NIKITA NATION

Colorful, by Chixxs On Board - The female vision of snowboarding, with their personal color starts with Stephanie Kauert, Mona Danuser and Aurelia Amrein! In our first Episode of COLORFUL the colors could hardly be more different. From the bright yellow, to the cheerful pink into a fresh blue, our first three riders show their greatest passion, snowboarding. Three different characters, who spread their own personal stories and let their creativity on the snow run wild!

Web Episode made with love by Chixxs on Board

Film & Editing by Nina Danuser

Riding and happening at the Snowpark Arosa Lenzerheide

Sponsored by doodah

This month’s February Playlist Series For Girls Who Ride is brought to you by Nico Turner, an L.A. based multimedia artist and musician who’s shown her artwork at Art Basel and traveled the globe with musicians like Cat Power and @austraaa 

This tour de force is sure to become your next girl-crush, thanks to her spell-binding “soundscapes”, gold-foiled illustrations and classically cool demeanor. In reference to this month’s Valentine’s Day holiday, Nico told us that she "created this mix in relation to the songs that made [her] feel tough; like [she] could be a heartbreaker when [she] was a kid.”

The first Girls Shred Session just wrapped up in Snowpark Obergurgl!

So many girls turned out for the event to get tips and learn new tricks from freeski coach Lisi Gram and snowboard coaches Lea Baumschlager and Pilar de la Cruz. The coaches were sharing their knowledge and expertise with every girl that came by, and of course getting their own riding time in on the expertly-maintained features by the all-female-shapecrew of the Snowpark Obergurgl.

Check out the two edits that came from the event and be sure to check out the next one closest to you!

Girls Shred Session Obergurgl - Snowboard from Nikita Clothing on Vimeo.

Girls Shred Session Obergurgl - Freeski from Nikita Clothing on Vimeo.

Ari Morrone is the smallest package that packs the largest punch- and does it all with a grin that almost never leaves her face. If you want to know what it looks like when someone loves snowboarding above all else, look no further than our GWR feature this month that highlights Ari. Read on to get to know where she's from, what keeps her motivated and what she'll do when she starts to get stressed (hint- it's pretty delicious). 

So Ari- where do you live?

Pennsylvania

Good stuff, good start. Not a lot of people ride out there, where did you start snowboarding?

I started snowboarding at a tiny hill five minutes from my house. The elevation is about 500ft, I learned the basics there and started hitting park!

WHOA 500 ft- how long did it take you to ride from top to bottom?? How many lifts did the hill have?

4 lifts most of the time 3 of them ran. It took about 45 seconds to one minute to ride down!

Haha that's about what we would have thought, you can get a lot of runs in one day with timing like that. Why or how did you get into it?

I can thank my brothers for being the reason I got into snowboarding. At first I was totally against trying it, but when I finally went, I was hooked.

And when you say hooked, you aren't understating yourself. How many days do you think (or know) you got on your snowboard last year?

I stopped counting a few seasons ago, because I basically go every day I can. I would say maybe around 150 days for last season.

That's what we're talking about! How many seasons have you had a record like that? 

Thanks! Probably around 5 or 6 maybe more. I go to Hood every summer so that adds to it! Also I did online High School and got my Associates degree online so I could snowboard more and keep my schedule flexible.

That's so cool. And also a real test of self-control; staying motivated enough to finish school online and snowboard all the time is such a delicate balance, it's so sick that you did things that way.

Switching gears a little bit here; how do you handle the days when you’re waiting for new snow?

We don’t get a lot of natural snow in PA, so most of my days are spent riding the park at Big Boulder. When it does actually snow, we head to the streets almost immediately because it usually melts really fast.

So you basically have a 24hr window to get street clips?

Most snowstorms yes! Last year beside the clips I got in Tahoe, we stayed in PA. If we go up north this year we will have way more options.

Now that's what we call Motivation! Check out Ari's first street part from last year 

How long is your list of street spots to hit right now if snow falls?

We have quite a few spots on our list, which are all in PA. We are planning to explore snowier areas up north.

Do you have a favorite feature or trick?

Nose Press Front one is my go to!

Love it! What about a trick you're working on? Anything on your radar right now that you really want to get?

I’ve been working on front boards a lot, trying to get 360’s out consistently on different rails, and am working on front blunt same ways!

You go out west in the summer, how do you feel it compares to east coast riding?

We have so many rails at Big Boulder and that makes it a ton of fun. But there is just something amazing about slushy sunny summer days on Mt. Hood!

Side note to readers- if you've never ridden a summer at Mt Hood, your last June, July and August have been severely lacking. Summer Snowboarding is where it's at 👽

With how much fun Mt Hood is, what keeps you going back to Big Boulder?

