It’s not every day you meet a snowboarder from Ireland, so when Her.ie got the chance to chat to Orla Doolin, a freestyle snowboarder for Burton Snowboards from Co. Westmeath, we jumped at the offer.
The 28-year-old, who formerly worked as a biostatistician for Glasgow University, is currently based in Pemberton, British Columbia in Canada and talks to Her.ie about life on a snowboard, coming into the sport “late” and what lies ahead for her in 2015.
“I only started snowboarding when I was 21, a little late to the game,” she explained, adding that she started competing in 2011.
“I’ve never had a lesson or a coach. It’s an individual sport, in the sense no one’s going to hold your hand as you drop in, but at its heart, it’s all about riding with your friends and learning from each other.
“I was an Irish dancer from as young as I can remember, so my mum is still having a hard time wrapping her mind around what I do right now! But there are days when I’m snowboarding, and I literally feel on top of the world, nothing else makes me that happy.”
Orla snowboarding. (Pic via James North)
“The adrenaline after doing something on your snowboard that scares the hell out of you is like nothing else. I have made the most beautiful friends from around the world, all of us sharing the same passion, and I’m so grateful to snowboarding for that!
“It all started while spending a winter season down in Queenstown, New Zealand. I got hooked on park/freestyle riding before I could probably link my turns down the mountain.
“I just thought it looked so cool and fun, and I threw myself right into it. I’ll never forget stuffing pillows down my snowboard pants to soften the blow from all the bails I was taking!” she laughed.
“On taking up a new job in Glasgow in 2010, I started going to the indoor snowboard dome there twice a week just as a hobby and a way to meet new people, and I’d also ride up in the highlands during the winter.
“A year or so later, I started competing around the UK indoor snowdomes. After winning the Burton Indoor UK Rail tour as a total outsider rookie, the lovely guys at Burton Snowboards offered me my first sponsorship deal on their UK team and I haven’t looked back ever since.
“In the summer of 2012, I left my full-time job to spend a couple of years following my dream. My favourite competition to win was my first big event in NZ at the Queenstown Invitational Railjam in 2012.”
Orla enjoying the slopes. (Pic: James North)
“I went to the same event in 2007 as a spectator, back when I was just learning how to snowboard, and I remember being so blown away with the riders there hitting the crazy looking street style setups, so that was a special one to go back and win.
“Last year, my biggest win was the US and Canada overall Transworld Snowboarding rail riding competition. It was also a huge honour for me to be invited to Miss Superpark 2014 – the first ever Irish snowboarder to go – which was held in Mammoth Mountain, where some of the world’s best female snowboarders ride together for four days for one big photoshoot with US-based Snowboarder Magazine.
“I was also part of a Burton and Whitelines Magazine trip to New York last spring which turned out to be amazing event in some bleak snow conditions.
“That’s what I love, snowboarding with friends and working hard to film technical tricks with good style, as I never started snowboarding to compete. My dream would be to take part in a snowboarding movie, and to keep involved with snowboarding magazine photo shoots which are always the most fun.
“This year, there are talks of more big mountain powder trips around Canada and the States which I’m really looking forward to as it will take me a little out of my comfort zone of rail railing.”
Orla is based in Canada. (Pic: Ian McIntyre)
“I came to British Columbia, Canada last spring initially for just a couple of weeks, as it’s the only mountain to offer park riding as late as May. Summer rolled in quick, and it was just too beautiful to leave, so we eventually decided to stay on for the winter.
“I intend to spend this winter season here and then who knows what will come about after that. Over the past few years, I have mapped out my trips for six months at a time, but now as I get older, my plans are changing in the type of snowboarding I want to do and in the type of career I see myself in for the next stage of my life.
“This year, there’s a lot of new things I want to get involved with here in Canada – learning to sled and I also want to film more street riding, which definitely has added risks compared to riding groomed parks on the mountain.
“While I am still a freestyle team rider with Burton Snowboards, I am not competing as much, give or take one or two here are there. I was competing in some slopestyle, but always my love has been for rail riding.
“Canada is a lot more expensive to live in compared to America, so this winter I worked a couple of days as a snowboard guide and in marketing for a local snowboard company but every other day, I’m on the hill until the last chair shuts down.
“The highlight? Getting the invite to ride at Miss Superpark 2014, and being crowned the overall Transworld Transam Champion 2014.”
Orla in action. (Pic: James Kaiser)
“Snowboarding isn’t like any other sport. Anyone who wants to try it should keep it fun, creative, not too serious and to their own style, don’t be that guy chucking themselves in the air hoping for the best.
“You take the good with the bad. Almost two years ago now, I came down hard on my shoulder on a stairset feature in the finals of a rail jam in Austria, off the back of the best three months snowboarding out in America.
“I was told I’d be out for 6 months, which would have ruled out my planned summer trip to snowboard in Australia and New Zealand. I was almost tempted to stay at home that summer, and finally ‘settle down’, but things worked out a little differently, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“A big thanks must go to Burton Snowboards (Chris, Lizzie and Dan), Anon Optics, Capitahl Headwear, and of course to my gorgeous family and friends back home, all those early mornings driving me up and down to Dublin airport even though they were thinking I was only ‘mad to be heading off again!” she finished.
Cover pic: Dasha Nosova.
