|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
Queen of the Board Everywhere you look in the world of snowboarding, Tina Basich rules. She designs her own boards, co-founded Boarding for Breast Cancer, and even inspired a character in a video game. Here's a closer look at snowboarding's reigning queen. By Wendy Roberts
The Wide World of Boarding GearGoddess: You go to Alaska boarding every year. I take it you do some really steep stuff there? Basich: It's a pretty scary trip. It's a lot of knowledge of the mountains, plus being comfortable on your equipment and being completely dialed in. If my mom were sitting on top of a mountain there, she'd be overwhelmed by the view, let along flying down the mountain. GearGoddess: There's an extreme edge to sports today, people being filmed doing amazing things. The media eats it up and publicizes it. Can it suck people into doing more than they're ready for? Or do you think that it turns people off, especially women, who get the idea that something like snowboarding is extreme and not something they can do? Basich: I think the extreme image of the sport may be the attractive part. If women see the X Games, even if they are not going to do that themselves, in a way they are a part of it and can say, "Yeah, I snowboard," when somebody asks. That's something to be proud of. But I think sometimes professional snowboarders do make it look too easy so that people try to step right up to extreme things. That's the wrong way to approach the sport, because it takes a lot of years and a lot of practice to get to the level of extreme air. So I hope that people take it for what it is, as inspiration, instead of "Oh, I can do that too." GearGoddess: When it comes to getting big air on a board, how much of that is technical skill, and how much of it is in your head? Basich: For me it's 50-50. And you don't realize that it's 50-50 until your head's not into it; then you realize how hard it is. I had an injury last year where I broke my leg, and yesterday was the first time that I hit a big jump and did that trick again. So it was a year later. I'm sure my ankle healed long ago, but it took me that long to get back. GearGoddess: Any thoughts on where women are headed in the sport? Basich: There's a bunch of women lined up to push it to the next level with freestyle. I think the gap between men and women just makes the women work harder. If we were right there, we might not take it to the next level, if we didn't have to. So we're definitely pushing toward closing the gap, and we're motivated. Extracurricular Activities GearGoddess: Do you find that travel is hard on relationships? Basich: I still can't figure out which boyfriend I would see more: the one that lived in my hometown or the one who does the same thing I do. Either you're on the road and it's nice to come home to somebody, or you're on the road where you need the support and you need them there then. I don't know which is going to work. I don't have a boyfriend at this moment. I'm focused on my snowboarding. I don't know; I'm kind of over boys at the moment. They all suck. [Laughs.] GearGoddess: You've got your own board at Sims. Does that feature your artwork for graphics? Basich: Yes, I do a painting every year for the graphics for the Star board. It's really fun. GearGoddess: Is Sims coming out next year with more women-specific boards? Basich: Yeah. We've started a whole new line called the Collection that's a line of women's boards for the aggressive rider. Tara Dakides and I designed the line and the graphics. It will be three boards [coming out for the 2000-2001 season]. GearGoddess: You design clothes, too? Basich: Yes, I design the Sims clothes. I first did the Prom line, from 1994. That was Shannon Dunn's and my first big push with a women's clothing line. We did pastels and went really overboard on girly stuff to make a point; it worked. Then we left that company and started Tuesday Clothing, which was not so many pastels, but women-specific in fit, form, and function -- really good stuff. Then that company went under. Now I design clothes for Sims -- women's and men's clothes. GearGoddess: You also contributed to making a video game, the X Games Pro Boarder. Basich: I'm a character in that game, which is so weird -- to see yourself animated. GearGoddess: Well, that's certainly one modern form of immortality. Basich: Yes, I can do 900s now! It's cool; I don't have to beat myself up. By Women, for Women GearGoddess: How did you get involved with Boarding for Breast Cancer, or is it fairer to say you're one of the founders? Basich: I was one of about five girls who co-founded it because we lost a girlfriend of ours who was our age to breast cancer. This year was our fifth year, at Sierra at Tahoe. We've raised lots of money and hopefully raised lots of awareness. Everybody comes out, listens to music, snowboards, and gets together for a good cause. GearGoddess: What do you mean when you say raising awareness? Basich: Passing out information, and we have Breast Cancer Foundation booths that have information and fake boobs to feel. You know, feel for lumps and everything. GearGoddess: Let's say you're talking to a young woman who loves to ride and has your poster on her wall. She's looking up to that lifestyle and wants to figure out how to ride as much as possible. What would you suggest she do? Basich: A great thing for someone who lives near a mountain is to get a season pass and ride as much as possible. The way people get good at snowboarding is they go many days in a winter. You're not going to get better by going on your two trips a winter for 14 years. If you get 50 days in every winter, you're going to be advancing. If you're bustin' tricks at a park, there's probably someone at that mountain who lives there and who's a professional snowboarder. They know the rep, who can hook you up with a board, and then you get noticed by the company, and all of a sudden the company is calling you. Contests are also a great place to show off and get noticed. GearGoddess: Do you think the snowboard industry makes enough women's products? Basich: I see so much support from every company. Even if some companies only have one female rider or one women's board in their line, if it's a smaller company, that's what they do. But everybody definitely feels like they need to have their token woman on the team. I've felt nothing but support from all the companies. Burton has tons of women's boards, and Sims does also. GearGoddess: How do you manage to maintain your sense of adventure as you get older? Basich: I definitely pick my days so I don't get burnt-out. I could easily see myself getting burnt-out if I snowboarded every day in the winter. So I snowboard a couple of days, and then I'll do artwork, paint, and hang out with friends. Then it will snow again, and I'll be on for another five days, and then I'll rest and go visit my family or whatever. I don't fill up my whole winter with just snowboarding. I know I have a view of the long run and know that I'll be snowboarding year-round and know that I want to do this for a long time. So I take calculated risks and try to make it last as long as possible. GearGoddess: What do you picture yourself doing when you're 75? Basich: Seventy-five? Kickin' it! Definitely kicking back. I won't be snowboarding; I'll be watching the flowers grow on my front porch. Wendy Roberts has a Ph.D. in ecology. She lives and snowboards in Montana.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
