Girl On: Darcy Turenne
Aug 09 2007 / Los Angeles, CAWhen it comes to mountain biking, Darcy Turenne has truly taken her own path. Once a downhill racer, she's now traveling the world as the host of a TV show about the sport and at the same time continues to expand her freeriding career.
Turenne, now 23, started mountain biking at 14 and also had a knack for volleyball, playing that sport through high school. But thankfully she choose to focus on MB and hasn't looked back since. In the last few years she's done TV work, taken part in tons of photo spreads and even found herself appearing in a new movie -- about skiing, surprisingly. Not bad for someone born and raised on Vancouver Island -- not exactly the big city. But perhaps the perfect environment for a world-class mountain biker.
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We first talked to Darcy earlier this year when she gave us a look at her trip to the Costa Rica with fellow Oakley girls Kira Sheppard, Mizuki Hagiwara, Roxy Louw, Niki Gudex and Claudia Goncalves (all surfers) -- video and photos from that trip would be heavily used in the Oakley "Uniquely" campaign that kicked off in April of this year. Then in June Darcy started her new gig and went to Europe, visiting Austria, Switzerland and Norway.
We caught up with her before she started on a whole other set of trips and found out more about the show.
Lat34: So you told me that you're going to be on the road for four months. What will you be doing?
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Darcy: I'm the host for the television show "Ride Guide." I just got the job and just returned from Europe doing it. It's a TV show about mountain biking and skiing and I'm a host and obviously a professional rider on it. The next couple of months on it we're going to Utah, Cyprus, possibly Peru, then Israel. And after that I'm hoping to go to Spain for this winter to train with some friends and get away from the snow... Oh and I'm going to Hawaii somewhere in there for a biking trip and photo shoot.
Lat34: Where does it air?
Darcy: The show airs in so many countries -- I think like 16 countries. It airs on Canada on Global, X-Treme Sports and MenTV, in Europe on Extreme Sports Channel, in the States on Havok and in Australia it airs on FuelTV.
If you go to the website RideGuide.ca I keep a blog on there for the different countries we go to.
Lat34: Mountain Biking definitely is getting a big following.
Darcy: Totally. It's ridiculous how big it's getting.
I was just at the world's biggest mountain bike event up at Crankworx in Whistler and for the Slopestyle 30,000 people came out to watch... Or more.
Lat34: Have you been to all the countries that you are going to in the next few months or is it all new to you?
Darcy: I haven't been to Cyprus, Peru or Israel and I'm pretty excited. All of them will be a real culture shock -- it'll real fun. I think their terrain for biking is going to be amazing. I've seen some pictures and I'm really stoked.
Lat34: And you were in Costa Rica last year with Oakley...
Darcy: Costa Rica I fell in love with -- I'd go back for six months or a year if I could.
Lat34: So the show is all you're doing for now?Darcy: I'm kind of doing my biking career and "Ride Guide" side by side. I signed on to the Norco Factory team as a pro rider and also they're the main sponsor of the show. So I have two separate gigs, but they both really help each other. With the show it helps expose all my other sponsors. And for riding, the show benefits because they have a pro rider on board and they can always film me when we can't find other riders and I can keep up with all the boys. (laughs)
So it really helps my career both on the TV side of things and my athletic side of things. Because all we do when we're filming is biking, so I'm my bike every day.
Lat34: And you can do skiing as well...
I only host the biking. Last winter I was skiing like every single day and I really missed my bike a lot. This spring I went to Spain and it's an amazing climate for biking. I have a couple of friends there who are pro bikers and I decided this winter I'm going to take it off from skiing -- maybe we'll do like 20 days -- and head to Spain and just chill out in the sun and ride my bike.
I'm going to focus on biking and see how it goes.
Lat34: Am I right that you did some work on a movie?
Darcy: Oh yeah. That was up in the little town of Big White in the interior of BC (British Columbia). It was chaos. It was with Tom Green and Dave England.
I've been doing some TV work since I guess I 19. I kind of fell into TV and doing some broadcast. I've been doing it a little bit. But I think right now I want to focus on my athletic career and do TV second and biking first. But in the future I want to definitely start producing my own programs
It's fun to host right now but I want to start producing and writing and directing my own stuff. I just received a degree in environmental studies and I want to start doing some environmentally-based programming, but that's like 10 years down the road.
