Girls Go Shred: Come For the Community, Stay for the Karaoke

When someone brings up North Carolina, I’m not thinking of snowboarding. I’m not thinking of much, to be honest, because I’ve never been there. It wasn’t until a few years ago I even realized there were resorts in North Carolina. I’m Canadian, so I’ll give myself a pass. The Great White North has its fair share of modest resorts, some formed by ditches or landfills, and many the result of grassy bumps. What these wee mountains always seem to have is a whole lot of heart. It’s the small town resorts that give off a neighborly feel, replete with endless high fives and local legends. I can’t speak personally about what goes on at the quaint North Carolina resorts–though I’ve heard from friends that this region is a destination I need to check out–and I can say that Girls Go Shred is keeping the small snowboarding town charm alive with their women’s snowboard meet-ups and après karaoke sessions. Kristen Gray, founder of Girls Go Shred (GGS) gave some time to talk about what lights up the slopes of Beech Mountain.

Can you provide an introduction to yourself and what brought you to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina? My name is Kristen Gray, Krispy to my friends and sometimes even customers. I was born and raised in central New York. While I was growing up, my dad was a ski patroller at our local mountain. My older brother, Jeff, and I spent every weekend on the hill. Our local resort, Greek Peak, was a small mountain in Virgil, NY which is about as lively as the name suggests. My brother and I both started on skis, but he quickly switched to snowboarding and inspired me to do the same when I was 12. I’m not sure my dad–a lifelong skier–was thrilled at the idea of both of his kids snowboarding, but he let it happen. Here we are decades later, and my dad has a Girls Go Shred sticker and an Edge of the World Snowboard Shop (which famously claims to never sell skis) sticker proudly displayed on his truck. After getting a degree in film production, I decided to go the complete opposite direction of Hollywood and move to a tiny mountain town to work in snowboarding. I moved to Banner Elk, North Carolina in 2013 to work at Edge of the World Snowboard Shop with my brother, who had been running the shop since 2007. I am now the manager of operations and queen of stickers. This season will be my eleventh winter at the shop.

How long has Girls Go Shred been around?
Girls Go Shred (GGS) was founded in 2015 and is coming up on its ten-year anniversary. I started an entire company because I had no friends. It’s funny…but it’s kind of true and not embarrassing at all, ha.

How did it start and what resorts do you base your meet-ups out of?
I was on the chairlift at Sugar Mountain, chatting with my brother one day. I was telling him that I was bummed about how hard it was to meet women in the area as an adult, especially women who snowboard. For my first two seasons at Edge of the World, I was riding with everyone who worked there, which was a bunch of guys. Riding with all the guys is absolutely fine and we love guys that support girls (they are definitely some of Girls Go Shred’s biggest supporters), but sometimes you just want to take some laps with just the lassies.

Haha, that is the truth.
My brother and I started brainstorming on the lift and we came up with the idea that started it all. We posted on the shop’s Facebook page for all snowboarding girls in the area to meet up one evening at Sugar Mountain. I posted a picture of my jacket and said, “Come find me on the hill!” We had over 100 women respond to the post. At that point, I knew the gals were out there. We just needed to find each other. After that, we just kept doing meet-ups on the slopes and the rest is history.

Throughout the years, we’ve had events at the three resorts in our area, Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain and Appalachian Ski Resort. Every season varies a bit with what type of events we do and at which resort. We mostly partner with Appalachian and Beech these days. Appalachian has three awesome terrain parks and so we love to host park nights there. Beech has become a huge supporter of GGS over the years and they have allowed us to have a variety of events including ride days, park clinics, beginner camps, and more.

Who else is involved?
Over the years, I have been extremely lucky to have found a tight-knit group of four incredible women, Nat, Renner, Sally and Thalia, that I’ve met through Girls Go Shred events and Edge of the World, that really make it all possible. We have a group chat called Girls Go Shred HQ that is truly entertaining and slightly unpredictable, but it is always spitting out new ideas and ways we can improve. These ladies help with everything from graphic design to planning to coaching to social media. They are the backbone of Girls Go Shred.

