Rediscovering Your Passion: An Interview with Egan Wint

“It feels like I’ve been snowboarding all my life,” says Egan Wint, and she’s not exaggerating. Wint’s father ensured that she and her siblings got up on the mountain from a very young age. “My dad grew up skiing. He got us on skis when we were like two or three…and then when we were five or six, he got us on a snowboard.” she says.

Growing up in Denver, Wint cut her teeth on the slopes of Colorado resorts, particularly Breckenridge Ski Resort, where her grandparents owned a cabin. “We would drive up every Friday night and back down every Sunday night,” she says. Those weekend trips were fundamental to Wint developing her skills and appreciation for snowboarding, but over the years, something changed. “I was pretty lost at the end of high school and just wasn’t making those weekend trips as much,” Wint says. Trying to balance a social life with the competitiveness of the Colorado snow scene grew overwhelming for Wint and she recalls losing her love for snowboarding.

“I found my own community there … people started to notice and be like, ‘Who is this person?’”

Everything changed for Wint upon moving to Salt Lake a few years ago. A combination of the closer proximity to the mountains with the relaxed vibe of the local ski culture reignited a love for boarding deep within Wint that she hadn’t felt for a long time. “I was like, ‘holy shit. There’s a lot of snowboarders out here and I really, really like snowboarding!’” says Wint. Thanks to a connection from a friend, Wint began working at Brighton Resort, first as a rental shop employee then as a “digger,” helping to build and maintain the terrain parks. This experience was essential in Wint getting to where she is today.

As a digger, Wint spent a great deal of her time at Brighton’s terrain park, The Bone Zone. As she became more involved with The Bone Zone, Wint naturally built more local connections. “I found my own community there,” she says. “People started to notice and be like, ‘Who is this person?’” Wint’s biggest breakthrough came as Brighton’s social media team started capturing her pulling tricks in the park. “I not only progressed a lot, but I got comfortable in front of a camera and got eyes on me.” Thanks to The Bone Zone, Wint has been able to stretch her abilities and expand her repertoire—her latest accomplishment, a successful frontside boardslide on a kink rail.

Wint recalls one particular experience where she was complimented by a fellow boarder. Disguised under all the gear, Wint wasn’t aware that she was speaking to Mike Rav, a local professional and frequenter of Brighton with nearly 50k followers on Instagram. That was a powerful moment for Wint. “I wasn’t really used to the fact that you see the people you followed on Instagram for years, in person,” she says.

“I was like, ‘Holy shit. There’s a lot of snowboarders out here, and I really, really like snowboarding!’”

Thanks to Rav and his connections, Wint’s popularity grew even further, garnering exposure that eventually led to her current sponsorship deal with boardsports brand Volcom. Wint has since traveled all over the United States to attend competitions with her snowboarding team, Dinosaurs Will Die–-An “epic company” that Wint joined thanks to fellow rider and “main Bone Zone guy” Jeff Holce. Her favorite event in recent memory was a “film festival” where each team had a set amount of time to film some tricks and make their own highlight reel. Events like these that encourage community collaboration, have been far more fulfilling to Wint than the suffocating, Olympics-focused scene in Colorado. “I said I hated doing competitions and now I’m talking about all these events that I did,” she says. “But they’re a different format than the X-Games. They’re more than competitively competitive.” In stark contrast to her experience in Colorado, Wint says, “the event days are really fun.”

Since moving to Utah, there’s been no turning back for Wint as her career continues to take off. “I had just gotten the Rookie of the Year award from [Slush Magazine] and in my own head was feeling like I didn’t know why they picked me,” Wint says. “It all happened by accident.” Anyone who has seen her snowboarding knows that Wint has far too much talent for her success to have been a happy accident. You can follow and keep up with Wint on her Instagram @princess.menace.