Lat34: Are you semi-retired from racing?
Darcy: I was a pro racer from 17 on. I did downhill racing and then I got really tired of racing -- being at a set track on a set day... I found there wasn't much variety and I really like to pop off jumps instead of going as fast as I can. So now I do freeride and do photo shoots for magazines, work on my tricks, dirt jumps, do some BMX, do video shoots and do slopestyle competitions.
That's where you're judged soley on your performance, tricks, amplitude, stuff like that -- just like snowboarding slopestyle. So I do that now. And there aren't a lot of girls who are into it but we're definitely pushing the sport more and there are more and more girls coming up every year.
Lat34: What advice would you give girls who are interested in mountain biking?
Darcy: Just start off by just biking regular or dirt roads and getting outdoors. That's what got me into it: riding outside and the freedom I felt -- well, I was also 14 so you feel free when you're away from your parents. Just biking outside is a really liberating experience.
Just do that and some advice I give to girls starting out would be to ride with other girls because it can be really intimidating riding with guys at first because they're naturally really, really good and I found starting biking felt quite awkward. It's a different feeling, especially mountain biking and jumping and doing technical trail rides. It's something you don't experience naturally and I think riding with other girls was really encouraging and you learn better, you push each other more and it's a lot more fun.
So when you're first starting out try and find some other girlfriends to practice with and once you get good enough, then it gets really fun.
Everybody knows how to ride a bike for the most part, except for my grandma. Just start out by doing dirt roads and easy trails. Start small and work your way up.
Lat34: How about photo shoots? Which ones do you have coming up? I know you were doing a bunch with Oakley.Darcy: I have a photo shoot this afternoon in Whistler. We're trying to get all my ads done for all my sponsors. There's a big trade show coming up.
Shoots come up every day. But I don't know about Oakley -- usually they call you pretty close beforehand.
I just signed on with Oakley of October of last year and the mountain bike team manager called me and said we're doing this big movie and we want you to be part of it -- it was like a feature movie made by one of the best filmers in mountain biking and we did this photo shoot down there. We filmed this movie and then all a sudden the women's team manager called me. She's like, "We're going to Costa Rica, we want you on this shoot too."
So it was definitely a whirlwind. They were really welcoming. I had just signed and they involved me in pretty much every campaign they had going. I think it will slow down this fall a little bit because they used me so much this year and with the Uniquely campaign they have to focus on other girls. So Kira (Sheppard) won't be used again, I won't be used again for a little bit, but I have tons of photo shoots for mountain biking lined up for right now.
Lat34: I also hear you like to write music? Do you get a chance to do it often?
Darcy: Yeah I wish could. I want a portable music studio. I have my little laptop that sometimes I fool around with but before I left for Europe is the last time I sat down and did some writing with my dad.
I'd love to do more when I'm at home. I think I get 10 days in September. I'll definitely be in the studio a lot and just playing, having fun. It's something I love to do to just chill out and relax. That makes me feel like I'm really at home because I don't ever get to do it elsewhere.
Lat34: What would you compare your music to?
Darcy: I can't really compare it to anything. I have so many influences. Metric is like one of my favorite bands. And actually Sandy Carson, a pro BMXer, just came out with a demo CD with a band called the Iglomat and they're really good. It's kind of electronic, guitars, pianos... just like a mish mash of everything.
Lat34: When do the episodes of "Ride Guide" that you're in start airing?
Darcy: Right now they're in the edit room. The season doesn't start until September. If you look on the website (RideGuide.ca) you can find that out. They haven't aired yet but will be starting this fall.
Lat34: That should be exciting.
Darcy: I'm definitely pushing myself as a rider these day and it's been awesome. I can't wait to showcase that on the show. I'm pretty lucky because most girls don't get a lot chances to film, which is a big part of mountain biking, but my whole life revolves around filming.
It's good to focus on biking and improving and pushing the sport as a women athlete, because there aren't a lot of women doing it, and then getting filmed while I'm doing it.
Lat34: How about your sponsors?
Darcy: Norco Bikes is my bike sponsor. Oakley, DaKine, Gravity, etnies and I think that's it.
- Greg Baerg
