Christina Chappetta - Turning Chaos Into Something Beautiful

A hurricane, a borrowed hardtail, and a one-way shot to Whistler, this week’s episode is with Christina Chappetta, a former Enduro World Series racer who’s built her path in mountain biking the hard way.

From growing up in Louisiana to discovering the mountains in Colorado, Christina shares how a mix of curiosity, injuries, and obsession led her into the sport. What started with no gear and no real plan quickly turned into full immersion, chasing seasons, living out of a tent in Whistler, and saying yes to every opportunity that came her way.

We get into the realities of building a career in the bike world, from shop life to racing Enduro at a high level, and eventually stepping into media with Pinkbike before moving into storytelling with Anthill Films. There’s a lot in here about progression, setbacks, and figuring things out as you go.

We also talk about creativity, coaching, and what it actually takes to make content that connects, not just with experienced riders, but with people just getting into the sport.

This one’s raw, honest, and a reminder that there’s no straight line into this industry, just a willingness to commit, adapt, and keep showing up.

If you’re into mountain biking, racing, or carving out your own path in the outdoor world, this one’s worth a listen.

Share it with your riding crew, hit follow, and tell us where you want to ride, the next chapter starts right now.

• Get in touch via my Instagram
• Hosted and Produced by Jarrad Connolly

Transcript

Meet Christina Chappetta

Jarrad 0:00

Today's guest has built a path the hard way. From the flatlands of Louisiana to becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the mountain bike media. Welcome to the podcast, Christina Chappetta. She's a former World Enduro series racer, a bike shop menace, and has worked with Pink Bike on many projects. Now continuing her storytelling with Ant-Hill film. But more than anything, it's how she got there that really stands out. From learning to ride through mountain bike movies to living out of a tent in Whistler to carving a way into the industry. She's taken hits, reset, and keeps showing up to push it further every time. In this episode, we get into racing, media, storytelling, and why at its core, mountain biking is still all about having fun. This is a really honest one, and a good reminder that there's no perfect path. Just one that you're willing to commit to. Enjoy the listen.

Christina 1:15

Thanks for coming all the way to Whistler to come chat with me.

Jarrad 1:18

Yeah, thanks for thanks for inviting me into your house. Like it's not not often we do it in this way, but uh I know I did sort of second guess it a little bit after the fact.

Christina 1:27

I was like, wait a second, I've never met this guy um in person and he's just gonna come to my house in Whistler, but I'm glad you're here.

Jarrad 1:34

It honestly surprises me, and this is full side topic right now, but surprises me how many people when I'm like, hey, you should come do the podcast, and I've like never met them, and they're like, Yeah, sick, let's do it. Where's your where do you do it? I'm like, Yeah, just do it at my house. I'm like, the amount of people that just like are willing to come to my house and just sit down and chat is just crazy.

Christina 1:56

I know I should have made you sign a contract because I'm like, I got my bikes here, he met my dog, like, yeah.

Jarrad 2:02

This is a lot already. It's all right. I promise friendship. I promise I'm safe. Um my face is online enough to people know, so exactly. I think it's fine. Uh how's your day? What'd you get up to?

Christina 2:12

Uh today is Tuesday. I worked from home in Whistler today and uh had a couple meetings this morning. It was a pretty uneventful day, I gotta say. And then I had to clean my house real quick because you were coming. So yeah, hopefully I'll get out later, go for a dog walk, something like that.

Jarrad 2:31

Yeah. Chill. Bit of a relaxing day then.

Christina 2:34

Yeah. Tuesday's usually like my off day from crazy activities. So this this works out. Nice. Holding me to it.

Jarrad 2:42

Perfect perfect day for a conversation. Exactly. Tea. Um, wow, that's a that's an interesting mug.

Christina 2:50

I just got this for my birthday from my partner. Oh, lovely. Sam, yeah. It's a local artist. I don't know who, but nice.

Jarrad 2:58

Um before we came on, one question you asked me was like, why did I pick you to come on? And my answer was because you have such an interesting story. I feel like it never was similar to anybody else. Like the way you where you grew up, where you lived the first few months in Whistler, from what I understand to to where you are now. I feel like there was a lot of just like I don't want to call it like hope and luckiness, but there it feels like there was just like so many cool little stories and tidbits that went along with that. Um and then the other thing was like we can get into the whole pink bike thing later, but like we're just saying how like pink bike hosts kind of just disappear, and then where do they go after that? If you're not a big online presenter or someone like Henry or even Jason for that matter, where they're still intermingling with social media and stuff. I feel like there's just like you kind of just disappear.

Louisiana Roots And Katrina Escape

Christina 4:02

Um this is literally my first like public uh talking moment, I guess. Kind of since then. So yeah.

Jarrad 4:10

So the first thing I want to ask you about is where you were born, like Louisiana, like deep south. I've been down there once and it was insane. We visited America, well, when was that? Like 2017, I think it was. Sick. And we had a few days left at the end of our trip, so we flew across there from California, went to the like the swamps, hung out on the the big like what do you call the fanboats? What are the like the big fanboats? Yeah, like every boat, yeah. Yeah, everyone knows what I mean by that. And there was like the guy literally looked like he was straight out of like swamp things or whatever it is, like it's crazy. Probably how how is that growing up?

Christina 4:52

Like to I love that you just found yourself in Louisiana, first of all, and then that from Australia of all places, you're like, I'm gonna go here on the map. Um, because yeah, I mean, we live in a beautiful part of Canada, and Louisiana's totally opposite as far as like everything. Yeah, um, the people are super lovely, but yeah, the terrain and the culture, yeah, it's all very, very much quite different. Like, so the crazy story was um basically I grew up in Louisiana. Um, I moved to Kansas in 2005, it was, um, when Hurricane Katrina happened. And then that was like the thing that kind of literally rocked my world in a way that just changed the total trajectory, you know. Like when you go up, grow up in a place, especially a small town, um, you've got, you know, huge family down there. Um, not a lot of people leave the South because I mean, why would you? It is great after all. But um, I got that opportunity to kind of get out at a still somewhat young age, like 17 years old, I think it was, 16 at the time. So um, yeah, that kind of set me on the path that I am now, which is crazy to think back at, honestly.

Jarrad 6:04

What what did pull you out? I don't know that story actually.

Christina 6:06

Um so Hurricane Katrina, big one of the biggest like hurricanes to hit Louisiana ever in the South, um, it just it shut everything down. And so my school that I went to at the time was like completely shut down. Um, lots of places were shut for like weeks and months, and you know, New Orleans is like pretty close by. It got hit really, really bad. Um, but that I was a junior in high school, so I just didn't want to mess around with my schooling. I was like, if there is any possibility that they're just gonna like tack on another year of school because, you know, because of this natural disaster, like I'm not having any of that. So um, yeah, I moved out and my mom at the time lived in Kansas, and so it was just the easiest, you know, kind of natural thing. And honestly, I thought it would be like really short term. Like I didn't go to Kansas thinking, like, oh, I'm gonna be hanging out here in the cornfields for the next while. I was kind of like, all right, I'm just here until the schools open up because you know, I'm a junior in high school, and I thought at that time I was like, I'm going to college, I'm gonna do this, that, and the other, and and yeah, that all changed too.

