE, like, I was so stoked, like, if there was, if it was like flag football, the boys would always like hand me the ball and be like go, you know, cause I would like.

Speaker 1: 41:46

So competitive and just loved it and had a lot of energy in that regard. Or if it was, you know running, you know doing laps across the gym in the winter, I always wanted to be the first one, you know. So I was very competitive. I just didn't have an outlet, I had zero outlet. So, you know, started the skiing thing. It was definitely fun but it, you know, it just didn't. It didn't really do it for me. But the snowboarding definitely was the first time in my life that I was like okay, this is it no-transcript and could you know, barely make turns or whatever? You felt like you were part of a cool club, just even being out there, and that felt really special to me and that really was the stuff right there.

Speaker 3: 42:52

Yeah, I again I can. I think those early days in that era of snowboarding allowed for kind of a unique form of self-expression and kind of finding your tribe and just all these things that are super unique to kind of that. You know, snow skate, mountain bike, I mean they're all in the same kind of ether of that right, especially back then, and it was unique in the time.

Speaker 1: 43:20

It was such a like, such a unique and fun time, so I ended up deciding I was going to save up. So I saved up and I bought my first snowboard, or snowboard that I actually paid for and that actually was a Burton Performer. And that was so. So, like I remember, like the shop I had I got it through shop and like they had to order it and like I had to wait for it to come and that, that feeling of like, oh my God, when's my board going to show up, when's it going to come up?

Speaker 1: 43:45

And then you know getting it and like setting it all up and you know cutting down the high the high backs and like making them shorter so that I could like feel cool, and anyway, that was just such a, you know, having the duct tape on the highbacks and everything.

Speaker 1: 43:59

It was just such a special time and so, anyway, I got the snowboard and again I'd been going up, and anytime, literally, like I became obsessed, like anytime that I could possibly get up in the mountain to go, I would. I, you know, every in between working. I went up at lunch break, I went up school, like I'd get out of school a little bit early, like because I did this thing called work experience, so I would, you know, get credit for working, but I would go up to the mountain and then I'd go to work, or I would not go to my dentist, my orthodontist appointments, because I, you know, needed, I wanted to go snowboarding. So there was all these things. I went every moment I could and eventually just kind of figured it out.

Speaker 1: 44:40

Um, I did have a really great opportunity one night when we were night skiing. I, uh, um, was on going down a run and almost collided with the this, this otherer, and kind of had a little crash and look over and it's this girl and she like looked at me and she's like, oh man, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm totally good. And she was like sweet, you're a chick. And it was another female snowboarder who lives here in Bend actually and is part of my story also.

Speaker 1: 45:11

I don't know if I've shared this, but Jana Mayans. And at the time Jana was basically like one of the best snowboarders in the sport. She had won the US Open as a 12-year-old and was just this amazing little grom and she instantly was like, oh cool, well, hey, come on the chairlift with me and she kind of took me under her wing a little bit and she was younger than me, but she was such an inspiration and you know, she had sponsors and you know all this stuff, and she was just like you're, it's cool, like I'm, I'm so excited to see another girl out here, like this is awesome. And she was really um, welcoming and inspiring and that was. That was really cool.

Speaker 3: 45:52

Yeah, gianna's beyond legendary. I mean anybody that knows their snowboarding history and her contribution, I mean just to snowboarding not even women's snowboarding but like you're so ahead of the curve, man, and like to this day, you know, I would argue a lot of people like she's in the top three of greatest of all time.

Speaker 1: 46:14

And you know, I mean no doubt about it. What separated Jana is that like she did the tricks, but she did them not. You know, not just did the tricks, she would stomp them, like looking like a, like a boy, like she just went out there and just like there was no, like oh well, that's good for a girl. It was like no, that's good for anybody.

Speaker 1: 46:35

She had so much style. Her style was just the best and she was a really like awesome person to get in contact with and we became friends and she went. She was going through a lot, too, with her family life, and so I think we kind of bonded on that and snowboarding became like our way of kind of escaping that and it was something that was, you know, just so like very, very innocent and fun to just go up to the mountain and just ride and it was great.

Speaker 3: 47:05

Yeah, it's not an uncommon story amongst greats, you know, like they they find their passion and their circumstance in the background. That drives you further into that thing. You know, and I think like I can relate with that as well. I remember, like I I remember when her husband, kurt, used to work at side effect and then, yeah, there's just they're, they're just a cool family man. I've I've been so you know, like um impressed with her. You know she's a very humble. You know like um impressed with her. You know she's a very humble, like very humble and uh, I've always respected that. But like always, let her snowboarding and just kind of her, her imprint on snowboarding, speak for itself. You know that's always, it's always resonated with me, she's always been that way, she's always been like her own, unique person.

Speaker 1: 47:52

And you know, people could say that times that like she should have done this, or she should have done that and tried harder, or whatever, but she did it her way.

Speaker 3: 47:59

And.

Speaker 1: 48:00

I had such respect for that, yeah.

Speaker 3: 48:02

I remember the first time I ever heard of Janamayan was in the Garden, that old Volcom movie that came out and I think it was like in the early 90s, but again it was just like you would watch her ride and go out and try to do the tricks the way she was doing them, right.

Speaker 1: 48:18

Yeah, it was insane. Oh yeah, she was incredible. And beyond that, she was just like so much fun. I mean we, we, she. I mean I can remember being God, how old were we? I was barely 16 or 17. God, how old were we? I was barely 16 or 17. And her mom saying like oh hey, jana has to go up and do like this like contest, can you take her up to Mammoth for me? And she'd hand us like a stack of her credit cards and be like take Jana to, because I could drive right, and we'd drive in my little Suzuki Samurai up to Mammoth and stay at Motel 6.

Speaker 3: 48:50

And like I mean just, but we would just like pull over on the side of the road and just like just the most random stuff.

Speaker 1: 49:01

But have so much fun. And yeah, that was, that was a really cool time.

Speaker 3: 49:03

Those are fun memories, man, yeah, for sure. So tell me more about kind of your, your story with snowboarding. So how did it develop from that performer to, like you know you're in the first. X games in 97 at Big Bear.

Speaker 1: 49:17

I mean that's a, that's a long ways to go and a pretty short amount of time, really, yeah, yeah, I mean it is and it isn't. I mean, like I said, I I went, I was going up like as many days as I could even if it was just for like one or two runs.

Speaker 1: 49:27

I was going up there and, um, you know, I just I would hike the pipe, even if mount the lift would close. I'd hike the pipe until it got dark and then we'd all ride back down. You know like just kind of what we did.

Speaker 3: 49:39

And those are fun days, oh my.

Speaker 1: 49:40

God, yes. And then, like, even in the summertime, like you know, we had a little natural glacier that was over by mountain high and like Jana and I would drive there and we'd just sit there and, like session a little, jump like over and over again. So really Jana is a big part of my story because she was sort of the catalyst that got me into like just you know, continuing you know on with you know, with progression and learning and and really like was such a like huge inspiration, um, but we just had a lot of fun and it was, and it was great, great and so, yeah, I just kept going and then eventually we had a really cool series, the USASA series. I think that was kind of everywhere, but we had a great like little outlet there in in a big bear and so I started doing all the you I did, every you know USASA contest I could. And that was actually back when, like Sean White, was just getting started.

Speaker 1: 50:32

His family would come and stay at the Motel 6 all the time.

Speaker 3: 50:35

Totally dude. That's so funny. I have a memory of going to Nationals at Big Bear, probably in the late 90s, through the same contest, but it was the one in the Northwest, but Nationals was at Big Bear. It was my first time ever there, no way, and we stayed at the condo of the guy that owned what was the name of that snowboard shop and shop down in southern california.

Speaker 1: 51:02

Uh, they had like a chain of them.

Speaker 3: 51:03

Oh, was it um totally blanking I'm blanking on it too it'll come to me.

Speaker 3: 51:07

Anyways, sean's older brother, jesse, and I were the same age and we would compete and we kind of like you know, know you'd go to those contests back then and you'd meet people and it was, and you'd make new friends and like your little community and like I remember going over to their condo that night and Sean being a little kid, you know, and just like just you know, big bear in the spring, it's pretty out, it's warm, there's like it smells like sunscreen and snow and just like it's so fun oh my gosh, so fun you saying that like sunscreen and snow, it's like totally, and that's the thing it's like.

Speaker 1: 51:40

I grew up in Big Bear, I was a park kid, that's just what we did, and so again, I would constantly be going up riding the parks, doing the USA Series and just really loving it and having such a good time and just really loving it and having such a good time. I will really quick share a story that I do think is kind of funny with Sean White, because now he's larger than life, but I can remember being at the mountain and because I did the series and his mom.

Speaker 1: 52:09

you know, wherever Sean went, it was like a posse. His mom and she would have like so much, like all the bags, she'd have backpacks. She'd have a backpack in the front, backpack in the back and just the whole family would be with sean. And I remember her coming to me and be like april um, will you, will you do that? Jump and tell me if it's safe for sean to do it? And I'd just be like looking at her, like um yeah, you guinea pig, that thing for me yeah but I was also just like um, sean's way better than me, like what do you, you know?

Speaker 1: 52:34

like, uh, okay, but you know she was just so sweet and like wanted us to, like, you know, look after him, and that was really cool. But anyway, that's a whole. I have so many stories, um, you're gonna get tired of hearing me not at all you got me started but um no, I um.

Speaker 1: 52:47

So I did a bunch of contests. I kept doing it. Um, I did, you know, as many like amateur contests as I could. I ended up getting invited to nationals which was actually at Sierra Tahoe my senior I think it was my senior year and went there and had like an amazing experience and that was super fun.

Speaker 3: 53:08

And this is the era where it was like was it just pipe and slope style, or pipe and big air, or was there still racing a little? No, it was mostly just pipe slope style and big air, and I was terrible at pipe.

Speaker 1: 53:48

I never was good at pipe. Jana was always so good at pipe, but I was more. Slope style was my thing. I really liked slope style and then I would enjoy a big air jump as well. And again, coming from Snow Summit, that's just what we did, like we. You know rails and and and park was our whole day.

Speaker 1: 54:05

You would just spend the whole day at the park and so anyway, so I went to Tahoe, did that competition and I remember that being pretty, pretty great. And then a few contests along the way were like pro-am, where you know you would kind of go and you'd kind of have to compete against the pros, but you know you weren't pro or anything like that and I had no sponsorship or anything. And then, um, jana actually um invited me to go to Mount Hood with her for a high cascade. You know she was going to high cascade for a camp she was sponsored by Morrow at the time.

Speaker 1: 54:37

And so Morrow had the whole team up there and at that point in time I'd never been on an airplane, so I'd never been out of California, I had never been on an airplane. I was 18. So I mean, most kids at that point in time have like done all of those things. So I was like, oh my gosh, okay, well, I'm going to save up money and I'm going to get a ticket. And she was like, if you get a ticket, you can stay with me. She's like team said it's cool, like you can come. And so that was probably one of the like turning points for me, because, a I got to be on, got to go on an airplane, and b um, I got to experience like all that heist cascade was, you know especially then man oh my gosh like just going to like huckleberry you know,

Speaker 1: 55:18

going to govey and like just I mean, and for me, because for me at the time, like snowboarder magazine was like the Bible, right, transworld, you know. And so I like knew all these people and to go there and have I mean growing up in Southern California, a lot of them rode there too, so he definitely did get to experience meeting a bunch of them. But just like having everybody there, that was just like you know, going to, you know the Oscars, you know. At the same time, for me, because it was just like every big name that I'd been reading about you know Jeff Brushy, you know all these things they were all there and so that was really cool and, in addition, like so much fun, because you know what a great way to learn and progress, and like you know that was just a cool opportunity to be able to do that. So that was, that was really fun. Um, great experience. I met a lot of cool people.

Speaker 3: 56:05

Yeah, that was. I'm just thinking like it was such a unique time Cause. Again, I, I, I went to high cascade as a camper when I was 13 and it was in that same kind of era, like Joe Curtis was my coach and you know like it was. You know I mean it. It it was in a world where, like social media, the internet, didn't exist. Your exposure to this stuff was through print that came out once a month and then you know what I mean. You would even be hyped to see snowboarding and like a James Bond movie or something that, just anything mainstream that had snowboarding, it was like you went and like you just consumed it because it wasn't in your pocket. It had so much more mystery and the people around there, people didn't have social media profiles. So, like you know who are these people that, like you have this narrative in your head and then you got to hike the pipe and they teach you how to do, like you know, backside threes in the half pipe. You're just like your mind's blown absolutely, completely blown.

Speaker 1: 57:06

Yeah, and it was. It was just such an innocent time and also, at the same time, the most magical time because, I mean, I do think it was before like the big corporate dollars came into it and so, even though that these at the time to me, these, these athletes were larger than life, they were so accessible and so like, relatable, and it was just such a, it was just just such a cool time.

Speaker 1: 57:30

And so I'm really grateful for that experience and um getting to know the team. All the people at Morrow were really great, todd Richards, like just all the people. They were all just very welcoming and they let me, you know, be there and be part of their team dinners and all the stuff. And I went back to Big Bear and not I'm a little fuzzy again. I think I made a reference at one point in time that I've had a few head injuries, but at some point in time I think I must have, or maybe I don't know if, jana but I ended up having Morrow, you know, you know, soliciting Morrow for a sponsorship.

Speaker 1: 58:03

I ended up having Morrow, you know, soliciting Morrow for a sponsorship and they came back with a really awesome entry level sponsorship for me at that point in time where they basically gave me boards, which was like because you know at the time, like gear was so expensive and also I don't think the gear was as robust, it felt like we were like I was constantly like breaking bindings and buckles and things and you know edges and stuff, cause you're trying rails and all this stuff and don't know what you're doing. And so, anyway, they gave me boards and they also said that they would pay um for my contest, like if I went they'd pay my contest entry fees. And then they gave me like some photo incentive and stuff like that, which you know at the time was a big deal, because if you got a magazine picture it was like a big deal it was pre-social media.

Speaker 1: 58:46

So, um, anyway, that was really really instrumental for me, because then I went to a lot more contests and I started sort of like, okay, well, now I have a sponsor so I'll maybe enter a few more pro-am contests and being in, uh, southern California, there was just a lot at your fingertips and at that point everything was exploding.

Speaker 1: 59:05

Contests were everywhere, you know, and so I just did as many as I could, all the while still working full time. You know, school was another big issue for me. I really my dream was to go to Colorado Mountain College. I got the brochure for it and I was really excited about going and going somewhere where I could snowboard. And I remember showing it to my dad and being like, dad, there's a school and I can go snowboarding. And he just kind of looked at me like do you know how much money that costs? Like who's going to pay for that? And I was like that kind of just put the pin in my sail.

Speaker 1: 59:41

So I knew that I wasn't going to be able to go to school, and so I ended up applying at school. I'm kind of backing up a little bit, but I ended up getting an opportunity through my school counselor because I worked really hard at my grades. I wasn't the most intelligent, but I definitely worked hard and so I got a scholarship through the equal opportunity program, but part of that so that was to go to Cal State, but part of that was that I had to maintain a 3.5 GPA. Yeah, and so, anyway, I went to school that first year out of high school and I was doing contests and I was working and I moved out of my house the day I graduated, like, instead of going out and partying with everybody, I literally like moved out, had my little place I had found and, um, I was just, I I needed to get away and and so I I had a lot of responsibility. So I was kind of juggling a lot and trying to do school and everything and that was a crazy time. So where did and fast forward? Where did this happen? So, basically, I was going to school.

Speaker 1: 1:00:52

School was really hard.

Speaker 1: 1:00:54

College was a whole nother ball game and on top of it, like I was trying to squeeze in snowboarding and that's where my heart was and I felt like the pressure of trying to get, you know, good grades because that was the only way to like pay for it and I just wasn't.

Speaker 1: 1:01:06

I was struggling and I was commuting too, so I was commuting from Big Bear down to San Bernardino, so I was doing that like two days a week. Some some weeks was three, and so that was a whole big thing and so I was really struggling a bunch and you know work and I was definitely at my, you know, a bit of a breaking point and I'd done a big air contest that they had at Snow Summit and it was like a pro-am and I ended up winning and there were some pretty good names there. It wasn't, like you know, wasn't a big, big contest, but there was a few good names there and at the time I was working at the mountain and every now and again they'd throw me. I worked a lot of jobs at the mountain. I I at this point in time I wasn't instructing more, I was working for like the marketing department doing like hosting.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

So I would sit out inside in front of the booth and I would, you know, say to people like, how are you doing, welcome? You know, here's like if you're going to get lift tickets, go here. You know all these kinds of things. And then another part of it was just being an ambassador. It was actually a really awesome job but I was a jack of all trades and sometimes they'd put us up on the phones and we'd have to answer. You know, I'd answer the phones and answer, you know, questions and stuff for people trying to figure out like what package to get.

Speaker 1: 1:02:17

And I remember at that point in time I checked my voicemail and I had a voicemail, because that was before I didn't have a cell phone. I checked my voicemail and I'd had a voicemail and it was this gentleman and he called me and was like I want to talk to you about your snowboarding and I was like, wait, this is weird. So I waited till my break and I called him back and he was like, yeah, I, you know, saw you this weekend. I was at the contest and you know you're pretty. You know you did a this weekend. I was at the contest and you know you're pretty, you know you did a pretty, really great job and we, we, we want to sponsor you. And I was like, well, I already have a sponsor, I'm with Moro. And he's like, well, he's like, let me ask you this Like you know, what does Moro do for you?

