Sad news today as we return from our festive holidays to find out that X Games rider turned urban destroyer turned backcountry ripper Laura Hadar has retired from professional snowboarding.
She forged a career out of going big and taking no prisoners, whether it was on the street or in the powder.
In an interview with TGR she explained it was partly due to some of her sponsors quietly dropping out (she was part of the Nike snowboarding team and was noticeably absent from the latest CAPiTA flick) but mainly because she’d realised that for most pros, snowboarding isn’t a career. Instead of fading out quietly she would rather go out with a bang, taking her career into her own hands.
And what a bang it was: the full part above was released along with the announcement, a storming four minutes of backcountry charging through open faces and technical lines, a toure du force of women’s snowboarding set to a Lightning Bolt track.
The band are famous for consisting of a bassist who plays on banjo strings and a drummer who sings through a phone mic sewn into a Mexican wrestling mask, defying convention and turning heads, just like Mamma Hades herself. Instead of following the easier route a lot of female pros take, she forged a career out of going big and taking no prisoners, whether it was on the street or in the powder.
In other words, she’ll be sadly missed from the professional scene, but at the same time it’s good to see someone taking charge of their life like this – she’s off to run her clothing shop in Salt Lake City and we wish her all the best.
