Ellie Weiler Got The Comeback She Didn’t Ask For

With a break from the FIS scene and a comeback from injury, Ellie Weiler swept up this season, claiming it as one of her best. Her intention was to take it easy, take a season off from the competitive circuit and see where things go. Her first week back on board set the tone for the winter as she picked up her bag of tricks exactly where she left off. Hailing from Highlands Ranch, Colorado and calling Copper Mountain her home base, Weiler has been competing since age ten. She said goodbye to competitive soccer in her teens, and her arsenal of inverts (she landed her first backflip at thirteen) is making up for her abandoned gymnastics career. Backed by Gnu, Bent Metal, ThirtyTwo, Gravitee Boardshop, and Purl, this past season has been one for the books. Ellie competed at the X Games, earned Subaru Rookie award at The Uninvited Invitational, and took the win at The Round Up hosted by Jill Perkins, as well as World Quarters hosted by Slush Magazine. - Ally Watson

Let’s talk about your season this year. You showed up in so many ways, won some stuff, gained momentum, and came back from a major injury.
It’s funny you say that because before the season I was like, “Oh, this is gonna be my easy comeback year.” Luckily everything I wanted to do I got to do. It was amazing. It was kind of the first season I didn’t compete, so it was really nice to not necessarily have to worry about getting a trick for a contest and have the pressure I normally have on myself. It was really fun to kind of get reacquainted with my snowboard. My tricks came back really quick. I never felt like I had to relearn anything. The easy comeback season spiralled into one of my best ev\

Sounds like you didn’t really have to ease into things. Can you share a bit about your injury and how the recovery went?
This is my second ACL tear of the right knee. My first one was in 2019 and I ended up snowboarding on it and having a good rest of the season, and then got surgery in April. So I have been through it before. The second one was a lot bigger of a procedure. I was in Saas Fe in October of 2022 and I overshot the last jump. There was some wind and I didn’t take a speed check and I ended up getting an x-ray because I thought my leg was broken. I chipped my tibial plateau but it was on the opposite side of where it really hurt and so I was like, That is not good.

Oh no.
When I got back to The States, I ended up getting an MRI. I tore my ACL, completely tore both menisci, partially tore my MCL, and my hamstring was partially torn or strained. I had a lot of bone bruising, which was the icing on the cake. It was some of the most bone bruising my doctor had seen, so that was fun. They had already taken my quad tendon from my right leg for the first ACL, and we ended up taking the quad tendon from my left leg. So, I had both knees opened up.

What was your PT approach like?
Yeah, so because of the menisci, you have to be locked out at zero for three months. So, I’d go to PT and when I’m wasn’t weight-bearing I could take the brace off and do some exercises. Try to bend it, try to straighten it. So, the initial getting the joint moving was pretty difficult. I worked with Tim Rutan at The Fitness Lab, and we used blood-flow restriction cuffs a lot.

I just did that today. It was kind of gnarly.
Yeah, it’s really interesting. The science behind it is really cool. I know a lot of people on the National Team. They have sports physios and stuff. I’m not on the US team. It’s kind of on your own, you gotta figure stuff out. So Tim was absolutely amazing. He doesn't ski or snowboard, so he was like, “We are going to make this up as we go.'' A lot of it was drills you do for any sport, agility-wise.

Yeah, and it’s so important to have a sport-focused PT, otherwise all they need to do is get you to normal daily function. If you want to be back to sport, it’s so much more in depth.
Yeah, so that was really nice too, because we all knew I had to get back to snowboarding shape. Just being able to walk and run a mile was not going to cut it. He went above and beyond and when I got my X Games invite, I went in and told Tim and everyone was just so stoked.

That’s so rad. What was your mental approach to recovery?
It’s funny because I tore it and had surgery and people would ask me, “Are you gonna snowboard again?” It never really occurred in my mind not to. It was like, here we go again . I’ve been through it before and I didn’t know it was going to be as big, but I was like, Okay, you’ve done it once, you can do it again. I knew it would be a longer process because it was the second one and with the first one, I was back on snow in eight months and I had a four week kind of get-back-into-it phase. This time, I got lucky with surgery being in November because that basically meant I had a full year before preseason. There wasn’t anything to rush back to. By the time the season came around, I was ready and it was kind of ramping up with everybody else, which was nice.

That is really nice.
Well, while I was injured, I definitely deleted Instagram for a bit because I couldn’t deal with looking at everybody’s best clips ever, you know?

It’s pretty brutal. Especially for you where before injury you were progressing at a really strong rate and then everything just stopped.
Yeah, I didn’t want to believe it. Mentality-wise, I was just kind of like, Okay you gotta do it. You know when people look at a feature and don’t want to hike i?t I’m the type of person that’s like, “I’m going to get two or three hits to every lap you do, so I’m gonna hike it.” I was ready to put in the work.

Did you have a coach this year?
This year, I did not. The coach I was working with, Josh Underwood, kind of retired from coaching, but when I got the X Games invite I was like, “Josh, we’re going.” I kind of forced him out of retirement for that one, but everything else was on my own. It was so cool.

