 Everybody, Anna Gasser has decided to join me next to a fire so that we can talk about life and snowboarding. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me. You're welcome. I tried to get them to replace this bench with some fit balls, but we couldn't find any here in Vail. Next time. Next time. Next time. Fitball interview. Fitball interview by the fire. That would be A-first. Congratulations on everything on your last year. I wanted to talk to you about your relationship with this trick, the triple. Because I feel like... It's been rough lately. It's been a rough relationship lately. I feel like probably when you first did it that you probably never would have thought that it would have stayed so attached to you in the way that it has. What has it been like? Yeah, actually, I was really happy I could land the first triple, but I didn't know that it meant that everyone would ask me, when are you going to do the first triple in a contest? And of course, when a lot of people ask about something, you start to think yourself. You're like, actually, it would be nice if I could be the first to do this triple in a comp, but also it puts a little pressure on it. So yeah, I've had some rough... I haven't tried in a year. The relationship started off really well because I landed my first, and I was like, ah, easy. Boom, first one landed, but then I really was injured last year. So this year going into X-games, I was really excited. I was like, okay, this is going to be the year I can do. I get the chance to try the triple, but conditions went out on my side. I was running slow, but my mindset was the triple is going to happen anyway. The only thing that I watched this year at X-games was women's big air, and I'm not even joking, but watching the way you went to war with it was something to me like, I've spent enough time with you to get a sense of who you are, but there's something about when you switch into that gear, it seems like you go to a different place. And with this triple, it was like you were in another atmosphere. Yeah, kind of. I really... I had... There was no way I wouldn't try this trick. It was... I was... The doubles, I didn't go big on them. I was like, but no, I want to do the triple. I want to show the triple. So I really was in the mindset for the triple, and I didn't want to give up. And it was like pretty like, you know, the battle was pretty close too, because I almost landed my first one. Then I had a big crash on my second one, but nothing was hurting. And then I almost landed my third one, and I was like, what's going on? And then the big crash that kind of came over the triple one that time. Yeah. But I'll be back. So it's one to one between you and the triple. It's even. It's even, yeah. I didn't win at X Games, but I hope I get the chance to like try it again, and hopefully... But I learned too. I learned that I shouldn't force to do a new trick, that actually I got really lucky that I didn't get injured bad. I was just sore from that falls. So now the next time I'm going to go to war, I'm going to be better prepared. And I'm going to like choose a jump that I have speed on and that I actually feel the trick on, and not be too stubborn to try it no matter what. What is that pressure like from the rest of the snowboarding community? Like you have your own expectations for yourself as an athlete, but then there's the expectations from the judges, because now they know that this is a trick that you know how to do. Does that play with you at all? Like you feel like you need to do it for anyone else other than yourself? I try not to like get it too close to me. It was a lot of like last year, before I got injured, that was like when the pressure was the biggest. I like got so many messages, every comment under a post was, are we going to see the triple next weekend? I like didn't feel ready. This year I didn't care that much about the comments. I wanted to do it for myself. And I think that's the right way to go for something you should every trick you do, you should just do for yourself and not like do it for anyone else. I imagine that these are the kind of lessons that you learn as an athlete that really help you have longevity to learn how to make these decisions for yourself and now for everyone else. Yeah, for sure. I'm old now, so I've learned a lot of lessons. And I'm still learning. I'm still learning. I feel like every event I go to, every new trick I do is still a learning process. Every injury I have, I'm like, oh, I was tired. That's why I got injured. So still a lot of learning to do, but I try to remember what I did wrong in the past that makes hopefully my snowboard career last longer. Let's switch gears a little bit to slow style. I happened to be up at the top of the course today when you sent the double crippler off of the side hit. And I literally had just gotten there and I looked, you dropped in and I was like, wait, what just happened? I said, I hope she rode away and then I saw you come up on the lip. And then you posted it to the gram almost immediately. Was that, now I have to ask, I mean, we're in a week of big competition. This is the US Open. Was that a little bit of shots fired to the rest of the field that we're going to see this in the final? No. The field is so good and the girls are also good. I don't think they are worried about that trick. But I was just so excited because I haven't hit a lot of side transitions yet. I didn't know if it would be like my strength or not with not having a lot of experience, so I was really happy. I could try to figure it out. Well, still a lot to learn, but I'm really happy. Like I had this trick on my mind and like I was honestly, I was a little scared of it because like there is no preparation. I just did a single one and I was like, OK, I guess I stayed together and see what happens. And I'm really happy it worked out how I imagined it. I was talking about this with Maddie Mastro about she was talking about this with the double crippler for her in in SuperPipe. It was a there was a moment where she saw it, saw it and completed it in her mind. So it's almost like, OK, I've already done this thing. Do you have a similar type of thing before you do a new trick? Yes, I feel like it's really important to feel a trick and to see it in your head. All my big tricks I like saw in my head before I did them. And with the double crippler for me, the hard thing on the side transitions is just the takeoff still because I've I've been doing so many cap double nine, spec dance or like front double nine. So I know the flipping part. I know how it feels in the air, but I didn't know how to take like on a half type wall like taking off and like getting into a axis. That's still something new to me. So my biggest thing was to just get comfortable riding a half type wall in the air. I felt pretty confident. It's almost like it takes a little bit more patience. You have to wait a little bit longer before takeoff. Yes. And you you kind of have to twist your shoulders different. Like you have to do. Yeah, it's just different than on a jump, because on a jump, it's not as important how you're on your edge, like, of course, it is. But here you have to be really you you have to have a good line. And that that was was doing a lot of 360s this week, like even semifinals, just to find the perfect line to go for bigger tricks. Well, Anna, thank you very much for coming and sitting by my fireplace and giving us a glimpse into your mindset. And we wish you the best of luck and in your progression and in the final. Yeah, thank you so much. You're welcome. Anna Gasser.