The group chat is essential.
I also have an amazing community of women who work at the resorts in the area who give us opportunities to have events and build Girls Go Shred. Talia Freeman, the director of marketing at Beech Mountain, has always been a huge support and collaborator. Every single idea we have taken to her, she has found a way to make it happen.

My brother, Jeff Johnson, and Edge of the World Snowboard Shop have been supporting Girls Go Shred since day one. Jeff was instrumental in the creation of GGS and getting it off the ground. The staff over the years have gone above and beyond repping GGS merch, telling customers about us, working events, and handing out a ridiculous number of stickers.

We also collaborate a lot with our dear friend Ashley Galleher, the owner of Zionville Ramp Company, who built a skatepark in her backyard that she then turned into an entire skate park warehouse. She is single-handedly changing the women’s skate scene in the Southeast. We work together on crossover events and merging our two women’s communities on and off the hill. She also is the best park coach around and helps with our park clinics. It really does take a village and the GGS village is next level.

Amazing, what is the mission statement or objective?
Girls Go Shred strives to build an inclusive community of supportive women. We organize various local events typically centering around women’s snowsports creating opportunities for connection, empowerment, and skill-building while celebrating our shared passions and interests.

What value have you found that Girls Go Shred has contributed to the community? Was there something missing that GGS filled?
Girls Go Shred has given opportunities and made space for women to build a community where we feel supported and encouraged in snowsports. There were always women snowboarders in the area, but it was hard to find each other. It was also hard to find an environment in a male-dominated sport where women could connect and build skills. I think Girls Go Shred opened the door for the women that were always here and gave them a community and a place to grow their skills.

How was the season last year?
Last season was stellar! We are very fortunate that every season our community grows and our GGS family gets a little bigger. We introduced a brand-new beginner camp in partnership with Beech geared towards adult women who are just starting out in snowboarding. There was a need in our community for a comfortable place for women to take a first-time lesson with other adults. The women that came out had such an awesome passion for learning. We had women that had always wanted to learn, but never had the opportunity, women that were learning because their kids rode and they wanted to be able to be on the hill with them, and women that had taken a couple lessons but wanted a refresher to get a little more comfortable with their skills. We got super lucky and even had a snowstorm, so they were getting to learn on some fluffy stuff instead of our normal bulletproof East Coast ice. This event was a long time coming and several years in the making. We were so stoked we were able to make it happen.

Girls Go Shred also participated in a weekly adult race league at Beech Mountain. We went from having one team of six ladies our first year in 2021, to four teams this past season. When I started racing with Edge of the World in 2013, there were only two women snowboarders in the league. It’s amazing to see more gals participating each year. And now to have four women’s teams racing is absolutely incredible.

Sick, that sounds super fun. How has the community grown since the beginning?
The community has grown tremendously from the first Facebook post in 2015. We have been able to introduce new events each year and grow our sense of community in the area. We went from a small group meeting up at the mountain and taking a few laps together to structured clinics, huge ride days, and collaborations with local businesses and leading brands. It’s been great to expand our event calendar, but it has been so cool to watch the GGS family grow.

We are based out of a college town, so every year we have incoming students that join our family. However, we also have a lot of girls graduating and moving away each year. As sad as it is, it’s also so amazing to have parts of the GGS family all over the country and even the world. It warms my heart so much every time we get tagged in a photo or a sticker is spotted anywhere other than our little mountain town. What’s even more incredible is when someone spots someone else with a Girls Go Shred sticker or hoodie somewhere else in the world and they start chatting or go ride together or even just say, “Hey, cool sticker.” Every single time I see a sticker somewhere or someone sporting GGS merch, it puts the biggest smile on my face. It’s the coolest thing and I’ll never get over it.