Speaker 1: 1:02:56

And I was like, oh, they give me boards and you know all this stuff. We want to pay your bills. Like, we want you to be able to snowboard and not have to work, and we're going to, you know, send you, you know, to Japan. And I was like what? Like, oh my gosh, you know I didn't have a passport, obviously, I'd only been on one plane ride my life.

Speaker 1: 1:03:18

So, anyway, that was a really, you know, bittersweet situation, because one I was super grateful for Moro and they, you know, all the opportunities. But then also I had someone that was like, hey, we're going to pay you some money, you don't have to work so much. And at the time I thought, well, this will be great for school, because I can focus a little bit more on school. And so, you know, moro was more than supportive and super sweet about it and I definitely wasn't warranted of more to match that opportunity. I was definitely not at that level, but I was really grateful that I was giving you know, getting this opportunity, and so it was this company at the time called Hub, and it was a Japanese owned company.

Speaker 3: 1:03:56

I remember Hub.

Speaker 1: 1:03:57

They were just getting started yeah, okay, so you probably know. So they were like, okay, well, do you have a passport? And I was like no. And they're like, okay, well, you get your passport, we're sending you to Japan. And that was yeah crazy. I was like, oh my gosh, I remember calling my dad and being like dad, they're going to send me to Japan. And he's like, wait, what? Like you know, because I was just 18. And he's just like wait, when are you? What are you going? And I was like, yeah, I'm going to go to Japan and they're going to pay. You know, pay my bill, you know, give me some money so I don't have to work so much, and anyway. So that was that. And I took that opportunity and and um, there's a lot to that story as well Um, but yeah, that was like my first like paid sponsorship, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:04:41

And uh, I mean, what an experience you know, like it, it, it again. It brings back a lot of memories, cause you know, back in that era, man, you wouldn't like the buyer's guide would come out in the fall and there were like 200 brands, right, yeah, I mean snowboarding was just exploding and I and again, it's not, and it's still not an uncommon story. Like writers, careers, progress, opportunity opens up and there's always that kind of like you know, like like really kind of uncomfortable, hard, like honest conversation to have with the people that helped you start this process. But there's an opportunity and like that that's life.

Speaker 1: 1:05:22

To some degree it's definitely business and like I can only imagine that first pass of of going through there kind of you learned a lot I learned a lot and and a big part of it was, like you know, it's easy to look at the like, the shiny, like oh hey, we're gonna pay you and all this stuff, but it was also the team I got put on was difficult. Um, most of the guys that were on that team were all like from the black flies team, and so you kind of know.

Speaker 3: 1:05:50

Yeah, I was I gotta say I think a hub I think of, like of old black flies I had like some guy doing a big shifty or something that's exactly.

Speaker 1: 1:05:59

And so I went from like know being on Moro and like feeling pretty good about everything, and then I got sent to Japan and that trip and this is going somewhere because the story does mean a lot about like my journey in life but that trip was like the biggest eye opening trip for me ever because not only was I going to a new country but I was thrust into this situation where I was with, like I remember being on the plane with at the time I want to say like maybe eight black flies guys yeah and I'm the only girl yeah and those guys were pretty like it was.

Speaker 1: 1:06:36

It was a lot it was a rowdy it was a rowdy crowd.

Speaker 1: 1:06:40

I remember them getting like the. The flight attendants had to like multiple times like sort of like you know, give them, give them shit. But I mean it was, it was interesting. But as the only girl it was a tough experience and definitely a good experience for me. But I had to learn to sort of like create some boundaries and really, like you know, kind of speak for myself and so we got thrust into the situation and we stayed at a hostel up in Japan.

Speaker 1: 1:07:06

And what was unique about the trip in so many ways besides that side of it, is that they were having this like record-breaking powder storm and record-breaking powder. And for me, going there with my little short park board and being thrust into to this world of powder, I was like, oh my gosh, and in japan they didn't. You know, they don't ride in the trees, so the trees are like untouched and like you know, so magical and amazing. And so there was a rider there his name is ali gulay and he was there for with a different team, but like in the same hostel as us, and he sort of was like hey, another legend man such a legend and I will tell you that this was a pretty important part of the.

Speaker 1: 1:07:52

He could see, like what I was dealing with with these guys and he was like, come with me. And he took me out and he was like I'm going to take you in the backcountry and I'm going to show you how to like ride. Because all these guys were like, oh man, it's like dumping, we can't like our big air jump like this and that, because we went there to do a competition and these guys were all like and they were just drinking and partying and all he's like, come on, come here. And he took me out in the backcountry and blew my mind.

Speaker 1: 1:08:22

Basically, first of all, I had no business being out there. I had no skills in any way, shape or form. I've had to, you know, navigate powder. But it definitely changed my whole world and like, made me just be like, oh my God, I don't even know what snowboarding is Like. I, you know, I know snow, summit and parks and and there's this whole other side of it, and so that was really, really transformational for me. And he was such a good guy and like, just such a like.

Speaker 1: 1:08:47

He made what could have been a really like terrible trip, like pretty amazing for a couple days, because then there was going to be this trade show and I had gotten a couple. I had gotten a clothing sponsor in the midst of all that and it was a women's only clothing brand called Bombshell, and so they were going to be there at that trade show in Tokyo, and so they were like, hey, well, since you're already going to be over there, we should have you come, and so anyway. So I got to spend two days in Tokyo by myself, and I remember that being a pretty crazy time too, because I had just I had no world experience. But I remember, like you know, going out of my hotel room and walking around and getting on the subways and trying to figure out how to navigate, but going to the night market buying my first disc, walkman what?

Speaker 4: 1:09:40

That was like so cool.

Speaker 3: 1:09:42

So that was really fun and and yeah, just experiencing Tokyo was pretty cool yeah, that that brings back memories, because that was a time where people would travel over to Japan and come back with all the newest tech.

Speaker 3: 1:09:54

Yeah, because it like e-commerce, wasn't like so you people would come back with you know disc men's and then mini disc players, and then all this tech, and it was like what, like you'd bring it players, and then all this tech, and it was like what, like he'd bring it back, and it wasn't really, didn't have like an online presence, so it was like magic.

Speaker 1: 1:10:11

No, I remember thinking I was so cool having the disc man with the anti-shock and I could ride with it you know all the things, but anyway. So yeah, I went to that trade show. That was really cool. But again, just having that experience of riding powder made me just be like oh my gosh, I don't even know what snowboarding is, and this is really cool.

Speaker 3: 1:10:31

Yeah, yeah, that's. It's funny you take riding for powder granted when you grow up knowing how to do it, because it is a different skill set. Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 1:10:46

I remember being out a couple of times with kids that were like ripping in the park and that would get invited out on a film trip Like. One specifically came to mind was Aero Edela. Uh, who's this Finnish kid that has an amazing snowboard career and is still doing it, like 25 years later? Um, but like I went on, I was out with him in the back country on some of his first days, like building these kickers, landing in Nepal and like it's just totally different. You just have to adjust how you're landing and riding and it's just a different. So getting thrust into that can be overwhelming. I've seen it and I felt the same way going into the park, because I grew up free riding and then, I'd go to like the Mammoth Park and just be terrified of these big icy jumps, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:11:25

Yeah, it's so humbling. I remember just being like, oh my gosh, I have no idea what it is. And you know, ali was so great because he would just be like, hey, this is what you do, lean back, and we did. We actually had kind of a scare that one of the riders we were with like sort of got caught, like going off of a little, a little like cliff jump, and she it was actually a gal and she headfirst into you know, and she couldn't get out and and seeing all you like get there and like you know he's punching the snow to save her, and that was really cool. But yeah, again, just Japan was such an amazing experience and I ended up getting to go a couple more times in my career. No way.

Speaker 1: 1:12:02

Every time I went just in awe. Yeah. Yeah, I can't wait to go back and do it again sometime.

Speaker 3: 1:12:08

I mean, you know Tom mentioned it, but like X Games 97 at Big Bear, like I can still see Jamie Lynn doing like a cab nine on that jump Cause, that's what. Like again, it was like holy shit, they're televising snowboarding on ESPN and you're getting to see these guys do the tricks like relatively live. You know, like versus wait for the end of the year to the movie to come out, or the mags, and yeah, I mean, does that seem like a long time ago?

Speaker 1: 1:12:35

So long ago. Oh my gosh, it feels like a whole nother lifetime yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:12:39

I pulled up the winners of that 97 Big Air. For the men it was Jimmy Halipoff, stevie Adkins and Bjorn Linus. You know, each of which is like legends, you know. Yeah. And then women was Barrett Christy Tara Zwink. I don't remember her. Yeah, but then Tina Basich. Yeah. And just like just to kind of timestamp that you know. Yeah, it's a just to kind of timestamp that you know it's, it's a, it's a foundational moment in that sport.

Speaker 1: 1:13:08

It really was, and and I mean at the time it was just again just like being up there, was it? It was before really a lot of the progression for the women had started. So I think just being a female and being there was just everything.

Speaker 3: 1:13:22

Totally.

Speaker 1: 1:13:22

Um, I'm so grateful I got to experience that for sure.

Speaker 3: 1:13:25

And you were doing that first year. You did because I remember the mountain bike events as well.

Speaker 1: 1:13:31

Yeah. So that was kind of funny because I was living in Big Bear still at the time and then all of a sudden it was like, oh hey, they're going to do this thing called Winter X, and obviously I watched Summer X and it was a big fan of you know that whole experience, like you know, seeing the athletes and how well espn really like put that, you know, sports on a pedestal. So when I heard that it was coming and coming to my hometown, I was like oh my gosh, this is so cool. And then you know you had to be invited. And then I got like an invite saying like oh, you've been invited to do snowboarding. And to me that was so you know like what?

Speaker 3: 1:14:07

yeah, um, because I was still kind of a big deal.

Speaker 1: 1:14:09

Yeah it was, it was a big deal and I was still rising up in the ranks of snowboarding and and again, kind of backing up a little bit, but like I was still, you know, doing competitions, stuff like that, but I was still kind of coming up. And then also then they were doing biking and I was like, well, you know, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself of my story, but like I was pretty new in biking too. And so then all of a sudden it's like, oh, and I ended up getting invited to do five events, and that was crazy.

Speaker 1: 1:14:39

Like the most, like Tom said, like they had, for whatever reason, ESPN had decided that they were going to make me this like hometown darling and follow me around with cameras and all this stuff. And I was an underdog for both sports at the time, Like I wasn't some savant that, like you know, it was like Sean Palmer at the time was like he was the savant, Like he was amazing in both sports and they just, for whatever reason, decided that they were going to make me this you know, hometown hero or something. But it was very, very overwhelming and humbling experience, to say the least.

Speaker 3: 1:15:12

Yeah, tell me about it.

Speaker 1: 1:15:14

Um gosh, it was hard.

Speaker 3: 1:15:16

Like, what do you remember about? Like, like the media, like your first exposure with kind of all that media. Like, okay, april, here's what we're saying I mean Tom referenced it Like we're going to have a film crew following you around like no pressure.

Speaker 1: 1:15:30

Yeah, it was weird, they did like a vignette prior to the event they came and they like filmed me like doing stuff and in my hometown and I didn't think anything of it.

Speaker 1: 1:15:39

I thought they kind of did that for everybody because, again, it's, like you know, the first year they're doing it and so I had no idea and I have such respect Like now when I watch the Olympics or X Games or something I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't imagine the pressure because they do they kind of pre decide, like OK, this is the profile, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:15:57

These are the people we're going to profile, these are our store. There's a story here, you know, and so they had decided that. But again, like I said, I, I was an underdog in both of them. Like I, I wasn't by any means like like some champion, you know, favorite on any sport, but I did do both of them and I was like rising in the rankings of both of them, but not not to that level. But long story short, they they, you know followed me everywhere.

Speaker 1: 1:16:24

I remember it just being such this crazy thing because, because I was doing five events, a lot of the like practices were overlapping each other, and so, you know, I would be like I'd have to like be up at the top of the hill with my bike and I'd be in my bike clothes and then I do my run and then they take me in a snowmobile and I'd grab, they'd have a bag with my snowboard gear and then they'd snowmobile be over to like the pipe or not pipe, sorry to the slopestyle, and then I was, like you know, having to do slopestyle, and so it was just like super, super crazy, because there's no way, like they basically set me up to fail, like you can't do five events and do them well, like you just can't do five events and do them well, like you just can't.

Speaker 1: 1:17:03

And so I felt the first day or so, it was pretty, you know, it was definitely like I was just trying to, like, stay afloat, and I remember the slope style competition, the, the um, the uh qualifiers were going to be the same exact time as one of the bike events, and so they were like, hey, you have to qualify, but in order to do that, we need you to do it in the morning before. So we're going to take you up to the top of the course, you're going to do a run on the course.

Speaker 3: 1:17:33

By yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:17:34

By yourself.

Speaker 3: 1:17:35

Oh fun.

Speaker 1: 1:17:36

Yeah, yeah, you're going to do this run and then when you get to the bottom, we're going to whisk you over and you're going to go do your bike. Well, I had to do it when the track, the course, was like bulletproof. So it was like morning time bulletproof track, luckily like Like no energy, no, just like show up.

Speaker 3: 1:17:54

They had a super sterile.

Speaker 1: 1:17:56

They had a cameraman with a, with his boom and like you know whatever, to like follow me down. But that was it. There was like no, no, like judges there, like nothing. It was just like you're going to do your run and then we're going to take you over and I was like, oh, okay, and you know it was good and bad. It ended up being kind of a blessing in some regard, because I didn't have like all the nerves of like having everybody else up there like hyping you up or whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:18:27

And I was just like, okay, I got it to me. It was just like, okay, I got it To me. It was just like, let's just checklist, let's just do a run down this track. And then I got to go, you know, down this course and then I got to go over and do this, and so, because I rode the park every day there and was used to like bulletproof conditions and that sort of thing, I just went and did a run, I stomped my run and and, and it went over and I, you know, went and did the biking. And it turns out later that afternoon there was all kinds of issues because the track, you know, people were saying that, like you know, it was too icy or different things, and they, you know, a lot of the competitors were like saying we got to wait for it to soften up, and this kind of stuff. So, anyway, long story short, I didn't know until later that day that I had actually qualified first, because all the girls that had went that day had either crashed or there was all these things.

Speaker 1: 1:19:05

And I just stomped a run because I was like, well, it's bulletproof, I have to land, and so I didn't do any crazy tricks, I just made a clean run and anyway, I ended up qualifying first, which was like so what? Like, come on, I'm not a, I'm not, it's not like you know yeah, but it makes for good television yeah right, it makes for good television. Yeah Right, it makes for good television.

Speaker 1: 1:19:27

So then I get done with like the biking and all this stuff, and they were like, oh well, you know, tonight we're going to have you on, and they had this big stage set up and stuff and they wanted to interview me. So it was this whole thing. And so like, instead of going back and like getting ready for the next day and like eating even eating a meal I had to like go and wait and do all these interviews, and it was this whole thing. And so I remember going back to my house and that night and watching the coverage, because it was the first time I've ever seen myself on TV.

Speaker 3: 1:19:52

No way.

Speaker 1: 1:19:53

And watching it and seeing the level of the like coverage that was being like out there and just oh my God, it just like scared the shit out of me. It just made me be like, oh my God, people are watching and like I, oh my God, like they're expecting me to like go out there and like win, and like it just put a lot of pressure on me and it was really, really hard. It was my first, how old? Were you.

Speaker 3: 1:20:16

Like early twenties, I was 20. 20.

Speaker 1: 1:20:18

Yeah, yeah. So I'd been racing mountain bikes for like a little over a year and then I'd been, you know, snowboarding for a few years. But, again. I just was still like getting my feet wet.

Speaker 1: 1:20:30

And so it just really like pushed me into like this pressure that I'd never experienced and it was so much, and I just remember I didn't sleep the entire night. I didn't sleep at all, like not even a little bit, like there was no sleep. That happened. I remember waking, not waking up, not waking up, but I remember getting up in the morning and like just being like, oh, I got to go do all these events and it was the finals for the slopestyle, and then it was going to be the big air and then you know all the biking stuff and it was just like, oh my God, I can't. You know, you know how am I going to navigate this? But I found them. You know I was able to do it. I mustered it up, but I didn't do as well as I wanted to do.

Speaker 1: 1:21:08

I think I did, okay, I did crash in the slope style, which I was pretty bummed and I can't remember. I think I got like maybe seventh or something, but regardless I didn't win, like they made it out that I was going to do. I just remember, like that whole experience being so overwhelming and going home and just being so disappointed and bummed at myself. I put so much pressure on myself and that definitely like hurt a little bit. But, as you know, I referenced Popeye. I was like I am what I am and it's all that I am. I did the best I could, but it also gave me a little bit of fire that I was like this can't be the end of my story, like I have to. I have to redeem myself, like this isn't how you know I'm gonna go down on either sport like I'm gonna, I'm gonna, yeah, I, I did, I did good, I just didn't do great. I guess this is my, my story of that that's a lot man, like that, that's.

