In an exclusive article for Tignes Spirit, recent Brits Big Air Golden Girl KATIE BLUNDELL chats about her current endeavours with Lyndsey Ashdown for Heel Edge Projects... and we were lucky enough to get her words in writing!!
"Fellow female shredders, Lynsey Ashdown and Helen Fox, came up with the brilliant idea of 'Heel Edge Projects'. A chance for any UK female riders to finally have the opportunity to shine. Snowboarding is such a male dominated sport that female shredders are sometimes left unnoticed. There are so many amazing girl riders out there that really deserve a chance to show off their skills.
"Heel Edge Projects is collecting footage from UK female snowboarders to make into an all girls snowboard movie to be released this autumn. They are asking for any snowboard footage,whether it be from the back country, park, street, snow domes, dry slopes or even jibs built in your back garden! The more unusual the better! They want to gather footage from wherever you are in the world and make it into an awesome snowboard flick to show the world what us girls are made of!!!
"Lynsey and Helen started off the season in Mayrhofen, Austia. They rounded up the UK shredettes and put together a teaser filmed in the Penken Park.
"Whilst Helen stayed in Mayrhofen to continue the filming, Lynsey moved onto America....Northstar at Tahoe. This is where me and Lynsey crossed paths! We were in Tahoe for 3months and hooked up with lynsey and her gang of 9 boys (poor Lynsey!!). As the only 2 girls,we ended up riding together quite a $bit. Riding with Lynsey really made my time in Tahoe so much better as she is an amazing rider and very inspiring to ride with! Lynsey and the rest of the crew are really into street riding and let me and my boyfriend tag along with them. There are so many street jibs you can do in Tahoe and its just a shame that we had to leave before we could do them all.
"We did some of the filming together whilst I was there, and Lynsey put together a little edit of our time at northstar.
"Lynsey is still in Tahoe now, gathering lots more innovative footage im sure. Im always excited to see what this girl comes up with next!
"I have also heard that a couple of the big names like Jenny Jones, Claire frost and Aimee Fuller are also keen to get involved, which will be so good as they are the inspiration for UK female snowboarders. One of our greatest female talents is 3 times xgames champion Jenny Jones. She has definitely been my role model ever since I started snowboarding!
"I feel that Heel Edge projects could not only be a good opportunity for female snowboarders,but maybe even a turning point for the female snowboard scene,showing the boys and the world that we can do cool stuff too! This project has definitely been pushing me to do some more creative, different stuff,as well as getting me into filming a lot more. Although definitely not a natural at the old follow cam!! I feel that most of all,this project has given me some really good friends and enabled me to get to know a lot more female snowboarders. It makes such a change to ride with girls in the park and has pushed and motivated me so much.
"After a quick tour around Europe after America, including a visit to The Brits, I am now back in Tignes and it is really good to be back! A bit of celebrating has been done since the Brits which has meant not too much snowboarding, but I am now keen to get stuck back in and try to get some more footage together for the last part of the season. Anyone that would like to join me is more than welcome, although don't expect any good follow cam shots!!
"We're really keen for anyone to get involved so please email any footage you may have to [email protected] and you can join the Heel Edge Project group on Facebook. Also, check out the blog on the Document website.
"Happy shredding!!"
