Ms. Superpark 2011 @ Keystone

Ms. Superpark happens once a year when the top 50 female riders from around the world are invited to a private photoshoot hosted by Snowboarder Magazine, Gatorade, and Keystone resort, so when I received an invite for the first time this year, I was ecstatic. I traveled to Breckenridge to meet up with the founder of Akinz, Suzanne, and stay at our friend Avrans house. The drive took about 7 hours, with minimal bad road conditions, I arrived with daylight left still. I was so excited to see what the next day had in store, I could hardly sleep.
When I woke the next morning early, the sun was out, the air was crisp, and it was time to shred. We drove the short 20 minutes over to Keystone Resort to meet Pat Bridges to check in and get credentials. After checking in we went right over to the course, and it was the most insane thing I have ever seen. With huge features with big consequences everywhere I was slightly nervous. But determined to not let my nerves get the best of me, I stepped right up to the triple jump line. My first run through I just barely cased on the knuckle of the second jump and tweaked my knee. Frustrated, I shook it off and started sizing up the channel gaps. The course was too crazy to put into words, and pictures can barely do it justice.

I rode hard from 9 to 4pm, and was tired and ready to go home and put some ice on my knee. The next two days were supposed to be bad weather, and when we woke the next morning, we were aware the forecasters were right. As I stood up to get ready my knee gave out and then stiffened up. Slightly alarmed I decided to take the day off and go get it checked out at the doctors. Three and a half hours later, I left knowing I had severely strained my LCL, and I shouldn't snowboard on it anymore according to the doctor, but that wasn't going to happen.

I went back to Avrans house and religiously iced my knee for the remainder of the evening. The next morning it had snowed quite a bit more, and we took our time getting up to Keystone. When I got the the Superpark scene it was impossible to hit any of the jump features so most of the girls were hitting the hip, or hitting rails. I cruised around and did a little bit of both, I had a ton of fun goofing around and watching everyone play in the snow.

The following morning the sun was out and inviting everyone to come play in its' rays. We were on the mountain by 9am and I had already hit everything and was warmed up by 10am. I introduced myself to a couple of the photographers and asked them to take pictures including; Laura Austin and Chris Garrison, without their help I would not have gotten any shots at all! Thank you two! I ended up with about 5 really good shots and I was pleased. I rode hard all day again and didn't leave till around 4:30pm. The very last session of Ms. Superpark was incredibly fun, and it was so amazing to see so many talented female riders who were all there supporting one another. I also had the pleasure of meeting and riding with riders who I personally look up to.
The day after the Ms. Superpark ended my friend Kumara invited me to come up to Keystone with her and a couple of other girls including; Izzy, Michelle, Channelle, and Kjersti to have a private shoot in the park while the course was still up.  Between the talent, the attitudes, the weather, and the crew of girls, I had the best time snowboarding and even stomped some Cab 720s finally!
The experience of Ms. Superpark is one of the most out of this world things I have ever done. I can't wait to see where women's snowboarding goes, and I hope to be part of that progression. Thanks to SNOWBOARDER MAG, KEYSTONE, AND GATORADE for hosting a great event.
A special thanks to Pat Bridges for inviting me to participate, I look forward to next year!