Cheryl Maas has come on super strong in the department of women’s snowboarding. Cheryl is 0% marketing and 100% results. No marketing necessary cuz her riding does the marketing for her. We sat down with her during a wind and snowstorm at the Roxy Chicken Jam to see what is up with the baddest female snowboarder from the Netherlands. She talks about snowboarding and people going nuts in Holland, all the girls snowboarders and more. From my perspective she was super cool. I had never met her before, only shot photos at events. I just walked up to her at Mammoth and said “hey can I interview you for Snowboard Revolution” and she said sure. She was not in a hurry and just answered all my questions, nice, patient and made me feel like she would talk about anything which was great since I was a total stranger
Contest Results:
TTR 05/06 Champion
2007 Roxy Chicken Jam, Austria – 1st
2008 Vans Tahoe Cup, slopestyle – 1st
2008 Vans Tahoe Cup, railjam – 3rd
2008 US Open – Big Air – 1st
Just a few of many, she has a slew of top 5 finishes through the years
Age: 23
Sponsors: Nitro, Volcom, Electric, Nixon, Vans, Celtic
Hometown: Udin “a small town in Holland”
Lives in: Biarritz, France
SR: How do you get to a point in snowboarding where you are?
CM: I don’t know, I have not been training that much in summer or anything. I was just really motivated this season to do well. I have just been riding a lot; the last two weeks in Tahoe with the Norwegian guys and they gave me some tips on the tricks I could do and made them a lot easier, more consitency. I guess that helps (laughter) besides that I have just been riding and having fun with it.
SR: Seems like having fun is the theme to people doing well this year, the more fun they have, the better they do
CM: Yea, if the pressure is on it makes it a lot harder
SR: What has been your favorite moment for the 07/08 season?
CM: I think winning the US Open was really cool. I got the overall so I got a Volvo; I never had that before. The Vans Cup was my first US winning so that was really nice
- Switch board 270 out - say that three times real fast
SR: That brings up one of the questions on my list, what are you going to do with the Volvo you won? (laughter)
CM: I am trying to get it to Europe so I can drive. If that’s not possible, I don’t know what they will do. I want to have it in Europe. For sure I want to have the car and drive it casue it looks really fun
SR: It seems like they could just give you one from Europe?
CM: Yea, they come from Europe
SR: You drive it here (to Mammoth)
CM: No
SR: Is there a group of people yo travel around to snowboard with?
CM: The Roxy crew; at a lot of the contests I am hanging with them and when I am not riding in contests I am just travelling with my photographer from Volcom, riding with a lot of the guys that I know, filming for Yea so hanging with the Yea crew
SR: Who do you like riding with?
CM: Lisa Wiik (sitting right there making fun of her), The Roxy girls, I was riding with Thomas Harstad last week; it was really fun because he taught me a lot, Stine Brun Kjeldaas, my brother when I see him but I hardly ever see him. A lot of people, I like to ride with everybody that’s into riding
- Cheryl on top of a podium is a familiar site. Here she is with Molly Aguirre and Desiree Melancolin at the Tahoe Cup rail jam in 2008
SR: Top 5 riders
CM: Mr Haakanson
SR: He is good enough you call him mister
(laughter)
CM: Meester Haakanson, yes. Gigi Ruff and Nicolas Mueller, I like their style. Torah Bright is riding at such a high level in the pipe and technical; it’s really cool to see. A lot of females back in the day; Tara Dakides, Stine Brun and so on
SR: Favorite tricks
CM: Backside 5 tailgrab and I just learned backside 7 with tailgrab, so that as well
SR: First trick of the day?
CM: I don’t know and ollie (laughs)
SR: Ok, here is what I want to know. You are from Holland, is there even a resort in Holland or just the plastic slope things?
CM: In my town we had the plastic slopes, that’s how I learned. Started skiing there and then snowboarding. There were little plastic jumps, that’s how I learned my tricks in the beginning. Then there were new developments in the indoor snow parks for the young kids to do jumps, rails and stuff. I learned mostly on the plastic and then I started travelling to Austria and Switzerland
SR: Do you think living not in the mountains growing up makes you more motivated and appreciates the snow more?
CM: I definitely think so because when I was home I was going crazy to ride the perfect pipe or park because we did’nt have any! As soon as I got to park or pipe I wanted to try as much as I could because eof the limited time I had to learn something. I guess with the mountain in the backyard, you can get lazy. You are there all the time and you want to do stuff if you live there.
