Hi, my name is Mia Brookes and I’m fourteen years old. I snowboard for Team GB. I have been snowboarding since I was 18 months old and I love it. Some of you reading may have seen my feature in this magazine last year. Here is what I have been up to since…
Before Christmas 2019 we came to Morzine-Avoriaz. Everybody is just having fun! The stoke is unreal, especially in the Stash, it’s sick! It was also arranged that I could ride with Gigi Ruf, that was amazing. I would definitely like to come again! I spent Christmas in LAAX with my parents; we got some sick powder days. After New Year we went to Livigno to meet my Team GB coaches Ben Kinnear and Jack Shackleton, to start practising for the upcoming season. It was also my first World Rookie Tour comp of the season, I got through to the finals then took the overall title for both female U15 and U18 age categories. I was so happy and super stoked!
Of course, schooling is super important, so from December-April I spend three weeks at school then 3 weeks in the mountains. I actually love school and I have a great group of friends that are super supportive and so nice!
In February, my dad and I went to Finland to film a street part with @b00bytrap, it was epic! I had never been to Finland before and had never really been street filming before, apart from that one time when I was about seven and we went to Buxton when it snowed about 3 cm. The film is called HIGH RES’N, if you’d like to check it out. February half term, we returned back to Livigno and that’s when I landed my first ever back-to-back 900’s! Honestly I have never been so stoked in my life! We were actually lucky because a few days after, it was announced that Coronavirus was in Italy and the GBS (GB Snowsports) office advised us all to leave ASAP. We had to leave our motorhome, as it was snowed in, and get out before the borders closed the following morning.
I’d also been invited to go to the Vans High Standard event in LAAX. This was on the way to the airport and Switzerland wasn’t in lockdown at the time, so we still went there on the way home. I didn’t know that this was going to be my last time on the mountain in 2020! My homie Sam Nelson (A.K.A JACKIE), who is a G and is always working in the background to help me, met us there and introduced me to my favourite snowboarder Yung Doli. I loved shredding with everyone, and it was such a good time! I didn’t think that would be my last trip of the winter.
Once we flew home, I went back to school. Everybody was talking about Coronavirus and saying that they hoped we’d get to stay off school. We were in our food tech lesson, listening to the radio, it said schools in Scotland were closing down. Everyone was so excited! Until we found out that schools in England weren’t. But on the Thursday evening, I came downstairs and the news said that schools were also closing in England.
Over lockdown I did lots of schoolwork and by the time it came to the summer holidays I had been working every single day, until I had a folder full of everything that the teachers had set. It must have weighed three tonnes!
For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you will have seen I managed to cycle lots over lockdown. I set a goal to cycle 1000 miles with my dad but once we reached that I wanted to keep going. We are now on around 2500 miles. We also did a charity bike ride that we do every year which is #ridefornelly. Unfortunately, that got cancelled this year, so everyone did it via Strava. Me and my dad did 100 miles to Llandudno. It was super fun and I got to cycle right along the coast.
I also did weekly trampolining sessions with GB Acro coach Ross Hill and my teammates Katie Ormerod and GB skier Katie Summerhayes at Graystone Action Sports, in Manchester. The girls are both super nice and fun to work with, Katie Ormerod always encourages me and is super inspirational and I am very lucky to be working alongside her. I have also been skating my mini ramp lots.
In August we were finally allowed to fly again, so we booked flights to collect our motorhome and car from Livigno. On the way home we went via LAAX and met my best friend Kona Ettel, who is on the German Halfpipe team, because I had not managed to see her all season. We went swimming in a beautiful lake and it was amazing to see the mountains in the summertime. We also went to Landgraf, a dome in the Netherlands. This was my first time back on snow in six months and I was super hyped and eager to get to it.
There has also recently been an amazing book published called Heroes by Jérôme Tanon. It is all about female snowboarders and I am so privileged to be featured alongside some of the best female riders in the world.
Have a sick season everybody and keep the stoke real!!!!!
Follow Mia on Instagram – @mia_brookes
