We’re always up for new experiences on the snow and never shy away from a challenge. This mission was one we’d never tried out before and it sure was interesting! Babies and snowboarding…who would have thought?
We finally had the chance to link up for the day with Torah Bright. Torah has done it all; Olympic Gold, multiple X-Games, US Open & DEW Tour championships, plus a heap of other incredible achievements including receiving Best Female Action Sports Athlete at the ESPY awards not to mention recently shooting a global IMAX feature with Jeremy Jones and now, her biggest achievement yet…Mother to her newborn son, Flow!
Torah’s an amazing advocate for snowboarding in Australia, not only does she rip everything she rides – pipe, park, powder and hard packed Aussie ice, she’s also dedicated a lot of time giving back to the younger generations, passing on her skills, knowledge and stoke to hundreds of up and coming kids.
From the Torah Bright Mini Shred which is an event Torah created five years ago to inspire and excite Aussie kids to learn new tricks in a supportive environment and show that anything is possible with a positive attitude to the Roxy Girls Ride days where she leads a heavy pack of females for the day, hanging and encouraging girls to push past their boundaries. She’s always passed her wisdom down and now she’s got a new person to focus on and share the stoke – Flow.
Torah recently gave birth to Flow and has spent the winter season thus far nurturing him in Sydney, taking a break from the board to focus on being a mum. And what a mum she is! Torah was hoping to introduce Flow to the Snowy Mountains this season, playing it by ear to see if the timing worked out.
The other week she gave us a call and said it was game on. Flow was healthy and ready to explore. Torah and her husband were taking Flow on his first road trip to the Snowy Mountains, showing him Torah’s backyard where she grew up and taking him for his first shred and snow experience. What better way to catch up with Torah and meet the little guy than picking them both up for the day for a mission.
We kicked things off in Jindabyne where we picked up Torah and Flow. It was another early start, hoping to make it up for first lifts. We were tired eyed on the way out to collect them, Torah on the other hand was beaming and all ready to go. She’d been up since 4:30am with Flow – the reality of being a mum to a newborn baby started to somewhat sink in. How did she have so much energy still? Something secret perhaps in that YETI cup of hers?
Once we caught up on everything, put the boards on the roof and packed the car, we were missing one important thing, Flow. Torah before bringing him out, handed over the baby seat to set up in the Ford Ranger. Piece of cake, looks simple. After about the twentieth attempt at trying to install the thing, Torah came to the rescue – getting it all setup in a matter of minutes. Once we had it all safe and secure, it was time to meet Flow. He was just waking up, eyes barely open. So rad to meet Torah’s son and amazing to see Torah juggle her snowboard in one arm and Flow in the other!
On the drive up to Thredbo, we caught up on all things life. How stoked Torah is to now be a mum and even more excited to move into this new phase of life whilst snowboarding – getting to show Flow all the incredible spots and places to ride, sharing time on snow together. Torah gave us the lowdown on her taking Flow heli-boarding when she was 20 weeks pregnant, scoring pow turns already…amazing. Meanwhile Flow was straight chilling in the back, taking in the sights of the Snowy Mountains and the sounds of the luxurious purr of the Ford Ranger.
Once we arrived in Thredbo, there were a few more things we had to do in the carpark before we could get to the lifts – breast feed, nappy change, outfit change and find dad to look after Flow, while we aimed to get as many hot laps in as possible before Flow finds out mum’s bailed. A bit of a reality check – not as simple as boot up and straight to the lifts. Torah nailed it like a pro, first lifts were still on the cards.
Dad minded Flow for a couple hours, and it was time to go shred. The mission was to get in as many runs as possible with Torah’s small window of time – 2 hours. It was Torah’s first day riding the resort, previous to that she took Flow for his first ever snow adventure a few days prior – hiking up Dead Horse Gap and casually riding down with him…a pretty rad introduction to snowboarding. He was stoked.
We headed straight to the top of the mountain and Torah was on a mission, barely keeping up with her – it was rad to see Torah back in her element smiling, stoked and shredding. It was full spring vibes up at Thredbo, to make the most out of it we had our eyes peeled for poppers, banks and berms – throwing up as much snow as possible and edging as hard as we could. Incredible to see Torah just ride the resort, the level of board control is unbelievable. She was carving her heart out for 2 solid hours.
Once the 2 hours were up, we managed to squeeze in one last run before meeting Flow and the family at the base of Merritts. Upon arrival, we struggled to find them amongst the crowd – but Torah’s newly formed Mum skills tracked them down in a second and Flow was back in Torah’s arms for another feed and hang. As an outsider, I couldn’t believe it. From 4:30am that day Torah had been up and at it, it was around lunchtime and she was still full of stoke, ready to attend to Flow after her shred. Very cool.
We said our goodbyes, one final hug with Flow and it was back to the car. As we were packing up the car, in Torah’s good humour she’d left a little suprise for us to enjoy at the end of the day…Flow’s dirty nappy. Thanks Torah!
Huge shout-out to our partners for making these winter missions possible! It’s a pretty crazy time right now to be supporting a travel series and it’s rad to see brands we love, support what we love. Thanks to Ford Australia for the wheels, Go Pro for all the cameras, YETI for all the gear, Tourism Australia for the get around knowledge and Pirate Life for the frothies to end the day in style.
