A quick catch up with the one and only Shelly Gotlieb
As you can see Shelly’s never been one to blow her own horn, but luckily she has lovely friends like me that insist on harassing her for interviews and portraits so that I can show everyone just how amazing she is.
Shelly has had an amazing competition season over the past year. It started with the Burton US Open where she placed 5th, and what you may not realise is that only a handful of Kiwi riders have ever even entered the US event, let alone placed in it. Shelly’s humble nature prevents her from sharing that her semi final score placed her third above a selection of the worlds top riders including Torah Bright and Kjersti Buass. Since then she has placed strongly in the NZ comps and is trailblazing her way to the top, following the competition road hardly touched by New Zealand riders, regardless of gender.
She has just secured an Invite to the X Games slopestyle – the first time a New Zealander has EVER been invited to the slopestyle discipline, this isn’t “kind of a big deal”. It is a really really big deal.
It needs to be noted that Shelly’s skills are not limited to competition, she is an all round strong rider and a force to be reckoned with no matter what path she chooses to pursue. I caught up with Shelly on her travels to see what’s next for this talented lady.
Shelly Gotlieb Photo by Pablo Azocar
Where is your Hometown?
Ohakune, NZ
What’s the best thing about your Hometown?
Its got a huge, crazy terrain filled Mountain to shred at it.
Where are you right now?
Ha, right now, at this point in exact time I am in Alabama (for Christmas holiday). Funny huh? But I am based in Breckenridge Colorado for this season, I’ll be back there in a few days.
It has been interesting few years for you, tell us about placing in the 2009 Burton US Open?
Yeah, well I kinda blew it at the US Burton Open after doing so well in the semis, in the finals I got a bit ahead of myself and lost a little focus. I knocked myself out in the first of my finals run and can’t remember the rest of the day but apparently I got up and did my other 2 runs. Managed to finish 5th overall but if I was “there” a little more, I think I could have done much better. This comp was against the best girl pros in the world and I did rather well considering, so I thought maybe should keep on this comp direction and see where It could take me.
Shelly Gotlieb Photo by Kyle Cooper
You have a pretty busy schedule over the next few months, tell us about that?
I do have a pretty large comp season ahead of me. I want to do the Burton Open series but also I’ve been working on trying to obtain an invite to the X Games, but all that work just paid off and I got the invite on Christmas Day here in the States so it’s official, first kiwi slopestyle rider to get invited to the X Games! It’s kinda now or never, so I decided its NOW time.
What are you hoping to achieve from this intense comp schedule?
After the Burton Open in NZ I thought the whole series would be a smart thing to do as you can not only win prize money for each stop – NZ, Europe, Canada and US – but there is also an overall title for the series with $50,000 USD for first prize, so the goal is to get a good overall score. Also I want to bump up my TTR ranking with these events and go for the TTR title as well. I’m like 10th right now. I get to travel to new places and shred everyday so I am killing like 4 birds with one stone, kinda.
I also hear you probably couldn’t have committed to all these comps without the help of your hometown. What’s the story there?
Yeah, how’s this: To do all these comps it was going to cost a lot of money. I don’t get the same funding (from the government) as some of the other top snowboarders in New Zealand as my discipline (Slopestyle) is not in the Olympics and therefore I don’t get any help to compete in the top slopestyle comps (X Games) as “Olympics is considered the best/most important”. The town of Ohakune got together and decided to put on a fundraiser for me. They had donated goods from my sponsors and the local businesses and there was so much stuff, we had a party and an auction and the whole town came out for the night, it was fun! The generosity from the Ohakune people was amazing; they raised $10,000 dollars for my trip. More than amazing from such a small town, I am so super proud to be from the middle North Island small country/ski town of Ohakune.
Shelly Gotlieb, Cardrona Photo by Pablo Azocar
Where is the next plane you board about to take you?
I am off to Salzburg Austria for the Roxy Chicken Jam, and then a train will take me to Laax Switzerland for the European Burton Open. EXCITED!
What riders do you look up to?
All my friends, really corny but awfully true.
Who makes all this possible ?
The Town of Ohakune, Powderhorn Chateau, Mt Ruapehu, Cardrona, Burton NZ, Mountain Dew, Health 2000 Wanaka, Grenade, Robett at Nzsnowboard.com, Chop, Madwax, Mons Royale, Anon, Quest Queenstown, Export 33, Customstickers.co.nz and my sister Rachel.
http://www.mountaindew.co.nz/dew-team/shelly-gotlieb-snowboarder/
If you would like to do your bit to help Shelly out, go to www.customstickers.co.nz