You’ve done some collaborative events with Save A Brain, how did that get off the ground?
I met Kelsey Boyer, the founder of Save A Brain, at Dew Tour in 2021. Our paths kept crossing at Beyond the Boundaries Women’s Park Camps over the next couple years. I had a goal to host a fundraiser to support a non-profit within the snowsports realm. I loved the mission of Save a Brain, so last March, Girls Go Shred hosted a fundraiser at one of our favorite bars in town. Our local community and Southeast brand reps were incredibly supportive, and tons of businesses donated items for a raffle to raise money. It was such a fun night with the largest crowd Girls Go Shred has ever seen. We are working together this year to incorporate their programming in our events to spread awareness and knowledge about traumatic brain injuries and the long-term effects. We hope to host another fundraiser together later this season.

Stoked to see what’s next there. You’ve also been able to partner with a fair amount of brands like Burton and Roxy. What’s it been like to build those partnerships, being a small group from a lesser known mountain?
The average person probably doesn’t know that you can snowboard in North Carolina, let alone know that there is a thriving community of riders down here. It has been over-the-moon awesome to collaborate with some of the biggest brands in snowboarding. I have been lucky to be able to form relationships with snowboard brands through my position at Edge of the World over the years. They have been very receptive to all our ideas and are always on board to do what they can to support us and further the mission of Girls Go Shred. Our local Southeast reps are the best and always volunteer to provide not only funding and product, but their time to come out to events, chat with the ladies who come, and even coach. It’s been amazing to have the support of these brands for events, but it’s also amazing to be recognized for our mission. It not only helps us tremendously to put on more events and reach more people, but it is helping all the other women’s communities in snowboarding as well.

What’s a typical meet-up look like?
We have a few different types of on snow events that we do, so every one looks a little different.

For our park clinics, we work with the park crew to build a private park with progression-friendly features for all ages and skill levels. The park can be a very intimidating place. Growing up, I was massively intimidated by the park and was never brave enough to get in there and learn. It’s great to be able to provide a space just for the ladies where it’s expected to be a learning environment and takes some of the pressure off. We have gals that volunteer their time as coaches for these clinics. There are usually a lot of first timers that have never hit features before, so our coaches will give tips and work with anyone that would like help. A lot of times, the girls that come out to the event that are a little more experienced will also help the beginners. It’s a really awesome thing to be able to watch girls supporting girls and teaching each other even though they aren’t instructors. They are purely doing it to support each other. One of my favorite things that happens is when someone is learning something new. When they finally nail it, the cheers from the crew are awesome, but the eruption of cheers you get if you don't get it or fall is even louder. If you aren’t falling you aren’t learning, and with us if you’re falling, you get a soundtrack of ladies encouraging you along the way.

Haha, amazing.
At our adult beginner camp, we start the day with yoga and light stretching before we hit the slopes. We split up into small coaching groups based on skill level and comfortability. Throughout the day, we work on the fundamentals of snowboarding. I think it’s important to have a comfortable place for adult women to take a first-time lesson with other adults. We also do a mountain safety chat with a skier patroller–also known as my dad–to teach the responsibility code to make sure everyone is safe on the hill. We end the day with celebratory après in the lodge.

We have also partnered with Edge of the World and Burton for demo days for women’s-specific product. Buying snowboard equipment is an investment and it’s great to be able to arm yourself with all the information you can when buying your first board or even your fifth. We hope by hosting demos, women can learn a little more about the technology and different gear that is out there so they can make the best decision for themselves when it comes to buying a setup. Even if you are not buying, it’s fun to try the newest gear and see what you like!

Our ride days are super fun and very chill with no set schedule. We pretty much just ride together and spend the day on the hill making new friends. All skills levels and ages are welcome. A lot of times, because there are so many different skill levels, ladies will group up with people that are where they are at skill-wise or with a more advanced rider who can give them pointers. We will have a meeting spot where we can meet up throughout the day if groups have split off. Most importantly we love to do a party lap with all of the ladies, because there is nothing better than seeing dozens of women cruising down under the lift, hootin’ and hollerin’. We try not to take ourselves too seriously, because it’s all about having fun. However, we are very serious when it comes to breakfast and we love to start the day with a pancake tailgate in the parking lot.

