Professional snowboarder gives her top tips for summer snow

03-07-2008 11:49

Remember when you were a child and one week you wanted to be a supermodel, the next it was a fashion designer, and then a few day’s later you had changed you mind again and set your heart on being a world-class snowboarder?

Well for one woman all of those childhood dreams have come true. FemaleFirst caught up with Charlotte Dutton, the snowboarder, model and designer all rolled into one, to see how she manages keeping so many balls in the air.

The rest of the world seems to head off on summer holidays to relax on beaches rather than get the adrenaline pumping up a mountain!

You have done so much in your life that it’s difficult to know where to begin, so we shall start with your career as a snowboarder which you began at the age of 11, how did you get into the sport?

Basically I went on a skiing holiday with my family and my ski instructor had just learnt to snowboard so he asked me if I wanted to take a lesson I was reluctant at first because I had only just got the hang of skiing but he kept asking and saying “Come on I’ll give you a free lesson!” I think he really wanted to show me because he had been teaching skiing for most of his life and he was excited because he had just learnt a new thing and he wanted to get anyone he could to try it too, so I took the lesson and I loved it!

Then when I returned to London I went to the local dry ski slope and there was a couple of snowboarders down there so I carried on learning with them and took a few lessons and hung out with a group of snowboarders there and became friends with the other snowboarders and went more and more often.

Where can people go to snowboard during the summer months?

There’s a really cool place called the Camp of Champions which is in Whistler (Canada) which is on the glacier and I have been there quite a few years in a row. The good thing about it is that it’s great for kids whose parents are going away somewhere and don’t what to take their kids. You get completely looked after, you get the hotel, full board accommodation and four days coaching on the mountain by professional snowboarders, so it’s all their heroes who will be there and they have a great time because they’re just hanging out with the sportsmen they look up to. All of the coaches teach them hot to do their tricks better and there are loads of pipes and jumps every summer.