Jarrad 7:10

So from there, what took you because you weren't into bikes back then, I'm guessing.

First Mountains And Snowboarding Hook

Christina 7:16

No. Bikes were like, I didn't even know what mountain biking was. And so when I lived in Kansas, I still didn't know what mountain biking was, or gravel biking for that matter. Gravel biking's like insanely big there now. Um, but at the time I just did like team sports, played soccer. Um, and then my boyfriend in high school, his family went on a ski trip to Colorado and they invited me along.

Jarrad 7:37

Okay.

Christina 7:38

And and so again, I just like found myself in this crazy, you know, pretty random, serendipitous situation, if you will. And I got to go check out Colorado. And that was the first time seeing like mountains, um, you know, pretty much snow. Like I had seen snowflakes before, but I've never seen snow like that. And yeah, I was hooked. I was like, snowboarding's freaking hard, um, but I love it. And I kind of vowed at that moment, I was like, I'm gonna live here one day. And then a couple years later, I I did.

Jarrad 8:11

So what was that like? Because I know coming from Australia, like I grew up in a beach town, like there was six or seven surf beaches, white sand five minutes from my house. The biggest mountain was like 250 meters high. Massive, huge, absolutely huge, considering the mountain I ride on now is a thousand meters. Um, but what like when I moved here, we did the big road trip through the interior, and like those mountains were like breathtaking. So I could only imagine the same thing for yourself. Like, how was that?

Christina 8:42

Yeah, I mean, it was intense in that Colorado was very high elevation and it's hard to breathe. So it was like it was a lot to take in, but then it was also like physically really hard. Um and yeah, I remember like seeing the mountains for the first time and just like literally being blown away. I was just like, this is the coolest thing ever. I've lived in flatland my whole life, like it's cold in Kansas, it's beautiful and cold over here in Colorado. Why wouldn't I just go over there and do the things? And yeah, I mean, I went from like literally never hiking. I mean, there might be people that listen to this podcast that have never hiked before, and now having like lived this lifestyle, um, yeah, it's crazy to think about like people just don't know. Like, I grew up in a place where I didn't know like what was going on in the rest of the world. Yeah, we had beaches, it was great, like we just hung out there.

Jarrad 9:36

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I feel like I'm somewhat the same in Australia. Like, I did obviously do a lot of riding and racing and things like that, but at the same time, like hiking, you're only hiked to walk down the downhill trail to the beach. Well, to the beach, or like if you're doing a track walk, that was my hiking, and then moving here. Obviously, it's like if you're not riding your bike, you're pretty much hiking somewhere. Yeah, so it's like pretty crazy. So you started getting into snowboarding, things like that. Is that where the action sports sort of fever took off?

Leaving Team Sports For Joy

Christina 10:08

Ooh, yeah, for sure. Um, snowboarding was I guess I grew up playing a lot of team sports, you know. It was really about um, like soccer was my biggest thing, but football, baseball, basketball, like all those are the normal sports down south. And so the first time I went snowboarding, I was like, oh, this is this is totally an individual sport that you can do with friends that, you know, if you get good at it, you can go out on a POW day, and that's like a whole different experience in itself. And so yeah, I got like pretty hooked on that. I so much to the point where I kind of convinced my mom that I was moving to Colorado to go to college that just happened to be in a ski town. Um, but she knew she knew the plan all along. And and then yeah, I kind of got sucked into that. I mean, it's I honestly, I don't know that I would advise parents to let their like 18, 19-year-old kids go to another state to live by themselves um with other young adults and do these things. But I went to class, I did the thing, and and yeah, I got to snowboard all the time as a result. But that definitely kick-started the the adrenaline sports side of thing because you just don't get the same rush from like running around a soccer field, like it's fun, yeah, but it's not the same.

Jarrad 11:20

Yeah, I had the same conversation with Elliot Jameson, and he was saying like he was big in hockey, doing all the hockey things, and then he realized that like if the team didn't perform, but he did, he still had to do laps or he still had to do all the drills, and he's like, But I'm like literally doing everything I'm meant to be doing. Why am I being penalized? And it's like but then you do the like as you say, there's just no massive rush where you're in control of like your destiny if you want to go down that path. But that's a big word.

Christina 11:53

Um yeah, I think the dynamic of just being on a team too with that many players, it's like you're just you're dealing with a a little bit of drama at some point, and I think um most people in our communities will agree that like no, we do these activities, we bike, we snowboard, split board, like for the fun of it and for the love of it. We don't need to hang out with you know, people that don't bring us joy or add drama to our lives. Um, whereas on a team you're like, well, here we go, like we're all in it. So Yeah.

Jarrad 12:22

Yeah, I'd never actually thought of it that way. And I've always been I don't want to say anti-team sport because I love team sports, but I've never competitively really played them. Um I never thought of it in that way of like having to be forced to to hang out with somebody because you've just been selected to be put on that team, versus like going riding with your bodies or going to the snow or whatever. Like you get to choose who that is, and if you don't want to go with them, then you don't go. Yeah, that's interesting. I've never thought of it.

The First Bike Light Switch

Christina 12:57

Which is probably why it's so good for kids. We're going off on a full-side tangent here, but the more I think about it, the more I'm like, actually, that's exactly why kids should do team sports because you don't get to you don't get to pick always the people you work with or whatever. So yeah. Um I am thankful for those experiences, but I'm happy to be where I am for sure.

Jarrad 13:16

So where where did bikes come into it?

Christina 13:20

Yeah, so bikes uh they kind of came in as a secondary thing to snowboarding because my first couple years snowboarding, just like with biking, there was a lot of injuries, just like back to back to back. And it seemed like every summer I was just like rehabbing some injury to be ready again for the snow season in the winter. It was like this vicious cycle for a couple years. And then um everybody around me, like Colorado's quite well known for their, you know, super endurance type athletes. And so I saw the bike events going on. A bunch of my friends were biking in the summer, and I could never do it. A, because I couldn't afford a bike, but B, because I was just broken. And so finally, one summer, I was like, oh, I'm healthy, like I want to try this. And so I literally just borrowed my roommate at the time. She had a hardtail, and um, I went out and I was hooked, like literally immediately. I just remember it being a light switch moment, just like with snowboarding. I don't know if that says something about me, but I was like, cool, this is my lifestyle now. And I think it was either that summer, it's probably that summer, I went and bought like just a bunch of bikes, like super cheap bikes. Yeah, but just a bunch of them.

