The BASE Interview #03: Marie-France Roy

Marie-France Roy grew up in Quebec, Canada, and since she was 11-years-old snowboarding has been a major part of her life. A love for snowboarding influenced her move to Whistler, British Columbia, and she has been living the life of a professional snowboarder for over a decade. Known for being one of the most stylish and versatile riders in international snowboarding, Roy is also recognised for her humble character and concern for wider issues beyond snowboarding itself, such as environmental activism. When not up a mountain on a snowboard, she is firmly down to earth, living in the eco-friendly house which she built herself on Vancouver Island

If snowboarding can help people fall in love with nature and stand up to protect it, that is a small but important victory

So, what have been the highlights of the past year? 

So many, really. Touring with The Radicals, a movie I feature in, going on a beautiful trip to Patagonia, Chile, and we hosted the third Annual West Coast Triple Plank here on Vancouver Island [a snow-skate-surf event]. Through the event we managed to raise $13,000 for salmon stream restoration work. And some great powder days and splitboard adventures around home in British Columbia. I feel very lucky to live the life I lead.

Have you always been engaged with environmental issues?

I have always felt a strong connection to nature since I was a kid. I grew up in the countryside in Quebec, playing outside a lot and going on camping trips with my family. I think that by spending so much time outside in nature when I was young, I became aware of the human impact on the environment at a very young age. It felt apparent to me, even as a kid, that we were destroying a lot of natural habitats at an alarming rate.

How did you get into professional snowboarding?

I was studying Applied Ecology, and completing my final internship at The Vancouver Aquarium. Since I loved snowboarding so much and was already out west, I decided to go spend one season in Whistler working in restaurants to be able to snowboard and experience real West Coast powder before getting a real job in my field. I entered a few contests that winter, and did well, and soon got offered sponsorship that helped me get to bigger contests, and helped pay for travel. I have been snowboarding for a living ever since. It was amazing to suddenly live a dream that I had never expected to come true. It’s great to be able to do something you love, constantly pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, and to achieve goals you never thought you could reach.

Was there any tension between your career as a professional snowboarder and your interest in environmental issues?

Snowboarding entirely changed my life. It didn’t take too long, though, before I started to feel conflicted about my initial aspirations to work in the environmental field. I felt like I couldn’t possibly claim to care about the environment whilst my carbon footprint as a snowboarder was only getting bigger and bigger from traveling all over the place, and from promoting consumerism through my sponsorship deals.

 Although some people have much bigger carbon footprints than others, it’s unrealistic to ask everyone to stop travelling and doing what they love for the sake of the environment. Anyone who lives in a developed country and claims to be an ‘environmentalist’ is hypocritical to some degree. The West, China and India are all huge consumers of fossil fuels. So instead of wasting our time and energy pointing the finger at who is more guilty than others, we need to come together and work on finding solutions before it is too late. This is what inspired me to produce The Little Things movie in 2014, and I have been trying my best to use snowboarding as a messenger for environmental activism ever since. You should fight to protect something you love. If snowboarding can help people fall in love with nature and stand up to protect it, that is a small but important victory to me.