Boy-riding

>> Female teen sensation snowboards up a fuss

by CHRIS BARRYOR

Move over Ross Rebagliati. In the three years since first strapping herself onto a snowboard, 17-year-old Michelle Ford has gone from shy rookie to becoming one of the most promising female boarders in the country. “The thing about Michelle,” says Scott Arkin, owner of the Diz Snowboard shop in Montreal West and one of Ford’s current sponsors, “is that she’s young and crazy and has absolutely no fear. She rides like a boy.” Words which, in the world of snowboarding, are meant to be taken as the highest praise.
A natural athlete and former star gymnast, Michelle in conversation is modest about her abilities and insists, in spite of all the accolades she’s been getting over the past year, that her primary goal is to continue having fun with the sport. “One of the main reasons I stopped doing gymnastics is because after a while it felt like I wasn’t doing it for myself anymore, but for all these other people instead,” says Ford. “It got to the point where I started to hate gymnastics. I don’t want the same thing to happen with snowboarding—I love the sport too much to have it ruined for me this way.”
But that might prove to be something of a challenge. Ever since she wowed spectators with her performance at the Molson Pro Export Competition at Mont Tremblant last year, she has been bombarded with sponsors eager to get their hands and brand names onto a piece of her teenage action. “Suddenly all of these companies started giving me free stuff and everything. It was weird.”
Going into only her fourth season as a boarder, Michelle’s immediate goal is to take a stab at getting onto the Canadian National team when they hold their tryouts at Mont Tremblant this March. “I’m doubtful that they’ll take me because I’m so new to the scene. But that’s okay, if I only get onto the Quebec team that will be pretty rad too.”
Arkin is more confident. “Listen, the way Michelle is heading, in two or three years from now she is going to be one of the top female boarders in the country. Don’t forget, she’s still really young and has excelled incredibly in a very, very short period of time. You know, people who have been riding for years start giving up on trying to do the impossible, but Michelle pushes it every time and refuses to limit herself. There’s no doubt in my mind she is headed for the Olympics, and when she gets there, believe me, she is going to turn some heads.” :