Speaker 3: 1:22:03

I don't, I don't think like um, the reality of that, like the, the, the reality of that experience is pretty heavy. Like like pretty heavy, especially at that time with, like the unknown, unknowns. You know, you don't know how it's going to affect you to be featured and profiled because no one was really doing, there weren't like, it was like it was, it was just different. And then for all of that, to come out the night before finals and sleep on that.

Speaker 1: 1:22:33

Yeah, that's heavy, it was heavy, it was heavy.

Speaker 3: 1:22:35

I look back now and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I like wow, not to mention when you're in, you know, like I, I've had talks with friends over the years and you start looking at, like what is the role of like? I guess at that point you would call it like an action sports athlete, you know. I mean it's all a division of marketing yeah, featured because of your story to drive sales. So I mean it's all part of like the system. That, at least when I was in it like you know that, but you're kind of like you know it's, it's there's a lot more going on than what you even know. But then you tap into that and that ramps up the pressure too.

Speaker 1: 1:23:17

Yeah, you know no, and thank you for saying that, because I think at the time prior to that, it was what, for me, what I cared about more than like the outcome of like what result I got, was how I like the progression, like totally did I feel good about, like my performance and how I did, and up until that point that was, it was such an innocent time Like I was just out there having fun and I'd be stoked if I did a good result, but it wasn't like the end all if I felt good about you know that I learned something or what I was, you know, doing, and so that was.

Speaker 1: 1:23:50

That was definitely um a change, you know, kind of a changing of the, the, the, the or your relationship with the sport changes.

Speaker 3: 1:23:58

Yes, I went through that with filming. It's, you know, like you get you progress and you're having so much fun and where I tell like there's what, just a little tangent. I'm always so impressed with the crop of snowboarders that consistently are pumped out of Bend Oregon and the more time goes on. I think there's a few individuals that are responsible for that, from different generations, like James Jackson being one of them. For you know, like back in the late nineties early two thousands, I think, pete Alport has exposed a lot of young kids and taken them under his wing and showed them kind of how to, how to operate in the mountains and the elements and you know, calculate risk and at the same time, execute and like, hold it to a standard.

Speaker 3: 1:24:45

And this exposure to stuff is just like it's amazing for these young kids and I've had this conversation with several of them where it's like you know, the, the, the, the passion and the fun that got you to develop as a writer and an individual that got you these opportunities. Like that relationship with the sport changes as you start to get higher in it and the pressure is on it. So if you can be in tune with that early and try to be proactive in terms of, okay, this is coming. How do I keep it fun? Because for me it was always like when you're having fun, you're riding the best, you're having the most time, your outcomes are the best. And for me, I always struggled with that pressure of performing like that would. I just couldn't. I didn't have the mental bandwidth at that point in my life to like push it aside and focus on the things that got you there yeah, I wish that I you know.

Speaker 1: 1:25:40

Like you said, you don't know till you know like. I wish I could go back in that moment and and have that, that knowledge, because I just didn't. I didn't at all. And I put so much pressure on myself to like you know, I've always been kind of one of those people that if I do something, I want to do it well. And. I care so much about, like you know, making sure I'm with the product I'm putting out as good more. The quality is more than the quantity, and and that definitely that moment was definitely a humbling experience.

Speaker 3: 1:26:07

Yeah, thanks for sharing that this is fun, man, I like again.

Speaker 1: 1:26:11

a lot of this is stuff I like I forget about.

Speaker 3: 1:26:14

Me too, because.

Speaker 1: 1:26:14

I live in such a different world now, so it's good to relive it a little bit yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:26:19

You have some great stories. You know it's funny because, like I was looking through the list of just to stay on X Games for a little because I'm fascinated with just the evolution of that space, and you know it was like 97 Big Bear, and then 98, 99, crested Butte, and then it went back to Vermont for a couple of years and then in 02, it landed in Aspen and never left and it's like that's when it just got massive. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:26:50

And like corporate influence and just the, just, the whole thing, Like. But those first few years I remember like, and you have stories from Crested Butte, I mean a big one. Yeah, Pretty big one which you know, in an effort to kind of transition into your mountain bike career. But like talk a little bit about that injury at Crested Butte, um cause it. From what you shared with me it sounds like it was a pretty pivotal moment in kind of your snowboarding career.

Speaker 1: 1:27:15

Yeah, so at that point in time mountain biking was definitely taking off for me.

Speaker 1: 1:27:21

Um, I, you know, for a long time I struggled with mountain biking and that's a whole nother story, cause I think I got kind of thrust into that world and because, again back to what you were saying about, like how the media, after the X Games, that first X Games, even though I thought I had failed everybody, all of a sudden the opposite happened, like I thought OK, I'm done, I'm done in both worlds, I'm done in mountain biking, you know, okay, I'm done, I'm done in both worlds.

Speaker 1: 1:27:48

I'm done in mountain bike, or you know, whatever I failed everybody, but the exact opposite happened. All of a sudden, sponsors from both sides were like we want to sponsor you, we want to. You know all? I got all these offers that I was like wait what? Like I sucked, like I didn't do it all.

Speaker 3: 1:28:02

You just got all their brands in front of millions of eyeballs.

Speaker 1: 1:28:05

Right, which is something that, like again, is another learning experience. I didn't think of it like that, you know, but all of a sudden it was like no, like you're a household name, now People know you, like you're getting noticed. So all of a sudden it was like I had to make all these decisions about what I was gonna do, and on both sides. So I had two sports from that point, because at the time it was like mountain biking, I was just kind of getting my heels wet and snowboarding, but all of a sudden, all these people you know sponsors and you know different contracts, it was very like overwhelming time and I just kind of had to ride that wave.

Speaker 1: 1:28:39

So with X Games, that was a big part of it, and so we went to Crested Butte and I kept doing all the events and doing all the things and I, you know, kind of started to get a little bit of a rhythm where, you know, I was like, okay, I can do this and I do that, and I think I ended up at one point in time, I really started going well, I'll back up a little bit, but I had definitely decided that like, okay, I need to start figuring out like I'm doing a lot of things and I'm doing okay at all of them, but I'm not great at any of them, like you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 1:29:15

Like I was like seeing myself, spreading myself too thin, because it was like I was in the summer, you know, I was able to like get away with it first to a point, but I was like on the summer, you know, summer I was like racing and traveling, going, you know, doing all these races, and then in the winter I was, you know, snowboarding, but I wasn't like I. I got away with it for a while but it was starting to kind of wear on me. And we went to the X Games and I remember it was a big air jump and this is in Crested Butte.

Speaker 3: 1:29:43

This is in.

Speaker 1: 1:29:44

Crested Butte and I'd had a pretty good I I think it was the same year I ended up getting like silver in the snow biking, so that was, like you know, kind of exciting. I got on the podium and that sort of thing, and then big air came yeah, this is 99 99. Yeah, I looked it up security.

Speaker 3: 1:30:00

Silver medal in the women's snowboard mountain biking. X at winter x games 99, yeah, yeah. X at Winner X Games 99.

Speaker 1: 1:30:05

Yeah yeah, and then all of a sudden, came Legend. Yeah right, I don't know about that. The following story will definitely debunk that. But so we had the big air, and I remember that jump being particularly an issue because it was a really terribly built jump.

Speaker 3: 1:30:26

I got to pause you for a sec because my kids and I were at the mountain this weekend and we were going up Pine Martin and we're looking at those park jumps that are built now that are, like, I mean, the physics and, like you know, the math behind that has been worked out over the years due to, you know, a number of influential people. Number of influential people, I would argue, started with David Benedict when he started like this step up, like how can you keep the same amount of air time but mitigate a little bit of risk if you eat shit?

Speaker 3: 1:30:54

right, yeah, yeah but the era we're talking about was a mass. You were like falling out of the sky it was. It was like school buses, as my husband would say they were so scary for me I was, I always got so scared with those big park jumps man they were massive and you know, I think that at the time we didn't know any better.

Speaker 1: 1:31:15

You know, um, but I remember it being an issue and I think all of the athletes had sort of gotten together and, sort of like, protested the jump because they felt like it.

Speaker 1: 1:31:24

In practice, a lot of people were crashing yeah I I want to say trying to remember how it went. But they ended up like a bunch of the athletes got together and like protested that it was dangerous and they needed a change. So they ended up making some changes and then we all went back out there and because I saw so many people crashing in the practice, I was kind of freaked out about it, like I definitely didn't feel confident doing this. It felt like more like a job, like, oh, I was kind of freaked out about it, like I definitely didn't feel confident doing this. I felt like more like a job, like, oh, I have to do this.

Speaker 3: 1:31:51

Which is a shitty feeling, oh a shitty feeling Shitty, shitty feeling. It's like one of the worst.

Speaker 1: 1:31:56

No, and I had a good friend of mine. Her name was Lee.

Speaker 3: 1:32:00

Oh, we're going to hear from Lee.

Speaker 1: 1:32:01

Oh, different Lee, this is Lee, no-transcript. That event she did board across and a couple other things. And so I went up to her and she was sitting there wearing a helmet. And I looked at her and I'm like, hey, can I? And she was always trying to get me to wear a helmet, but of course I, you know, never, you know, never did. And so I was like, hey, can I borrow your helmet? And she looked at me like really, and I was like, yeah, like can I borrow your helmet? And she's like, totally, so I put her helmet on.

Speaker 1: 1:32:55

I'd never worn a snowboard helmet in my whole entire life and at this time it was probably just a skateboard helmet, no-transcript. But I crashed and did like a pretty significant crash hit the back of my head, like a pretty significant crash hit the back of my head, and I don't really remember it because I ended up, um, yeah, knocking myself out. I got airlifted from Crested Butte to Gunnison. Um, it was a pretty big deal. Um, yeah, and I spent a week in a hospital and, um, that was a crazy experience. So I woke up with, like you know, my face was all scraped up because I had slid down the mountain and I remember I did see the video and it was awful to see because I looked like I wasn't going to wake up.

Speaker 3: 1:34:00

And it was terrifying terrifying.

Speaker 1: 1:34:02

But what's even more terrifying is, had I not had that helmet on? Yeah, there's no telling. Like that helmet I fully, wholeheartedly feel like like saved me. I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have that helmet on, and that was pretty like crazy that I, you know, just luck would have it that Lee was there and she was sponsored by Pro Talk and she let me borrow- her helmet.

Speaker 3: 1:34:23

Yeah, that's not luck, that's not luck, that's something else. Yeah, for sure, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:34:27

So yeah, at the time X Games.

Speaker 3: 1:34:29

I didn't know that.

Speaker 1: 1:34:29

Yeah, it was crazy, the X Games they had. You know there was no rule of any. You know any of that sort of thing. And so, anyway, I got sent to Gunnison and I spent about a week in the hospital and I remember specifically the doctor coming in and he's just like look, I'm gonna be honest with you. I know you think you're invincible, I know this is your life, he's like, but you had a really hard hit and you're lucky, it wasn't worse. Like you are so lucky. And he's like, but this crash alone is going to affect you for the rest of your life and every crash past that, and you need to really take some stock and like what's important to you. And when you're in your 40s you're going to feel this. And he's like, if you want to really take some stock and like what's important to you, and when you're in your forties, you're going to feel this and he's like, if you want to make it to your forties, you really need to start thinking about, like you know what, your path is.

Speaker 3: 1:35:15

That's a good provider, honestly, honestly, cause I am one and, like I like I work in orthopedics I have that conversation all the time with athletes really and not in terms of, like you know, I don't, you know I'm I'm not in neurosurgery or neurology, so I don't talk about concussions a lot. But just like you know, blowing your knee or a bad shoulder injury and like part of that is just the inherent risk of sport, right?

Speaker 3: 1:35:44

but like, like what I talk with younger people about a lot is like again going back to kind of mitigating the risk and just making good decisions because yeah every, every choice has like a.

Speaker 3: 1:35:56

You know, there's trade-offs yeah and there's a time and the place to push it, and there's a time and a place not to and like just developing kind of that more. I'm not invincible mindset while at the same time not losing touch with kind of what's. I'm not invincible mindset while at the same time not losing touch with kind of what's necessary to progress at that.

Speaker 1: 1:36:13

It's a very fine line, very fine line, and like I don't.

Speaker 3: 1:36:16

I think not enough people in my opinion really think critically about it. To be proactive, rather, you find yourself having to react to the to the reality of it.

Speaker 1: 1:36:27

Well you know I went back. Does that make sense, oh? A hundred percent. And I and I'm glad you say this because I do think that that was a very pivotal point of me realizing like, oh wait, like I have a whole life ahead of me what is important, what?

Speaker 1: 1:36:44

you know, where you know what's this next step? Look like, and you know, despite the fact that, like I had parents that were like, okay, you're done, you know, I was like, no, what are you talking about? But at the same time, I did definitely look at it in a totally different world. I mean, I had to go back and I couldn't get back on my board for, you know, a couple like I think it was over a month, because I, you know, I had to take up, like oil painting and all these things that they needed me to do, because, you know, I couldn't be in a I had a brain injury.

Speaker 1: 1:37:11

I had to stay in a dark room and you know, all this stuff. That was really scary and and that was definitely a an eye opener for me. So going, you know, going back to that, like it, is something that I think that I wish that, you know, someone had maybe told me a little bit earlier so that I could. I don't know not, I don't know if that would have changed anything, but I definitely feel like it. I was glad it was kind of a blessing and a curse to get that information from the doctor, cause I think in some ways I was kind of like, oh God, like he kind of freaked me out, but at the same time it was like he was being honest and he wasn't telling me to stop doing what I was doing.

Speaker 3: 1:37:45

No, he was just having an honest conversation.

Speaker 1: 1:37:47

Yeah, yeah, honest conversation for sure, and that was at a time when, like snowboarding was progressing quick.

Speaker 3: 1:37:54

I mean I don't know what your trick you were going to do, but, like you know, I mean the jumps were getting bigger. They were. All the tricks were getting gnarlier and and like I, oh man, I can just feel that space when you're and you have to show up with pressure to perform a trick, you don't even know if you really can land to try you like yeah, it's just not a fun operating spot no, and it was crazy actually, that particular event like that was the event that, like tina bassett, did the first 720 and, and I

Speaker 1: 1:38:26

remember that being like I mean, I wasn't there because I was in a coma, but I do remember it being aired and like looking back and being like holy crap, like wow, that's so exciting and it was such an exciting time because women were starting to really progress and that was so cool. But also a big blow to my ego because, fast forward, you know know, going back, once I could get back on my board. I was never the same like.

Speaker 1: 1:38:51

I I had a really hard time going back to the park and every time that I'd go to spin or do anything, because girls were starting to get inverted and do all these things. I had kind of a mental block like it definitely scared me and PTSD man totally, totally big time yeah and so every time I would go to like spin, I mean I could, I could go off the biggest jump and do the biggest method, but if I went to go spin I was just like, which is arguably still better in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 1:39:19

Yes, same. Yeah, I kind of I like your style, it's the same. There's nothing better than a Jamie Lynn method.

Speaker 3: 1:39:34

That's like the best, the best trick. You were pretty high on my book, but you just leveled up again. This is fun, this is so fun. Yeah, I mean I think back to that era, you know, and it was like you know, I, you know, I think of like the amount of big air events that Tara Dequita has won with her backside rodeo. I always wonder, like how much that trick paid out over the years, cause there was a lot of money in those contests back then too.

Speaker 1: 1:39:48

Man, such a fun time, it was so cool and so, yeah, it was, it was fun to watch the women progress, Like at the same time, like you know, I was seeing these women, like you know, really, and these were all my friends and they were just progressing beyond and I felt like I wasn't really progressing and that was definitely humbling and definitely hard to take, but I definitely, at the same time, mountain biking was really starting to take off for me in a weird way.

Speaker 1: 1:40:19

I know that downhill is not exactly the safe thing that you would think would be non, you know, head injury situation but I think it was something that felt a little like because I had such a passion for both. But mountain biking was still just, I felt like I was still such the up-and-comer and I could see myself really progressing. Each race that I went to I could feel myself getting better and would just get such a rush from it. It was definitely something that was like gnawing at me and I sort of of started realizing that like, ok, like I said before, I'm I'm I'm good at both these sports and I'm really grateful that I have the opportunity to be like professional at both of them. But I'm not great at either and I need to make a choice. And I've just felt, like snowboarding, I wasn't progressing. So I decided to take a step back and really focus on mountain biking and then, in the same term, because I definitely wasn't ready to let go of snowboarding um border cross was really taking off.

Speaker 1: 1:41:16

And that was like a fun way for me to still like be in the sport and and race. It kind of was sort of coincided with with mountain biking, um, and the border cross. You know, like there was a lot of um, excitement about that, you know, especially thanks to Sean Palmer I mean, I owe so much of my story to him too because he definitely laid the groundwork for, you know, that whole merging of the sports, if you will, and so, anyway, so I decided like, hey, maybe I just need to stop doing the big air, um, maybe I'll do a couple slopes though, but maybe I'll just focus on, like, border cross, cause I feel super safe jumping. I just couldn't get inverted and do those things, and I'll just do that and I'll focus on mountain biking. And so I kind of went that direction and that's kind of where that landed.

