Maria Thomsen

It was hard to nail Maria down for this interview. We had to maneuver around her work, life and daycare schedules to find the time. Again, she made it work. I wanted to explore where her drive and toughness come from, but she has this way of oversimplifying everything. When asked about the challenges of the snowboard industry, she laughed and replied, “I’m just not a person with strong opinions. I only want to have fun, and do good boarding.”

Maria’s a genuine and kind person who wants to live a simple life, work in her garden, and do tricks that others couldn’t dream up. She’s changing the narrative of what it means to be woman, mother, and snowboarder.

Jess Kimura: Where were you born?

Maria Thomsen: In a town called Esbjerg, in Denmark. It’s an old fishing town but there’s not much going on there anymore. My mom and dad still live there in the same house I grew up in. My mom is a nurse and my dad is an oil rigger. He manages a rig, I think. He’s working in Africa right now.

Where do you live these days?

In Pemberton, BC, just north of Whistler. I first came to Whistler in 2008. I was 19 years old. Three of my friends were doing a season there. I took two weeks off school to come visit them, just to try snowboarding.

Had you skateboarded or surfed or anything?

No. I played handball.

How did you like snowboarding at first?

At first I hated it. I didn’t hate it, but I was hurting everywhere. I went back home and finished business school. Then I went on a holiday with my girlfriends to this Greek and Turkish island. When all my friends were going home, I was like, I don’t have anything to go home to, I’m gonna stay here. I got a job at a nightclub. It was kind of sketchy. I was selling tickets for people to go to this after- party club, and I ended up making so much money. I was going to go to Whistler with that money, but I came home. I got sidetracked and decided to go to dancing college.

Had you danced your whole life?

I had never danced. I had gotten this DVD at some point, learning how to break dance. I got rid of my bed in my room because I was really set on learning how to break dance.

Did you learn how to dance?

I learned a few ballet moves, but nothing great. On this one trip to New York I had to do this modern performance in front of a school in Harlem—we did a performance for them, they did one for us, and they were kicking ass.

Some of the girls in my class were really talented dancers, but modern dance wasn’t for me, so I went back to Whistler. I was 21. I got a one-year working visa and went straight to the park. My friends kept sending me off jumps—I was this guinea pig and clown. You know the people who go off the jumps, full beginners, and they hardcore knuckle? All my friends would laugh and I was like, “I’m so cool.” I thought I was so good. I got a bunch of comments like, “Wow, you’re progressing so fast,” and that sparked a fire. I was like, “Yeah, I can learn this. I wanna do this.”

Were you looking for something to excel at, like when you were at the dance school?

I think so. I needed a passion. But I blew my knee the first season overshooting the last jump in the Whistler park. My insurance paid for me to fly home and have surgery. I had surgery in October and was back in Whistler by January. I was trying to be smart about snowboarding again, but probably not really. I broke my wrist that winter then broke my tailbone and went home again that summer to recover. Then, I went to Austria in the fall and broke my elbow really, really bad, and had surgery in Austria. Still, I went back to Whistler three months later.

Were you getting good enough at snowboarding to have sponsors?

I did a few years of slopestyle, and went to the Danish championships in Norway and I won that . I got on the Danish national team and they wanted to send me to the Olympics, but I wasn’t that into it. Then I had some ankle problems, had surgery on that, and that kind of threw me off. I didn’t jump anymore, for a while.

How did you get into riding street stuff?

Samuel was really into filming street.

You met Samuel in Whistler, and he became your boyfriend...

We were riding the park together, but suddenly he became obsessed with wanting to film a street part. We were on a trip in Tahoe and he said, “We should buy a bungee. We should film down here.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, let’s do it.”

How’d it go?

So bad. We went to this up-rail and I had never tried a bungee before. I couldn’t figure it out, I kept flying off the ground. I got so mad at him.

What made you try it again?

The year after, me, Samuel and my friend Cynthia went to Montreal in February.

Was Tao around at that time?

No, he was made on that trip. We weren’t planning on having babies, but...

You found out you were pregnant—what’s your first thought?

