Hana Beaman: WEB INTERVIEW

Hana Beaman, with her army of tricks, has stormed the women’s snowboard scene like Ghengis Khan stormed China. This year she stole the crown at big contests such as the US Open and the Vans Cup, as well as, slaying Ms. Superpark, which was no easy task. Some would dare say she is currently the most valiant female slopestyle rider. “She gets radical times infinity and in my opinion she’s sexy (no offense Leach),” says Sir Tom Monterosso of Snowboarder Mag. Off the hill, she sets down her sword, puts on her crown, and prepares for the Royal Rumble by practicing her body-slams like a certain woman wrestler.

DS: So you filmed with a new company, Runway, this year. How was that different from Misschief films?
HB: Runway is different from Misschief just in the basic idea that all the girls that are filming with Runway are involved in it somehow, whether it’s helping think of names or making beanies or finding sponsors, stuff like that. It’s more of like a film for the riders by the riders kind of deal. It’s a little smaller of a crew, a little more tight of a filming crew. Yeah, we just kinda all go out and try to film all together. There’s two or three filmers and it’s pretty much Leanne (Pelosi) heading up that whole thing instead of Amber (Stackhouse) and Fabia (Reuttler) that were doing Misschief.

What happened to Misschief?
I think Amber and Fabia just got a little burned out. It was a lot of undertaking for them to make the video the last two years. They put all they had into and I think they just wanted to chill for a bit and focus on some other things. So a lot of the other girls that filmed for it last year decided that they were going to keep it going and make it happen.

In your new crew, who was really fun to ride with?
I always like riding with Leanne (Pelosi). She’s always really fun. Jacqui (Berg) and I rode a lot in December and January before she got hurt. I always like riding with Erin Comstock. I think mainly I filmed with Jacqui and Leanne and then just by myself whenever we had something fun to do.

You said you didn’t end up getting as much backcountry in as you would’ve liked, what did you end up riding?
We did backcountry for the last two weeks in May or the mid two weeks in May but besides that we didn’t or at least I didn’t really get any backcountry in. We did a lot of jibbing and urban kind of riding like in the first two or three months of the year. Besides all the rails and jibs it was just contests and traveling and stuff like that.

How’s the new car you won at the US Open?
It’s nice. I haven’t really driven it a lot yet. I think I drove it for like two days. It’s been up at my parents place and they’ve been driving it around. They really like it. I’m looking forward to going and getting it and zipping around down here.

What was competing on the Global Open Series like?
I’m a little bummed but whatever. It was a good run. The only reason I went into the Global Open Series was because I did so well at the Open last year. Since I did so well at the Open last year I won a ticket to New Zealand. Then I won New Zealand so I won a ticket to the next one. Since the Australian Open got canceled, it was the European Open. If you’ve got a free ticket you just go and do it. I just figured as long as I could ride it out and just get free tickets, I would keep doing it. I went to the European Open and that got canceled so they flew me out to the Nippon Open. I won that so I got a ticket to the U.S. Open again. Yeah, that was a bummer. The U.S. Open was just really bad weather and it just sucked. It was probably mostly bad because all the girls couldn’t really perform their best. It was just kind of whoever could make it over the jumps and not crash. So that really sucked. I wish I could’ve done better at that and maybe have won the overall. But I mean I made it pretty far and I was stoked.

Did you feel like the Series was tailored to half-pipe riders?
I don’t know. I don’t think they planned on having as many events canceled as were. And I think that they should’ve maybe had a make-up event if something was canceled that really made a big difference in the outcome. But I think it was definitely favorable for the Burton riders just because I know they have a group that goes to every event and is on that tour and they do both events. I guess in the end it was more favorable to the half-pipe riders just because one of the slope-styles got canceled and they had the other half-pipe. So that’s the only thing that I would say was a little whacked because if you’re going to cancel an event you should have some sort of make-up event to make it even or whatever.

You did Ms. SuperPark, how did it go?
Yes, I did. It went good. We showed up and there wasn’t as much snow as we’d hoped. We rode to the best of our abilities there. The features I don’t think were quite up to par, mostly due to the lack of snow. But we rode whatever we could and we got some shots so I think filming-wise it came out pretty good. Hopefully, you guys got enough shots to make a good article.

What’s the Surreal Life all about?
(Laughs) Pat (Bridges), I’m going to kick you in the nuts.

And the WWE?
This is so jacked. I’ll just say that Chyna has been deported and she will not be coming back out for at least three months. Yeah, she’s having a great time on vacation. But she’s on vacation.

How’s your off-season?
It’s going really good so far. It’s only been a week. In the week I’ve had off I’ve still been doing a lot of work-related stuff like photo shoots and traveling and events and stuff like that. It’s nice. It feels like summer now. I can relax and not think about snowboarding for a while, get some sun and go surfing. I’m stoked.

You live in Salt Lake City now?
Yeah, still living in Salt Lake, still have a place in Mammoth where hopefully I’ll be hanging out at a lot more this summer.

This is your first year in the SLC?
Second season but my first year, I guess, that I’ve been in my house. I got there not this last season but the season before in like November. Even though it’s been a year and half, I’ve been there for maybe like two or three months.

Are there some cool people to hang with there?
Ya, there’s actually a huge group of riders that live there now. We were just talking about that the other day. Torah (Bright) just bought a house that’s in between my house and Jessica’s house, Jessica Dalpiaz, and Brian Craighill. There’s Stan who lives across the freeway and Zach (Leach), who lives a street down from Stan. There’s so many people like Pat Moore, J.P. Walker, (Justin) Hebbel, Erin Comstock. Lexie just bought a house like five houses down from Erin. It’s a whole little club forming out there.

Is it different from Mammoth or Big Bear?
It’s a bigger city but it still feels kind of small. It’s definitely nice having the airport right there and having all the amenities you need. If you’re all, “Oh I need to do this…” you can just go to the store and get it and not have to drive three hours to the store. It’s cool. It still feels like a mountain town even though it’s a bigger city.

Any plans for next year?
Not yet. I don’t start thinking about next year really until probably like October but definitely continue filming and then I’ll hit up the same couple big contests.

Any plans at Ride for a pro-model?
Um, I don’t know, hopefully. Hopefully, we’ll be talking over the summer and kind of figuring out some other stuff. I’m definitely going to be really involved in board graphics and R and D with the bindings and boards.

Thanks Hana!