Scroll Call: An End of Season Chat With Maria Thomsen
We sat down with Maria Thomsen, #BurtonTeam Rider, to check in after a winter of riding, injury setbacks and so much more.
If becoming a pro rider required a start-up plan, being the first woman invited to enter X-Games Real Snow would be a good kickoff.
Maria has a business degree, but luckily for us she paused that career to pursue snowboarding. Coming out of nowhere with a passion for metal on metal, her technical street riding produced a “Video Part of the Year” award. With a Pemberton, BC location that combines life on snow with life as a loving mother, Maria’s style and work ethic make it safe to predict her investments will pay off big.
So, how are you spending your summer months?
Typically, I would go to Mount Hood and down to Copper, to have some summer snowboarding. And then I spend the summer on Vancouver Island where we just surf and skate all summer. And I guess I'm still doing that this year. So we're just following the plan.
You unfortunately ended your season early this year...
Yeah, we were in Japan filming for the Burton movie, and it actually happened on the last day of the trip. I was a little too fired up—we had a jump set up, and I went for a backflip that ended up being more of a half backflip. I landed on my neck, and right away I kinda wasn't feeling good. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but I could feel it in my back and just had this gut feeling that it was serious.
The whole crew had to wrap me up and help me down the mountain. I went to the hospital in Japan, and they found out I had an unstable fracture in my T8 and a fracture in my T9 vertebrae. It was obviously super scary. I flew back to Canada and had surgery the day after I got home—they fused my T7, T8, T9, and T10 at the hospital in Vancouver. Since then, I’ve just been focused on recovery for the rest of the winter.
Damn, sorry to hear that. Are you still in recovery mode?
Little by little, I'm starting getting back into normal daily activities. About 10 weeks post-surgery, I had a follow-up call with my surgeon—earlier than originally planned. I happened to be at the skatepark when she called. I was out of breath, picked up the phone, and she was like “You sound pretty active—you’re huffing and puffing.” I told her, “Oh, I’m actually at the skatepark,” and I was kinda stoked to share that I was out and about.
Her immediate reaction was, “You're not skating, are you?” and I was like, “No, no, no—just rolling around.” Truthfully, I was probably a bit ahead of the normal recovery timeline.
Are you excited to head more into the backcountry?
Yeah, I would love to explore more backcountry, and this was my first time trying to film any backcountry clips at all. So it's obviously a little bit of a different pace than street snowboarding, but it's almost like everything is so new and you have to learn so much new stuff that it's really, really exciting, but also just takes a little bit of time to master. I think Japan is probably a really good place to start because it's like you snowshoe in and you don't have to learn to sled before, so it's really feasible to learn it there. And I would definitely love to go back there next year and get a redemption.
What boards were you riding?
In powder, I loved the Hometown Hero. For street snowboarding, I started riding the Good Company and I love that board. This is my new go-to board for Street and Park.
You also had a board with your face on it this year. How did that feel?
Haha that was so cool. But I definitely wouldn't ride a board with my own face on myself. But it was kinda funny to see people ride my face all over the mountain sometimes and be like, 'oh, there I am missing my tooth.' It's not like the most flattering picture, but it's pretty funny.
It looks like Tao’s getting more into snowboarding lately?
Yeah, he’s always loved skateboarding, but this year snowboarding really started to click for him. He’s usually all about powder—always saying, “Let’s go find some powder!” And I’m like, “Tao, it hasn’t snowed in 10 days—there is no powder.” So this winter, he actually got into park riding, working on his method and hitting some rails. It’s been really cool to see his progression—he’s starting to lean more into jumping so he’s not quite following directly in my footsteps.
He also just discovered rails on his skateboard and out of nowhere I heard him say, “I love rails,” and I was like—there he is. That’s my son! Maybe he’s channeling it more into skating than snowboarding, but either way, it’s reassuring to see him stoked.
Maybe, we'll see a Maria x Tao street edit dropping soon
Honestly, my dream is that one day we could film a Collab part together. That would be so sick. I’m trying not to push it too hard, but yeah… that’s the dream.
What’s one non-snowboard-related thing you’re hyped on right now?
Skateboarding, for sure. I spend a ton of time at the skatepark. It’s weird—maybe because I’m not strapped in—but skating actually feels easier on my back than snowboarding. And it’s so hard, which makes it super rewarding when you finally land something new. I’m not great at transition, but there’s just so much I want to learn. Plus, it’s something I get to do with Tao. He’s getting so good—it’s hard to keep up. Actually, I probably lost that battle a long time ago, but it’s still fun and really motivating.
So, whats the plan for next years snowboarding?
I was really hoping to get some summer snowboarding in, so I’m planning to head down to Mount Hood in June. I’ll still be focusing on rehab while I’m there, just trying to stay strong and ready for next winter. I’m definitely aiming to get back to filming, especially more street—but I’d also love to squeeze in another trip to Japan. I feel like I need that redemption. I’ve been missing snowboarding so much and honestly, I can’t wait for winter to come back around.
As for visualizing that redemption—I don’t know, it’s more of a feeling. I know how much I love snowboarding, and when I’m really hungry for it, I start thinking about tricks I want to do. I’ve already been feeling that urge, even though it still feels a bit too soon. But yeah, I’ve been thinking about what I want my next video part to look like. It’s all slowly building in my head.
We can't wait to see another video part from you..
I only got to do one street trip this winter—it was with Henna and Ylfa in Finland. We were filming for the Scandinavian Women’s Project. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as planned. Telma broke her back, I broke my back, and Henna had a really bad concussion, so by the end of the trip, Ylfa was the only one still standing. We had to postpone the rest of the film project.
That trip was also tough because Finland barely had any snow. We actually kept track of how many hours we spent shoveling—something like 50 hours in just nine days. We were hauling snow in from so far away just to get the spots built.
Looking back on it, though, I think all that shoveling really helped. It made my upper body strong, and I honestly believe that helped prevent my back injury in Japan from being even worse. So in a weird way, it was kind of worth it.