Did he coach you through knuckle huck and the rail jam?
So, funny story about the rail jam. I got a text at about 8:30 the night before that was like, “Hey, do you want to do it?” I went, Oh. My. God. All my focus was on knuckle huck and I didn’t even go over to the rail jam set up until practice right before the event. I was just up there through the rail jam. It was like all of my friends. It was really cool, the first day of knuckle huck practice was also big air practice. So all of my favorite snowboarders were up there hitting the massive jump and I’m going off the knuckle, like, Oh my god. Everybody was so serious because you have to be when you’re hitting a jump that big, but it was definitely more fun than coaching. It was more like someone up there just to keep me grounded.

How was it to be part of the first ever women’s knuckle huck?
It was great. I kind of would like to go back and do it again since it was my first really big thing after coming back from the injury. I think I had all the tricks, I just didn’t land them. The whole experience was so amazing. I found out it was happening and I called [GNU women’s team manager] Barrett Christy on the phone and she didn’t pick up but I got her voicemail and I was like, “Barrett, I heard women’s knuckle huck is happening. How do I get into this? I want to do this.” So it was surreal to get the invite and to compete at the X Games because that, in my mind, is what every kid snowboarder dreams of.

Speaking of big contests, how was The Uninvited? You got the Rookie Award. That’s huge!
It was amazing. I got the invite while I was injured last year and decided to go, so I went with little crampons and poles to get up to the venue. I just watched everybody have a blast and it was so fun. This year they were doing a video contest to get people in from The United States. I actually DM’d Jess and was like, “Hey, do you want me to make a video or do you know if I’ll have an invite because I want to be there, but do you think I’ll make it?” So Jess texted me back and was like, “You’re good. I looked at your instagram, you’re in.” Being there was so amazing. I think we had more women at The Uninvited than people at World Quarters. So being surrounded by that many women throwing down and you see one person do something and you’re like, I think I could maybe do that. Everything was built perfectly. I can’t give enough shout outs to The Uninvited team.

Amazing, so stoked for you. And you won Jill’s event and then World Quarters.
Yeah, I’m kind of like, Maybe I should be a pipe rider. Ha.

Haha, it seems like it. You said this was supposed to be your kind of reset year, do you think having that calm, no-expectations mindset helped you just kind of get into a groove in those contests?
Yeah, I think so. Those contests don’t even feel like contests. Even The Uninvited, you know it’s so different being up there in a bib having a starter tell you to go. Like a normal FIS contest day for me was “hurry up and wait, okay get in line, wait your turn.” The run is, at most, a minute-and-a-half long. It’s a lot for a little. Where Jill’s event, The Uninvited, and World Quarters, you can hit it as much as you can, as fast as you can hike or take the lift, you can do as many runs as you want. I’ve never been the most consistent snowboarder, but I can do a lot of things sometimes. Having multiple attempts is a good plus for me.

Yeah, for sure, the jam style helps build energy and is encouraging for everyone to try stuff.
Totally, I kind of go back to that first X Games practice where I was the only one hitting the knuckle and everybody else was so serious and it was just like, you could feel the tension almost. Then at Jill’s event, we’re all hiking the minipipe and someone does something cool and you see it and it’s awesome. At The Uninvited and World Quarters, there's something about being able to hike and see everybody. And yeah, it is a contest, but you’re also cheering for everybody and it’s really cool.

That’s awesome, do you see yourself going back to FIS contests?
That’s a question right there. I was thinking about it all season because I did want to do the Mammoth World Cup, but the timing didn’t work out. At that point I was just like, Okay, I’ll focus on X Games and I didn’t hit any big jumps, so we’ll see if I want to hit a big jump next year and that will dictate getting back into contests or not.

You coached at Beyond The Boundaries this year too. What value do you feel that brings to you and to others?
I started coaching soccer by managing a team in high school and it spiralled from there, which was amazing. So, transitioning that to snowboarding was a no brainer. I’ve always loved what BTBounds stands for and does because riding park can be so intimidating. I just love the idea of like, Hey this is a safe space and people are gonna help teach you. Like why wouldn’t you do that? I talked to Christine [Savage] about getting involved the year I was injured and so this year I ended up going to New Jersey with them. The vibes are so great and there’s just kind of the same feeling when the campers land a trick that I feel when I land a trick. It’s so amazing. You see someone work so hard for that goal they came into the camp with and it's just amazing to see everybody smiling and working hard and laughing and cheering each other on for the tricks that they want to do.

So for summer, it sounds like you're heading off to Hood soon. What’s next for that and looking ahead to next winter?
Yeah! I’m working as a medic driver for six weeks. I’m really excited for that. I’ve done a really bad job of planning for next year, but I would love to get into the streets a little and more into the backcountry. I was talking to Barrett Christy and I was like, “I feel like I’m kind of a jack of all trades and I don’t know if it’s great or bad, but I’m keeping my options open.”

I think that’s great, and more and more people are able to ride a bit of everything now.
Yeah, look at Zoi. I’m just saying yes to opportunities and listening to my body. I kind of liked this little downtime off where I had a super busy April, no, March…was it April? I need a calendar, ha. It was Jill’s event that led to Bomb Hole Cup, then Uninvited, then Home Break with Taylor Gold in Steamboat, then World Quarters. It’s been nice to have a month to recoup and nurse some little injuries. It's a different speed than I was going at, and it's been super fun to do that, but I'm definitely ready to get back on snow. It's been a good break but one that I'm ready to end.

Yeah, totally. And summer boarding is always the best.
Slushboarding is gonna be amazing.

That'll be awesome. Hopefully there's a good season up there. Thanks, Ellie.