Jarrad 14:28

Yeah. I feel like, and I wonder maybe tell me if I'm wrong here, but I feel like a lot of people talk about the first time, let's call it as an adult, that they start to ride, or in that sort of like whatever that in-between period of being a teenager and an adult is, as whatever you want to call it. Yeah, um, but I feel like a lot of people talk about finding like a bit of independence and having like the ability to just like go out and do it themselves. Is that sort of where you think that came from? Like, I don't know. I'm just wondering if that's like what that light switch was. Because I've heard I've heard of people saying the same thing, and I'm like, I wonder why that is. If you've always like done team sports and done things because that's what was done, yeah, and now you've got the ability to just go and do whatever.

Christina 15:16

Yeah, I think like thinking about it makes me wonder if it's a nurture thing, you know. I was talking about nature versus nurture for some reason the other day, and that seems like to me, looking back on it, like I've just always been well, since moving to Colorado especially, I was surrounded by a lot of people that were just really keen, really outgoing, really just wanted to like share experiences with you, even if you were terrible at them. Like the people that I basically learned to snowboard with are like some of the best boarders ever. And they were just really nice. So I think for me, it was probably I was just in the right place and the right time with people that you know supported these ideas. And it's probably a byproduct of just living where we live, you know. If you live around these like-minded people, then you're probably gonna go, you know, do some stuff that maybe scared you before or you had no idea about. Like I literally climbed a 14 or a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado, like for my first hike ever, the week I moved to Colorado because of these people. So I kind of blame them actually. Yeah. But there's probably some sort of independence, like you know, having the courage to like move away from home. That was a big deal for me. I am kind of a mama's girl. And so yeah, having the courage to move away and then and then work up the courage to like try something new and like take it on. I think that all kind of goes hand in hand.

Jarrad 16:37

Yeah, a bit of a challenge and just yeah, character building.

Christina 16:41

Mm-hmm.

Jarrad 16:41

Character building for sure.

Christina 16:43

It'll show you what you're made of.

Jarrad 16:45

Yeah, definitely. So you got a handful of bikes, and then where did that take you and how and where did Whistler come from? Because I feel like Colorado has so much already. What made you want to come up here?

Why Whistler Became The Target

Christina 17:01

Yeah, it was very it was all very fast, to be honest. Like I got I got my handful of bikes in 2011, and then that summer, it was just like again, I'm surrounded by these people that I just meet, I don't even know, on buses and stuff. And so um I got kind of um taken into this group of bikers, and they they showed me bike films, which was like super terrible idea on their part, because they were like, look at all this sick stuff and all these cool places. And then they took me to bike parks like Winter Park and Keystone and uh I think it's Velmont and Um Boulder, and like they took me all these places. So my progression and like my learning curve was it completely accelerated because of these people, and and yeah, that was the last year. I think it was the last year that they had a crankworks stop at Winter Park.

Jarrad 17:50

Okay.

The Whistler Lifestyle Tradeoff

Christina 17:51

And again, I just like show up to this event. I have no idea what's going on. I just learned about mountain biking and how to like, you know, modulate my brakes. And they and I was just blown away. I was like, what the hell is this? Like, there's thousands of people here celebrating mountain biking. There's like vendors from all over the world. Um, to me, it was like the biggest, craziest thing. And um, yeah, all these people were like, oh, have you, you know, like the name Whistler just kind of kept coming up, if either it was videos or brands or whatever. And and then I was like, oh, I I I want to go check out this bike park, you know. Everybody keeps talking about this bike park and this loam and all these amazing things. And so the next summer, I worked hard all winter and planned like the next summer, like, okay, I'm gonna go up to Whistler for, you know, a couple months or whatever, and just totally bum it and ride the bike park and do the thing. And yeah, that was 2012, and we're here in 2026. Yeah, wow. 14 years ago. Um, but yeah, Whistler, like why Whistler? I guess it always just it just seemed like that drill car. Yeah, exactly. It's got the it's the biggest bike park in the world, and it also didn't hurt that I do love snowboarding too. So I was like kind of going to this, you know, this place that was all built up in my head from ski films, snowboard films, bike films, and I was like, oh, I'm gonna go there. And then it turns out like it is just as magical as everybody says.

Jarrad 19:15

Yeah. Do you and this is like a full side question that pops into my head, but do you ever feel like there's a bit of like the Peter Pan, never never life here? Because people ask me all the Yeah, yeah, no, and I'm not saying that in a bad way, but like people ask me all the time why I don't live in Whistler, and I'm like, because you just get wrapped up so quickly in everything, and it's like I have a lot of friends that live up here, and same thing, I'm like, I wish I could live up there, but I'd be scared that I would just like my life would just change so much, but I don't know.

Christina 19:50

Oh, I'm so interested. How do you think your life would change?

Jarrad 19:53

I I feel like I would my life would pause in the sense of like I would just end up working whatever to be able to ski and and bike, which yeah, I don't know. And that was it was like as I'm saying this, I'm like, there's so many successful people up here as well, and so many people that have progressed through the career and not so much like stuck in the city or in the village if you want to call it that, but then on the flip side, it's like there's probably equal amounts that have lived in there in the village for 10 years that more, yeah, or more that are riding the same bike from 10 years ago that work in the shop at the back of the shop in a you know what I mean? Totally, yeah. And I I've just always wondered like how that would feel, but at the same time, I'm like I'm happy in Northman.

Christina 20:44

Yeah. See, I feel like the same way you feel pretty much when I go to the city. I go there and I'm just like, oh, there's you're being pulled in a million different directions. It's like, oh, I've got a film tonight and I've got dinner with so-and-so tomorrow, and I need to go shopping for the latest product, and like there's just so much going on, and it's exciting, and Vancouver especially is like a gorgeous city, you know, it's got the water and the mountains and everything. Um, but I just feel like, oh my God, as soon as I drive over that Lionsgate Bridge, I'm like, money, money, money, spin, spin, spin, like less fresh air. Um, so here I feel like for sure, people I know those people that are on the bikes from not even 10 years, but 20 years ago. Yeah. And they're just happy doing their little job at the grocery store or whatever, and like they're stoked, you know. Their quality of life is like probably pretty high, I would think.

Jarrad 21:35

Yeah.

Christina 21:35

Um, even if they don't have a lot of money to show for it. But for me personally, I guess it's just the the access to the things that bring me the most joy and the things that like keep me sane, which is just like, oh my god, I'm having a stressful day or whatever. I need to go up the mountain and do like one peak decree clap, or like you know, oh I'm I'm lonely. Um, I want some friends to hang out with, but I don't want to put Effort in, so I'm just gonna go to the bike park and like see who's there. Yeah, and I guess too, just like being able to ride from the front door is a big deal for me. Like everybody knows time is money and time is super valuable. So it's like, okay, if I got an hour and a half before I need to like clean the dishes and take the dog out, like I just want to go and hit it. So but it is hard. I mean, it's definitely it's hard to be a young professional here and still be making you know gains in your life, like you're saying. Like, I don't want to put my life on pause.

Jarrad 22:30

Yeah, for sure.

