Long gone are the ‘good old days of snowboarding'. Ask any professional snowboarder from the late 90's and early 2000's and you'll get the same answer: "snowboarding isn't what it used to be." What started out as a sport that was governed by little to no rules has now turned into one of the most popular Olympic sports on TV. Throughout the various growth stages of snowboarding's development, countless individuals have expressed their opinions on where snowboarding is headed and what it will become. In order to really get to the bottom of this issue we're going to have to gather as much info as possible. Enter one of Canada's most respected freestyle riders, Ms. Roberta Walker. Known to many during her snowboard career as Roberta Rodger, this newly wed female-snowboard-icon-turned-action-sports-agent (Infamous Management Inc.) has helped define snowboarding on a global level. As someone who clearly knows both sides of the industry, I decided to sit down with her and get a little personal information about the history of snowboarding, how she views progression and where our sport is headed.

During your time as a professional snowboarder you were able to accomplish a lot in a very short time. You were part of the original Seymour Kids and eventually transitioned yourself out of snowboarding and into running your own athlete management company. When you look back at the whole process involved in making yourself happy, would you say that snowboarding has always put a smile on your face?
I went through a short period when I was younger, probably around 16-17, when I would let snowboarding frustrate me; if I couldn't get a trick right away or was falling a lot and I would spaz out and swear and I'll always remember Devun telling me that it wasn't very cool to see a girl freaking out and swearing. I didn't realize that my actions were being watched or reflected who I was, and from that day I made a pact with myself that I would never react like that and enjoy everything about snowboarding from the stomps to the bails. To appreciate and be happy with what I had and to remember that there is always another day. So ya, snowboarding always put's a smile on my face. Now the snowboard industry, that's another question...

What about those sour times? What were they and how did you get through them?
I guess the "sour times" could have been the struggle of trying to get with a crew to film or shoot photos - being the only girl on a team was cool but you got left out of things a lot. I would just keep pushing to be a part of things. I remember a long time ago, probably in 1995 or 1996, I really wanted to film with Jamie Mosberg who was filming all the Westbeach crew. KY [Kevin Young], Sluggo, Nico, and I just pushed and pushed to go on a trip that they were doing to Chamonix. I pretty much went out there on my own - flew there, got the train, and then just showed up. Unfortunately the weather was crappy but I still got to be a part of things. You really had to be persistent. Back then there was no one lining up a film or photoshoot for you, making your travel arrangements, holding your hand.

JP Walker, Infamous athlete

Without looking too deep into the past, when would you say that women's snowboarding plateaued and when did it start to progress? Who was leading the pack and who is leading it now?
I think it plateaued a bit in the early 90's, but then by the mid-to-late 90's a couple girls really started to step it up. I think Shannon Dunn made a big push in progressing female snowboarding, doing back-to-back 5's in the pipe; that was totally unheard of. And of course, Janna Meyen doing Cab 3's and jibbing all over Bear. Next thing you know you have young Auralie Sayers coming up, Anne Molin, and Leslee Olson really starting to raise the bar. As far as who's leading it now there is such a wide field of women with so much talent. Jamie Anderson has such a wide variety of technical tricks - frontside 7's, switch backside 540's, Cab 540's, all put in one run. Pipe is just crazy - you have Kelly Clark going massive with huge 9's and 10's and of course Torah Bright has the most technical runs in pipe, no girl can touch what she is doing. And the amplitude has really grown in the past few years. Of course there are all the film chicks that are pushing it: Jess Kimura, Kimmy Fasani, and Cheryl Mass. There are too many to name just a few!

(keep reading for more on the past and future with Roberta Walker)