Jess Kimura grew up snowboarding and skateboarding in the streets of Whistler, British Columbia, with visions of one day riding as a professional. It wasn’t an easy or painless path, but now she’s sponsored by some of the biggest brands in the business, such as The North Face and Capita. In the hopes of encouraging other women to keep riding despite discouragement, Jess produced two films about the women crushing the urban scene. Her most recent film, The Uninvited II, debuted in November.
Still fired up from her latest project, Jess talks about what it takes to stand out as a female athlete and filmmaker in two male-dominated industries, her path to making videos, how she financed her dream with her own savings, the significance of mentorship, and her obsession with tree identification and wood.
What kinds of crafts are you into?
It’s not so much about specific things I get into, but how hard I get into it. Anything that I do, I take it a bit overboard and get super obsessed. Professionally, I snowboard. That’s what I’ve been doing mainly for the past decade. But I also got into filmmaking out of necessity. I don’t do competitions, I do film video parts so I go jump off stuff, people film it, and it comes out as a movie segment. I found that the male editors didn’t give a shit about my footage, so I learned how to edit my own stuff.
I’m also super into wood. I built my own sauna, but I’m more into tree identification than woodworking and finesse. I learned a lot about BTUs, which is the amount of energy output that different woods produce. Every piece has a personality. I love splitting wood because you get to see what’s inside it.
What was your journey to pro snowboarding and making films?
I was working in masonry in Whistler and I had this far-fetched dream of going pro one day. But I didn’t get to ride enough because I couldn’t afford a pass to the hill. Any time I had a day off or after work, I’d go to the ice rink, set up a rail, and just practice. It made me get better because I valued my time on snow so much more.
Filmmaking was intertwined with snowboarding. I got noticed through a production company called Peep Show run by two girls who knew that we were never going to get in any of the guys’ videos. They made really sick films. I immediately knew I wanted to get in on it. There were so few of us filming urban riding back then. That opportunity led to me getting discovered. I didn’t go pro until I was 25 and I didn’t get my first check until 26, which is when people usually retire. I was so convinced that no one was going to pay attention, so I would do everything I could to get as many photos and shots until I couldn’t even walk anymore. I eventually got attention from bigger companies. I remember sitting in my driveway one night and adding up my contracts on a piece of paper. I was so hyped to learn that I could pay my rent and insure my car. Eventually, I started making a living and I quit my masonry job.
(Jess’s favorite tools are the chainsaw and ax. She loves splitting wood into pieces and discovering the secrets inside every slice. Photo by Aaron Blatt.)
How did you come up with the premise for your films, The Uninvited and The Uninvited II?
The Peep Show had such an impact on my career, and I wanted to do something similar for others. I started mentoring a bunch of girls unofficially. We would talk about sponsorships, but it always seemed like there were no movie opportunities. Even at my level, I was still getting cut out of the men’s film projects. I would be on the team for a video, it’d be advertised that I was going to be in the movie, I’d film for it all year, and then the movie would come out and I wouldn’t be in it. I’d find out when I saw it for the first time. That happened in so many different ways throughout my career. I thought, if this is what’s happening to me, what’s happening to the girls who haven’t even gotten their feet off the ground yet? My first film project, The Uninvited, was totally out of necessity. It was really rough. I paid for it out of my savings. It was so stressful. I felt so much responsibility and pressure. Not a lot of people understood why I was doing it and not focusing on my own career. But we did it. The whole point of it was for girls to see themselves in someone. Plus, some of the girls from the first movie got careers as pro snowboarders. I knew I had to do a second one.
Why was it worth it to put so much of your own money into it?
Even years before the film, I had been sharing my travel budget with girls coming up who weren’t appearing in a film or didn’t have a means to get noticed. I wouldn’t tell my sponsors, but I’d fly another girl out on my points and she’d stay in my hotel room and use my filmmaker. This was just that on another level. It was just a more organized version of that with more people. I was never trying to be some kind of savior. I just felt compelled to do it because I wish someone gave me a chance when I was coming up. I just wanted to give back to the girls. I don’t snowboard to make money, but I now get paid do it. I’ve always felt guilty that I was getting a chance and other girls weren’t. And in hindsight, I wanted a community of other female riders around me. If it wasn’t going to happen naturally, then I was going to make it happen and help them in the process. For those who had sponsors, they wouldn’t even get money for a hotel. The sponsors would hem and haw over $100. They wouldn’t put budget behind the girls’ content and then at the end of the year, they’d ask for it for free. We just can’t keep doing that.
(Advice from Jess: “Don’t perpetuate the stereotype about girls being competitive and bitchy. There’s room for all of us.” Photo by Dave Walcer.)
You mentioned that it’s hard for you to give yourself credit. Why?
A lot of people struggle with that, women in particular because the messaging we get is that we’re not supposed to be in these spaces. People can argue with this if they want, but female athletes are told that we’re not supposed to be here, we’re not supposed to be the focus, we’re not supposed to be taking risks. We’re supposed to be caretakers, and we’re told to be safe and subservient. It prompts doubt. Guys are told they have to be good at everything, they have to win, they have to be the strongest. The comments on my first film made fun of women and were so degrading. For me, it lit the fire to prove them wrong. But I see comments like that extinguishing the fire of a lot of girls and that’s where I wanted to come in.
What makes a meaningful mentorship?
At first, I wanted to make sure the girls didn’t have to go through what I went through and suffer those same things. What I didn’t realize was that by doing that, I was robbing them of the gift and lesson of learning how to make it for yourself. It was the classic story of the parent who grew up poor and wanted to give their kids everything, but then ended up with spoiled brat kids. Over time, I’ve learned it has to be a balance of support, advice, and communication, letting them learn on their own, and being there for them when they fail and succeed.
What are some of the main areas up-and-coming female snowboarders need advice about?
A lot of it is dealing with sponsors. I’ll help them rewrite communications to sponsors. I’ve helped them negotiate contracts. I’ve connected them with agents. I make sure that shit doesn’t slip through the cracks. I’ll spend hours on the phone doing pep talks or going over what they’ll say to their team manager because it’s the only hour they get in a year. They don’t know what they should be asking for. Most of them aren’t getting paid at all. The ones who are, aren’t even making enough in a year to cover their living expenses for a month or two. There are a lot of variables in the equation, but if a rider has the right combination of talent and traits it takes to make a good pro, they should be making at least what a minimum wage job would pay in their first year under contract. And if they’re doing a good job, then it should increase exponentially from there. All the girls in The Uninvited work full-time jobs outside of snowboard season. And then their sponsors ask for content, which they used their own savings to get, for free. It’s not fair, and that’s why I want to advocate for them.
(Jess is sponsored by The North Face and Capita, among other snowsports brands. Photo by Ashley Rosemeyer.)
As an admirer of art, what stories resonate with you most?
The underdog story and the story about the person who succeeds against all odds always get me the most.
In what ways does snowboarding feel like a creative outlet for you?
Helping other people craft their story is more of a creative outlet for me than as a physical snowboarder. You can always get better and you can always do it all. But I can still use snowboarding as a vehicle for good. In the end, it’s not about anything more than that.
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Before you go…
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