Christina 22:31

But I'm also like people ask me all the time, they're like, When are you moving to Squamish? Don't you work in Squamish? I'm like, uh never. This is where I am.

Tent Camping And Bear Chaos

Jarrad 22:38

Yeah, I'm happy here. Yeah, as I say, I've got lots of friends in both directions, and I've actually got a friend that has moved between Squamish and Whistler six times, I want to say. She can't figure it out. Well, she always she comes to Whistler and she loves it, and then moves to Squamish because she's like, I kind of want more regular life, and then realizes that Whistler is where she wants to be, and like bounces. So yeah, it's quite interesting. But yeah. One story I want to hear from you that I know you've told a bunch. Well, I think you've probably told it a bunch, I feel like you will, is the bear story. Like the bear story. The bear story when you first moved to Whistler in the tent. What was that about?

Christina 23:27

It's terrifying. I mean, it's literally the stuff that they tell you, they warn you about is what happened to me, but thank God I wasn't in the tent when it happened. But um, yeah, yeah, flashback to 2012, just staying in a tent outside of Whistler. There's loads of like nice camping spots. And I just uh I had my stuff in the tent, and I was riding the bike park all day, hanging out with friends, and then I go back, middle of the night, and my tent had been like like I had a little camouflage tarp over it, so it was, you know, super kind of hidden. Yeah. Kind of hidden, but not really hidden. And the bear just kind of went up on it and leaned into it. And the reason I know it was a bear is because it had like huge paw prints on the the tarp and then the claws, and then as it was falling like into this tarp, it like um yeah, did that, it hit the thing and scratched everything up and yeah, knocked over everything that did. It didn't tear anything apart, so that was good. Okay, like I don't think I left the smelly stuff. I know what people are thinking, they're like, Oh, you probably had something in there, but I don't think I did. And um, yeah, I was scared. I was like, I'm not sleeping in here. So I went back to uh my friend's house at the time who I was seeing, who's now my partner, but he he took me in and was like, Oh, you poor thing, this homeless woman is now in moving her way into the house. She's blaming it on a bear, but the evidence was the tarp. But yeah, kind of crazy because now, like, I mean, bears are around all the time and wisely like the garbage bears. And I still think about that. I'm like, don't be that guy. Yeah, I think it just got it, it was a little too comfy. It was like, oh, this girl, she's she's out tonight. I'm gonna go suss out the situation. Yep, yeah, but enough to scare me. I didn't I didn't camp there ever again.

Jarrad 25:14

Yeah, yeah. I I saw it a few years ago somewhere, probably with Pink Bike or something like that, but and I'm like, that is such an insane story. Because you hear all of these like different things, and as you say, like they warn you about this type of stuff, and then but I've never actually heard someone where it's like, oh, they broke into my car, or they like tore my tent down, or whatever. Like it's like yeah, that happened.

Christina 25:37

I actually have a crazier bear story if we have time for that. It's uh yeah, go for it. I was out of tent. The tent was only the start. So this bear in our neighborhood, we had like the mud, the front mud room to our house, and that's where we kept like the garbage and the recycling and all that stuff. And uh, my boyfriend and I were out of town at the time, but apparently one of our roommates came home, didn't quite latch the front door fully closed. And so the bear got into the mud room, and this was like a proper big bear, got into the mud room and like jammed itself in there, like closed the front door, but the door to the house was closed, and there's just this big glass window from the kitchen into the mud room. So you like the housemates at the time eventually, once they figured out what was going on, they're like, Oh my god, there's a raccoon, and they're like, That's a fucking bear. Because they looked through the window and it was just like go in attack mode on the garbage and everything. So that was at like I think that was 3 a.m., 4 a.m. or something. Oh wow. So the conservation officers come to the house and they opened up the back door, and then they're like standing on I have like a total visual of this. They're standing on the kitchen counter, and then they basically had to open the front door that went into the mud room and lure the bear like through the house. But yeah, there's just someone like standing on the counter with a shotgun ready to go. And then eventually they did get it out the back door, but on the way out of the back door, it like it totally ripped open the the big freezer and just was like mowing on berries, like it's the craziest story ever. So then we were the talk of the town because we had to have the big ugly bear bin out front to like catch it if it came back. So that's a real bear story.

Jarrad 27:15

Yeah, yeah. That's even more insane than your tent being trashed.

Christina 27:19

Yeah. Bears are bears are bad around here.

Bike Shop Years And Industry Doors

Jarrad 27:21

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um I've completely lost where I was going with all that, but hey. That'll happen. Yeah. You can't have bear stories. Um so Whistler, what did you do before Pink Bike? I guess is a story that doesn't really get told because everybody knows your face from Pink Bike and the videos and the hosting, but I feel like before that you moved to Whistler, you're riding, you're a bit of an athlete, you did some races. What else were you doing?

Christina 28:01

Yeah, I mean, I was just kind of living the dream back then. Honestly, looking back on it, life was so simple. Uh I worked at a bike shop, Evolution Bike Shop, best bike shop in Whistler. I was there for quite a number of years, and that job helped me honestly, like, have the funds and the support through like cheap bike parts and labor to go start this Enduro racing career, which I carried out for a number of years um before the pink bike days. So yeah, honestly, it kind of goes way back to like shop life.

Jarrad 28:32

Yeah.

Christina 28:33

Like, yeah, it was it was a good time. Like lots of um really well-known bikers went through that shop as well. So that was inspiring for me to see people like um, you know, Claire Bouchard and even like the Tyler Morelins and the Chris Kavarks and like those people that kind of like came through in that era. Um, and then all of their friends, of course, like you know, people like Casey Bound would come in and say hey to Claire while she was working, and I'd totally be gushing. And so that kind of like inspired a little something within, I guess. And and honestly, like when I came to Canada, that was it was very much like I don't know what I want to do with my career later in life. Um, but I think it's gonna be something bike related. And and so the shop just kind of like bought me time to kind of figure it out, but also just make loads of connections. Like you can never underestimate who's gonna walk through the shop door, you know. Like it could be literally Troy Lee who's coming in and crankworks to be like, hey, thanks for selling our products. And then you have these awesome conversations with people that are, you know, not only inspiring, but then like super helpful. I mean, you know, earlier we talked about Pat at Norco. It was like, oh, Pat was one of those people that's like, Pat, I'm broke. Like, sell me one of your demo bikes for a very, very good price, please. Um, and yeah, it was those people that kind of helped just kind of you know get my foot in the bike industry door. Um, and so yeah, from there I I started doing uh some more Enduro racing, um, did a bunch of like EWS stops, raced in Whistler. And then that's kind of I guess what like brought me up to the pink bike days was you know, it was a big time when YouTube was starting to become even more popular than it already was. And I was someone local, so I think that helped a lot.

Jarrad 30:20

Yeah, for sure.

Christina 30:21

Um, but someone that like, you know, had some credibility on a bike and had the knowledge of talking about bikes and you know, even just setting people up with rental bikes for however many years that was. Like that just gave me the knowledge and the courage and I guess the confidence to like you know pursue something further.