Definitely our parks, we have six parks at Big Boulder, two of them are hike parks, we have rails everywhere and we switch it up pretty often. But I will eventually make the move out West.

Ari prepping for some home-made relaxation in the Reykjavik Hoodie

How do you relax? Or maybe more importantly, do you think you chill? It looks like you’re always doing something!

I wouldn’t say that I often chill the way most people do. I always like to be doing something. In a way, snowboarding is my relaxing! When I step on the mountain it almost kind of calms me down. But when I’m not snowboarding, I look forward to doing my daily workouts and yoga to clear my head and relax. If I’m really stressed out that’s when I start baking haha.

Please call us the next time you've wrapped a session of stress baking, we'll be over in about 5 minutes flat. 🍰   🍩

Alright, our time is almost up, but before we go - any life advice? Snowboarding advice? Words of wisdom to leave us with?

Stay positive and go after your dreams! That goes for life and snowboarding. You can do anything you put your mind to!

Originally posted on Transworld Snowboarding, you can see the full article here!

All images - Jessika Hunter

Last month, the first ever G.W.R. snowboarding event by Nikita Clothing with Rude Girls Snow and Skate took place at Sunshine Village.

The day started off with a gathering of more than 50 girls at the top of Wolverine's Kids Play Park. The park itself had been designed by Abby Furrer, a manager and buyer at Rude Girls shop, and the participants of the G.W.R. event had exclusive access to it all day. The regular park had been turned into a girls-only snowboarding zone for several hours and the ladies loved it. (Don't worry folks--there were two other parks that riding patrons could visit on Saturday, Sunshine Village made sure everyone had a great day that day.) The park was the perfect mix of inviting and challenging, and the everyone took to it right away.

Nikita brought out team riders Taylor Elliot, Summer Fenton and Ari Morrone to hang out with the Rude Girls shop team riders and help teach the girls who showed up for the event a new trick or two. Nikita team riders and Rude Girls riders stationed themselves at various features throughout the park, and girls had the opportunity to cruise or session any feature they wanted. The stoke level was at an all-time high, and soon enough girls all throughout the park were pushing themselves and landing new tricks they learned that day, as well as spending time perfecting the tricks they already had in their bag. Everyone was cheering each other on after both hearty slams and victorious lands.

Head over to Transworld Snowboarding to read the rest of the recap and see all of the awesome photos that Jessika Hunter captured during the event! Stay tuned for the announcement of our next G.W.R. location, we can't wait to get it started.

Dedicate yourself to the dance floor tonight with this modern disco mix. New bass heavy tracks by Azealia Banks, Marie Davidson and Jessy Lanza meet funk and soul classics from Donna Summer, Loose Joints and early disco from Blondie to comprise this month’s set of female music makers. A few other surprises along the way will keep you moving and humming all the way into the new year.

From young-gun shredder riding a few years ago, to lifer and co-owner of new vintage shop Vantage in Salt Lake City, Grace Mayernik has done a lot in the 20 years she's been on this planet. Never one to see an obstacle as a stopping point, she's continuously pushed on to live life exactly the way she wants to.

Read on to get to know where she came from, what drives her, and where she's going next!

Hey Grace- we’ll start with the basics, how old are you?

20

Just 20 and killing it already! Where do you come from and where do you live now? 

I grew up in Virginia, but have been living in Salt Lake City, Utah for the past 7 years.

Another basic question to check off the list here- how long have you been snowboarding?

7 years.

Lucky number 7 😜  What or who got you into it?

My older sister Amy got me into snowboarding. She was the first in my family to move out West and whenever we had a break in school we would fly out to visit her and board. It got to the point where we would spend weeks longer then we were supposed to and my whole family kind of just said, what the heck, and made the move to Utah.

That's a big move for a family to just get up and do! We need to meet all of them some day, they sound awesome.

Snowboarding has it's ups and downs. The ups are what keep us coming back, but dealing with the downs and coming back to ride again is what makes a real snowboarder. Have you ever had any downs? How did you deal with that? 

I would say the biggest challenge that I've faced in snowboarding was tearing my ACL and getting knee surgery three years ago. It was really unexpected and definitely put me in a funk at first. I never knew if I would snowboard like I did before the injury and now that I have recovered and regained my confidence I would say the ongoing goal in my snowboarding is to do it for fun, and because I love it.

That's the best kind of attitude to have, and the goal of having fun is what it's all about.  Speaking of fun- what’s your favorite trick right now?

Is riding powder a trick? If not, I'll say handplants.

Riding powder definitely counts as a trick! Handplants do too, we love those choices and need to do some of both ourselves ASAP.

