• How did your mountain biking journey begin? What got you hooked on riding? I’ve loved riding bikes since I was 5, doing mostly green trails with my family in the woodlands around Essex where I grew up and around Centre Parcs forest trails in Europe. It wasn’t until 2010 that I tried mountain biking properly for the first time. I was in Thailand, in the jungle, and we went through a pineapple plantation (did you know they grow in the ground in the middle of a spicy plant?! I didn’t before that!). They gave us american football body armour, it was hot and wet and slippery and I thought it was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. It took me 6 years of trial and error learning on trails in New Zealand, Australia and then Canada before I felt I wanted to really solidify my skills and take my PMBIA Level 1 instructor course.


• If you had to describe your riding style in one word, what would it be—and why? Slow. Because slow is smooth and smooth is fast.


• Who or what has inspired you the most in your mountain biking journey? My now husband, Alex. We’ve been together for 18 years. He encouraged me to try all terrain in all the places (with grace to always walk my bike if I wanted to) and to keep searching for a bike that fit my small frame. He helped me practice skills drills and did less exciting trails to make sure I felt comfortable as I built my skills. Now I’ll go anywhere and I love riding with him. I also have a group of fantastic women I ride with that inspire me so much with their grit, fitness and kindness. We love getting up early and spending time in nature together, biking hard with our excitable dogs and challenging each other on features, steeps and climbs without stopping!


• What’s the best thing about mountain biking for you? What keeps you coming back for more? Connection with nature. Spending time in relationship with the Land. There’s also the moment you complete a section or feature that scared you before and you get that huge rush of contentment and pride in yourself, that’s incredibly addictive

• Tell us about your teaching and coaching experience. (Focus on sports, but feel free to include others!) I’ve been a sports coach for 20 years – gymnastics, soccer and swimming initially. I’ve now run my sports and science education business that includes coaching mountain biking, rock climbing instructing, tail ski guiding and avalanche skills training for youth and adults for 7 years in Canada. I love sharing knowledge and empowering people to build their skillset in whatever they are passionate about.


• How would you describe your coaching style? What makes your approach unique? More energy. More power. Expect hollers, whoops and YES, YES, YES YOU CAN shouted at you from behind or the side of the trail!

• What’s a fun fact or quirky trait that makes you, you? (Any great stories to share?) I was born in England so expect strange colloquialisms that involve sausages, gum drops and having a bath. No you will not be expected to have a bath, its cockney rhyming slang 😉 I also work in educational pedagogy so expect me to nerd out if you ask questions about ‘why’ we do things the way we do and how to learn best (embodied learning!!).


• What’s your all-time favorite trail—and what makes it special? I really love flowdown. There is so much diversity in riding terrain through it and the wooden roll down was a huge psychological block for me in my first years here and getting it really advanced my riding.

• If you could ride anywhere in the world, where would it be? (Your dream MTB destination!) I’ve been very lucky to travel and bike, I’ve ridden in Arctic Norway, New Zealand, Australia, England and France. I’ve not had the chance to explore South America yet so somewhere down there!


• What’s your favourite snack while riding? Sour gummies. I wish I was the kind of person who said ‘dried mangoes’ but its sour gummies from Save On everytime.


• What do you hope your students take away from your coaching?That you are enough whatever level you are riding at. That you are more capable than you think you are and that you deserve to have fun. When you have fun and are relaxed you learn the best.


• What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received—either in mountain biking or life?
  
  Oh gosh there’s too many! Simply? Smile. Not in the misogynistic ‘give us a smile love’ way but to smile as you ride and roll through life. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a fake and a real smile and you release the happy hormones either way and they help you relax and learn and be playful and enjoy the challenge. Also, your body is beautiful however it looks. You are powerful and gorgeous and you should learn to say that to yourself loudly inside your head.

Jade is a non-Indigenous person living in the traditional and unceded territory of the Sinixt. An area also known over different historical times to the Secwepemc, Okanagan Sylix and Ktunaxa First Nations.