What’s going on, Sierra? Pleasure to have you. How has life been treating you?
Life’s Good! I’ve been living in Mammoth for the season, but
can’t say I’m not missing good waves and Board n Brew in Socal!
You had a pretty successful 2016 season, Winning the National title and consistently landing on the podium at the USASA National Championships @ Copper. Tell us a little on how those events went,
from your perspective?
Nationals was once again a great event! In years past when I
was only riding part-time on weekends, Halfpipe was the only event that I
medaled in. However, I took this last season off from school and rode full
time, which allowed me to really improve my riding and be able to snag a podium
in every event. Halfpipe was a fun event as always, though I had a little
trouble with my mental game and fell on my first run, forcing me to play it
safe on my last run and settle for Second place. Slopestyle had some pretty
insane weather, making the jump line almost impossible to clear, so I was
stoked with a Second place in that as well. As far as BoarderCross and racing
go, I hadn’t competed in those since the Nationals a year before, so medaling
in those events was pretty special as well.
You are also a full-time college student at
UCSD. That’s got to be quite the
Balancing act being a full-time snowboard competitor and staying on top of your
studies. How are you able to juggle it?
It’s definitely a struggle! Trying to snowboard full time
makes graduating on time difficult, especially with the end goal of going to
Medical School. But I try to take a full course load in the summer to try to
make up for lost time, and spend some time in the winters shadowing at Mammoth
Hospital to get some hours in.
Sounds like your making it work! Thats rad! You’re also a very good surfer and are a part of
the UCSD Surf team. Is that a good
cross-training tool for snowboarding?
Ehhh sort of! Surfing doesn’t feel much like snowboarding to
me (except for powder days), and the primary muscle groups are pretty different,
so I usually show up for winter with a built upper body and struggle to make
the legs catch up haha. But they both keep the body strong and keep things fun.
SoCal sure has its perks when it comes to action
sports. Snowboard one day, surf the next. Tell us a little about how growing up in
Sunny SoCal influenced your snowboarding career.
Well my dad used to live in Mammoth so I grew up spending
quite a bit of time there, but my senior year of high school I decided to try
out for the Mammoth team on a whim. Before
I joined the team, I had never gone in a park or hit the pipe before, so making
the concerted effort to go up every weekend and train was a whole new thing for
me. I can’t say that people down south understand the lifestyle too much, but growing
up in a community of surfers surrounds you with a cool attitude toward action
sports and life.
Favorite local grub spot in your hometown and your go-to order?
Board n Brew. Turkado. If you know you know.
Right on, Sierra! Thank you! Anyone you would
like to thank before you go?
I’d like to thank my parents for
supporting my snowboarding, the awesome Mammoth team coaches Ben and Nacho for
doing all they can for me (shouts to Nacho for being the best emotional support
tortilla), and of course Monster Army for the amazing athlete support! Thanks
guys!!
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