Jarrad 30:40

Yeah.

Christina 30:40

So I think I'll stay in the bike industry for a while. Somewhat. I'm kind of like one foot in, one foot out right now, but that's for another later in the story.

Enduro Racing And Going International

Jarrad 30:48

That's for later. Um tell me a bit more about the racing, because I know you did and you had some really good results. But when did that click? Because going from just like riding your bike, riding park, having fun, to then switching into the racing side of things, I feel like it's just like a whole nother level of riding your bike because the focus and the just having to be locked in to be able to do that. Like, was that a big draw card, or was it what what drew you to the racing side of things?

Christina 31:21

Yeah, it's actually it's actually really hard when you think about it because you're like growing up playing team sports, not racing. Like, yeah, that is so totally opposite, like I guess not opposite, but yeah, you're locking into your own, you know, line or path or day and nutrition plan and etc. So um totally different. I guess how did that come about? Like, I just enjoyed riding my bike fast and um challenging myself on like you know, hard trails, black, double black in the bike park was like, ooh, super exciting. And yeah, I I liked downhill, I guess, more. Like I was always like moving away from Colorado. I was like, those people are a little too freaky on the fitness, like they can just take a chill pill, enjoy the downhill. Um, and so that's what I loved in Whistler, but it kind of got to the point where it was like, ooh, like I'm either gonna pursue a downhill thing and like try to do something with it, or I need to mix it up because like downhill's really hard. The difference in like, you know, one line is an inch or less, and just the time differences. And so, I mean, at the time I was probably like, I guess 22-ish or something, and yeah, 23. And I was like, I don't know if I'm ready to go the downhill line. But this enduro thing seems to be kicking off. And it was like right when the EWS kind of started. Um, I got into it like a couple years later, but that's what inspired me. I was like, oh, like I just want to go out on a big bike ride with friends, like six hours would be nice, you know, to just go and be on the bike all day. And and instead of, you know, I had traveled to a downhill race or two, and I was like, oh, this is actually kind of boring. Like you just ride the same track. Yeah, you don't see anything else, you're just like in the track. Um, whereas with Endura, I was like, oh, I'm gonna go places like you know, Penticton or like across BC and Cam loops, and I get to see these whole networks of trails, which is super fun. And then it's less, I guess, stressful in that like you have to nail your lines. It was just fun for me to be like, oh, I'm just gonna go out today and like do my best. And luckily that worked pretty well for me for a couple years until I got onto the international circuit, and then I was like, ooh, it's a lot harder. This is actually serious. Yeah, this is serious, but also like the trails are just so much wackier than what we have in Whistler. Yeah, like trails here, in my opinion, anyway, they just like make more sense. You go other places in the world and you're like, oh, this is some weird kind of jank that I never knew about. Like, so I don't know why we're racing this.

Jarrad 33:49

Yeah, you only have to drive an hour south for that to North Van. I forgot some some of those trails down there are like obviously they've been around forever, but they just don't make sense. So I completely understand.

Christina 34:00

One of my first intros was like, uh, I think it was Frome. Is that where Pingu Pangor Corkscrew and all that is?

Jarrad 34:06

That's Seymour, but yeah.

Christina 34:08

Yeah, that was one of the first ones, and I was like, this is fucking hard. I like literally flew off a huge rock because I was like, this is just not intuitive. Like, yeah, I was supposed to go hard left, I went straight.

Injuries And The Recovery Mindset

Jarrad 34:18

So uh I completely lost my spot there. But uh yeah, doing a few local races, things like that, and then you got into the international side of things. Um, and you mentioned earlier you had a bunch of like injuries with skiing, and then you were saying that you had a few injuries with the biking side of things. Yeah. How how was that like overcoming that? Because I feel like earlier in life, did you have many injuries with the team side of things and growing up, or was that not as much, like definitely.

Christina 34:53

I mean, I I did like one really bad um elbow injury as a kid, mostly like soccer and gymnastics and stuff, but then I was pretty good up until the snowboard years. And then the thing that I've noticed a lot is that the snowboard injuries tend to be like the you know, softer tissue, the ligaments, the things that like just really suck and take a lot of time uh to heal. And then the bike stuff is so much more of the like big aggressive hits, broken bones, and so frustrating. Well, it is frustrating to like you know heal a bone for six to eight weeks or whatever. Um, they do tend to like go a little bit quicker. Yeah. Um, but I guess you know, the bike season's never long enough, in my opinion. So it's like it's always eaten away at some time that I could be out there. Um, but yeah, I think that was yeah, I mean, that was it's all part of it, right? Like injuries and and deciding like, okay, how hard am I gonna push? How much how much do I want to keep doing this? Does this bring me joy versus maybe like I don't know, toning it down or just just riding like I wouldn't say cautiously, but just more methodically, perhaps.

Jarrad 36:01

Yeah, I think you and me are in a similar age bracket in the sense of like where we are in life, and because as you're saying that, I'm like, I've literally had this conversation with so many people of like I got to a point recently where it's almost not fun to go riding by myself because I'm not riding hard enough by myself to do something dumb, but at the same time, I don't want to ride hard enough to do something dumb while I'm by myself because of the risk of injury and like the risk of just like being isolated, and it's sort of I feel like that only came up in the last like two or three years. Um but then if I go ride with a bunch of people, I'm still happy to like do some silly things, I guess, on bikes. And it's like interesting to hear you say it that way because I'm like, yeah, I definitely feel that.

Christina 36:54

Yeah, I mean I I I'm a interesting one in that like I I don't like riding by myself. Like that does in no situation unless somewhere somebody super random hits me up and I'm like, no, no, I seem busy. Pretty much in no situation would I rather ride by myself. So yeah, I find situations where like um, you know, maybe I'm not riding like the gnarliest stuff because lately I've been riding with this group of people that prefers to ride, you know, blue float trails or whatever, or vice versa. Some groups of friends like only want to ride the super gnarly stuff, so I'm like, oh, I don't I don't know if I'm up for that today. Like I know where they're gonna take me. And yeah, so I like to ride with people for sure more, just overall. I don't enjoy my alone time that much. Okay, I'm not that much fun.

Jarrad 37:41

You're not good inside your own head. No. That was that was something I was gonna ask you about in the sense of going back to the injury side of things. Your mindset working through those injuries and moving forwards versus staying sa stationary. I read somewhere and I can't remember the quote you had, but something along the lines of if you stayed still, you weren't gonna be able to continue what your life was beforehand. I said I like that.

Christina 38:09

I want to find out, tell me find that quote before back.

Jarrad 38:13

I'll have to find that quote. But there was something you said on one of the videos somewhere, and it was like, yeah, you always like as soon as you hurt yourself, it's like, all right, I need to like lock in, yeah, do everything I can to be riding my bike as soon as I can, um, and almost put the same effort you were riding your bike or snowboarding or whatever back into the injury, if that makes sense.