Speaker 3: 1:42:01

Yeah, I love it. That's a good recap of your snowboard career.

Speaker 1: 1:42:06

I think so.

Speaker 3: 1:42:07

That's a very big blast of the past, yeah, but it's so fun and you brought back so many memories of like, I mean even just like. I remember that that time frame when border cross started to gain some traction and I grew up one of my good buddies growing up with an Idaho, grown up snowboarding with Nate Holland, and I go down and do this paddleboard race across Lake Tahoe every September and hang out with him and just like obviously he had an insane career in board across and it's just a.

Speaker 3: 1:42:39

It was a cool like avenue that opened up a lot of opportunity and obviously parlays well with your mountain bike career. Hey, I got to pee, let's pause.

Speaker 1: 1:42:50

I love this. I have to pee too.

Speaker 3: 1:42:52

Thank you so much, and then we'll we'll get back into mountain biking.

Speaker 1: 1:42:55

Amazing. I love this Cool Perfect Again. Thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:42:58

This is fun. I know I've been looking so forward to this.

Speaker 1: 1:43:01

Enjoying this so much more. Yeah, I love doing this.

Speaker 3: 1:43:05

It's just so fun talking with people and like I don't know, you and I have a lot in common, so it's fun to like. Just it brings back a lot of memories for me.

Speaker 1: 1:43:14

Same and I have to say like it's really, obviously you're very easy to talk to, but it's really refreshing, like the fact that you you know kind of firsthand lived the same special time that I did which is yeah, it's, it's super fun.

Speaker 3: 1:43:32

All right, so uh, next next soundbite from your buddy, lee donovan.

Speaker 5: 1:43:37

She's awesome yeah, when I first met april, I would I've been trying to kind of rack my brain because I I feel like it was in 1998. I think that was the first year she raced on the circuit and I don't know why, but I think it was like she was racing a race in Mount Snow, vermont, and I remember there was a lot of buzz around April coming to the circuit because she was this professional snowboarder I'm pretty sure you know she had been in the X Games and so there was like, and you know she's really cute, so all the boys were really excited. She was racing for this company called Yeti and they really didn't set her up with a very good bike. And my friend and I, mercedes and I, we were like we felt so bad for April and so we kind of took her under our wing right away and we were like come, follow us, we'll take you down the trail. There was like an instant connection. She was kind of like a younger sister for us and, um, and honestly, for the rest of my racing career and to this day, in a way, I feel like April is she's like a younger sister. She's somebody that I really really care and love a lot and I am just so proud to be in her life.

Speaker 5: 1:44:56

When I retired from racing, I kind of didn't know what I was going to do, to be honest. So I started coaching I think I had about five or six athletes, and April was one of my athletes, and so we had this amazing crew where we would do these camps. And you know, quite honest, april was such a hard worker. I just loved and adored training her and I was just I was in awe of the amount of work she would put in to be great. We spent a lot less time on downhill bikes and we would do work that wasn't as much fun, but in the end it made racing more fun and she really took to that. She was all in. Whatever I said. She was like, okay, I'm going to do what you said, and I really think it benefited her. But I also thought that it was awesome that she trusted me enough to be all in as well. Something like April and I have in common is that we're not afraid to fail. So I feel like April just never was afraid to fail and that's why she's so successful, because she just goes for it. And sure, not every day is perfect and we know that. But I just always felt like April was never, never afraid to fail and I just loved that about her.

Speaker 5: 1:46:19

I think when my business partner, jen, and I opened Tangerine that was the name of our store when we opened Tangerine I really think that piqued her interest so much because it was like it completely complimented who she was. You still needed to be competitive, you still needed to have drive to work hard, but she also got to be a part of, like, fashion, and I think April always was drawn to fashion. And so I think, towards her last few years of racing when, um, she would dabble with coming into Tangerine and working there, um, I really think she loved that more than racing. She worked there for, uh, I would say uh, uh, a few, a few years on and off, when she was still racing, and she was just a natural at it. We would bring her on buying trips. She just had a really good, keen sense of fashion and she did have her own brand called Maven. So she did have her own clothing brand where she made t-shirts and she was a natural at it.

Speaker 5: 1:47:29

And it was no surprise when she you know her interest was peaked to vanilla up and bend. I just uh, I think it's so awesome that you're uh you're doing a feature on April. She is definitely one of my favorite people in the world. I am Lee Donovan and April, I just wanted to tell you that I am so proud of you. Uh, there is uh a space in my heart that you live in every day, and the fact that you're coming up on your 20 year anniversary just swells massive pride in my heart and my soul. So congratulations, and I can't wait to see you soon.

Speaker 3: 1:48:12

You have good friends.

Speaker 1: 1:48:13

Wow, goodness gracious, that's again a lot to take in and is not lost on me of you know her words, cause that's very meaningful, cause she didn't. She's very humble but she and I'm sure you did some research, but she is in her own right.

Speaker 3: 1:48:32

Legendary.

Speaker 1: 1:48:33

Just a legend. I mean just an amazing athlete, an amazing businesswoman, an amazing human, and that means a lot coming from her.

Speaker 3: 1:48:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:48:43

Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:48:44

Do you like these audio? How do you feel?

Speaker 1: 1:48:47

Honestly, this is making my whole.

Speaker 1: 1:48:49

this is amazing Cause you know, obviously you know, these are people that have been a big part of my life, but you don't ever get to like see this side, or you know again, I just I live, work and sleep at vanilla and then and my days just are consumed with, like you know, boxes and product and customers and all these things. So I think to be able to tap into, you know a little bit of who you are, that person outside of that is this is very unique and very I'm honored to be able to do this.

Speaker 3: 1:49:21

That's rad. That's really cool. Yeah, it's a fun way to tell a story. You know like I'm really enjoying this, enjoying this process of involving other people that have played a massive, pivotal role at certain points, of whoever I get the pleasure of sitting down with and helping them share that story Because, like you said, I'm learning the more I do this. That's a common reaction is people they really value getting to hear stuff from someone else's point of view.

Speaker 1: 1:49:49

Yeah Well, and we wouldn't be where we are without these people in our lives. And. I mean I, I know wholeheartedly that, like without these, these key people, I would have never been on that trajectory and never done the things that I've, you know, accomplished and done, and I'm so grateful for that. So yeah it's.

Speaker 3: 1:50:09

Really this is a gift. Thank you so much. Oh, it's my pleasure it's, it's, it's fun to put together. Yeah, I mean she, she kind of gave a little bit of a synopsis of kind of your intro to that kind of world cup, but that's, that's a whole other like whole other life.

Speaker 1: 1:50:25

Yeah, yeah, to save you too much Cause I I feel like I have, you know, just rambled on about my snowboarding world, but I do think there's an important part of the story. So, working at the bike shop, a big part of you know being there and being there, you know being. I got to meet a lot of different people in the industry and Tom and Pat were really big players putting on these events, and not just in Southern California, but they promoted events all over and became part of doing timing for the Norba, which is the national series, and all of that kind of stuff. And at one point in time I was working at the bike shop and I had only done a few amateur races and I got a phone call at the bike shop and it was this gentleman and he's like oh hey, this is who am I speaking with. And this is April. And he's like oh, this is John Parker. Well, john Parker is another legend in the industry. He was the founder of Yeti Cycles and he was known for being this very larger than life, eccentric guy, guy and he was very talented, obviously, at building amazing bicycles, but he also was really talented just cultivating like this, like really unique, like niche market and he would bring on these characters onto his team that were always. They always had a story behind them.

Speaker 1: 1:51:40

And so, anyway, I said to John oh, john, you know, hey, do you want me to get Tom? Because I thought, for sure, you know that's what he's calling. He's calling, he goes. No, actually I called to talk to you and I thought, oh my gosh, john parker knows my name and like, why is he calling to talk to me? You know, I thought this was like such a weird experience and anyway, I was like okay, and he goes, well, I understand, you've been doing some racing. And I said yeah, and he says, well, I hear you, pretty, you might be pretty good. And I was like no, definitely not. You know, I'm just starting, getting started, but I really enjoy it. And he goes well, tell you what I'm watching you and, um, I'd like to invite you to come up to Durango and see our factory and see what we have to do and talk to you about possibly maybe joining our team. And at this point I had only raced, you know, a handful of races and and just, you know, amateur. And yeah, he got me a ticket and flew me to Durango.

Speaker 1: 1:52:39

There was two people who are also very important in my life. I had so many people I thought of to. You know have you talked to. But Colin Bailey at the time was a young high schooler that was on Yeti. His dad was a mechanic on Yeti for many years but Colin had been raised in the in the mountain bike world and was on Yeti for many years and just was like the young junior phenom. And then Kurt Voorhees, who's another bend bend person that you should definitely talk to because he has some good stories. But Kurt and Colin both were riding for Yeti and they used to come in the bike shop all the time to get tickets for me and they were always super cool and they're like oh, you're a snowboarder, chick Cool, you know, whatever.

Speaker 1: 1:53:19

Well, unbeknownst to me, they had sort of talked to John Parker and said hey, there's this girl, she and said, hey, there's this girl, she's starting to race, she's a snowboarder, she's really cool, like you should look at her.

Speaker 1: 1:53:36

And so they were very instrumental in getting my results in the front of you know, in his eyes. And so they brought me up to Durango and Yeti had just been acquired by Schwinn. So there was this big mass media thing going on and there was, you know, all the different sponsors were there and different components and that sort of thing, and they were doing this big media launch and I went there and, you know, they had a jersey for me and all this stuff and it was like I was part of this team and I'm like what the heck is going on? Like this is like no, this is not real life right now. I, this is like no, this is not real life right now. Um, and so, in addition to like getting to be part of the media launch, they just introduced me as, like part of their team. I got to go and, you know, meet all these people and different sponsors and everything, and then at the time, um, one of the athletes, elka Broussard, her girlfriend, was Missy Jovi, who, who was like my hero, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:54:28

I just was like oh my God, missy Jovi was larger than life and just such this, you know, total icon in the industry and super crazy. And Missy was like I heard you're a snowboarder, like we're going to go up to the mountain tomorrow, like do you want to go? And so we got to go snowboarding with Missy and Elka and that was just like, like my brain was just about to close Making friends, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:54:48

So that was really cool. So they basically gave me a little contract and it wasn't much, like you know, hey, we're going to get you to the races, we're going to get you bikes, we're going to do all these things, and I did. And so Vermont, mount Snow, vermont, which Lee referenced, was my first race. They sent me there and I didn't have a bike yet.

Speaker 1: 1:55:11

You know, that was one of the good things about Yeti is they made the most amazing handmade bikes, but sometimes that came at a price of it took some time to turn them out, and so I was low on the totem pole, obviously had not proven myself one bit and was definitely not deserving of having a ride, and so I didn't have a bike. So I ended up like there was a gal that worked for the team I think she was like one of the like massage therapists or whatever they like had me have her bike because she was the only one that was the same size as me. So I got thrown up into like this course at Mount Snow, vermont, and they told me to go practice and that my bike might be showing up that week. And I do. I very, very vividly remember being up on that course and it was such a difficult course and just being like what am I doing? I'm going to kill myself. I mean, I was so out of my element and so awful. And I remember Lee and Mercedes both literally picking me up off the ground and being like hey, like, can we help you? Like you need some help, and it wasn't in a taunting sort of way no-transcript snowboarder, and there was all this hoopla. But honestly, I had no business being out there. I was not on a good bike. My the bike was not good for me. I didn't, you know, there was so many things stacked against me. But that was a very humbling experience.

Speaker 1: 1:56:49

And the next few I finally did get a bike, the next race. But the next few races were hard. I was terrible. I was a terrible, terrible, like mountain bike racer. I was so far off the back and had no, I mean, it was actually embarrassing.

Speaker 1: 1:57:05

I look back now and I think, oh my gosh, but we had a little break in the season and you know, we went back to Big Bear and I had a little break before the next race or a couple of races, and I remember Colin Bailey and Kurt, just like, hey, school time, like you're coming with us, and they just took me out.

Speaker 1: 1:57:25

Kurt had built all these like amazing, he was such a good trail builder and he'd build these like super cool secret trails that like nobody knew about, and so they would just take me off and it wasn't easy. I'm telling you what they first of all, they were so mean to me in such the best of ways, but they'd always tell me like I'd ride, like I had to stick up my ass, and and they would just be like you know, hey, all right, like let's go. And they would. Just they didn't, they didn't wait for me. They were just like all right, so you're at the bottom, and they just like basically just sort of throw me into the fire in all the best of ways. And it was great and I learned so much and it was so humbling and so hard and um that's the only way you can learn that stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:58:02

Yeah, the only way, the only way. And they would tell me like, if, if I looked like I was stiff or whatever, they were so mean to me, they were in and again I'm so grateful for it. Like I look back now and I'm like, oh my God, like they were so, so mean, but it was so good for me at the same time, and and uh, yeah, they really, really taught me how to ride my bike.

Speaker 3: 1:58:22

Like you know, I, at that point it's incredible it was so such a good it brings up like the idea to me, like, um, I tell my kids all the time before they get offended to consider the intentions behind. You know what I mean. Like it because there's, there's only there. I'm kind of convinced that you can really only grow as a person when it sucks and there's a struggle and it's hard and that can look like a lot of different things. But like, like, so for for you to recognize and just even just say like, mean to me in the best of ways, like it just speaks to their intent right.

Speaker 1: 1:58:59

Yeah, and and and. They were so genuine in the at the same time where they were just like hey, we really like you. We don't want you to go down like this. We know you have this potential. You're just nervous and you didn't get a fair shake the first few races and we want to make this better.

Speaker 3: 1:59:18

Well, let me ask you a couple questions. Prior to going to Vermont, the only downhill you had done was at your local, for the most part like in California.

Speaker 1: 1:59:27

Yeah, I had done one amateur cup race, which are the series that Tom and Pat put on. I did a beginner race. Yeah, I won that. And then I did a sport race. At the time it was like beginner sport, expert, pro. So I did one sport race my times were close to the like in the pack with the experts. So I was like, okay, I guess I'll go to expert. And I did one expert race and did decent.

Speaker 1: 1:59:54

And then there was the kamikaze that was in Mammoth and Tom and Pat were going there to do the timing and I was like, hey, can I, can I go with you guys? And you know they could have been jerks and said like no, we need you to stay and watch the shop. Because at that time, like I generally was like managing their business and they were going to be out of town. So like I think about that now as a boss, like how big that was for them to actually be, like, yeah, we're going to help you. Because they could have just been like no, we need you to run the shop. But at the time they were like no, come on, like come with us, and so they, let me stay with them, and stuff. And I went and did the kamikaze and that was like a whole different ballgame than riding a big bear.

Speaker 3: 2:00:26

Well, yeah, but even then I mean it's like I would imagine just the dirt in Vermont right, totally yeah. Like things that you don't even consider, and like the vegetation and the different, and like rocks versus a bunch of roots come to mind. You know, like all that, it's just, it's a completely it's like. It's like learning how to ride in powder man.

Speaker 1: 2:00:45

Yeah, and I again like Snow Summit's, known for just being like completely blown out dusty dirt. And then, yeah, you're right, Vermont was slippery and roots and a totally different animal. So it was. It was different type of riding than I knew. Again, I had a bike I wasn't used to and I had to ride a bike that didn't fit me right, and it was a terrible bike. No offense, like all Yeti bikes are amazing, but this was like basically like this lady's like weekend bike.

Speaker 3: 2:01:11

And.

Speaker 1: 2:01:12

I'm racing against these people who are the top racers in the world, you know it was so awful and humbling and, yeah, like I said, there's so many things that like going back. Now I'm just like oh gosh. I wish that I could have had a better platform to start, but that's how you learn right.

Speaker 3: 2:01:28

That's how you learn. So what happened after that season of training with those guys?

Speaker 1: 2:01:33

Well, kurt and Colin, again, like I said, they were just so awesome to really take me under their wing and I didn't know. I mean, I felt like I was getting better, but I didn't really know. Each time I would go I would just be like trying to keep up with them as best I could and trying to, you know, navigate with these trails that Kurt had built really amazing trails that were like World Cup worthy, you know.

Speaker 1: 2:01:56

And so then, when we finally went back on the tour again and I got an opportunity to go out there, I just felt like a different rider, like I felt like, instead of, like you know, just getting down the course, I was like I was riding my bike and again just like being in Japan, where it was like wow, okay, like this is a whole new world. It was the same. It just instantly my eyes lit up and I still wasn't like podium material by any means, but I definitely was like more mid pack and could see like the progression and the passion, the spark was just all time, like I was just like, oh my God, this is, you know, so great and, um, I just was so happy, like it just brought such like, such a cool feeling.

Speaker 3: 2:02:37

I mean it's a it's, it's rad because it's so. It parallels your snowboard experience so well in a way that you know you, you got good quick. People recognize that it sounds like sometimes well before you recognized it in yourself definitely, and then like I mean you had, like I was reading, you know you had, like you got second at the downhill mountain bike world cup and telluride that's a.