I was freaking out. I wasn’t ready at all, but I also loved Samuel. He was young, but he was like, “Whatever you choose, baby, I’ll support you.”

You kept filming that year?

I filmed in Kelowna on mellow spots, but at this one school I strapped in and was like, “Oh my god, I’m so sick.” I had to run behind the school, I was puking. I went back to strap in, and then had to run over and puke again.

Did all your friends or the film crew know you were pregnant?

No. I wasn’t far along. I wasn’t even showing. I had just found about it and was kind of freaking out.

Did you tell your parents?

Yeah. I had good talks with my mom, debating what to do. I was 26 at the time and felt really young, but I also knew that if I was going to bring a kid into the world, I would love him or her. I knew that I was going to be a mom at some point; I just wasn’t planning on it at the time.

At 26 in different cultures, or times, you already would have four kids. But to us that’s like, “No, I’m not ready. I got shit I wanna do.”

I still feel like that. I’m 32 and I’m like, “I’ll have more kids one day—not in the next seven years. I need to snowboard more.”

The first time I saw you, I was on the chairlift. You were doing a back three off a jump and someone said, “She’s pregnant,” and I was like, “What?” They said, “She says she only does safe tricks, like front boards.” You were riding with no hesitation. Was there stuff where you backed off?

Definitely. I didn’t try to learn new tricks. I just wanted to be out there snowboarding. It made me happy.

Were you worried things were going to change drastically once your baby was born?

Yes. I remember people saying, “You’re not going to snowboard any- more, ha-ha-ha.” I got pissed off. I was like, “I’m going to show you.”

Snowboarding is such a big part of my life, so there was no question. I’m not going to stop snowboarding because I have a kid. I’m going to introduce him to all the stuff that I love too.

When was Tao born?

September 25, 2014. I’d probably plan it the same way if I had another kid. It was perfect. I wasn’t too pregnant all winter—I was really pregnant all summer and then he came out in the fall. You get a few months there with the baby where you’re home and breastfeeding, and then you can snowboard.

When did you start boarding again?

November. I knew that I wanted to be active so I pumped milk the whole time. I had milk stored away in the freezer for people to help me. I was so stoked to be snowboarding. Previously I’d been able to snowboard every single day, but then I had to plan it out. I felt so free when I’d go.

You didn’t feel guilty?

No. I’m a human too, and I’m allowed to do what I want.

Some moms feel like they lose their identity when they have a kid. They have this guilt that stops them from doing stuff.

It’s called “mom guilt,” and it is a real thing. When I was in Quebec this year, it was the longest I’ve ever been away from Tao and was feeling guilty, especially on days where I was blowing it.

That first year, I went to Quebec for a week. Samuel was there too, and he would watch Tao. Samuel came out a few times and filmed with Tao in a little basket. He was about 5 months old. It was so cold, but I would sit there with my milk and pump. You run out of milk if you don’t pump.

This whole time, what was your plan with snowboarding? When I first started talking to you in 2016, I could see how talented you were, but you couldn’t verbalize your goals. Did you have any sponsors?

I’ve always been sponsored by GNU. I used to be sponsored by West- beach, and they put me in contact with Barrett , and Barrett was like, “Yeah, I can send you a free board.” I was trying to film, but not putting much effort into being sponsored. I’ve never been good at that whole side of snowboarding.

The business side—keeping in contact with your team managers, or even knowing what your team managers want from you. You’re kind of oblivious to that side of snowboarding.

Totally. It’s never been on my mind either. I never thought, “I can make money off pro snowboarding.” I was more like, “Whoa, I get a free snowboard? That’s sweet!”

I asked you to film a part for The Uninvited in 2018 and things kind of picked up around then. That was right after I had been completely fucked out of a video part in something I had filmed for. I was pissed off about the way girls were just getting shafted, so when I saw you at the premiere I was like, “Should we make a movie?”

Yeah, and I felt really good with my snowboarding at that time. I went on a trip to Kelowna. We went to this down-flat-down and I was trying to gap it and blew my knee again. I was devastated, depressed.