SR: Does learning on plastic teach you good board control?
CM: I say it kind of makes you tough because when you fall…
SR:…you either break something or survive
CM: (laughs) yea
- man it sucks I don’t have any photos of her doing big airs like switch back 7’s and stuff cuz she can do big air.. Here Vans Cup Slopestyle 2008
SR: Do you prefer Europe or US?
CM: I really like the snowparks in the US, there is so much more and bigger stuff. I think the weather is somehow more stable over here than Europe. In Europe you have steeper mountains and really tiny resorts that are cozy and I like that as well
SR: Is it safe to say you like the atmosphere and freeriding in Europe but you like the parks and consistency in the US?
CM: Yea
SR: What about socially?
CM: Socially, It’s hard, it’s quite different, the culture, the Americans compared to the Europeans. Here everybody is like oh how are you doing and I always wonder do they really mean how am I doing or is just the thing to say, you know. In europe you don’t do that until you really know someone.
SR: That explain why when people from the US go to Europe they think everyone is mean (laughter) when they are really not mean. They just don’t talk insincerelly
CM: Yea
SR: Here everyone is all cheefull and like How are you doing and walk away, the expected answer is good
CM: Yea. The lift guys say Hows it going every chair I don’t know how they do it.
SR: In europe there is no..
CM: Yea, they are just doing their jobs
SR: So Amsterdam has a reputation as a party town, getting crazy, smoking weed and stuff, is all of Holland like that?
CM: Oh no, only Amsterdam! You can get weed anywhere but as far as the red light district…only Amsterdam. I think more toursists smoke weed in Amsterdam than the Dutch people do, it’s legal for us, it’s not that big of a deal. I think when the tourists come over they go crazy, they fly there and have a crazy weekend
SR: Sounds like Vegas; people go there and go crazy but if you live there you may never go to the strip?
CM: Yea
SR: So is Holland Liberal or conservative outside of Amsterdam?
CM: People are mellow, it is very open minded. It is no problem, whatever you think and whatever you say.
SR: Do you think it is more open minded than here (USA)
CM: Oh hell yea! Some areas are different though, like in Califonia people are more open minded but then you go to like Texas and it is not so open
- What? A pipe shot and a switch mikalchuk - I think
SR: How tough is a Visa for the US for a pro snowboarder from Europe?
CM: I never got one. Every time I fly to the US I am scared of getting stuck in customs and they treat me like a criminal like “what are you coming here for” I will say to snowboard and they are like “Why?!” and I just say it is my job. There are big mountains here and parks and they are like really. Every time I am on the plane for 12 hours I am stressed just get through the border in 5 minutes. When you go to Europe they just pretty much say come on in. So far they just check my bag, I don’t twant to get in any trouble.
SR: Are contests easy or a challenge for you?
CM: It’s hard to work with the pressure. A lot of times I get my runs down in practice and as soon as the finals are on I get nervous and it gets harder to ride.
SR: Do you feel like girls enter contests more than guys for the money aspect, since guys get more vide parts and stuff?
CM: Nah, I don’t think girls enter contests just for the money. I think it is the thing to do. There’s not that many that film but compared to how big the girls could be; there’s only 2 film crews and some film with guys but the rest ride for themselves and the other thing to do is contests. They don’t get the easy access to photographers…I think they like to come, it’s not that competitive.
SR: Like hanging out with your friends?
CM: Yea
SR: Any film projects for you?
CM: I am fiming for Yea productions again, that’s in Europe and I am trying to get a couple of shots in Runway
SR: How is that going?
CM: So, so it’s been a slow season with snow so I did not get to shoot that much in the beginning. I got 2 or 3 shots, I hope they’re good enough. At the end of the season I am going to Norway to try to film more
SR: Plus you travel to all the contests and stuff so it’s hard to get time to film?
CM: Yea, the contests interfer with it
- right after winning the Tahoe Cup slopestyle - 2008
SR: You have an I-pod?
CM: I do have an I-pod
SR: What are you listening to?
CM: I don’t know the names but the songs from Afterbang and Afterlame. I listen to all kinds of music, nothing specific like hip-hop or punk, I listen to all of it.
SR: Summer plans?
CM: Surf a lot in Biarritz and try to go on a holiday with some surfing
SR: So Cal, when you visit Vans
CM: No probably not, I am not going to come in summer. I wish I had time a week ago to surf