Speaker 1: 2:03:01

I mean that's like it seems like a big deal like like that's insane yeah, I mean it's funny because it's like I look back now and I don't like again. It was never really about like I don't know the the result. It was more about like how I felt on my bike, totally and for me, like I just wanted to feel like like I. I wanted to feel good, I wanted to feel like like I was doing the dance. You know, like I wanted to feel like when I went down people, people were like wow, she looks good on her bike.

Speaker 1: 2:03:30

You know, like that was, that was my drive and yeah, results were definitely secondary, but I had a great career. I mean I did. I raced on the tour for 11 years.

Speaker 3: 2:03:43

That's insane, and had such a.

Speaker 1: 2:03:45

I mean I got to go all over the world like World Cups and I had the best. It was such the best experience and I'm so grateful for it and I wouldn't trade any of it. Like it's such a unique opportunity to be able to do that and I went from like being a kid that had never been on an airplane to seeing you know all over Europe and you know Japan and all over the world.

Speaker 3: 2:04:07

So that was cool know all over Europe and you know Japan and all over the world. So that was cool. And then I mean, with what you were sharing with me before, it seems like it was, in ways some of your like a first touch point too with like working like probably more so than in your snow career, but like really working with brands for product design and you know like kind of getting into that kind of skill set that you've developed. You know with marketing and you know brand development and product and design.

Speaker 1: 2:04:36

Yeah, yeah, no, thank you for bringing that up, because I do feel like that was the case. You know, at the time there was always, like you know, teams. So I was on Yeti for a couple of years, which was great and I had such a good time. But then after that, you know, because Schwinn was part of Yeti, there was a lot of changes that were kind of happening and I was kind of faced with not really sure how I was going to continue racing. I needed to find a new team. That's kind of part of being your own brand.

Speaker 1: 2:05:06

Yeah, your own brand is that every year you never know, like you know, you're always as good as your last race. You never know if you're going to have a have a job the next year. And, um, yeti was, you know, kind of moving on and and and that didn't work out. And so then I was like, okay, well, I got to figure out a new sponsor and there was a, a team that I had started kind of pseudo writing for Gary Fisher and they had kind of promised me that they were going to move me onto their, their team and then at the last minute the team kind of folded and that didn't happen, and so I had kind of a lot of uncertainties.

Speaker 1: 2:05:37

But I was really lucky that there was a gal, um, uh, kathy Sussler, who at the time was a really awesome lady who she was a mom and she raced, which was pretty cool. She, she, she was a really awesome lady who she was a mom and she raced, which was pretty cool. She, she, she was a really fun lady and she was like, hey, um, max's tires, who were was a sponsor of hers for many years, she's like they need a new like spokesperson athlete. And then she's like you should talk to them. And so I did and they, they were so great like they scooped me up and they were like yep, we want to put you on our team.

Speaker 1: 2:06:11

And at the time their team was kind of unique and different that it wasn't like where I would go to the races and, you know, have everything done for me. It was kind of very farm, grassroots, and so they were like we're going to give you a budget and you can kind of figure out your way routes. And so they were like we're going to give you a budget and you can kind of figure out your way. So I had to like budget my, you know, they basically gave me a lump sum and I had to pay for my own travel and my own, you know, bits and pieces. They provided me a mechanic, which was awesome, and they provided me tires and I had to give them product development and that was a big part of it. So every single race I had to like fill out information about like you know how this tire, you know how this, you know type of rubber is working and that. But that was a big part of it.

Speaker 1: 2:06:53

You know, learning how to like really work with, like you know, the manufacturing side, and that was something that I was always really.

Speaker 1: 2:07:01

You kind of asked me this question earlier and I didn't really answer, but I was always really into like the development of the products.

Speaker 1: 2:07:06

Even when I was in snowboarding, I would go to the trade shows and like help show the line and, like I don't, I just really thought that that part was so interesting to me. I loved picking out the colors and, like you know, part of the design process, and so with mountain biking, what was really unique and different is that Maxis was a great platform, but what it opened up they allowed me to get my own co-sponsors. So I started like kind of working with different sponsorships Like Puma was a big one that came on board and so like they actually became like my title sponsor the last couple of years and so they let me help them with developing an actual bike shoe. I got to go to Boston to the factory and like help, you know, work with that and yeah, just so many different bits and pieces to it that were that were really unique and fun and I just loved that side of it. But yeah, I don't know I lost track.

Speaker 3: 2:08:03

No, it's good I mean, we were just talking about now that that it started to expose you to this. You know the retail kind of side of things in a way, or at least kind of behind the scenes of the retail. You know it's just a different. You're facing a different direction within the same, with the same brand, with the same mission, but you're you're learning a new skillset. You know and and I mean clearly right. It's super cool.

Speaker 1: 2:08:31

It was. It was good, and I definitely learned how to market for myself in a way differently. Um, because I was always having to be scrappy, like it wasn't an easy like oh hey, you're on the team and you know everything's going to be taken care of. It's like I had to piece together all these different parts and you know, like my shock sponsor and my brake sponsor, and you know so it was like I always felt like I was kind of scrapping, but in some ways I think I always was. I was better in that position.

Speaker 1: 2:08:58

That was a position that felt really comfortable to me is always like feel like I was the underdog in a way, and I liked that. But I really learned about a lot about marketing because I negotiated all my own contracts and at one point in time I did bring on a manager because he had kind of had reached out and was like I want to manage you and I thought about it and I did it for like a short minute, but I learned really quickly that like it just didn't feel good, like I felt like my, me just being April and my own authentic self was like my best marketer and having somebody like on the outside trying to do that just didn't sit well with me and so I ended up not doing that and so I I learned to like negotiate my contracts and and do all that and I think that to this day is like the best education I could have given myself um, just being an advocate for myself. And, um, again, there was no social media, so you know that come easy for you.

Speaker 1: 2:09:54

Um, I yes and no, I think in the beginning no, cause I was, like you know, kind of just hard like talking to yourself up you know I didn't, that didn't come easy Um cause.

Speaker 3: 2:10:06

You're a very humble person. It comes off to me as I don't know you incredibly well, but I'm just curious at what point you noticed growth there.

Speaker 1: 2:10:15

Yeah, I definitely. There was a struggle, for sure.

Speaker 3: 2:10:17

And.

Speaker 1: 2:10:18

I think I didn't like ask for enough for myself and I think maybe that was just me seeing other like again, like having Lee step in as my coach like seeing her, she was a big proponent for like hey, you got to ask for more.

Speaker 3: 2:10:31

You start getting validated by other people. Yeah, and she.

Speaker 1: 2:10:34

She was she, like you know.

Speaker 1: 2:10:36

She had experienced every aspect of it, but she knew what women were worth, you know, and she definitely helped me so much in understanding that and kind of telling me like, hey, like this is, this is what you should be doing and stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:10:51

But what I did feel like I was good at not so much talking about myself, but I felt good that I could talk about, like the products, and so that was something that came easy. Like you know, a lot of times, like after the races, a big part of it is like being in the pits we call it with your team truck and, like you know, people want to come up and, like you know, talk to you and you maybe sign autographs, that sort of thing, and a lot of athletes didn't like doing that. That was like kind of a pain for them and for me that was like I loved that, like I loved engaging with the people, and so that part came easy. The other part maybe not so much, but I think that that was something that maybe sponsors saw and I think that was valuable to them.

Speaker 1: 2:11:33

And I think I slowly kind of learned that that was valuable, you know.

Speaker 3: 2:11:36

Yeah, so yeah, that's a well said man that makes a lot of sense. So tell me about this. You know I want to hear about, because this kind of is the buildup to Vanilla. You're still racing and then leave reference Maven.

Speaker 1: 2:11:54

Yeah, so that's kind of funny. Again, I always had multiple jobs. I was always working border cross. I still couldn't sit. Still in the off seasons and I, you know, started as like a hostess, and then I wanted to be a busser and all these things. I still went back and started bartending Cause to me. I just wanted to engage. I didn't want to just go to the gym and do my workout and then go back to the house and, like you know, watch TV, like I wanted to talk to people and and also like I had this really big like goal that I wanted to buy a house and you know all these things, and I was like you know, I got, I'm gonna work.

Speaker 1: 2:12:48

so I always, I always loved, that, was always hustling so one of the things I came up with at one point in time is that I really wanted to start my own brand. So I came up with the idea of Maven and I made, had some friends help me with some graphics and stuff and I made t-shirts and sweatshirts and hats and, like you know, all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:13:08

And it's funny because it's like I came up with the idea I wanted to do it and a part of that came from the snowboarding I grew up um with all the Volcom kids and like Ryan, ryan and Magart and all those guys, like you know, sewing patches on their snowboard pants and like, basically saw that like, at the end of the day, all the products pretty much the same. It's just more like the image that comes behind it and the culture and stuff. So I was like, oh man, I just loved that feeling. So I'm like I want to kind of do that and I felt like mountain biking although I really enjoyed it and it gave me so much passion, I felt like it was kind of missing A lot of it was very generic and, like you know, corporate yeah, corporate and I just

Speaker 1: 2:13:50

like. I just felt like snowboarding needed a little more color and a little or not snowboarding sorry, mountain biking needed a little bit of the like, color and excitement that mountain bike, mountain or snowboarding had. And so I came up with the idea to do it and and I had um talked to a couple different people, one being a snowboard shop, that a local snowboard shop in Big Bear, and I went and asked if I could have a meeting with the owner. It was called Leroy's Board Shop and they had a couple different locations and the same family owned it for a bunch of years.

Speaker 1: 2:14:20

And so the lady, she was so sweet, she took me in the back in her office and I was like I want to start this brand and I just want your give me advice, like what do I need to do? And she was really great, she gave me so much feedback and so I ended up creating a line sheet and I brought it to it no-transcript, like kind of a store in store of the Maxis tent, and so I had my my stuff there and anyway, it was a fun. It was a fun project. I learned a lot.

Speaker 1: 2:15:05

I definitely did not make any money because I gave away more product than I, than I of course you did you know than I did, but it was really for me it was just like just curating it and doing it was super fun and I had such a like a blast, like just learning. I learned a lot of things the hard way. I definitely got in over my head and ordered you know too much product and then had no way to distribute it and all these things. But it was good for me and it was a great chapter and it definitely like kind of again goes into where Vanilla came into the picture.

Speaker 3: 2:15:39

Yeah, I think you should make a limited edition re-release Vanilla Maven collab t-shirt this summer.

Speaker 1: 2:15:48

Such a good idea. Yeah, dude, I love this, honestly, yes.

Speaker 3: 2:15:52

And I want like multiple sizes for my kids and my wife. Yeah, that's rad, you know. Getting into Vanilla, it sounds like Lee had Tangerine, which was kind of again like opportunity to kind of interface in the actual retail space and yeah that and then lead, you know, coached me and she finally talked me into moving out of Big Bear, which was like a big thing.

Speaker 1: 2:16:19

I actually finally bought my own house, so I had my own house at that point.

Speaker 3: 2:16:24

Dude, that was seriously, that was a lot. It's impressive.

Speaker 1: 2:16:28

It was. I remember like specifically how it all went down. But I got this little two bedroom house and it was $99,999., like it was you know one of those things, and I put $3,000 down and I'd sold a bunch of snowboards to get you know get the down payment and I think my interest rate was like almost 10% and it was crazy but it was so cool, so I had finally gotten myself my own house and that felt really good.

Speaker 1: 2:16:55

But then Lee's like I think you need to leave Big Bear, like you need to get out and you need to come down here, where she was down in Temecula area, and she's just like I think you need to really focus on biking because at this point, like I know you love snowboarding and all this stuff, she's like. But if you want to be a champion, she's like you need to come down here and you need to put the work in, and it's not just riding your mountain bike.

Speaker 1: 2:17:17

It was all the stuff that she referenced, like just the training of the plyometrics and all this stuff that I really had kind of dabbled in, but not really, not really. And so I was like, wow, okay, I guess I need to do this. And so, yeah, I moved. I sold my house and I ended up getting a place down in Temecula and I moved down. I was like two blocks away from her At first. I actually moved in with her and that was a change for me. To move out of the mountains. I really really missed the mountains. So that was hard, um, but the shining light of that was one. I got really heavily into motocross. I got a dirt bike and that was the best cross training I could have ever done. Um, and that became a whole nother new passion for me. So that was really fun. I lived just down the street from lake elson, our track, so I went like three times a week to the track Um.

Speaker 1: 2:18:11

and then the other part of it was Lee and her partner Jen Jen, who Jen's husband actually was, um the founder of intense bicycles just started, decided that they were going to start a clothing store, and at the time I had Maven and they were like, hey, you like do you want to help us? Like you can come to the market and you know whatever? And I was like, oh my gosh, yeah I would, I'd be so excited. And so that I was definitely not happy living down in the Valley, I missed the mountains and I kind of felt like there was something missing in my heart. But then that kind of like replaced it with like excitement of like oh my God, there's this. And so that was really fun. And so I got to help them with, you know, the buying a bit, but also just working in the shop and seeing. And they were both amazing at what they did.

Speaker 1: 2:18:56

For two people who had never owned a retail store. They did it right, like they were just ace customer service, just they curated such a great shop and it was so unique to the area at the time and, yeah, I could, I loved going in and working for them. It was so fun. But yeah, that was definitely a chapter and you know, then I had to keep leaving and going and I was racing a lot, but whenever I had, you know, any break in my schedule, I'd be like hey, put me on the schedule, I'm coming, I want to work. And you know I wanted, you know I really wanted to work. Um, and then I ended up meeting my husband, and then that's where Bend came in to play.

Speaker 3: 2:19:34

Yeah, chris Shepard, another legend in his own right.

Speaker 1: 2:19:39

And he surely is. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 3: 2:19:40

Yeah, I, one of my very best friend's name is Chris Shepard Really Different? Chris Shepard no way, um. But is chris shepherd really different? Chris shepherd no way, um. But uh, yeah. So when I remember early on, when I first heard your chris shepherd's name because we were all living in bend at the same anyways I was so confused for a while. But uh, well, that's so funny yeah yeah, and you guys met on the tour yeah, we met racing he's a cross country.

Speaker 1: 2:20:05

That was his discipline right yeah, so he's a cross country racer, um, and kind of a funny story, but um, prior to chris, I are chef. I have to call him chef, it's just what I call him. Um, prior to that, I had dated a lot of the same type of guy the motocross guy, the bmx guy, I was just. I had a penchant for, like the bad boy, and the black flies guy.

Speaker 1: 2:20:29

No, no, not the black flies guy. That was definitely not a good experience, but I definitely was. Like you know, I I dated a lot of a lot of the same kind of guy and and that was fine. It just was, you know, part of part of my story. But, um, I met him on the tour and, and I remember specifically it was at Sonoma, california, and I flew in for the race and I had a teammate that was flying in from France and so I picked her up at the airport and she was like, oh, I'm so hungry, can we stop and get something to eat?

Speaker 1: 2:21:00

And there was only one restaurant still open in Sonoma. So we stop, we go to this restaurant and we're sitting there eating and all of a sudden one of my old mechanics came up and he started talking to me and then all of a sudden, shep comes into the picture and he starts talking and I knew he was a racer, but I didn't really know him. And at that time cross country and downhill were like they could have just might as well have been oil and vinegar, like it was like we both were on a two wheeled bike, but we were very much two completely different disciplines, a lot like how snowboarding and skiing used to be, and so you know, at the races we were all there but it wasn't like we all hung out together.

Speaker 1: 2:21:38

That really necessarily, unless you were on a team with someone but, you didn't like commingle that much, and so I knew he was a racer. I just didn't know a lot about him. And he started talking French to my teammate and then he left and she was like who's that guy? And I was like I don't know, I think he's a racer. And she's like, oh, he's really cute. And I was like, yeah, he's cool, well, come to find out.

Speaker 1: 2:22:01

Like that race that week I just kept seeing him everywhere he showed. You know, he'd show up at my team truck and then I would be over at the Rock Shocks truck and there he was, he just kept showing up and come to find out. Now, you know, down the road. He's like that was obviously on purpose but by design, but he just kept showing up. And then finally, you know, a couple of races later we were in Big Bear. There was a race in Big Bear and he ended up coming by my truck and and he he had podiumed that weekend and so he left his flowers for me before he went off to the next race and I was like, oh my gosh, wow, send me flowers.

Speaker 1: 2:22:35

And everyone's like, oh, this cross country guy. And everyone was kind of giving all my friends were kind of giving me shit about it. And I was like, oh, geez, um. So then we fast forward, went to, uh, quebec and he invited me on a date. And he took me to quebec city and took me to this french restaurant, and you know, the rest is history, you know. I finally was like, all right, he's a good guy. I should probably, you know, give this a chance.

Speaker 1: 2:22:59

Um, but we um started dating you know a lot of it just being like while we're on tour. But then, when the racing was over, he was in canada because he's canadian, forgot that part and I was down in california, and so there was a big event happening up at whistler. Um, up in whistler, it was crankworks, and so a bunch of my friends, um, sven onka and andrew needling they're all south africans we were all going to go up to crankworks to do the event and we were driving from southern california and we were going to go up there and do the event, but also Shep had gotten a big house for, like me and all my friends, so it was going to be the first time that, like my friends, actually like hung out with this guy that I was kind of hanging out with.

Speaker 3: 2:23:39

It's a big deal.

