Girl On: Hana Beaman

Oct 11 2007 / Los Angeles, CA

SHARE Digg it   del.icio.us   LAT34 RSS Photo Galleries   Features   Daily News

It's pretty crazy to call any 25-year-old a veteran but snowboarder Hana Beaman is just that. Since winning Snowboarder Magazine’s rookie of the year award in 2001, she's reached the podium on almost every major snowboarding event there is including winning Slopestyle at the 2006 U.S. and New Zealand Opens and the 2007 Nippon Open.

The 2007 has really yet to begin but Hana is already starting to compete, having placed third in the the New Zealand Open earlier this summer. Along with that she's featured in the new Runway films release "La La Land" along with Leanne Pelosi, Alexis Waite, Jacqui Berg, Jamie Anderson, Tara Dakides, Victoria Jealouse, Priscilla Levac and more...

Girl On Photo Gallery    Check Out Photos Of Hana Beaman View Gallery>

Lat34 caught up with Hana in some rare downtime for her before the season really kicks off and found out what she's been doing and what she's looking forward to this season.

Lat34: How has your summer been?

Hana: It's been really busy, that's for sure. I've been out to New York and spent a lot of time down in Southern California, trying to get as much surfing as I can.  But definitely I have done a lot more traveling than I expected this summer. I'm now home and it's good to be home...  it's the one month of the year I get to be home and kind of chill out.

Lat34: You like to surf, too?

Hana: Yeah, I like being in the water. Surfing is pretty fun and I'm still pretty new at it.so it's still a good challenge and I have fun.   I go out with all my girlfriends and we have a great time.

Lat34: Do you stick to SoCal primarily or have you gone to more exotic locales?

Hana: Most of it this year has been in SoCal but I did go to Fiji last year and Costa Rica the year before. That was really cool.  I went with my friends and we made it a goal of ours to take a surf trip every year but unfortunately this summer was too busy.  Hopefully next year we can get back on track with that.

Lat34: I saw you had the premiere of the new video you're in, "La La Land" from Runway Films, down in ASR.  How was that?

Hana: It was really good. The premiere had a good response from everybody who saw it. The party was an awesome time. Monster threw this great party down on The Inspiration Hornblower in San Diego Bay and it was just a really good time.  There were tons of people there.  It was a fun night.

Lat34: What's your favorite part of the video?

Hana: I have the last part in the video but I think my favorite part is the opening credits when all the girls are riding together and it gets you stoked up to watch the video.

Lat34: Do you have any other video parts coming up?

Hana: Nope, just this one.

Lat34: I did see you appeared in a recent music video...

Hana: (Laughs)  Yeah, I was in Marion Raven's music video with a long list of people...  there's Andreas Wiig, her boyfriend, and Mike Casanova and a few other guys.  Marion's cool and she's a friend of mine so we thought we'd help her out with her video since she wanted to have some snowboarding in it.

It was interesting. The weather wasn't so good and it didn't cooperate with us but we still hung in there and toughed it out and got some stuff for it.  We filmed it out in Keystone, Colorado.

Lat34: Speaking of music, what's on your iPod right now?

Hana: Let's see -- I got a few new songs by Yoko Ono and Peaches.  Those are pretty good.  I always listen to Madonna.  I love Madonna.  I actually got Britney Spear's new single.  The new 50 Cent...

Lat34: So what contests are you most looking forward to this season?

Hana: After last year the Nippon Open is a really good one for me.  I love going to Japan and checking it out.  Also the Vans Cup -- that's always a good event for me. The U.S. Open is a really good one.  The last year I didn't have a really good time but hopefully that was just a bad year.

X Games is always fun but in a different kind of way. You get to see all of the other sutff going on. 

Lat34: You already did the New Zealand Open this season.  Did you go to the Australia Open?

Hana: No I didn't go to the Australian Open. I had a good time at the New Zealand Open but I told myself if I didn't win I wouldn't go to the Australian Open. So I just decided to come back and kind of have more of a summer.

That Open's always really fun plus the best beaches are down there. 

Lat34: How do you feel about Burton extending its Global Open Series to span almost the whole year?

Hana: It's cool because if you do want to go to contests in the summertime it's a nice thing to do. But at the same time you have to be picky with what you want to do because you don't want to ride all through the summer and come up on the winter time and be so burnt out and tired from riding all summer.

Lat34: Do you have some new tricks you're planning to show off this season?

Hana: I haven't really thought about new tricks to do but I've been working on my frontside 7s, cab 7s, stuff like that.

Lat34: Since you are something of a veteran snowboarder, do you feel pressure to keep up with the newer, younger riders?

Hana: I'm pretty comfortable with where I am but you always have a need to progress and to better yourself.  I feel like I have enough of the basics that if I really go for it and try to do other, more advanced tricks that I could really do it, I just need to have the time to practice and dial it in. I am still fairly young --kind of the average age in this sport now -- and I think that there's a lot that I know that comes with age, expereince, stuff like that.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

Lat34: As far as the sport of women's snowboarding as it lines up against men's, how do you feel women are treated?

Hana: I think for the most part we do get a really good deal as women in the snowboard industry. I do think there's always work to be done in certain areas, like some contests, but I think for the most part we're really lucky to be able to do this and to be paid for something we love to do.  As opposed to like, skateboarding...  The love for girl's skateboarding is not really there and for us to be able to do this as much as we do and live the life...  I think it's really awesome. 

People are realizing that the women's snowboard market is huge and they need to take advantage of it and I think them realizing that gives us a lot more pay and a lot more respect.  The sponsors are a lot more willing to support the women.

Lat34: Do you have an advice for girls out there who want to be professional snowboarders?

Hana: If you really want to be a professional snowboarder, or whatever you want to be, just put your mind to it.  Don't let people tell you that you can't do it.  It's totally possible and you just really have to want it.  Give it all you've got. 

Believe in yourself and don't let other people tell you that you can't.