What’s it like trying to raise a child while you’re feeling depressed?

It was tough. Samuel and I had just split up too. It felt like I had way too much on my plate. And snowboarding is one of those things, when I don’t have it, I go a bit bananas. The breakup was really hard on me, and then the knee, and at the same time thought I had bone cancer—they’d found a tumor in my hip bone. I had MRIs done in Vancouver and I was waiting for the results, and there were more tumors in some of my other bones. I was like, “Am I going to die now?” The tumors ended up being a rare disease I have called melorheostosis. I develop tumors in some of my bones sometimes. Then have to go in and slice them off.

You blew your knee and Darrah also got hurt, and in a big way I felt that I had made the project for you two, because I was sick of trying to give you advice when the advice was going to go nowhere. So, I decided to make The Uninvited a two-year project. You came back your second year without an ACL.

I was so scared that I was going to blow it again right away, so I took it mellow. I went to a few spots and I was like, “No, too hard impact; no, that’s too high.”

That’s good you were smart about it. How did you feel when your part played, and you saw people ripping their eyeballs out and screaming your name?

I was so overwhelmed. I don’t like to be the center of attention. Thank god I was drinking a bottle of tequila.

That part won the Transworld Women’s Part of the Year. Then you were asked to film for X Games Real Snow. That’s the first time in history they’ve asked a girl to film for it. Although you’ve basically made it to the top, you were still having trouble getting the support you needed to do these things. Was that frustrating?

Yeah, I was a little bit bummed, but I also didn’t want to be. I still just love to snowboard, and I just do it—I don’t do it for money. Just because I succeed in one thing doesn’t mean that I’m going to think that I’m the shit. Nothing really changed that much.

One day, you’re going to look back and think, “Damn, what were those people thinking, I was a gold mine.” And you are a gold mine. It’s not just the fact that you are a mom, but that you are a mom and you ride. And you’re not just participating, you’re pushing the entire field.

Yeah, I feel like what’s driving me more is pushing the sport. Support is good, and I was thinking about it for the X Games, too. It was literally a one-man show. It was me and Dave , my filmer. If I had had a bigger budget, it could’ve been a lot easier than it was. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done.

You only hit spots with natural speed because you didn’t have someone to pull the bungee or run the winch. How far into filming were you when you fractured your hip?

The first week. I only had one shot, which we never even used.

You know that all the guys are out there filming every single day with their crews and helpers and everything, and you’re sitting at home with no money and a fractured hip wondering how you’re going to pull this off.

In between Christmas and New Year’s, I got a call from Katherine from X Games and they asked me if I wanted to pull out because they have a TV show to make and I didn’t have any shots yet. I thought I was going to do a rehab part and it would be like, first girl to be invited to X Games and she falls and hurts herself, and then she’s doing rehab and maybe getting one more shot in there. I had a big limp and was on crutches and they asked me if I wanted to pull out. Me and my friends were laughing, and I was like, “I’m never pulling out.” It became this joke.

How long did you have to film once you started riding again?

Three weeks.

Your part got a good response from people that didn’t even know you had gotten hurt.

I was so scared. I don’t usually think about what people think. I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish it. I had never felt that pressure before. I felt like, because I was the only girl that had been invited, I wanted to make women look good, not like, “Oh she fell, broke her hip, and she can’t snowboard.” I didn’t want to look like a kook. I’m glad I finished it.

X Games came out, then you ended up going to Ms. Superpark and It’s Tits. I watched you go from being a rail rider to learning how to ride everything else by hiking more than anyone else in the world.

You learn stuff when you hike. I love hiking and I’ll just keep doing it till I get the trick. Hiking pays off.

You still work a full-time job?

I work as a server at the Pony, a restaurant in Pemberton.

Do you make any money off snowboarding?

Barely. I could work two shifts a month at the Pony and that would be my snowboard salary. I’m not a pro snowboarder.

But you should be, you’re better than everyone else. You’re an innovator, you’re beyond just some pro snowboarder. I don’t know how you do it financially, honestly.