Speaker 1: 2:23:40

It was a big deal, I was kind of nervous, and so along the way, we decided to stop and bed Gianna Mayan was living here at the time and she was like, yeah, you should come, come stay. She's like I've got a mini ramp in my garage Like you guys can come sleep on the floor, like bring all your stuff, and so anyway. So we stopped and bend.

Speaker 3: 2:23:57

I remember that mini ramp, do you? Yeah, totally, this is iconic.

Speaker 1: 2:24:01

Yeah, I mean them on. That was so amazing, yeah. So janna, um, yeah, invited us and so here we were, just like on our way with all our bikes and stuff and we show up and bend and I'd never been to bend but I'd heard a lot about it and she's like, hey, you want to go float the river? And we were like, okay, yeah, so we go to target and we buy this gigantic, um inflatable kids castle that I think it was meant to be a like a sand castle, but it floated Right. And so she's like, yeah, let's get this. And we blew it up and all of us just gathered in that thing and it had, like, what do you call?

Speaker 1: 2:24:39

it Like squirt cannons and stuff Anyway, and we floated the river and I remember like just being like this place is amazing, like floating down and just the beauty of the river. And then we went by the old mill and I remember looking and seeing like all the shops in the old mill and I'm like that's a shopping district.

Speaker 1: 2:24:56

That was early too yeah, it was really early and that was just like like, oh my gosh, this place is amazing. And so by the end of that, we only stayed for 24 hours, but I was. I was on Bend. At that point I was like this place, jana, I see why you moved here. This place is so cool. Went up to Whistler and we get there. I feel like I'm telling so many stories.

Speaker 3: 2:25:18

No, this is great man, it's great.

Speaker 1: 2:25:20

We get to Whistler and my cross-country boyfriend says to all my downhill friends hey, do you guys want to go for a ride? I'm going to take you guys on a cross-country ride. And they were all kind of like, yeah, okay, because as downhillers you have to train Like you got to ride some cross-country it's not just all downhill. And so he took us on this trail and I think it's called a river runs through it, if I'm not mistaken. But it was the gnarliest cross-country ride of all time with like so many skinny bridges and so much like crazy drop-offs and all this stuff. And here's, you know, shep with his like seat post straight up and like his like spandex. And here's all of my downhill buddies, you know like, with their baggies and everything on this ride. And he just schooled these guys and they were just like, holy shit, he can ride his bike like.

Speaker 3: 2:26:12

So they it was just schooled him in what way? Like on the descents?

Speaker 1: 2:26:14

oh, yeah, yeah because he was like riding this stuff with his seat post straight up just like just such a good skill rider, and I think they like all of a sudden went from being like oh, this cross-country guy, to being like oh, this cross country guy, to being like, dude, this guy can ride a bike, oh my gosh. And so that was really fun, so that was like a cool. You know, in addition to like him, you know cooking for everyone and, like you know, at the end of that trip they were all like, oh man, this guy's awesome, he's one of us.

Speaker 3: 2:26:41

This is cool.

Speaker 1: 2:26:42

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3: 2:26:44

That's insane. I got to pause real quick. It's funny like the old mill um. At that time again. So I'll share a story now, one of my. So when I think it was two I don't I get the dates wrong it was in the early 2000s. The old mill had just kind of been developed like they built regal and I think like gap and like banana republic were down there, but rei was still. That wasn't built out yet and there what you know, the little red shack that is on the very end right next to vanilla. So that used to be down where like g's Grill is. Do you remember that? Or maybe that might've even been before you came here.

Speaker 1: 2:27:32

I don't remember it being down there, but I know that it was because the person that inhabited it for 14 years was a good friend of mine.

Speaker 3: 2:27:40

Yeah, so when that shack was down on the end, that's when I was snowboarding, so I had essentially the summers for a few months to do whatever. And and I've shared this story maybe a little bit before but my roommate at the time, his dad, ran the and has for since, like the seventies, the vegetable man like, uh, outdoor produce stand on the highway or on third street and, um, he was my roommate and we got this idea of opening a West side outdoor produce market down in the Old Mill because it was kind of popping down there. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:28:13

And so we ran Old Mill Produce out of that little red shack when it was across the street from REI and we had like this little indoor outdoor produce market. We got all our bread from like the Village Baker and we just piggybacked all our produce orders on his dad's orders and yeah, it was super fun and like, uh, I think we our rent was like 250 bucks a month. I negotiated this deal with marnie smith yeah you know, and like that was. It was hilarious man, oh my gosh, my gosh.

Speaker 1: 2:28:45

I had no idea, but how cool.

Speaker 3: 2:28:48

Yeah, so like one day I want to get, I want to get this back down in that shack, cause how sick of a little podcast studio.

Speaker 1: 2:28:56

Would that be down there? Um, amazing. Yes, you know that shack holds a lot of memories for me.

Speaker 3: 2:29:02

Yeah, yeah, that's where I met my wife too.

Speaker 1: 2:29:05

No way she was a customer.

Speaker 3: 2:29:06

Yeah, I met my wife too.

Speaker 1: 2:29:07

No way she was a customer Of the of your yeah, the produce market. No way that's so cool.

Speaker 3: 2:29:12

Yeah, so we have a. We have a shared history of kind of.

Speaker 1: 2:29:18

Yeah. You were a tenant of the old mill before I even knew it existed.

Speaker 3: 2:29:22

Well, yeah, it was for one year. We we didn't make any money and it was a lot of work.

Speaker 3: 2:29:28

Oh I do not want to sacrifice all summer slinging produce because I had had it. I worked at Newport Market when I first moved to Bend, in the produce department at night so I had enough kind of general knowledge of produce that I wasn't a complete flail. And then my roommate he had grown up working at that thing so it was fun. But so ultimately you guys moved to Bend. I think we left off before I had to use the bathroom. You were talking about that trip in Canada and then you and. Chris were together.

Speaker 1: 2:30:00

Yeah, we were and we continued to date, just long distance. And then I think finally, you know we went back on tour the next year and you know we could be together obviously when we were on road. And then he came down to California and spent about a month down there and definitely I think was like oh God how do you live? Because?

Speaker 1: 2:30:22

at the time I was living down in Temecula and he wasn't into dirt bikes, but like you know, he didn't have I I mean that was what my passion being down there was like, okay, well, I've got my guy, I have my dirt bike and the mountain biking. There's a little bit, but not much. And he, he, he went road riding and that sort of thing and he hung in there for a little bit. Yeah, he did he almost got hit by a few cars and he was just like hey, so how about you move up to canada?

Speaker 1: 2:30:45

and um the time, I mean I know that sounds crazy because Canada is so amazing, but I think I was definitely ready to get out of Southern California, or at least where I was. But I wasn't ready to go quite that far and I had already kind of had my eye on possibly moving. And you know, one of the places was Tahoe. I had a lot of friends up there and so I thought about that and so I said, well, yeah, I'm willing to leave, but I don't know if I'm ready to go that far. And he's like well, why don't we meet in the middle? And so we had sort of talked about it that like Bend was on the ever since that trip with Jana, like Bend was there, tahoe was one, and then also Santa Cruz was another cause, both all places that had mountain biking and like we had friends in those places.

Speaker 1: 2:31:28

And so we made a plan that he was going to drive down from Canada and I was going to fly up to Portland, we were going to drive over the pass and we were going to check out, you know, bend, and then we were going to go to Tahoe and, you know, make our way and just kind of figure out what felt right. And so he picked me up in Portland and it was, you know, new Year's Eve like around that time and and it was, you know, new Year's Eve like around that time, and there was a huge storm, so there was an avalanche on the pass. So that was interesting. So getting over here was quite the like kind of you know crazy experience. And then we got here and we were hungry.

Speaker 1: 2:31:59

You know, we checked into our hotel room and we were super hungry and there was this place that had just opened McMinimins and it just opened here in Bend and you know, going from, you know being in California, especially down in the area I was, where there was like no culture or character. Walking into McMinimins was like being in like Disneyland. I was just like oh my God, this place is so cool and the beer, you know, it's just, it was just amazing, and so it's an experience.

Speaker 1: 2:32:23

Yeah. And so at that time my eyes were just like, oh my gosh, this place is awesome. And so we ended up just having a great time. We went up to Bachelor, we looked around at houses and just kind of looked around, and I personally had already kind of decided, once we had made that decision, to do that trip. He didn't know this, but I was already like I'm moving to Bend.

Speaker 1: 2:32:44

I had already told Jana. I was like no, I'm moving here. So I had already told Jana, I was like no, I'm moving here. So I had already started looking at houses personally and so, anyway, we started looking and we found a house and we ended up putting an offer in and we moved. A month later, like he moved down, I moved up and yeah, we never made it to Tahoe or to Santa Cruz. It was like Bend, was it? That was where it felt like home to both of us and felt good, and so we made our roots here. We both were still competing. I was actively competing, he was as well. So we both had kind of different schedules because he was doing a lot of like these crazy like eight-day cross-country races, he was doing a lot of those big endurance races and I was doing a lot of just you know, the downhill was kind of different, but we both just kind of based out of here and, yeah, I made this our home.

Speaker 3: 2:33:37

Are you guys still in the same house?

Speaker 1: 2:33:39

No, pretty close though. We're just around the corner, but yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:33:43

And you guys have a kiddo. We have a kiddo, he's 14 now. Parker.

Speaker 1: 2:33:47

He's great and yeah, guys have a kiddo, we have a kiddo. He's 14 now, yeah, parker, yeah, he's great, um, and yeah, I mean he's not he's. Everyone wants to be like, oh, is he gonna be this big mountain bike racer? And he's so completely opposite to both of us.

Speaker 3: 2:33:57

He's not and that's the beauty of having kids, man exactly.

Speaker 1: 2:34:00

Yeah, no, everybody was just like oh man, your guys's kid's gonna be this phenom athlete and he wants nothing. I mean he'll do it with us for fun. Right.

Speaker 1: 2:34:10

And he, you know, he, he still has a good time, he like he skis, actually and and he loves, you know, going, and actually this year has been the first year that he's actually shown excitement on his own. But, um, and he'll go biking, but it's not like, he's not like, you know, kicking down the door to do it, Dude my oldest son is so different than I am.

Speaker 3: 2:34:28

Isn't that weird? It's crazy, yeah, and it's, but what I mean? It's amazing, like I wouldn't have it any other way. You know, like what I've learned through him and what his interests are is, like you never, like it's just exposure to stuff that, yeah, like when it matters to someone that matters to you, like it's just, it's cool man. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:34:51

Like it's almost like you're. You're like my daughter and I share a lot of common interests so I get to like shred with her and skate the curb and you know but like and that's rad. But like part of me is like really happy that my oldest son does is into the things he's into.

Speaker 1: 2:35:07

What is he into?

Speaker 3: 2:35:09

He's a big swimmer, Like he's going to school next year to swim and um, he's getting into open water swim, which is yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:35:15

So we're going to Florida next month because he's in open water nationals and it's a 10 K race, so that's like that's a ways you know. So now that um, open water swim is, is I and I and I might be getting this wrong, but from my limited understanding and just being involved, like when sports kind of when the, when it's Olympic level, it has this trickle down effect, like right now. So now schools are starting to see more value in like offering open water swim because there's a pathway to like the goal right. I guess.

Speaker 3: 2:35:49

Olympic swimming being the goal or the pinnacle. But it's just a different strategy because you're not racing a cloud. It's like bike racing, right. So, now like if you can get in with a pack and strategize, there's enough time to where you can position and like you're not just racing, an objective time and it's a. It's really fun to watch.

Speaker 1: 2:36:11

Does that make sense? Yeah, that totally makes sense. How, how interesting, what made him get into that, like that's so.

Speaker 3: 2:36:17

I, I, it was just meant to be. That's how he was designed. Man Like my wife's dad was a big swimmer. Okay.

Speaker 3: 2:36:31

And uh actually has a story of he was. He got drafted in vietnam and and he had like a full ride to usc for swimming back in the 60s. And um went to vietnam, didn't go to school and got selected out of his platoon his infantry platoon of which, like many guys got killed to be the lifeguard because he was the most qualified in the area to be the lifeguard at the beach where guys would go for r&r. So he always accredits. So there's like this kind of family lineage on my wife's side of like just being strong in the water and holden just took to it when he was a little kid and my wife always she had, like I remember when she was pregnant with him she was like I have this sense he's going to be a swimmer and I fully believe that there's.

Speaker 3: 2:37:16

You know that, that, that you know like there's something there you know, and so it's been fun to just see him pursue those goals and and just the level you know. Like any sport right, it requires like a level of discipline that is just a. It's a really awesome opportunity for him to see the value of that at a young age and then see like there can be there not always is, but there can be a lot of. Not only there is internal growth, but like outternal reward as well, so like getting to swim in school and so yeah, it's rad.

Speaker 1: 2:37:51

And where does he like, where does he practice?

Speaker 3: 2:37:53

So he's been part of the Bend Swim Club for since he was a little well, not, he got a little bit of a late start with them. I think it was maybe late elementary school or early, maybe early middle school, and then he just kind of you know, I kind of always raise my kids, at least when they were younger, exposing them to the things that we enjoy doing, because it's time together and you're young and you don't really get a vote yet Right, and one of the values, as you know, of living where we do, is access to outdoor experience, and that looks like a lot of different things, depending on which two hours you drive from here.

Speaker 3: 2:38:32

You know it's insane. So just kind of, you know, my wife and I just tried to expose them to as much kind of that, of that and then let them, as they get older, kind of find what their interests are and just kind of approach it that way know, and that's the thing that's so like that in that.

Speaker 1: 2:38:49

Shep and I that's sort of our philosophy is that we're going to introduce him to it and we don't like force it necessarily because we don't want to like push him away from it, you know.

Speaker 1: 2:38:58

But yeah we introduce it and and and we definitely are not the people to like push it on him, because we don't want him to go the opposite, but we we're hoping that as he gets older he, you know, comes back to it, and I can kind of see that happening now, like even yesterday he was talking about like how excited he was to like ride his bike this summer and you know, stuff like that and I'm like, oh, and my husband was like nudging me, like, oh, my God, he's excited.

Speaker 1: 2:39:21

Do you hear him talking about it? And so we're like, yeah, okay, let's just be low key. Okay, cool buddy Like you know we don't want to push it on him in any way, but who knows?

Speaker 3: 2:39:29

Because, like I said, I didn't have parents that were like spoon feeding me any of these sports and you know look what and there's value in that, and that's what I guess that that's the point is trying to walk that line, you know, of like letting letting the passion develop for the reasons it will, but fostering the kind of seeing differently in the background to support that.

Speaker 3: 2:39:50

Yeah, and if they have the will, they'll do it Totally and the other thing is is like, like you know, holden used to be really good at skiing, like downhill Alpine, like you know, park skiing and stuff and when he got into swimming more he just it. It became it wasn't as important and he started doing it less and he's not that interested in skiing. But there's certain skill sets that you can develop as a kid you'll always be able to revert back to Totally.

Speaker 3: 2:40:19

And that was the other goal. Just make for well-rounded in this. Yeah yeah, being a parent's a whole other podcast man, it's a whole other.

Speaker 1: 2:40:27

I could talk to you for hours about that, for sure, but it's such. It's been the best experience being a parent and yeah, yeah, I just he's. He's such a different kid, but such an awesome kid there's so many times I step back and look at him and I'm just like, oh my god, like, yeah, you were so cool, how did you like? Just beyond anything in my comprehension of just like what his mind can come up with, it just blows me away.

Speaker 3: 2:40:53

Oh man, talk to me about getting that first storefront in Vanilla. I think that's where we were at before we deviated.

Speaker 1: 2:41:01

Yeah, okay, well, yeah, so you were moving.

Speaker 3: 2:41:04

You guys got a house in Bend. You were still racing.

Speaker 1: 2:41:07

Yeah, racing, doing a lot of just cool trips like that. We kind of became, you know, slowly, you know, a little bit of social media was starting to come about.

Speaker 3: 2:41:18

So, yeah that was a game changer.

Speaker 1: 2:41:21

Yeah. So then it was kind of like where you could sort of do a little bit more like promotion, promotion, marketing type stuff and not all just racing, um, but I'm still really enjoying racing. And um, we, yeah, we went on another trip up to whistler, this time totally different um, but went to whistler. But I went with the same the, the south africans onk and sven, and I drove up with them, um, and I had, I had gotten a dog here in Bend which was like putting my roots down. You know it adopted a dog and so, um, I drove up with them and brought my dog and was going to meet Shep. He was already up there doing, um, the BC bike race, like a big, big, yeah, tour stage race, and so I was going to meet him.

Speaker 3: 2:42:01

I've always wanted to do that.

Speaker 1: 2:42:03

Oh my god, you honestly, if you ever get a chance to to do it.

Speaker 3: 2:42:07

I did the high cascade a bunch of times and like I, I mean not to pot, but it's always been. Yeah, maybe I'll have to talk with him sometime about that.

Speaker 1: 2:42:17

You should. He's done it several years and the one thing he says about it is whether you're there to like race it or to just ride it.