What is your must-have for a day of riding?

I have to start my day with lots of food and coffee. Another must-have would be friends to ride with.

Every snowboarder has a place they’re dying to get to. What’s your dream destination?

Japan!!!!

Oh Japan. That's a place dreams are made of, definitely on the list of places to go.

@vantageslc

A post shared by Grace🌹 (@gracemayernik) on Aug 12, 2017 at 6:29pm PDT

But you aren't just a snowboarder. What else do you do?

I co-own a vintage clothing store in Salt Lake City! @Vantageslc We've been open now for close to six months and its been an awesome experience, and a lot of hard work. Between balancing snowboarding and owning a business I also just got into yoga, I play guitar, love photography, and skateboard as much as I can!

You own your own shop? Tell us more about Vantage, please!

Vantage is a vintage clothing store in Salt Lake City selling carefully curated 80's and 90's clothes. We opened doors for business in July and before that there was little to no talk of starting something like this.

It began with my boyfriend, Paul and I, having a booth at the flea market. We had little expectations for it but it ended up going super well and thats when we realized maybe something like a store could work! Our friend Andrew happened to collect and sell online so we rounded him into the deal and immediately started talking business.

I saw an ad for a space available in our local newspaper and we went to check it out- the space needed a little TLC but it was exactly what we were looking for. They were only asking for a year lease so we figured what the heck, lets do this for a year, see if it works, if not we'll still be able to live working our second jobs. Well, 5 months later, our second jobs no longer in the picture, we couldn't be more happy how it has worked out. It was a leap of faith to get it started but if you ever have the opportunity to start a business with your friends, do it!

We heard you had some cool people drop by one afternoon, who was that again?

We had the band HAIM in the shop before a show once! I wasn’t even there when they came in *laughs* [but Paul was and] he got a pic with them. I guess one of their songs was playing on the radio and Kevin (gravedigger) was like, "Oh are you ladies going to the concert tonight?"

And they were like, "Uh yea that’s us!"

After all of that, how do you unwind after a long day?

Since I've started a business my days are usually packed with things to do, so my favorite thing to do as of now is cozy up on the couch and watch a movie or go to a yoga class and clear my mind for an hour!

You've got the right recipe for everything and it's obvious you push yourself a lot to be exactly who you want to be. Do you get influenced from the outside? Who would you say inspires you the most?

Anyone who paves their own path. Someone who never gives up, who is creative, hardworking, and genuinely happy with the life they live.

And finally - how do you feel about eBay?

Are you asking this question before or after I got banned? (Long Story) But now that my boyfriend lets me sell from an account in his name, eBay and I are still in good standings. For now. 

Put this playlist on, grab your board and start getting inspired out on the snow! Thanks to Grace for taking time out of her busy day to catch up with us, stop into Vantage if you're ever in Salt Lake City and stay tuned to Nikita Clothing to catch the next feature #forgirlswhoride

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 ⚡️

For this month’s edition of our G.W.R. Series, we bring you 30 songs by female singer/ songwriters of the 21st century. Hailing from Korea, Australia, Colombia, Sweden, and France- this diverse mix of talent laces minimal rhythms with clever lyrics to mesmerize your eardrums. 

 Exposure Skate 2017 is a wrap!

Nikita Clothing was proud to be a sponsor for this year's event and had so much fun bringing Ambassadors Janthavy Norton @janthavy and Marisa Garcia @mar2d2_ out for the contest.

We had a weekend packed with skateboarding, photoshoots, taco dinners and some insanely picture-perfect California sunsets.

While the girls were skating, Deana @sunnyyddee was hard at work pressing custom Nikita For Girls Who Ride hats for every girl that stopped by!

If you couldn't make it to the competition itself, be sure to check out the complete Livestream recap of the event here and mark your calendars for Exposure 2018 next fall!

All photos - Nikki Hand @nikki_hand

Our spotlight this month is settling on Marisa Garcia; a video-game loving, sewing-machine operating, kitty cat holding, skateboarding creative who quietly slays everything she takes on. With old skool style and new skool attitude, this Texas native is an anomaly we can't get enough of. 

What’s your name and where are you from? Where do you live now?

I was born in San Antonio, Texas and I now reside in Austin! 

When did you start skateboarding and how did you get into it?

I started skating in 2013 around April!  I got into skateboarding in college when I realized a skate park was 5 minutes away from campus.  I had always wanted to skateboard growing up but never had the opportunity, support, or ideal situation for it.  As hard as I tried, skateboarding was not an option for me when I was younger, so I made it my opportunity after being in college for a few years and summoning up the courage to actually go to the park with borrowed boards and friends that knew how to skate. 