Christina 38:35

Yeah, that sounds like something I said. I probably said like something along the lines of treating injury recovery as a full-time job because that that is very much how I look at it. Um my last big injury, thankfully Touchwood, um, a couple years ago now, was tearing my ACL, like fully, so then having a full ACL reconstruction plus a couple other little doodads in there. And that one was big, you know. It was you get to a certain age where you're like, oh, I I could like I could just not fix this thing surgically, and I could live a pretty good lifestyle and like still do a lot of nice things, or I could, you know, commit to doing this insanely long recovery and see it through start to finish and at least have some hope of like getting back to the lifestyle and you know capabilities that I had before. And so that was that was a big decision because I mean you I pretty much had to take a year off of like anything exciting and extreme. Like I could bicycle, but that was that was it, like just bicycling.

Jarrad 39:40

Yeah.

Christina 39:40

Um, and so yeah, taking on injuries, like I guess I learned from a you know relatively young age of like 19 when I had my first big injuries away from home. I was like, oh cool, nobody's gonna like take care of me, nobody's gonna come wipe my tears away. Like if I wanna get back to doing what I was doing, like it's kind of up to me to like just commit and and see it through. And a lot of people don't, which is unfortunate, especially with like you know, ACL recoveries for sure. A lot of people kind of rush back or don't just give injuries enough respect for what they are, and yeah, they're gonna pay for it later, which is yeah, I've never never heard of it as like give injuries respect, but that's a good way to put it.

Jarrad 40:24

Because yeah, like even personally, I've been through tons of injuries, and I've always thought the same thing of like I just have to do everything I can to get back to normal, and my normal was before I was injured. So, like, what do I have to do to do that? But you're right, like so many people are just like they either don't do the recovery or they half do the recovery and they're like, Oh, I'm almost better, I'm just gonna go back to what I was doing, and yeah, it's never the right way.

Christina 40:48

But yeah, take it from asking your recoveries.

Jarrad 40:52

Yeah, there was I can't remember who I was talking to, but I was talking to someone and it was like it might have been Gully, but anyway, he's got he's got some insane stories, but we're talking about body maintenance, and he's like, if I don't get out of bed and do my body maintenance, I can't walk that day. And I'm like, yeah, I understand that. Like it's insane.

Christina 41:13

Uh I feel like I'm older than Gully, maybe we're the same age. I should probably start doing body maintenance.

Jarrad 41:18

We're pretty similar, I think, in that age.

Christina 41:21

We won't tell you what our age is.

How Pinkbike Happened

Jarrad 41:23

No, no. Um big question that er I'm sure people are listening for, Pinkbike. How did that come about? Because I actually don't know the story on how you got into Pink Bike.

Comment Sections And Real World Impact

Christina 41:38

It's a fun story. Um, it's I guess like I said earlier, they they were putting more energy into the YouTube channel. And so Jason Lucas, great guy, he had been with Pink Bike for I think a year at the time. Maybe two, don't quote me on that. Maybe two. And yeah, he and Brian Park, um, I'm not sure whose idea originally it was, but between them, they kind of thought, like, oh, maybe Christina could be a good fit. Um, but before that even happened, I guess, or rewind, we Jason reached out for a couple small filming projects. And again, I think it was just like close proximity, you know, to the headquarters. Um, can ride a bike, check, female check, a few of those like key things. Um, so they hit me up for two filming projects, which were awesome. One of them was for the full enduro series, um, coaching a local shredder Zoe. So they had a couple female coaches come in. I got to lead one of the episodes, um, so that was sick. And then um another one was like a hot lap. They used to run the hot lap series, so brought me in for that. I was like, you know, I felt like I was honestly well underqualified for both of them, but I just said yes and I was like, yeah, sure, I'll be there. Um and then that kind of just kick-started it. I think, you know, in hindsight, there were like two little test shoots of oh, how does she perform on camera? Can she hold a conversation? Does she know what she's talking about to some degree? And and then that kind of led into like, okay, you know, they wanted to add onto their YouTube channel. They already had a couple really great hosts brought in me, and it was it was a whirlwind because I mean I worked in the bike shop up until like, you know, the last day before I had to like start this new job. I was like very committed and comfortable in my little bubble. I earned just enough money to like get my bikes and go travel the world. And then it was like, hey, let's come over here and do this thing that you've literally never done before, and we'll just like hold your hand for a while. And then they just, you know, eventually like gave me more and more freedom. And um, yeah, I guess looking back on it, like ironically, that was 2020. So that was like January 1, 2020, infamous COVID year, pandemic. Um, and so you know, I kind of came on with this enduro knowledge background with the intention of like going and following. Some races throughout the season and then everything just got shut down. So it was like, cool. Not only were you like gonna start this, you know, new career path and learning all these skills, but we actually need you to like film it yourself and come up with ideas that people on YouTube want to watch during COVID time related to biking. And so it it it taught me a lot of things just by like trial and fire. And yeah, I got to work with like a lot of awesome brands, which I'm still very close with. So again, just kind of carrying on um all the good vibes of like working in a bike shop to then becoming you know this kind of online media personality that people call out in public places, which is hilarious. Yeah, um, yeah, it's definitely definitely different. It's still humbling.

Jarrad 44:46

How is how is the imposter syndrome for that? Because I feel like deadly going from like just a shop person, like that then all of a sudden you walk through the bike park and sure, like working in the bike park, working in one of the bigger stores in Whistler, obviously people are gonna recognise you regular, and generally it's the locals that are gonna ra recognize you. But I can only imagine like now having your face on one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mountain bike website in the world. How was that as a a change with no formal training?

Women Behind The Camera Push

Christina 45:23

Yeah, literally no formal training. There's no handbook that's like you should act this way and say this and da-da-da-da. I mean, honestly, in the beginning it was I mean, pink bike commenters are notoriously harsh. They can be ruthless. And so in the beginning it was really hard because the first projects were like, I was just literally figuring out how to like talk on camera and you know, come up with ideas and script things and make shit happen. So those first couple projects, any sort of like bad comment in the in the comments, which to be fair, most of the comments are like if you're gonna leave a comment, you're probably gonna leave a bad one. That's just how people are. It's rare to get a good compliment. So, you know, it was hard to draw the line of like, okay, this is your job, don't take it personal, versus this person is attacking you and your family and your personality, and they're telling you to go to hell. So it was really hard to like draw that line. I'd sometimes I would write comments or like responses, and then I would just delete them and then be like, thank you for your comment, or something like that. So that was probably the hardest part of it, honestly, is like having these keyboard warriors that don't know anything about anything, commenting on everything. Um dealing with like the public places, uh it's actually amazing. Like, I I wouldn't say like I thrive on any sort of public notoriety like that at all. Um, but it's just cool when like someone comes up to you in the lift line at the bike park and they're like, Oh, my wife watched your video on cornering and she loves mountain biking now. Like she was ready to quit, and now she'll go out and ride with me. Like those things were probably like the most amazing parts of the job because you're like, oh, this is a real person in real life, and like this is someone that actually watched my video, you know, because to some degree it's just like view counts and engagement. And you're like, oh shit, you actually watched my video on like this thing that I thought was kind of lame at the time or whatever. Um, and then you're like telling me you loved it, like that's amazing. So yeah, there's definitely both sides of it. I think the the behind the scenes is a little bit harder imposter syndrome because I'm just trying to be like my authentic self and you know, say things that are true. I'm not making shit up, and and then there's like the other side of it, which is the positive side, which is like, wow, I actually feel like I am doing something for you know the industry as a whole that I would like to see more of, which is just women in these professional situations, whether it's like dropping into rampage or directing a film or whatever the case may be, like tech editors. I'm like, we need more of that. So yeah, there's both sides.