Speaker 1: 2:42:24

It's worth it's just these trails are like some of them are trails you'd never, ever, ever get to tap into, and so, yeah, you would, yeah, blow your mind. Um, so, yeah, so he was up there for that and um, yeah, we went up there and we were just doing some practice for the downhill and Sven, who was also, you know, another racer, good friend of mine, and right in front of me he had a big crash and, um, it didn't look like anything, it was like seriously one of those like sometimes the worst crashes are like the silliest things he just put his wheel into a hole and most of the time

Speaker 1: 2:42:58

yeah, it was crazy, and he ended up getting having to get airlifted out of whistler and down to vancouver and had to have surgery on his neck and he broke his neck. And at that point in time, you know, I went down to Vancouver with Anka and, you know, stayed with her while Sam was in the hospital and, you know, listened to all the things the doctor told him about you know how he's lucky he's ever, you know, going to be able to walk and all this stuff and another kind of backing up. But another, uh, another good um, fierce competitor of mine, slash friend um, tara Giannis, who I'd competed with throughout my whole career. She had had an accident a couple months prior to that and ended up being paralyzed. And so it was kind of just those two, um, those two events sort of stacked on top of each other within a small amount of time, just really really like messed with me and one of them being right in front of my face, and it just really got me like thinking.

Speaker 1: 2:43:57

And so Anka and Sven had to stay back in Vancouver because Sven was not able to drive home, and so I drove their car back and the whole drive. They stayed for a couple weeks and the whole drive I was just like, man, what am I doing? What am I doing? Like, what am I doing with my life? Like, how you know, I'm getting close to my late 20s. How much longer can I do downhill, like, first of all, how much longer till I'm the next one that gets you know, has this big accident? I've already like cheated death once in snowboarding. But on top of it I was just like, what do I want to do? Like, what's that? Like what's my end game? And so I just started thinking about, started thinking about and I started thinking about, like, man, you know what I really really enjoy? I loved working in snowboarding, the clothing shop, I love working in Tangerine, and so I always had a dream that I wanted to have my own snowboard shop, and I didn't talk about this before.

Speaker 1: 2:44:49

But when I was in college, one of the things I took was small business and I had to do a business plan, and my business plan at the time was for a snowboard shop, like, and that was something that had always been a dream of mine. And so I yeah, I actually called Lee on the drive and I was just like, hey, like you know, I'm driving and I'm like I got this idea, like what do you think? Like I'm just thinking, like I kind of want to open a shop. And she was like, oh my God.

Speaker 4: 2:45:18

Yes.

Speaker 1: 2:45:18

Hundred percent. Like, yeah, you should do that. She's like do it Like you were made for that. And I was like, really, are you sure? And she's like, oh my gosh, don't even second guess yourself, you should 100 percent do it.

Speaker 1: 2:45:29

And you know, when we moved to Ben, I definitely was super excited because there was some really great shops, good clothing stores, downtown. But I definitely felt like there was a little bit of a hole there. There was, you know, at the time in Southern California, there was definitely like a big rise of a lot of like brands like Volcom and stuff were not just making sweatshirts and t-shirts, they were making these whole like curated lines of products, and I couldn't really find that here. So that was like one thing I felt like was missing. Um, but there definitely was a lot there.

Speaker 1: 2:46:09

I was very impressed with what was here, but I was like, you know, I kind of feel like if I could do it, I loved working at Tangerine, but it was never really my style necessarily. I'm like I loved the premium denim and, like you know, the fashion side, but I also really was very, very, you know, felt attached to like the whole surfskate, snowboard world, and so I'm like, what, if I could just like put them in a blender and mix them up and like do that. And so I wanted to make like a hybrid, and nowadays there's lots of those, but back then that this is we're talking 2005. There really wasn't a whole lot of that.

Speaker 1: 2:46:45

Like that really wasn't. You're either a snowboard shop or you were a boutique, like there wasn't like in between. And I was like, well, why can't there be like, why can't we just put the two worlds that I've now been exposed to and really like love and let's put them together? And so I told Lee that I was like, yeah, that's what I, you know I want to do. And she's like, yeah, I'll help you. Like, would you just tell me like what you want to do? She's like but first and foremost, you got to find a building. Location is everything. Like you got to find a location, I was like, okay, so I got back to Bend from the drive and I had three days.

Speaker 1: 2:47:15

Three days before I had to get on a plane and fly to the East Coast and be on the road for another month. And so I was like, well, shoot, it's August and okay. So I started making phone calls and calling all these different leasing agents and trying to figure out and I was like, okay, well, let's find a building. And nobody was calling me back, like people weren't really taking me serious. But there was a gal at Lowe's Commercial Properties, tara Donica, I remember her name and she called me back and she's like yeah, she's like. So tell me a little bit about she's like can you come down for a meeting today? And I was like yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 2:47:53

So. She calls me down to the old mill office, which was Bill Smith's office. I didn't know who Bill Smith was, right, um, and I didn't know what I was walking into. Like, I just thought I was going to like look at a space and they pull me into this conference room with this like big table and Bill Smith's just sitting there and he just is smiling at me and looking at me and he's just like him and all these people that work for him were just like so tell us, tell us about what you want to do. And I was just like oh, okay, I have to make a pitch. Like, okay, this is like a real deal. And so I didn't have a business plan to show them. I had basically nothing. I just had to like pitch them on this idea.

Speaker 1: 2:48:25

And Bill just like looked at me silent and kind of like had this funny look on his face and I was like, oh, this isn't going to go well. And then he just sat there, he didn't say anything. He just let me keep talking and talking. And then, finally, he pulls me over to the window and he's like come here, and he pulls me over and he looks at his window and he opens up and he's like, look out there. And he opens up and he's like, look out there. And he's like, do you like my offspray? And he just starts not talking about vanilla at all, he just starts talking about his offspray out the window and I'm like, yeah, that's beautiful. And he's like, isn't that beautiful?

Speaker 1: 2:48:54

Like he was showing me his birds and he was so proud of what this and I was like, yeah, this is amazing, like this is really cool. But I was also just like wait, so what's happening? Like I don't know. And he just like. He just looked at me and he smiled and he's like I like you. He's like let's do this. And I was like okay, and so anyway, he was just like, well, let's get a contract signed. He's like he had a gal that worked for Mary at the time and he's like Mary's gonna drop a contract and and let's get this going. Okay, I like this. He's let's go show you the space.

Speaker 1: 2:49:26

There was one space that was available and it was a brand new building that hadn't been built out yet, so it didn't have drywall or anything, it was just a they call it vanilla shell actually, and I didn't know what that meant vanilla shell. I thought that was kind of a funny word. But they're like yeah, it doesn't, you know, you can build it out the way you want. But they're like, yeah, it doesn't, you know, you can build it out the way you want. So, anyway, I went and checked out the space and I was just like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. It's this big, huge 2,500 square foot like space, but it was beautiful. I was like, oh my God, this is going to be so cool and I don't know. I guess I must've been crazy.

Speaker 1: 2:50:03

But I signed a contract and I didn't have a name for the business yet. And I didn't have a name for the business yet and I had to get on the road. Like for me it was just like all right, let's get this part done, because I got to go race. I got to go race my bike and they put I remember the lease said like the name of the lease was TBD. And they told me like, okay, well, we got it. You know, this is like a letter of intent preliminary contract, but once you get the name of the business we'll get the real thing. So they're like, if you can get the name, that'd be really great, let's get that dialed. So I flew over back to west virginia and was racing and my head was just all over the place.

Speaker 1: 2:50:36

I was just like thinking of like what brands I wanted to get and like all these things, like oh my god, I'm starting a store like this is this is so crazy but I was like so fun I so excited and every waking moment I'd go do my runs and I'd go back to my room and I'd write shit down and call people. And you know, I was just so excited and, um, I sent out a list of names to a bunch of friends and I emailed them because that was before, like a lot of like people didn't text as much then and I just said, hey guys, I'm starting a store. These are my list of names. You know what do you? You know what do you think? Send me back, girls and boys, like, send me back what you think. And I was really surprised that a bunch of people came up, like, came back with like oh, I like that vanilla name. And the reason why I had put vanilla on the list was because a they called that building vanilla and I thought a vanilla shell condition or whatever, and I thought that was so different. I didn't know.

Speaker 1: 2:51:27

But also there was used to be a snowboard clothing line that was attached to Joyride snowboards called Vanilla, and to me I was like and it had gone out of business, but I was like to me that resonated with like men and women and like I just kind of liked the name. So, but everybody liked it, no-transcript opening. And then I flew back and I kept racing. I went to go back and and and Mount snow again, and and then, yeah, season ended, came back and it was just like game on, getting everything, figuring it all out, getting the store built out. That was a crazy experience. I learned a lot that way. And then yeah, we opened up.

Speaker 3: 2:52:35

Did you have help from the beginning?

Speaker 1: 2:52:39

Yes and no Like. Yes, I had like.

Speaker 3: 2:52:42

That is a ton in a short amount of time.

Speaker 1: 2:52:44

It was like I had a friend of mine, jill Kittner. She's a racer also and she's always just been an incredible artist, so like she helped me like design my logo, which was really cool. Um, lee Lee was, you know, great that, like if I had questions, I'd call her and she'd be like oh, you know, you know she definitely was constantly having to, like, give me things to help me navigate with like getting my POS system and you know all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:53:07

Um, the buying I felt pretty confident about and I had a pretty clear vision on like what I wanted vanilla to be. But what was really hard was getting the brands like. I thought like I could just be like, well, I want to carry this brand and I could, but there was a lot of like red tape with all of that and and I remember specifically calling up the rep at the time that was the Volcom rep and I was just like you know and I grew up like friends with Wooly and you know, not friends with Wooly, but like I knew who Wooly was, but like Ryan, emigart and Donald and all those guys that were part of Volcom, like I went to school with them and so I was like, oh, I should be able to carry Volcom.

Speaker 1: 2:53:42

And I remember calling and the guy was just like yeah, no, I don't know who you are. He was just kind of like yeah, no, no, like you can't carry it, we have, we already have someone. And I was like okay, all right, well, I don't want to carry the stuff that like the skate shops carrying, like I want like the like fashion side of it. And he was just like no. And I was like, oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:54:02

And then I remember calling a couple more and I wasn't really getting anywhere and it was finally I'd called Mike Green, who's been in the industry forever and he was the billabong rep at the time billabong and element and I was talking to him and he was like wait, what's your name? And I was like my name is April and he's like April lawyer. And I was like, and he's like I remember you from snowboarding and he's like used to be a snowboarder. I was like, yeah, and he's like I remember you from snowboarding and he's like used to be a snowboarder. I was like, yeah, and that kind of like opened the door where he was kind of like, okay, let's do this. And so once he signed me on to carry those products, more brands came on board.

Speaker 1: 2:54:37

Because once you got like a big legacy, brand, then the other legacy brands were like oh, we want to be next to those brands. So that kind of opened the door. This day I still work with Mike, um, and, yeah, love him. He's a pain in my ass, but I love him and I very much owe that to him for doing that. And then, you know, other brands started coming on board after that, um, so yeah, yeah, that was kind of how that all happened.

Speaker 3: 2:54:57

So much to learn too, though.

Speaker 1: 2:55:00

Like what like that's a pretty big square foot building to like you know. Yeah, it was a lot to fill and it was very, very sparse in the beginning for sure. But in answer to your question, I did have help leading up to opening. My friends Anka and Sven ended up moving to Bend for a little while.

Speaker 1: 2:55:20

So they were there like cause we opened on Black Friday. You know they were there the days leading up and like helping me Yonka was really great with helping me merchandise she had worked at a shop before and Sven helped Shep, like you know, putting things on the walls and all that kind of stuff. And then the first few like bits of being open, my employees were all of my friends. That you know I knew pretty much like I had that you know I knew pretty much like I had. Anka was working there with me and then like Megan Horner, who is Chris Horner's wife, at the time she was racing, pro cycling, but she came in and was like working in the shop and it was just like this mismatch of all these like athletes that were like working in the shop with me, which was pretty cool and that was really, really fun.

Speaker 1: 2:56:02

And I remember like the first day we opened, you know, 20 minutes before we opened the door, I was just like OK, so this is how you do it. You start fitting rooms for people like I was explaining to them you know from my experience of working at Tangerine like OK, this is how a shop works. And they were just kind of like OK, and we just faked it till we made it. We just, you know, we opened the doors. Nobody really knew what vanilla was about and we didn't really like advertise it. We just sort of like open the doors and here we are yeah, your, your, your authenticity is your best advertisement.

Speaker 3: 2:56:33

I mean, that store resonated very quickly with a lot of people. I I feel from talking with you, knowing that store being in there many times over the years, but also just talking with you know, like, like Hannah for instance, um, you guys have a pretty loyal local customer base.

Speaker 1: 2:56:52

It seems like yeah, I am so fortunate that the community definitely um from you know, early, early on, definitely embraced what we were doing and I think they definitely saw. The value. Yeah, Like I think that in the beginning maybe people didn't understand it, but I think soon enough they were kind of like wow, this is cool, it's different, unique and people definitely embraced it, I was grateful for that for sure, and so many people over the years have.

Speaker 3: 2:57:22

I told my son today we were recording this and I'm like I'm recording an episode with the owner of vanilla. He's like that's my favorite store no yeah totally because he's like he's, like he's got, he's that, like he's beachy kid, like it resonates with him in there, you know.

Speaker 1: 2:57:39

I love that. Yeah, it's rad well, and I think that, coming from Southern California, it's like you know, there's always the stigma of like California, you know whatever, but it's like it is. It is a lifestyle, you know, in some respects and I get that a lot of times when people walk in the doors are like, oh, this door is kind of it's cool. It kind of has like a Cal community that you would feel kind of the same essence in.

Speaker 3: 2:58:00

Southern California. Yeah, you know, like it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's authentic and it's definitely played like a role in like the culture and community here for people that gravitate towards that stuff. A hundred percent. Thank you. So you guys that first store next to the Red Shack, down on the end. That was the original. That was the original, and you were there up from 2005 till this last year.

Speaker 1: 2:58:32

Yeah, so we were there for 17 years. 17 years. Yeah, we were there for 17 years and we originally started a little bit of a smaller footprint and we expanded it. Okay.

Speaker 1: 2:58:44

And I'm trying to remember what year that was, but we expanded it a couple of times into a bigger space, but that's still the original space is where we started, Um, and we definitely kind of outgrew. Like in the beginning it was like, how are we actually going to fill this space? And then, like you know, within a few years it was like, oh my gosh, we need more space.

Speaker 3: 2:59:02

That's a good problem to have. Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe.

Speaker 1: 2:59:05

Sometimes, yeah. If I had to go back, I would have built it out completely different, with, like, more storage and different stuff like that. But you know, in the beginning I didn't, I had no idea what I was doing and yeah, I definitely had to learn some things the hard way, for sure.

Speaker 3: 2:59:21

So this is a long one, but it's good, because you can't not complete this story, in my opinion, without now hearing from Hannah, who's your manager and your friend and employee for 13 years. Yeah, yeah, that's a long time.

Speaker 3: 2:59:37

It's such a long time Like so. Yeah, she had a cool story about how your guys' paths was crossed and I thought we could listen to this. And then uh, yeah, I mean the goal of this is just to learn the story behind you and Vanilla, and I think, I think, that this is a big part of that.

Speaker 6: 2:59:57

I moved to Bend in 2012 from Colorado. Um, I had just graduated college with um art degree, so, not really knowing what I wanted to do with that degree, I knew that I just needed to find a job. I randomly stumbled upon vanilla. I didn't even really know what kind of store it was, let alone that it was the most popular retail store in Bend. But, you know, just moving there I had no idea.

Speaker 6: 3:00:30

I dropped off my resume and, you know, right away I met Apes and she took me outside and we had an interview and just talking to Apes was like I had known her forever. Just right away I had this immediate connection with her. So, yeah, I got the job. And after my first, you know, real work day, I came home and my boyfriend now husband, you know just asked how my day went and I just raved about it, saying how much I loved all the girls that I work with and how awesome my boss is, and I said, yeah, you know, I guess she used to be a professional mountain biker or something. And my husband, who grew up in Draynor, colorado, you know, knows the mountain bike world pretty well. He goes Wait, know what's her name? I'm like it's april and like I don't know her last name, he's like uh, april lawyer.

Speaker 6: 3:01:34

I'm like yeah, yeah, I think that's it big time he's like, okay, no way, I need to call my mom right now and have her send me something. Turns out he has an April lawyer poster signed that says to Marsh love April, stay rad, or something silly like that, from when he was 10 years old watching April at a race in Durango. So total, full circle crazy moment. And now we have April's poster hanging in our garage. Most important thing I feel like about Apes is, you know, to this day, she prioritizes the well-being of her employees and she's definitely created like a forever family with all employees that work for her and I think that shows in the community and it's, you know, I think, important being a small business and just having like a tight knit little family that you know runs vanilla and it's just pretty cool to see her create that. I mean we're thriving.

Speaker 6: 3:02:46

You know, I think making that move to the new shop was super beneficial to us. I mean, the old mill is, you know, constantly evolving and I think being the hub of the old mill and just being the center now is is huge for us. That move for us was was huge. And you know, I think, no matter what we have, our community loves vanilla and will always support us. But I think making that move which was, you know it was scary for sure, and you know that was a huge, huge undertaking and but I think that really helped us a and you know that was a huge, huge undertaking and but I think that really helped us a lot. You know we get more foot traffic and these new stores that are popping up I think is beneficial to us and and I think you know just being local is is huge for us as well. You know people in the community and tourists want to support local.