Every event is different, but you can always expect a stellar playlist (we do take requests), a loud cheering section, marvelous vibes, and the raddest group of gals.

More importantly, what goes down at GGS karaoke nights?
I think karaoke might be synonymous with Girls Go Shred at this point. We do karaoke on Thursday nights at Beech Mountain after race league and Ladies Ride night. You can guarantee every single time you will hear Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. Sometimes it’s a solo, sometimes it’s a group number, but you can always count on all the ladies at the stage barricade, dancing and singing their hearts out, usually with chicken tenders in hand. We love it so much we named one of our race teams after the DJ who does the karaoke every Thursday. It is truly the best time.

Okay, I need to get out to one of those après sessions. Beech Mountain does 15-dollar lift tickets on Ladies Night. Is that something you initiated or is it something that Beech does regularly? How does that impact participation?
Beech Mountain started Ladies Nights with the discounted tickets before Girls Go Shred started in 2015. Since then, we’ve worked with the resort to help promote Ladies Night and we are usually there in full force for every one. We collaborate with the resort and Zionville Ramp Company to expand Ladies Night to include private park clinics with coaches, beginner lessons, and growing the female presence in the Thursday night race league. Snowboarding is an expensive sport and Beech Mountain is creating a way for more people to get on the hill and participate. Not only those who already ride, but beginners who want to try the sport with a price tag that’s not so hard to swallow. We need more women in snowboarding, and this is a great way to get more on the hill!

Also, they have a four hour lift ticket for $40! That needs to happen more.
Yes. Period. No notes.

Beyond snowboarding, what do you think GGS has brought to the community?
The thing I love most about Girls Go Shred and the community that we’ve built, is it does extend beyond the winter season. It is a space simply for women to meet other women and build friendships through our shared passion for snowboarding. That can transcend snowboarding to genuine friendships off the hill, as well. I’ve met some of my best girlfriends through Girls Go Shred. I met a girl at an event years ago who I later ran into at the US Open, which turned into me moving in with her for a year in Colorado and now she is one of my best friends. The scope of these connections is crazy. Women are building relationships beyond our events. They are riding together outside of GGS, planning trips out West, hanging out in the summertime and meeting up in their home cities off the mountain. It’s incredible.

With summer coming to an end, what’s next for GGS? Are you planning for winter already?
The Girls Go Shred HQ crew are already planning for the upcoming season. We are working with Beech to bring back all our favorite events, like the beginner camp, park clinics, race league, and more. We also already have a date on the calendar for our Ladies Park Night at Appalachian. The hope is to take our favorite past events and make them bigger and better this season. We are striving to give the GGS community the best days on the hill that we possibly can. There may even be a new event or two in the works as well, *hint hint*. We will be announcing our winter schedule soon on our website and Instagram. We are so stoked for this season and can’t wait to get the gang back together. Most importantly, we are working on perfecting our karaoke setlist and choreography. Thursday nights aren’t ready for us.

How do you see GGS growing or evolving?
I would love to see Girls Go Shred growing within our local community and expanding the network of women who we have in the Southeast. On top of that, there are so many women’s communities like Girls Go Shred throughout the country and even the world. We all have a similar mission to create a space for women to connect through a passion for snowboarding. It would be incredible to create an international network of women connected through our interests in snowsports that can support each other on and off the hill. The snowboard industry is so heavily dominated by men and we have to remember that we, as women, have a place here. Girls Go Shred is such a small piece of the world, but with a message that is vital to spread. We are all about women supporting women, not just in snowboarding, but in life. That is an important message for people to hear, especially the younger generations of girls coming up behind us. We need to take up space and if we are all working to create space for women in snowboarding, I think that we could make a huge impact. Whether that’s designing snowboard gear that is more inclusive for women, creating career opportunities in the industry, or simply making women feel safe and welcoming more into snowboarding. I would love nothing more than to see all these communities flourish and connect to work towards this goal.