Why have you stuck with it? What hooked you?

I’ve wanted to skateboard my whole life and within these last couple years, I finally had the opportunity to; it brings about an unexplainable happiness and I can’t imagine a life without skating.  There are a lot more reasons, some obvious and some more personal but in short, skateboarding lit a fire within me that nothing else compared to.  I’ve hurt myself skating in ways that will leave me in pain for the rest of my life, but I’ve never for a moment questioned why I keep skating.  I just step on my board, forget about everything, and let that inner fire and passion take me to places I never thought possible. 

You’re passionate about other things too- what are they?

I love drawing and painting a lot!  It’s another form of creativity and skateboarding has actually really inspired a lot of the art that I make.  I’m also pretty passionate about playing video games!  Whether it’s on my consoles at home or in the arcade, games are a great stress reliever and of course, super fun.  Fight games are some of my favorites; if I could, I would buy the Killer Instinct II arcade game/cabinet from the main arcade I frequent! 

When did you start making art? 

I’ve been making art since I was little, but as far as the art that I make now, I started that when I also started skating.  Growing up, I drew some skateboarding art (since that was as close to skateboarding as I could get) but I mostly drew comics and little anime characters.  In 2014, I started making the art that I do now; definitely adopted a darker twist on things along with my main ghoul guy that I always draw as well.  

What’s your favorite thing to draw right now?

Ghouls!  I really love making little creepy monsters with tons of eyes, skeleton or muscle bodies, and goopy features.  Dark style has a lot of possibilities when drawing and you can get inspiration from so many different things.

What are your favorite mediums to work with?

Ink and watercolor!  I absolutely love mixing harsh, black lines with vivid watercolors. 

Does your art tie into your skateboarding? Or vice-versa? Do you think they’re connected?

Oh absolutely!  I tend to draw people that inspire me or skate spots that that scare me.  Sometimes painting what I’m scared of actually helps my skating; it makes it less scary and more approachable like the art in front of me.  Skateboarding is an art and art requires creativity; the two involve an “outside of the box” approach to get to a desired final outcome, so they are most definitely connected and go hand in hand in my opinion!  

What’s something you love about the Texas skate scene that we don’t know?

The support that is given in the Texas scene is unbelievable.  Everyone has so much talent and passion in how they skate and they love to share the happiness skating brings with others.  There will always be people that are sticks in the mud, but I can proudly say that in Texas, all of the awesome experiences and rad people that I’ve met have helped encourage everyone and also helped get me to where I am today.  We have a huge network of skaters that are also just amazing individuals; friends are everywhere and Texas skaters just want to shred and get stoked!

What’s your favorite trick right now?

Oh gosh that’s a hard one!  I’d have to say on vert it’s backside airs and in bowls it’s front smiths and monty grinds/back smiths! 

What’s your favorite piece from the Nikita FW1718 collection?

It’s so hard to choose, but my favorite piece is still the Starward Jacket!  Texas is finally cooling off and I love the jacket because it’s warm, fashionable, and the hood reminds me of Assassins Creed.  Design lines and fabric make this jacket a staple piece that will never go out of style.    I feel like a badass video game character in it and just love wearing this jacket!  

Who do you ride with regularly? Who’s your crew?

I skate with so many people but my main crew is my boyfriend and my vert friends!  We all love skating the vert ramp together as well as some of the other gnarly parks in Texas.  A lot of us share the same interests as well so after skating we go to the arcade or to shows!  In Austin, we also have an all girls crew called Rip Riot and I love skating and getting inspired by those ladies! 

Who do you look up to and who inspires you?

Nora Vasconcellos inspires me so much!  She’s my favorite skater and absolutely shreds; not to mention seeing her go pro on Welcome was a huge deal.  It’s hard not to get inspired by someone like her!  In addition to that, Darren Navarette is another huge inspiration in my skating; he skates vert like a mad man and his style is something I definitely look up to.  My friend Sandy Peraza is also a huge inspiration to me not only in her shredding, but in her art as well!  She is a true skateboarder and an amazing artist that has her very own style.  She might be a thousand miles away from me, but she keeps me stoked even from states away!  

What are you working on right now (in skating, in life, in general- whatever!)?

I’m currently working on some denim apparel designs specifically made for skating and a few wedding dress designs as well for some of my friends that might potentially be tying the knot in the next few years!  Besides trying to draw as often as I can and move some skate tricks up to vert, I’m pretty much enjoying life and taking each day as it comes!  Oh and beating Zelda Breath of the Wild!  I don’t even want to look at how many hours I’ve put into exploring every corner and mountain in that game!