Jarrad 48:01

Have you seen more of that since you've got into that side? I feel like in all aspects of especially mountain biking but cycling in general, in the last eight years, nine years, a lot of shift has happened. But like you being on that side of the camera in that world, have you seen a lot of that change?

Christina 48:22

I have definitely seen more change since then. Like, um, I mean, Pink Bike unfortunately didn't hire another like full-time female presenter. That would have been nice. Um, but they have been working more with like Katie Winton, which makes me happy to just have that presence on camera. Um, and they've got some, you know, amazing female tech editors as well. So that's just one example that I have seen. Um, but then I've seen more, I mean, from the women's first women's rampage, which had, you know, obviously amazing riders, but then film crews were out there. Um, women's films, like free ride films, have become more of that. So I would say in general, yeah, I have definitely seen more of it. Do we need even more? Yes. Um, but what I've really been enjoying lately is just like cruising around LinkedIn, which is so nerdy, and it's it does not bring me joy, but um, it does open my eyes to like all these females in higher roles, you know, CEOs, CFOs, and all that sort of like marketing directors. I'm just like, oh, this is this is sick. Like, I don't have anything, you know, against working with men in those fields, obviously, but it's just cool when you can talk to someone and and they speak your language a little bit more.

Jarrad 49:33

Yeah, there's relatability for sure. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, it's interesting because it's like, yeah, the whole female rampage thing was like obviously hugely groundbreaking, and this is full side topic to where my brain's going here, but um but I don't think a lot of people realize and understand that like the build crews, the the filming, the everything was based around like having more females there. It wasn't just like it was like just a couple of female writers, but they also brought in their their women build crews, and as you say, like there was so much more involved in that, which I I almost think that that story doesn't get told enough in the sense of like the behind the scenes women involved versus just like the the athletes because like the athlete stories are amazing, but you don't you don't ever hear about like oh like this person built for three years and now she's writing in Rampage or like you know what I mean?

Christina 50:35

Like I do, and I wish there was more of an appetite for that in um just today's content and media. Uh the reality is a lot of people just want to like scroll quickly, yeah, or they want to watch a moving thing and read the subtitles. And I mean, I struggled like going to you know, the first women's rampage, and you know, our media team was only so big, but we had to split it between the men's venue and the women's venue.

Jarrad 51:00

Yeah.

Christina 51:01

So you're like, just because there's more of us here, we're not actually putting out more content, we're just splitting up the teams, and so you know, a lot of people are kind of feeling that too. It's like, oh, we would love to do more spotlights and highlights on these stories, which definitely need to be told. Um, but then yeah, you struggle with like the window of opportunity that's like it's rampage week and anything you release next week, nobody cares about. Like, yeah, it's just that's once once the results done, the event devastating. You almost need to drop something in like the middle of winter that's like, oh yeah, snap back in. Remember this. Remember this. This is this takes time. Yeah. Um, I would love to I would love to do that. If anybody's listening that wants to sponsor a project as such, hit me up.

Favorite Shoots And Meaningful Stories

Jarrad 51:45

Yeah, definitely. I think I think that'd be a pretty interesting story for sure. I have to ask, what was some of your favorite projects you worked on with Pink Bike? There was like quite a few that you did, but is there anything that stands out?

Christina 52:00

For sure. The the standout moments were the first women's rampage. Um, just being there for such a historical thing in time. And there were like many of my close friends that were there, either competing, digging, or or you know, on the content team. So that was a really, really big one to be a part of and try to like help tell their story and bring their, you know, kind of up to the spotlight. Um, with that said, like formation as well, because that, you know, that's where the women's rampage kind of came from. Like that, yeah, that was the stepping stone in a way. And so just being there, which was a totally different event. Um, very, very cool experience. And then I'm especially proud of that one because we had a full female media crew for that one from Pink Bike. So all of our filmers, photographers, um, editors, presenters were all females. So that was probably the most fun week ever of work. And um yeah, I'm sure there's some other like really good ones that that come back, but those are definitely those are meaningful projects for me for sure.

Jarrad 53:06

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a quite a few that stood out in my mind, and like most of them you just mentioned then. Do you feel like there was many that you did that was like industry changing at all? One of them that like stands out in my mind, and it was because I was managing a shop at the time when you did it, but it was the women's bike or women's specific bike video, and you had like a bunch of the brands come on and and talk about that stuff, and I felt like it was a conversation I was having for a long time leading up to that video until your video came out, and then I could point them at that video and go, watch this, and this will explain why they don't do it anymore, or why they like apart from obviously a handful of brands, and it's like, do you feel like there was some moments like that that you you did?

Christina 53:54

I mean, that one is a really good example because you know, Women's Day, it's it's International Women's Day, it comes around every year, and you know, as a female presenter, I really felt responsible for putting something out that day, whether it was just like fun, happy, go lucky, or you know, something with a deeper meaning and story behind it. So um, I'm glad you brought that one up. That one it c it was reminiscent of like the COVID days when I had to bring people together on a Zoom call and like you know, manage conversations in that way. So um that one was cool. I'd say like maybe towards the end of my days at Pink Bike, we did start to touch on some of those more maybe risque subjects, if you will, which were definitely a bit more out of my comfort zone. Like, you know, I'm I'm a bit more about like lifting other people up and you know, telling their really cool story. When it's about me, it's not as exciting. Um, and then those, you know, kind of subjects that are you have to be really cautious. You don't want to, especially when you're a media site, you know, you don't want to step on anybody's toes. But I mean, I don't either. Like these are people that I call friends, and I don't want to talk bad or too good about anybody in particular, but oh, I wish I had a really good example. Let's think. Pushing the industry a little bit. I can't really think of anything. Maybe I'll maybe I will later. This makes me feel like my videos were really bad. Not important.

Jarrad 55:25

Not at all. No, not at all.

Accessibility And Riding With Morgan

Christina 55:27

That's okay. I guess one of my one of the coolest videos I probably ever shot was um with a local guy named Morgan. He doesn't have he was born without hands or feet.

Jarrad 55:37

Oh wow.

