“When I found out I was pregnant, my snowboard lifestyle came to mind right away,” says the former World Extreme Freeride Champion and snow pro Vera Janssen. “My first thought was relief that I would still get some powder days that season.” Vera, like me and many of the other mothers I spoke to, found it tricky to imagine a winter without snowboarding.

Countless studies have shown that keeping active leads to a healthier pregnancy outcome for both mothers and their babies, but the medical advice on snowboarding while pregnant can be conflicting. Carmela Fleury, now a yogi and life coach, who snowboarded at a national level in her youth, was told not to ride while pregnant. She says: “The doctor thought it wouldn’t be prudent and instead he suggested I cross country ski. I had no idea what I was doing and fell over and bruised a couple of ribs. So, let’s just say I wasn’t as ‘prudent’ for baby number two.”

“We’re here to raise the bar, we’re not just here to raise our kids”

“In my early twenties, I remember seeing a very pregnant Shannon Dunn riding and I found that very inspiring. I followed my intuition much more with baby number two regardless of the judgment of others.”

That ‘judgement’ from others came up a lot. Burton rider Kimmy Fasani posted several shots of herself riding while pregnant on Instagram. The majority of the comments were super-positive along the lines of: “Rock it awesome momma!” with the odd: “What is the model of your snowboard?” standard shopping query thrown in. But from time to time someone would ask: “What if you fall on your bump?”. And fair play to Kimmy she always replied politely explaining that snowboarding was as natural as walking to her and she didn’t plan on falling over. She told me: “People loved to make comments but the most important thing I’ve learned is to listen to your body. Since I’m very comfortable on my snowboard, I made sure to go to the mountain when it wasn’t crowded and picked easier terrain than I would normally ride.”

For me the whole ‘happy mum, happy kid’ mindset became even more important once my children were born. I did feel guilty leaving them with a random resort childminder in those early years and I did wince massively at the cost of it all but, in many ways, I’ve also needed snowboarding more than ever since becoming a parent.

When my eldest son was two and a half and the youngest six months old the hard work to fun ratio was weighted heavily towards the thankless graft end of the spectrum. I was struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so we booked a snowboard trip to Morzine with friends, took an expensive hit on the childcare and rode powder all week. I came back a different person, spirits high, ability to cope with everything restored, and I don’t doubt I was better a parent that year as a result.

“I felt as if I’d lost a limb”

A lot of the women I spoke to felt similar things after they became mothers. Yogi and health coach Sian Leigh told me she persuaded her parents to fly over from NZ to look after her daughter as she was “dying to snowboard, I felt as if I’d lost a limb”. While Helen Lavender, who does the PR for Jenny Jones’s workshops, says: “It was super important to get out riding after I had my first baby. It felt really good to be doing something for myself and something which I did in my life before being a mum. Especially as it felt like such a huge life change.”

But there’s no doubt snowboarding, travel and just generally life is more expensive once you’ve had kids. All the women I spoke to mentioned cost and how it’s affected their ability to go snowboarding to varying degrees. Everyone goes less frequently, some go on trips without their kids, while some no longer go at all. Former pro Gilly Seagrave questioned whether it’s worth the money taking them when they’re young. She says: “I don’t want to take her out there until she can make the most of being on the hill, I don’t want to spend loads of money to sit in a cafe on the nursery slope with her making snowmen…” A completely fair point.

Since having kids I’ve definitely had fewer trips to the mountains and less time up the hill when I’m there but as was the case with that powder week in Morzine, those snowboard trips have become even more special. Dutch snowboard legend Cheryl Maas, who has two girls, told me she felt the same. She says: “Now I’ve been a parent for a while snowboarding has become more important. You realise how much time kids actually take when you can do something by yourself on your own for a bit, and you realise how much you love it.”

I sometimes feel that the world is less comfortable with mums doing action sports such as snowboarding, than they are with dads, who often still get applauded just for doing a school run. I ask Cheryl if she feels the same? “I sometimes feel like society looks at me with a crooked eye. ‘Why are you taking the risks you do or why are you away from your kids so much?’ but we all live a different life and I’m doing the best I can with what I have. And I like to show them what in my eyes living is about.”

“Do what you love, end of story. Be happy. Life is too short to live on other people’s terms”

Yet Cheryl wasn’t the only mum to tell me she takes less risks now she’s a parent. She wants to be an active hands-on mother and doesn’t want to risk that by damaging her body and jeopardising that. Sian Leigh has also reassessed the risks she’s willing to take. She says: “Sadly I am a great big fanny now. When there’s heaps of snow I am terrified of avalanches. I just don’t want the kids to lose their mum in a preventable accident.”

I’m completely the same when there is lots of snow about. I’ve never been much of a park hound, but Erin Comstock did make me laugh saying that her riding hasn’t changed much since having kids. She told me about a time when she took her neighbour and son out to give them a snowboard lesson but told them she just needed a couple of laps in the park first “as I was trying to get my front 7 back…”.

Being a mum can be so all-consuming, especially in those early years, where it’s hard to remember where your kids end and you begin. Society projects that absolute and total maternal devotion on a loop, but for me that’s when the passions you have outside of that bubble become even more important for your head and sense of self.

That’s why it’s great to share these stories and get them out there, as Kimmy Fasani says: “I believe the more women who share their stories of being active, the more we can shift society’s view of what moms are “expected” to do, versus what we are capable of doing.”

For me, this is where social media wins over all that came before, because mums can now write themselves into snowboarding’s story and remind the world and ourselves that we’re here to raise the bar, we’re not just here to raise our kids.

You May Also Like

Radical Gains | How GB Park and Pipe Charted the Course to Olympic Glory

Making The Most Of The ‘Beast From The East’ | We Went Snowboarding In Northern Ireland