Hana Beaman on this past season, women’s progression and the Olympics

Two seasons ago, Hana Beaman took filming into her own hands. Her P.S. webisodes, now numbering two-dozen, have had great success within the snowboard digital scene and she’s not stopping there. With enough footage for a full-length feature film, Hana and her friends plan on releasing a short video documenting the best shots from their adventures in snowboarding.

But it’s not all backcountry on her mind. As Olympic slopestyle creeps ever closer, the competition itch grows stronger. We caught up Hana while she enjoyed some down time in SLC before the P.S. summer session begins at Mt. Hood.

You recently finished up a season traveling and filming for the second season of P.S.. How’d it go?

This year was awesome. I got to ride with my girls Robin Van Gyn, Erin Comstock and Megan Ginter, which was really cool. We had an amazing winter up in the Northwest, not so much everywhere else, but nonetheless a super fun winter that was pretty productive. I’m super stoked on it.

What gave you the idea to start filming your own webisodes rather than head out with an already established video crew?

I just reached a point where it didn’t make sense for me to hustle all that money from my sponsors to go out and film with a video crew. What was coming out of it wasn’t satisfactory to me. I wanted more freedom and to ride with whom I wanted to ride with. I wanted to do it my way and have more control over the end product.

The web series just seemed like a better means to an end. If I can put together a full part with all the footage and give it to someone to include in their movie, that would be ideal.

How does riding with your friends help push you to the next level?

When I’m having fun, that’s when I’m riding at my best. It makes a huge difference when I’m out with the right people, or out with the right crew in the right environment. That’s a huge factor for helping me push my riding to the next level and progress.

What was your favorite episode you filmed for this season?

I’d have to say our Colorado edit was my favorite. For what the trip was it was the one part of the season where we got out of the Northwest. We hauled butt down from Canada to Colorado with trailers and sleds and everything. When we got to Red Mountain we ended up hiking the whole time and never used the sleds. I think that’s why it’s my favorite episode. It took so much time and there was just so much raw effort to make the trip happen that I just appreciate it more. Also, Robin and I got some awesome shots on one of the few good powder days in Colorado.

Photo courtesy of Christy Chaloux – christychaloux.com

The Baker road gap episode was pretty gnarly and was one of my favorites to watch. How scary is it, really?

It’s definitely scary but you just have to not think about what could happen if you don’t make it. If I start to think about it too much then I tend to overdo it. From the takeoff you can’t necessarily see the road, so I just treated it as a normal jump.

It was definitely more intimidating before I got up there than it was when I actually got to the jump. It has all this build up because it’s The Baker Road Gap, this iconic snowboard spot.

You met up with Lucas Debari, Alex Yoder, Pat McCarthy and Nate Lind in that same episode. How is it different shredding with guys compared to girls when it comes to doing things you might not normally do?

The guys see what they want to do and just go for it. Us ladies tend to question ourselves too much where the guys have this air of confidence and just do it. You stop second-guessing yourself and feed off their confidence and their tricks. It’s definitely a good environment to snowboard in and help progress your riding.

But I’ve been shredding more with the girls over the past few years as that’s sort of what we have to do; band ourselves together. But I love going out riding with the guys as it adds a different element whether you’re at a resort or sledding in the backcountry.

You’ve done 24 episodes over the past two seasons. Is there any interest in pushing out your own full-length movie?

We are actually in the works on putting together a ten- to fifteen-minute movie with all the footage from this past season. It will be a short video project with all who were involved to show off our video parts and recap what went down over the past year. It should be out this fall and we’re pretty stoked on it.

Photo courtesy of Christy Chaloux – christychaloux.com

You used to compete a lot back in the day and have been on the podium many times. Is there any interest heading back into the competition scene?

I think about it every once and a while. If it’s for the right reasons I think I could get back into contests and stuff. I love riding park. It’s so fun to hit jumps with your friends and work on tricks. It’s a little less stressful in the sense that the features are more consistent and predictable. If there’s bad weather you can still go out and hit park where as in the backcountry it’s not really an option.

Also, the thought of the Olympics has definitely been on my mind now that slopestyle is in. You could say a few little birds have been chirping in my ear telling me to get back into it.

What’s your take on skier Kristi Leskinen’s push to make smaller jumps for women on the competition scene?

Personally, I like to hit the bigger jumps with the guys and don’t like to limit myself. But I understand where some of the girls are coming from. Where I don’t really have an issue clearing the jumps, a lot of the other girls don’t have enough weight or momentum to clear them, which becomes frustrating.

But I do think that it’s important that we don’t put a cap on what we are capable of doing. In terms of judging, it’s a bigger issue. How do you judge someone doing a seven off the small jump to another doing a five off the big jump?

But on Spencer’s (O’Brien) note, maybe we need to start looking into building better parks or courses to where weight and momentum become obsolete. I hate to say it but that’s what you see at X Games. They build these jumps that aren’t that massive but always seem to have an issue with speed, as they don’t allow for enough distance between the jumps. It’s not like the girls are afraid of the jumps, it’s simple physics that just doesn’t work out sometimes.

How do you feel about the progression of women’s snowboarding?

Well, style to me is really important when it comes to progression. The next couple of years are going to be interesting to watch with women’s snowboarding because we are at that point where girls are now starting to throw 9s and double corks but with such sick style.
We are just beginning to get a taste of the double corks and the bigger spins and I think it’s going to ignite a fire with a lot of the other girls to where they are going to be like, “Oh yea, we can totally to that!”

What do you have planned for the off-season? Going to head south or just kick it beach side?

I’m going to be kicking it in SLC for a while hanging out then off to High Cascade for our unofficial P.S. session, which I believe is session 6, so watch out for that. Then hopefully a trip to South America as Robin has a session with SASS (SGT). I’ve never been to South America so that would be an awesome addition to the summer.

If you missed any of season two check out all of the episodes below.