What Women Competing in Red Bull Joyride Slopestyle Means to Me

When Kathi Kuypers dropped into the Crankworx Joyride course, I was standing in a crowd of folks shuffling for footing in an uneven patch of dusty grass between course sections. “Look look look!” A mom put a hand on her son’s shoulder and pointed. “That's the first girl to do Joyride!”

I had spent the morning chatting with the younger end of the fan base spectrum and I felt giddy: none of the groms in the crowd would grow up in a world without female role models in the upper echelons of freeride. As Kathi was followed by Lisa-Marie, Natasha, Haz, Alma and Shealen, the world shifted: for the girls in the audience, they were now going to come of age within a bike industry that had finally started to assume their presence, rather than their absence, in everything from training camps, to pro teams, to film locations. Their dreams could be as big as the hits at Joyride, their aspirations as lofty as the start gate at Rampage.

Take Annabelle, perched on her dad's shoulders, housing fruit snacks, while her toddler sister Sofia wobbled around below. "We got up early to ride," her dad had explained to me. "Now we're here watching. It's so cool to see the girls ride!" Annabelle nodded. "I like bikes," she stated matter of factly, as Crankworx confirmed that was a perfectly acceptable thing for her to love.

Or Alexa, sporting a fresh Joyride ball cap, and her younger sister Kaia, sitting with two friends pulling pieces off a fresh cinnamon roll as they waited for the event to start. “I’m mostly excited to see the women,” said Alexa, who looked about twelve. “Yeah, I just want to see everyone do tricks,” said Kaia, who was maybe eight. “I want to do that someday too, I think," she said as she licked icing off her fingers, no doubts in her mind that that was an option, should she continue to pursue want it.

After Kathi finished her historic run, I introduced myself to mom. "I'm Blake!" her son interrupted, grinning from his vantage point in her arms, where he waved a cowbell around at random and explained all the tricks he already knew how to do on his bike. “I’m gonna be in Crankworx next year, when I’m six,” he said with absolute confidence.

Mom, who introduced herself as Kayla when Blake finally paused to catch a breathe, laughed - but I got the sense it was more in anticipation of what was to come than disbelief. “His uncle got him into the sport but I’m learning too now because of it. My goal is just to be able to keep up on blue trails.”

I told Kathy I, too, was an adult-learner, and that I had every confidence in her ability to thrive as a mountain biker. Blake offered encouragement as well, thanking Kathy (in a very wholesome moment) for being fun, for letting him ride bikes, and for bringing him to Joyride.

After the event had wrapped, and Alma, Natasha and Shealen took their respective places on their first, second and third-place podiums, I touched base with Kathi to ask what it was like to have her spot in the lineup. She seemed as emotional as me: “I have watched Joyride since I was a kid, so being the first woman down the hill? I have no words for how that feels."

"I was only called to be an alternate eight days ago," she continued, "and actually that was my first top to bottom because I had so much respect for the course." She took a minute to express relief at her safe arrival to the finish line, but remained focus on the bigger picture: "Little girls can now see what’s possible. I can’t wait to see all the little groms coming up - I mean, the girls next to me are already sending it super hard. “I’m just so proud!”

But as I walked back to my condo, to gear up for my own ride with gal pals who’d also made sure to be in that historic Joyride audience that morning, I found myself thinking about Kayla, actually, more than the groms - a woman whose young son was drawing her into a sport she hadn’t considered hers before now, who hadn’t grown up envisioning herself or people like her at an event such as Joyride, but who was embracing it regardless.

“The future is bright for women,” Alma said right after being handed her gold medal. And it made me realized that maybe Kathy, even more than her son, to see Kathi drop in that day. This year’s event wasn’t just about future generations; it was also about the current generation, the women like Kathy, and, to a large degree, me, whose elation at watching Kathi drop in had a lot to do with feeling validated in our claims to mountain biking, despite any whispers of doubt, external or internal, that may have dogged us.

And that, for me, is what made this a most joyous of Joyrides indeed.