For the 50th episode of Live it Up with Mountain Life, host Feet Banks connects with Sandy Ward (Kelkeláokik)—snowboarder, mountain biker, filmmaker, guide to be, and a trailblazer at helping Indigenous youth reconnect to the land and their culture through sport.
With a big movie about to premiere at Crankworx Whistler’s Dirt Diaries contest, Sandy discusses the hectic pace of being a quadruple-threat talent, her award-winning film Slides on the Mountain, her work with the next generation, and how she’s still learning to sometimes rein things in after a two-decade career in the mountains.
A few excerpts from Sandy’s conversation with Feet Banks:
On Competitions
It’s not about the results. It’s about the community that is there and gaining new friendships. It feels like one of the nice things as the number of women and women-driven events has risen in these sports—it helps take a little bit of the ego out of the sports. It’s bit of a dick-slinging contest and, you know, that can lead to not always great things. I think a really good example is the Sturdy Dirty—I was telling my boyfriend about my experience down there last night, where all these people are dressed in pickle onesies.
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PHOTO: MATTHEW BRUHNS
And we also made these bracelets at the other station and he’s like, “Are you there to race your bike or just to go and do crafts and have fun?” I’m like, “Kind of both.” And that’s the huge difference between women’s Enduro contests and a regular Enduro contest.
ML: Has it always been easy for you to remember why you started doing these things in the first place?
SW: I think it’s always been easy for me to remember why I love snowboarding, why I love biking. I see a lot of people who go for their instructor certifications and get jobs and then just stop doing it for personal fun. They just do it as work but that’s never been an issue for me.
PHOTO: MATTHEW BRUHNS
Managing Trolls
ML: A lot of women athletes have challenges because the internet’s full of anonymous pricks. Do you get gross messages or shitty comments?
SW: I try not to sexualize the sport in any way so I feel like that protects me from those comments. I don’t go into the comments section if I know I’ve done a podcast or something that is maybe a little bit… not confrontational, but that somebody could take the wrong way. I did go into the comment section once and it was a really dark place. But I did see a lot of people commenting back in support of what I was saying. So that was my cue to be like, “All right, comment section, not for me. Never read the comments.” … Just this morning, I went into the comment section of something that was a little controversial and it was gnarly, the racism and the hate in there. I was just like, “All right, that’s not how I wanna spend my morning.”
Being a Pro
When I was coming up as a halfpipe snowboarder, it was always like, “Who was sending it the biggest and who was the gnarliest out there?”
And now it’s kind of shifted to, “Who’s doing good for community?” And it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be the most sendy person. It’s what else you’re doing. And I think brands are starting to focus on athletes who are well-rounded and not just big senders. And I guess that’s one of the benefits of social media—that makes a better story.
Check out the full conversation here.
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