Christina 55:37

Um, if you haven't seen that video, definitely check it out because again, it was just like that's where I have the most fun. It's like interviewing people and learning about them. Um, and he is incredible. Like an Olympic paralympic um athlete has competed in the past in the Olympics, and yeah, it's it's insane. And like I rode down in the bike park with him, which was just like mad. Like he was ripping. And just to see like what he's done to his bike to be able to go out and have as much fun as you or I is just so inspiring. Um, but it did lead to some conversations about you know, electronic shifting and electronic dropper posts and like just things to make thing you know the sport more accessible. Um, and so that was those are the kind of the topics that I'm like, yeah, let's dig deeper here because like biking's for everyone, in my opinion, and no matter what you're dealing with, like if you can just get onto a bicycle somehow, yeah, you're gonna find some joy. And so that was a cool story.

Jarrad 56:37

Yeah, giving almost like giving a voice to people that have such a little I don't want to cut it call her the little voice, but you know what I mean.

Christina 56:45

Like Yeah, well they're just in their own world living living their lives, like they're not they're not doing these things to impress anybody, like it's literally just trying to live. So just want to ride my bike and um yeah, I forget how that story came up, came in front of me, but I was like, oh, this guy's local, like let's go hang out with him.

Life After Pinkbike With Anthill

Jarrad 57:03

Yeah, that's sick. So before we wrap this up, what are you doing now? Because as I mentioned at the beginning, at the end of Pink Bike, you kind of disappeared.

Christina 57:14

It was like a hard mic drop, wasn't it?

Jarrad 57:17

And then yeah, what what where how when are you up to now?

Christina 57:22

So I I guess after Pink Bike, it was just a nice time to like take a break, to be honest. Like, just take a full breather. Um, and so I took a couple months off. But in that in those couple of months, I did a couple of reach outs to you know, some people that I just wanted to work with. So I was just like, if I have the opportunity and I can just start from scratch, like what do I want to do? Um, and one of those emails I sent to Ant Hill Films based here in Squamish, BC, um, because those were some of those films I watched back in Colorado that my friends messed up and and made me move to Canada for. So I just I I knew, you know, one guy there, Darcy at the time, and um I didn't know the rest of the team personally, and so I reached out and yeah, sure enough, a couple months later we we worked together to like kind of create this role for me. And and yeah, so now I'm I'm with Antill Films doing um some of the smaller video production roles, but then also like account coordinating and just trying to keep close ties within the bike industry, which is really that's what I want to do. Yeah. I mean, we do so many different things there, but yeah, I think what I can bring is like my feet are still very much in the bike world. I I live, eat, breathe, sleep biking. So yeah, that's kind of my passion.

Jarrad 58:40

When you say that, like Ann Tilly is obviously very well known in the the bike industry with like countless movies. Yeah. What do they do outside of the bike industry?

Christina 58:51

Yeah, I mean, we we do a lot of bike stuff that we don't necessarily have our name attached to. So for instance, like um the Shimano XT, XTR, GRX campaigns last year that dropped, like all the new stuff. We shot most, if not all, that content. So we do a lot of like commercial kind of projects that aren't the feature length, but that are still bike flavored. But then we also do, I mean, we do some agency work, you know, where agencies will come to us to help make a project come to life. So for instance, um during the Olympics, we shot a really cool, it was a French fry commercial, but the athlete is a Canadian like ski cross racer, and so we got to work with like um the winter sport side of things. And um, yeah, what are we doing lately? Like, we kind of do it all. I mean, we just um did a fun Capellana University project last year. Um, we did some like just capturing content for them to use in their like advertising campaign. Um, I guess like the latest thing that's well, we did, you know, release another bike film, but that's normal. Um, I guess the other thing, a different side of the business is Antill Sounds. Um so our sound supervisor, Joe, he's like he's an incredible genius, basically. So he did the sound design on Steve Vanderhoek's latest film, um, Ride to Resilience. So yeah, I guess like if we're not actually filming the thing, then you know, we've got a bunch of different kind of spokes of the business per se. So, you know, tourism stuff, agency. I'm trying to think of like what else is just out there, like tourism. You know what we really love that people should hit me up about is just cool tourism opportunities. Um, we did a really fun one for Whistler, I think it was last year, with like kind of shining a light on the mud season. So it was like a ski and bike combo thing.

Jarrad 1:00:46

Yeah.

Christina 1:00:46

Um, but I guess what we really love to do is just work with like athletes and try to, you know, pull the best out of them while giving them our best to to make it all worthwhile. But with that said, I mean, we'll kind of we'll kind of do anything if it's fun enough.

Jarrad 1:01:03

Yeah, of course. I'm sure everybody would do the same for that. Like exactly.

Christina 1:01:08

If I can go out and have some fun at work.

What She Wants Next

Jarrad 1:01:11

And someone's gonna pay me. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a dream. What's next for you in the future? Obviously, you're working with Antill, you're doing bits and pieces there. Have you got any plans beyond that? Obviously, you don't want to put yourself in jeopardy of losing a job by saying this. And I just realized as I'm asking that question, I'm like, oh, maybe you might no, this is this is my future.

Christina 1:01:33

Um, kind of like it was interesting how you mentioned earlier, like, you know, I did kind of drop out of the spotlight in that way, and then Jason is still very much in it. Um, awesome professional headspace, that guy. Henry's now doing his own YouTube channel, which is amazing. I see them out filming all the time. And I kind of took that as like my cue to be like, oh yeah, I don't, I don't actually love being in front of the camera. Like, this is not this is not where I find the most joy. Like, I think I can do other things. So where I am now is like exactly where I want to be. And I would like to just keep growing in this role and take on, you know, bigger projects. And the dream is always to like make another film with Antil. So best case scenario, I can, you know, in another year or so we'll be filming that around the world and just kind of keep keep doing what we're doing. I think we're, you know, looking into like some new opportunities with like filming um different campaigns. So I'm always looking for ways to like just keep pushing my skills and creativity. Like I'm like I said earlier, I'm really comfortable in the bike world, but I would love to just get chances to go do other things in different areas and and keep growing there for sure. But this is this is what I like. I like logistics, I like I like making chaos that then becomes like beautiful stuff and taking you know fires and putting them out. Like, that's exciting for me. So I think I'll probably try to do this for as long as I can. I kind of always knew, like in the back of my head at Pink Bike, that like, okay, what what's next? What's next? And like, you know, I would have liked to have had some growth there in different ways, but I'm getting that now with everything I learned, so can't complain.

Jarrad 1:03:14

I feel like it'd be a good stepping stone there, the amount that you would have learned there to then moving to a bigger production company like you have.

Christina 1:03:21

It was a crash, crash course and just everything. So it worked out. Now I'm like, oh, I don't know how to do that yet, but I can probably figure it out.

Jarrad 1:03:28

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think that's that's yeah, really cool. So well, thank you for having me um and allowing me to come up and and chat. Yeah, it's a pretty interesting job. Yeah, thank you. Well, cheers. Cheers.