Haven’t heard of Maggie Leon? Well, you have now and she’s sure to be sticking round for a while. The 24 year old street destroyer is one of Burton’s up and coming snowboarders plus one of their key product innovation engineers…talk about two hats! We caught up to chat before the online premiere for ‘SCURVY’ drops, which Maggie features in. Remember crew – premiere is this Thursday night at 7:30pm on our site!
Transfer: Maggie! How’s things? Where about’s are you right now?
Maggie: Hey! I’m in Burlington, VT and just got back from the beach. We were messing around with our winch and towing each other in on some boards haha. So fucking fun.
Is the season done over there now? No more snowboarding?
Yeah everything’s pretty much gone. There’s a couple patches left at Killington Resort but they won’t let you ride it.
Is that because of the COVID restrictions still in place?
Yep I think so.
How was it filming with the SCURVY crew this winter? Have you been filming in the streets for a while now?
It was great! I only went on the Sudbury trip but it was really productive. I’ve been filming street for about 3 years now with our crew, Spotheads. It was definitely a different experience to film with a whole groups of guys that I haven’t met before. But once I started riding with everyone at the down bar spot everything clicked and I felt super comfortable. Everyone on the trip was so sick.
It seems like there’s way more females getting stuck into filming street specific parts now – both pro and not pro! And the level of riding is mind blowing…Are you seeing more and more females getting out of the park and taking it into the streets?
Oh yeah, for sure! I honestly haven’t really filmed with many other girls yet but I’ve definitely noticed that more girls have been getting after it. It’s great.
Rad. So what do you get up too when your not riding?
I skate a lot and play with my dog Snoopy! Haha I do a bunch of random stuff. I also work at Burton which has been amazing! I started a year from today actually.
What’s your role at Burton?
My old title was ‘associate innovative prototyping engineer’ and now I work as a ‘design engineer’.
I basically used to work in a giant room filled with various types of 3D printers but now I’m the one designing the parts that are going to be made in production.
So you film video parts in the streets with some of the best riders in the scene and are also an engineer?! I heard whispers you were engineering products for people with prosthetics?
Yeah! I’m so grateful to work for a company that allows me to do both. As an engineer we do a lot of field testing, as in everything needs to be tested on snow. We have an SLS machine that sinters a nylon material and allows us to actually test and ride the prototypes and really embrace the ‘rapid’ in rapid prototyping. It’s awesome. I love being able to have a say in how to directly improve the particular part that I’m testing.
For my senior design project at the University of Vermont I led a team of 4 engineers and we worked to optimize the Step On system to eliminate as many compromises that the adaptive rider has to make for able bodied equipment. It’s been really amazing working with all different types of riders – above the knee, below the knee, double amputees, and people with upper limitations also.
Amazing stuff. So…when are you coming out to Aus or NZ to ride?
Hopefully soon!! I’d love to
We can’t wait to see the film this Thursday night. Let us work on getting you a flight over to visit in the meantime. Thanks Maggie!
Fuck yes! Thanks for the invite…I’ll definitely take you up on that.
