Girls Who Ride with Abby Furrer at Sunshine Village

ATTENTION ALL GIRLS WHO RIDE 

We’re hosting a brand new event series starting this Dec 16th! We'll be hitting parks across the globe, pulling in the help of local Girls Who Ride to design custom features at each resort stop, bringing in Ambassadors from all over, and getting the biggest group of girls together to ride, push each other, and win some AWESOME prizes. 

The first stop on our tour is set to launch at Sunshine Village in Banff, Alberta Canada. We linked up with shop manager/buyer at Rude Boys and Rude Girls and life-long shredder Abby Furrer to help design the park features and make our first GWR event the best it can be. Before we go on snow together, get to know Abby and where she comes from a little bit better-

Hi Abby! Thanks for hanging out with us, we're such big fans 😍 Before we get into anything too serious, tell us your name, what you do and where you live now.

Full Name; Abby Pauline Genevive Furrer ( My parents had to make a lot of family members happy when naming us). Day Job ; Women's Buyer and Store Manager For Rude Boys and Rude Girls Snow and Skate. Habitat; I live in Banff Alberta Canada

Way to keep the family legacies alive. How long have you been riding for?

This will be my 6th season.  I never learned how to snowboard when I was younger.  There were 4 of us kids growing up and snowboarding was too expensive so my parents told me to run track because It was free haha.

Haha ok, your parents are sentimental and thrifty- we love it. Tell us about the shop! How long have you been working at Rude Girls? How did you start there?

I started working at Rude Girls August 2011, A week after I had moved to town.  I was working at Tony Romas (which is hilarious because I went vegan while working there) and this girl I worked with who had previously worked at Rude Girls told me they were hiring part timers.  So I dropped off my resume which I had written on an old skate deck of mine in hopes they wouldn't forget me. I walked in and was like "Well I guess I have to buy a new deck seeing as my old one is being used". I then bought a deck and gripped it myself.. Which is legit the only reason I got hired, I guess they were hyped on the fact I could grip a deck...so I got the job! haha

If there's one sure-fire way to make sure your application gets noticed, we're pretty sure that's it. We love that story! 

Bring us back a little bit -why do you snowboard and what do you love about snowboarding?

Oh man.. So many reasons.  First and foremost, the amount of fun I have [while riding is] probably not normal.  Also I guess it is quite literally my life and job. Demoing snowboards is one of my favourite things to do.  I like to know exactly what I am ordering for the shop and being able to talk about any snowboard from personal experience is super important when selling a snowboard.  I've been working retail for a very long time (12 years) and if there's one thing I have figured out- it's that it's easy to sell what you love.  Another reason is, I can go up to the hill by myself and run into a bunch of friends. It's never a question of what you are doing the next day, it's always- What time are you headed up?  The stoke is never dull when boarding.

That's our favorite question in the world, nothing suonds better in the winter than that!

Have you ever designed a snow park feature? What about finding features outside of a resort; have you gone and found your own to make outside of riding at a resort?

I have never designed a feature but I have always pictured my ideal line of features.  My awesome boyfriend has a sweet job as the Terrain Park Builder and Designer at our local hill so he always lets me in on the inside scoop of special builds and the design layout for the parks, and when he needs advice on very intermediate features I give him my input. As for finding features outside the resort, every season some pretty rad humans set up a jib spot out of PVC pipe just in the next town over.  It's always so much fun and pretty low consequence.  

Speaking of features- what’s your favorite kind to ride?

I like round tubby tubesss.  Round so when you taco its not as painful like a square bar would be.

What’s your favorite trick right now?

Right now I am trying to relearn Nose presses.  Nose P-s back ones or Nose Slide pretzels use to be my favourite before I decided to dislocate and break my nose-pressing knee.  Or front Blunts.. I use to hike boxes for hours to get my front blunts on point.. But me in my old age.. I may have lost them a bit.

On to the crew! Who do you snowboard with?

Ma Gurlzzzz.  The Rude Girls crew fo sho! We have a pretty large Girl Mob up there every season, we're hooligans and always have so much fun!  But honestly, I love riding with anyone who is excited to snowboard.  Last year I was asked to take up a few local girls to help them learn some things; those days were probably my favourite days of boarding last season.  They were hyped, I was hyped, and we all learned some new things.    

And lastly, so you can leave us all with some wisdom:

What would you tell someone who’s nervous about trying a new trick?

You don't know if you don't try. 

Join us December 16th at Sunshine Village! We can't wait to see you there ⚡️