Speaker 6: 3:03:46

So anyone that walks into Vanilla and meets April leaves loving April and she just goes above and beyond to make sure, you know, each customer gets the best experience when they come into Vanilla. Customer service is her number one priority and everyone that has met Apes and worked with her will 100% stand by that. And you know, I think what makes Vanellas so special too is she tries to accommodate, you know, the whole family. So you know we got grandma, mom, dad, kids, babies, you know, and if someone comes in and we don't have what she's looking, you know what they're looking for. You know she'll, she'll go in the back and she'll start digging through boxes and knowing like, oh, I have what they're looking for, you know, and yeah, so my name is Hannah Morona and I've been with April for 13 years. I'm her current manager and you know, I think it's very fitting that you're doing this podcast with her, since Vanilla turns 20 this year, which is crazy.

Speaker 6: 3:04:57

It's such a huge milestone and I'm just so proud of Apes and everything she has accomplished and done for our community. She is, without a doubt, the most hardworking, dedicated boss. She pours her heart and soul into Vanilla and I'm just honored to be her wingman for so many years. You know, I think just doing this little segment has been not only a reflection for me but, you know, just jotting down notes and reflecting on Apes and my 13 years with her and her impact on my life, and I hope her doing this podcast will be a reflection for her as well. And it's pretty cool what you know she's accomplished and built for our community and I'm just super proud of her. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 3:05:54

Wow, Mic drop, you could have had just Hannah here telling the story. That was impressive. I'm not surprised, though you can probably tell from talking to her. She's just a really genuine human and so passionate about everything she does. And well, that was. That was beautiful and also.

Speaker 3: 3:06:15

I think a lot. I think it shares that. I think people will have a good sense of the brand vanilla after this conversation.

Speaker 1: 3:06:24

I, yeah, I hope so. I mean, you know it's funny starting the brand. When I first started, um, I was really funny about it. I was still racing. So what helped me start Vanilla was that I didn't, um, I didn't have a lot of money to start Vanilla and I put it all in a credit card in the beginning. But I had put my house on the market. I was like, okay, I'm going to sell my house and the house didn't sell and it didn't sell better your house in Big Bear.

Speaker 1: 3:06:54

No, my house in California actually.

Speaker 3: 3:06:56

Oh gotcha.

Speaker 1: 3:06:57

I had decided that I was never going back. Everyone when I moved, they were like you should save your house, you're going to come back, and I was like no, I'm not coming back anyway. I finally decided to sell it. And it wasn't selling and the market was kind of getting crazy and I'd put everything kind of all in on the credit card, hoping that this was all gonna work out. And it, you know it did. But I didn't.

Speaker 1: 3:07:17

At the beginning, um, I I didn't really know like much about what I was doing. But one thing I did know is that I still had to keep racing because I needed to fund Vanilla. So I had I was lucky that I was still in a contract. I still had contracts for a couple more, you know, for a year and a half more, and so I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna kind of I didn't really have a plan, but I was gonna run Vanilla and I was still gonna keep racing.

Speaker 1: 3:07:44

And that was a really stupid plan because that was a lot. But I didn't really at the beginning advertise a lot that like this store vanilla was attached to this app. You know, I think a couple people had kind of called on it, but I didn't really advertise it because I really it was really important to me that vanilla stood on its own as a cool store, like I wanted people to enjoy what I curated and not like it because it was attached to whatever notoriety I had at that time yeah and so I was kind of funny about that, like I didn't really like, you know, even employees would be like, well, you should tell people that like you do this, like this would be really good.

Speaker 1: 3:08:22

And I, I was really just didn't want to do that because I wanted to like prove to myself that I had created a store that could stand on its own and not on that. And so you know, that kind of over the years has kind of evolved in in different ways. But I don't talk about that a whole lot, you know, because it's it's such a different life and and yeah, so hearing that story from Hannah about when you know she came, and that that was so funny because I remember coming back and being like you didn't tell me, like you know, and I was just like it's not, like I'm gonna tell you that you know, that kind of thing. But that's definitely a a reoccurring conversation, I think, over the years.

Speaker 3: 3:09:01

So well, I, I, I respect you a lot. It's very noble to prove to yourself and for that to be your intent. And then it also like from from a fan of the store for it just being the store and not attached to all that. Because I was a fan of the store before I knew you, mountain biked and remember you from snowboarding and and but I never I you did a good job at keeping it separate. But the more that I learned about you, the more I appreciate Vanell even more, because now I know kind of the story of the person who, like you, know it. Just it completes it. It's cool, I don't know. I hope that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 3:09:42

Yeah, I mean it definitely makes sense and I think that again, I mean I do feel like I've said multiple times, my goal with the store from the beginning was for people to enjoy it because of, you know, what we had curated, but also the authenticity of of what we, what we were all about, and I didn't want it to be this like flashy, like oh, this is, you know, this girl who races mountain bikes and now, you know, I wanted it to be its own thing and I wanted it was like you, I want, I wanted to plant the seed, but I wanted the seed to be its own unique thing and and and I feel like that did definitely happen and, and.

Speaker 3: 3:10:22

I'm proud of that. Yeah, happen and and yeah, and it was cured.

Speaker 1: 3:10:32

Yeah, you should be proud because it was curated with all the things that you learned along the way to get there.

Speaker 1: 3:10:35

You know that's what I see, yeah, so thank you, yeah, um, but Hannah, I mean honestly, like I could say this a million times. But you know, hannah, along with a handful of so many really rad people, are why I continued to go, because just over the years, I've just had the opportunity to work with these like really, you know, unique cast of characters, as I like to call them, and just so many, so many fun people. And and again, just so many times referencing Tom and you know just how he, you know, wasn't just a guy who ran a bike shop and promoted bike races. Like Tom, was this like entity in himself that, like you know, exuded this, you know, special bond, and I so much wanted to have that and create something that where, you know, the people who came to work didn't just feel like they were clocking in and clocking out, they felt like they were part of something, and that's been my goal from the beginning, for sure.

Speaker 3: 3:11:31

I think that's a good spot to end it, because you've done it.

Speaker 1: 3:11:34

Yeah, no, for sure, and I'm very grateful for it. So thank, you for giving me this opportunity to talk about it.

Speaker 3: 3:11:41

Yeah, man, this was awesome. Thanks for giving me so much of your day.

Speaker 1: 3:11:46

Ah, this is a dream. It gave me a day off too, like that's nothing better than that Sorry, I feel shitty.

Speaker 3: 3:11:52

Oh, I feel so bad for you. You're a trooper, don't feel bad. I sound way worse than I feel it. Just sorry, everybody listening.

Speaker 1: 3:12:00

He's a trooper.

Speaker 3: 3:12:01

Yeah, Um thanks April.

Speaker 1: 3:12:04

Thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 3:12:05

Yeah, this was super fun.

Speaker 1: 3:12:06

I'm super grateful. I want you to know that for sure, cause this was you know again, and Hannah said that I told her I was nervous and she's like I think when this is all done, you're going to be really grateful. You did this Like this is a good little timestamp and you know it really has. There's like just so many little stories that you know I had kind of.

Speaker 3: 3:12:32

I don't want to say I've forgotten about but I kind of had forgotten about parts of it. Well, think about it we just ended a three hour and 24 minute podcast with the story that started 20 years ago in November. So, like there, there, this is a lot of this is dusting off memories, but I think, uh, what I appreciate, again from an outsider's perspective, is, you know, there's something that time, the legacy that only time can create with a brand, and like 20 years of saying something in retail, considering what we went through during COVID and what we're going through now and the economy, and, like you know, it's, it's the hustle is real and and, like you know, with that there's just more meaning in what the hustle is for and like, as time goes by, it adds legacy and then learning, just like I've already said, it, it's just, it's, it's a really, really cool story. I'm excited for people to hear it and, yeah, I'll probably see you in vanilla, if not sooner, buying something, yeah, for someone in my family.

Speaker 3: 3:13:32

Oh my gosh, I hope so, I need a new pair of Vans, so maybe I'll come in.

Speaker 1: 3:13:37

I want you to, I want to do a podcast on you. Can we flip the switch and like, can I ask you, I want to hear more about your story, because you have such a cool story in yourself and I would love to hear more about that.

Speaker 3: 3:13:49

Shoot.

Speaker 1: 3:13:50

Okay, so tell me what made you decide to do orthopedics.

Speaker 3: 3:13:53

Well, you kind of told me a little bit about orthopedics, but yeah, I try to, like, I try to I don't know like I try to share a little bit about myself with people in a way that doesn't distract, that adds to, doesn't take away from a conversation. But I think that that's part of developing, like you know. I mean I would put these out there in the world just to do it, because it holds me accountable to a level of something that I think I want to work towards. But I don't really pay attention to how many people listen to it. I have a rough idea, but that's really not why I do it. But I also know that, like I work with Ben magazine and part of what we I mean there's parts of this that are like not why I do it, but part of doing it. That I'm trying to embrace more and being more open about my personal life I guess is part of that. So I try to sprinkle that in with other little stories here and there, that kind of parallel what we're talking with people.

Speaker 1: 3:14:51

But but yeah, man, you got me for a minute. Yeah, a long minute. Thank you so much. But yeah, you are the same. You're very humble and it speaks volumes for you as well.

Speaker 3: 3:15:03

Well, thank you, yeah, I think. Yeah, no, it's fun, it's. I like this, um, I think there's something to it on a community level, you know, because part of part of why I started doing this when I started podcasting was kind of like, uh, who's your audience, you know? Well, I don't know, let's do, just know no one was doing local podcasting. That's interesting and then it gives you kind of a broad like there's all sorts of people that live here and it's people in addition to a lot of things that make Central Oregon special, and talking with people that are either new to Bend or been here forever, but like you just get a sense of why Ben's Bend, and I think it's a fun kind of community resource and I've learned a ton.

Speaker 1: 3:15:56

And so listening to your podcast has made me definitely even more proud to be here, and you know just again the cast of characters that are here, and there's just so many that I had no idea about so thank you for bringing these stories to people, because it's made me just be even more, you know grateful to be be here and be part of it. It's like a melting pot of really, really awesome people so yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:16:24

happy 20 year thank you, um, I appreciate it. I also brought something for you for your wife actually. Oh, that's even better, man I apologize if it's not the right size she can come in.

Speaker 3: 3:16:37

That's so nice of you I got some vanilla merch for oh, man, for you to give your, my daughter might fight her for it. Well, and that's totally fine too. Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:16:47

A hoodie dude. Yeah. Oh she's going to be hyped. Yes and again. If she wants to swap the size, just tell her to come on in.

Speaker 3: 3:16:57

Thank you. That's super sweet of you. Yeah, thank you, and it's a fun tote bag.

Speaker 1: 3:17:02

Yeah, you know, it took us 20 years to make them.

Speaker 3: 3:17:04

but here we are. Yeah, man, eventually, I'm telling you, I think you need to do a reissue.

Speaker 1: 3:17:09

The Maven edition.

Speaker 3: 3:17:10

The Maven edition, totally yeah, yeah. I mean imagine some of your friends getting that showing up in the mail. They'd make their day.

Speaker 1: 3:17:19

I actually came across an old Maven sweatshirt in the closet the other day and I was just like oh my God, yeah, the memories, yeah, it's so funny. Yeah, it's good times.

Speaker 3: 3:17:28

All right friend. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 3:17:35

Yeah, super fun. I'll remember. After work Mama would call in all of us. You could hear us singing for a country mile. Now little brother has done, gone on. I'll rejoin him in a song.

Speaker 3: 3:17:54

Hey, thanks for listening to Ben Magazine's the Circling Podcast. Make sure to visit benmagazinecom and learn about all the outdoor adventures in our area, as well as upcoming featured community events, other local profiles, our dining guide and more. Remember to enter promo code podcast at checkout for your $5 annual subscription. Our theme song was written by Carl Perkins and performed by Aaron Colbaker and Aaron Zerflu of the Aarons. I'd like to say a special thank you to Tom Lee and Hannah. This episode wouldn't be the same without your contribution and I appreciate your trust. Make sure to visit Vanilla in the Old Mill District or follow them at Vanilla Bin to experience this inspiring story firsthand. Stick around after the show credits to hear one last story from April and her contribution to our community art project that explores art embedded with meaning. Lastly, if you know someone who you think would enjoy today's episode, please share it with them today. Hey, thanks for your time. Central Oregon Get outside, we'll see you out there. And remember the health of time. Centauri Get outside, we'll see you out there.

Speaker 1: 3:19:14

And remember the health of our community relies on us. And he was like dude. He's like you were a stunt woman. Put that mic back in front of you.

Speaker 3: 3:19:18

This can be bonus content. It can be for the editing content.

Speaker 1: 3:19:22

But I was like, oh wait, I totally I just thought of it and I was like I never did talk about that. My husband literally told me to write it down so I wouldn't forget.

Speaker 3: 3:19:30

And I forgot. Ok, first, before I forget, talk about what you wrote on the art project and why.

Speaker 1: 3:19:38

Well, we have a little saying around vanilla, and it's been for many, many years because you know, you just never know what you're going to get in the world, and especially in the world of retail. And so we often question ourselves and be like was that weird or is that weird? And so we just started saying, you know, it's only weird if you make it weird, and that's kind of been our motto or our slogan and it kind of just transcends, uh, that you know what it's, it's okay to be weird and and just embrace the weirdness. I think that's pretty awesome.

Speaker 3: 3:20:14

I love it All. Right Now, bonus content, because you we don't want to not have this on record. Plus, I think you told Shep you would tell the story.

Speaker 1: 3:20:25

Oh geez.

Speaker 3: 3:20:26

So I'll give it to you.

Speaker 1: 3:20:28

Okay, how do I go into that though?

Speaker 3: 3:20:38

Well, you just told me you not only raced downhill for a living, you were also a bicycle stunt person for a living. Okay, so is that a fair intro? It was a fair intro.

Speaker 1: 3:20:43

Yes, and somehow along the way, while I was racing bikes, I had a friend reach out that used to race bikes also Kathy Schlesler, the one who got me on Maxxis and she was just telling me hey, I just got a job and I'm doing stunts for this TV show it's called Pacific Blue, which is basically like Baywatch, but on bikes. And she and another racer that had been retired in St Wayne, crowsdale were hired to be the stunt people for the production and they needed some more people. They just hired a new actress and they needed some more people. So she told me to come down for the cattle call tryouts and there was all these stunt people that showed up and anyway, they were all probably amazing stunt people but they didn't know how to ride bikes. And here I am, show up and I've got my bike and you know whatever, and had to do some stunts.

Speaker 1: 3:21:40

And anyway, long story short, I got hired on as a stunt person for that show and it was really, really fun. I got to film some episodes and pretend I was the actress that I was stunting for and she was a well-endowed like. It was actually really funny because I used to. I got to wear a stunt bra. So I got to be like a double D for the first time in my life. That was interesting trying to ride a bike like that.

Speaker 3: 3:22:09

Yeah, because the premise of the show was like coastal bike cops.

Speaker 1: 3:22:14

Yeah, they were down in Santa Monica. Yeah, they were down in Santa Monica.

Speaker 3: 3:22:17

So like riding a bike was a regular part of the show.

Speaker 1: 3:22:20

Oh yeah, they were bike cops, and so there's chase scenes. We'd have to like, you know, wheelies and do funny things and jump off of picnic tables and you know all these things. And it was so fun. Yeah, and the funny thing about it was these bikes were like that we had to ride, were like awful, that had, like you know, all the gear on it that bike cops would have. So they'd want us to do these things with these heavy, like really crappy bikes but rigid bikes.

Speaker 1: 3:22:47

Yeah, and it was a really fun experience. Um, sadly, the gal that they had hired me to um stunt for ended up getting pregnant and so she got written off the show. So my role at that point I just was, like, called in when they needed an extra person, so I didn't get to do it for a whole lot of time, but I did definitely get residuals for quite a while. It was a good little- that's cool.

Speaker 1: 3:23:08

It was a good little pop, but what was really great about it is I ended up getting a SAG card out of it and SAG had a really great insurance program.

Speaker 3: 3:23:17

Screen Actors Guild.

Speaker 1: 3:23:18

Screen Actors Guild and they would. If you had a certain amount of out of you, you'd get your SAG card as long as you had a certain amount of um working points or jobs and you could get free health insurance through it.

Speaker 1: 3:23:30

And so at that point in time with racing, I had to have health insurance and I was kind of on my own. So it was like for me, I did it for the health insurance Um, cause it was a really good health insurance program, and so I kept it up. I ended up getting card made up and an agent and I actually went and did. I did it like a Nike commercial, I did like a cigarette commercial. I just ended up doing like random stuff that was like related to like bikes, because it helped me keep my side card for a few years, and I got to got to do yeah Stunts. It was pretty fun.

Speaker 3: 3:24:04

Another story in the chapters.

Speaker 1: 3:24:06

So many stories yeah anyway, I promised my husband I'd tell that story I'm glad you did. He thought it was funny, but anyway yeah, I mean it's, it's insane so good times all right everybody night night.