Anne-Flore Marxer Interview

Women’s snowboarding is improving faster than ever. Back-to-back nines are becoming common in women’s pipe; Girls are hucking all the sevens off big booters; And chicks are hitting rugged rails as easy as the credit card slides. In this high-speed trick pursuit, if you’re not progressing it’s easy to get left in the slush. Anne-Flore Marxer isn’t stuck in the wet and sticky. She’s speeding along at the head of the pack, pushing women’s riding in every direction from rails to big mountain. Luckily, she pulled over for a pit stop in Southern California and was willing to shoot the breeze for a few minutes before racing on.

-Dylan Silver

In what areas do you see the most growth in women’s snowboarding?
I think it has been getting so much better in the last three years, the last two years especially. I’ve seen girls doing so many good tricks. I’ve seen all the sevens done by girls with style, grabbed all the way and stomped. I’ve seen some nines this year. I’m so stoked because it shows that we will not stop. Girls are going bigger too. It’s just getting better and better. The only thing I wish is that we’d see more girls in the guys’ movies.

This year you’re featured in a “guys” movie, how did filming go last season?
This year it was for the Pirates movie. It’s called Walk the Plank. I’m actually going in three days to Italy because we’re filming the intro to the movie. We all have pirate costumes and stuff. It’s going to be so much fun. We also filmed a little bit with Runway. With both I was quite hurt this season with my knee so I didn’t get to film that much. I had a few shots in both movies, but nothing too crazy.

Tell me about your British Columbian exploits?
The first trip I went there to film with the Pirates, a European crew, from the middle of January all the way to the beginning of February. We rented an RV. It was so cold, minus fifty-one Celsius. All the water was frozen. For three weeks we didn’t get any water. We didn’t get to shower. It was a big adventure. We were in the middle of the mountains with an RV, just finding spots on the side of the road. In Monashee Powder we went cat-skiing. That was awesome. There was so much powder sometimes you couldn’t even land.

An RV on B.C. roads, in the middle of winter, that couldn’t have been easy.
We actually had one night when we had to drive forty-four miles on a dirt road to get to cat-skiing. It was storming. Since we had an RV, we decided to go there at night and sleep there so we could go up early in the morning. It was snowing so hard, we spent the whole night just shoveling and digging and pushing the RV. After forty miles we were totally blocked, we couldn’t move any more. We looked at the time and it was twenty minutes until we to meet the guy to go on the cats, so some of the guys walked. The cat came and dragged our RV all the way. We thought it would be much easier on the way back. We got stuck behind three moose. It was one of the best trips I’ve done. We had so much fun. It’s kind of cool when you get stuck in bad situations with people because the only thing you can do is stick together and make it happen.

Did you ride anything different this year?
Ya, actually this year I got to ride lines, which I never really did before. I come from the Alps, so it’s pretty natural to go up in the mountains and find cool lines to go down. But I never really get to do it for filming. The difference is the pressure you have. If you go for fun you find an easy line and make it fun, but if you want to go for filming you look for a line that looks good.

Was it difficult adjusting to “good looking” big mountain lines?
I really learned a lot. The second trip to interior B.C. was with Shin Campos and Marie-France Roy and some other girls because it was a Red Bull and Oakley trip. The cool thing was one of the skiers (Andrea Binning) we had there was a big mountain rider. Being there with a big mountain rider changed the whole thing. All of a sudden instead of just looking for a kicker spot, you were actually looking for lines. It was super exciting. To see her just going for it totally motivated me. The first two days just watching her, then going up on the same lines and seeing how it looked from above, [I learned] how to deal with it once I was engaged. From there I started to take my own lines. It was really good to have Shin with us because he would make me feel more comfortable, just having him say, “it’s exactly how you think it is, just go for it, just drop in.” There is so much adrenaline and you’re so scared when you’re on top. Once you drop in, it’s not anymore. As soon as you see it, you’re totally into it. I also learned to deal with my slough and stuff like that I didn’t even realize.

You said you got to ride with Shin Campos up in BC, was he influential to your big mountain style?
Ya for sure. Seeing how he rides lines is very inspirational. Anyone who has spent more time than you on a mountain just sees more stuff than you. Everyone uses the mountains differently. It’s just rad to go with people who have been there so much because then you see new stuff all the time. On the first trip with the Pirates, I was there with Lucas Goller. It was so awesome to ride with him because the whole mountain is his huge playground. Everything is possible, just go for it and do it. Everything is fun. I love going with guys who see the mountains like that and use the mountains. You don’t always have to build a huge thing somewhere to make it work. Sometimes it’s just right there in front of you, you just need to hit it. I like that kind of riding.

Were there any scary moments?
Ya, Kristi Leskanen, she’s a skier, wanted to do a line and we were like, “Ya sure you can do it..it’s easy…” She dropped in, did two turns, and then went back into the gulley where she was caught by her slough. She went all the way down in her slough. We couldn’t even see her anymore. She was totally buried by the snow. Luckily, she was fine. It was just a really tense moment. It was good too, because you realize shit can happen.

Who’s fun to be with on the Oakley Team?
I love riding with Marie-France Roy. She’s my favorite rider.

What about Victoria Jealouse?
I love hanging out with Victoria too. I’m actually seeing her tomorrow. We all go to Mexico for Burton meetings. She is so much fun. We get to ride together every summer. We go to Chile and get summer photo-shoots there. I just really like her. We always laugh a lot.

Let’s pretend I’m a linguistics expert. I’m trying to determine where you’re from by your accent. I can hear the Swiss, but there’s something else. What is it?
My parents live in Switzerland. I’m from France, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

What’s so great about Europe?
That’s home. The mountains and the terrain are so, so good. Some places you feel comfortable. I’ve been riding those mountains forever. I don’t know all the spots yet and I want to know all the spots. They are so easily accessible. You just go up the lift and all the spots are there, you don’t need a sled or anything. Then you go down and eventually have an après-ski party. So you have all the Austrians at the bottom of the mountain having a huge party, drinking beers, dancing and having music. I just love it there.

Specifically, what do you miss about those countries?
It’s the food that I miss the most. When I’m in Austria I eat a lot of soups and salads. When I’m in Switzerland I eat a lot of cheese and chocolate. I eat tons of chocolate. When I’m in France I eat a tons of meat. It’s just all those things that are good somewhere.

How has your off season been so far?
Right now, I’m in the Hossegor, it’s this surfing spot in France. I’m learning how to surf. I’m starting to do a little bit of yoga because everything is hurting. It really feels good. I’m biking a lot. And I just got a new guitar, so I’m going to learn how to play. Everything that I learn is a lot of fun. I’m also going to spend time with my family, my mom and my grandparents because I don’t get to see them at all during the winter. I’m starting to realize that they might not be there forever, I want to make sure I hang out with them.

What are you doing in SoCal?
I just came for an Oakley photo-shoot. I arrived the day before yesterday and I leave tomorrow. I’m going to Mexico. Hopefully, I’ll get more surfing in there.