3 Proven Ways to Find Friends to Shred with this Winter for FREE
By: Chelsea Wilde
“I don’t have any women friends who snowboard.” Does this sentence resonate with you? If so, don’t worry, I’ve got you! Hi, my name is Chelsea, I’ve been snowboarding for 27 years, and I’ve lost count of how of many times I’ve heard ladies I’ve chatted with on the chairlift say, “I don’t have any friends that are women to snowboard with.” If I had to guess, I’d seriously wager that I’ve heard it over 100 times from everyone — experts to beginners.
If you are one of the countless women out there who feels like this, just know that you aren’t alone. You are part of a huge demographic within the snowboarding world. Talk about disheartening! So, let’s change this for you right now. Read on for my list of 3 proven ways to find your shred-crew (for free) and never feel alone or isolated on the mountain again!
1. Join a Meetup Group
Four years ago, after hearing this sentiment hundreds of times, I finally decided to do something about it. I decided to make it my personal mission in life to help women connect with other women and make friends inside the world of snowboarding. Currently this means I co-lead a meetup group of over 2000 women in Western Washington called the Shred-it Sisters. Our group stays in contact primarily through Facebook and holds monthly meetups at multiple resorts in Washington state with the goal of making it easy for women to connect, make friends with other shredders, and hopefully, never feel like they have to say that dreaded sentence ever again!
All this being said, my first piece of advice is to seek out and join a group like the Shred-it Sisters and attend a meetup! How do you find a local group? I’d highly suggest using Facebook. Currently there are hundreds of snowboarding groups that use Facebook to connect. These groups seem to fall into a few main categories — Resort-Specific Groups, Pass-Specific Groups, Specialty Groups (like women’s groups, BIPOC groups, etc.), and Gear Trade/Sales Groups.
A Shred-it Sister meetup at Crystal Mountain on an April pow day with a foot of new snow!
My advice for anyone looking to find, for example, women buddies to ride with, would be to join a large women’s snowboarding group on Facebook and create a post asking if anyone knows of any specific regional groups near you. This is how a lot of people find our Shred-it Sisters community — through asking on Facebook groups like Women Who Snowboard, or Girls That Board about who to connect with in Western Washington. Our members see these people reaching out and tag our group, inviting them to join. It’s awesome!
Another thing that has worked for me is to do a Facebook group search to see if there is already a group on Facebook for your home resort. For example, at my home resort, Crystal Mountain, we have the Crystal Mountain Ladies Group. This group always has people actively looking to make friends, create carpools, and meet up for days on the mountain! Resort-specific groups like this are often smaller and great ways to connect to your local community.
A note for lady splitboarders — sometimes you can find women’s meetups at the different splitboard festivals around the country. Pallas posts about these events frequently on our social media profiles so be sure to keep up with our Instagram and/or Facebook stories for specifics throughout the season!
2. Volunteer For a Snowboarding Non-Profit
Two years ago, I spent some of my winter shred-time volunteering as a snowboard instructor for an incredible Seattle-based organization called The Service Board (tSB). In their own words, tSB “is committed to increasing diversity in the outdoors and building confidence in youth. In combination with community service projects, adult mentoring, and social and environmental justice education, tSB creates courageous communities of young change-makers, athletes, and future environmentalists.”
Although I was only able to volunteer for one season with tSB due to my job schedule, my short time with the organization was hugely impactful on my life! Why? Because I made so many friends! I volunteered alongside people who shared my values, participated in the teambuilding activities that helped me connect with them more easily, and walked away from the experience with people I absolutely adore and who I still snowboard with today!
There are many nonprofit organizations all over the United States and abroad that exist inside the world of snow sports. To get you started on your volunteering adventures, consider doing some searches for local-to-you nonprofits like I did with the The Service Board. In fact, you could ask the Facebook groups you’ve recently joined if they know any! Another tip is to investigate some national groups like SOS Outreach, SheJumps, the Share Winter Foundation, or the Chill Foundation. There are many, many more than I listed here so, if you are reading this and have an organization to suggest to our viewers, let us know in the comments!
3. Get Involved with Your Resort’s Events Team
Here’s one I didn’t know about until recently! Did you know that many ski resorts actively need volunteers for events that they hold throughout the year? The trick with this is that many do not advertise these needs on their websites or social media but, that doesn’t mean these opportunities don’t exist. My suggestion is to do some digging and find out who the main contact for your resort’s event team is. Send this person an email (or two) asking them about how to get involved with event volunteer opportunities at the resort.
My pals and I while I was volunteering at Crystal Mountain’s Verde Valle Banked Slalom event last season. We made team jerseys, and all competed in the race together even though I was also volunteering with the event!
If your home resort is anything like mine, it needs a large group of people to help execute fun events like the pond skim, mountain PRIDE, anniversary parties, races, demo days, and whatever else it has planned! This is a fantastic way to make friends who also love snow sports and to network a little on the mountain. You never know who you might meet — from people who work with different partner brands, ambassadors or pros who help market the resort, resort employees from all different departments, and participants in the events who are grateful you are helping make all the fun happen!
If this idea doesn’t exactly line up with how your home-resort does things, consider other volunteer positions that most ski resorts have in one format or another. Look for terms like hosts, ambassadors, and volunteer ski patrol on your favorite resort’s website. Aside from the obvious benefit of making new friends and joining a community of other shredders, another major bonus of resort volunteer programs like these is usually, at the very least, a free season pass!
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It's my sincerest hope that these 3 ideas have given you some inspiration and help in your endeavor to find a rad shred-crew to ride with this season! In my own life, nothing has increased my snowboarding ability and experience more than finding a group of pals to regularly snowboard with so, I’ll leave you with this: May you gear up, feel brave, reach out, and let the bonds of friendships elevate your mountain experiences to new heights.
Happy shredding!
Although this picture was taken at a women’s snowboarding retreat put on by the Drift Sisters (woo!), I already knew most of the ladies pictured here through the Shred-it Sisters, the Service Board, SheJumps, and just snowboarding in general. I am so grateful for our lives together in the snow!
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