Ashley Leugner

December 6th, 2010 | Rider of the Month

I met Ash at a my first ever Pro Tour contest. I was introduced to her as ‘The Other Canadian’ from our fellow rider Sunni Anne Ball whom at the time was leading the charge on the female wake scene.  Years later Ash has pushed the sport in Canada to a ridiculous level. She is pretty much the only girl to have ever landed a tootsie roll and roll to blind in Canada consistently, and she goes massive. Not only that, she is an amazing ambassador to our sport coaching young girls throughout the mid-west. Lastly, this girl trains harder than anyone I have ever met in a variety of sports I have encountered. She’s ripped, she shreds, and she’s one the nicest girl you will ever meet. -Erika

Photos by Adam Burwell @ Burwell Productions

Ashley Leugner

Alright, give us the overview:

Name: Ashley Leugner

Age: 25

Hometown: Fort Qu’Appelle, SK

Sponsors: O’neill and Gatorboards

Years Riding the Pro Tour: on and off for 4 years

Favourite Trick: indy toe back one

1.       You’re a soft spoken, super fun, good lookin, absolute ripper from the province of Saskatchewan. Give us the low down on how you first got the wakeboard bug and some key events that got you to where you are now:

I was pretty much brought home from the hospital to the lake and I wouldn’t have it any other way.   After school and in the summer our family was always on the boat and someone was always being towed behind on something.  I learned to ski when I was 8 years old and had been trying since I was 6.  I eventually learned to slalom and my parents bought me my own slalom ski for Christmas when I was 14.  That summer I discovered wakeboarding.  We were on a family holiday in B.C. and people renting the condo beside us we’re out wakeboarding and my brother and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  We went and rented a board and got hooked.  We came home from B.C. with a brand new Hyperlite Revelation with WakeTech bindings.  My slalom ski hasn’t seen the water since.  Anyone want to buy a  like new slalom ski??  I decided to start competing after this girl on my lake that I wasn’t very fond of won a contest.  I knew I was better than her.  At that time there was only one contest in Saskatchewan, so I had to wait all year to go.  By the time the contest came around I was working on my first invert, a back roll.  I tried it off the double up in my run, I didn’t land it, but I did land the front page of the Regina newspaper and became a local celebrity.  I progressed as the years went on and my riding partner and local shop owner, Danny Elder told me I should go to Florida because my riding was progressing so fast.  So the following year I did go to Florida and I’ve been back every year since and I would never change it one bit.  I’ve always looked at a decision and asked myself “Do I want to look back on life and say I wish I would have??”  and so far so good.  Any girls who have travelled anywhere with wakeboarding know that the community is so small and everybody is always welcoming to their own kind.

2.       You guys have one of the most solid crew of riders ever to come out of a Canadian province (or American State for that matter!) How has riding every day with boys like Anthony Hollick, Dylan Miller, the McMorris brothers, Adam Burwell, Rusty Malinosky and Braden Stumborg helped you to step up your riding?

Firstly, if you haven’t met or crossed any paths with these boys you will need to know that the hugest factor is FUN!!  We built quite the crew in the farming, flatland province of Saskatchewan and we all have Mike Lieffers  (Current Canadian National Team Coach) to thank for that.  He would get all the best riders in the province (Sask 1st) together to ride and train for several days at a time throughout the summer.  Through those riding camps I’ve made some of my best friends.  A lot of these guys live very close to my parents’ house so I always have someone Rad to ride with.  They treat me like one of the guys and I respect them for that.  We always make references to how I hide my male genitalia in a bikini.  I’ve even heard one of them say  “I was checking out this girl at Summer Invasion and I thought she was hot, then she turned around and it was Ashley. Eww it was like checking out a dude”.  I like that the guys don’t look at me like a sex object and  respect me as a fellow shredder.  I have a lot of the guys to thank for my riding, the countless combined hours of coaching time, driving time, filming time and we can’t forget party time!!  I don’t think my riding would be where it is today if I didn’t have the guys backing me.

3.       You’ve landed some pretty big tricks like a tootsie and roll to blind, and I’m sure you have your eye on quite a few more. What are some of your goals for this up and coming season?

It’s weird, when I was trying my tootsie roll there were days when I felt like I wasn’t meant to do it and there was no way I would ever land it.  The same thing happened with my roll to blind, I just couldn’t do it. I thought, “Okay, you got to thrown a bone – God gave you the Tootsie Roll but this Roll to Blind won’t happen,” but I kept telling myself (laugh if you want to) “You’ve beat the Universe before, you can do it again” and one day BAM!! It happened…..so it is true what they say, you can do anything you put your mind to.

This past season was one of my personal best.  I didn’t do too many contests and concentrated more on giving back and improving my own riding.  Taking the pressure off myself to train for contests relaxed me physically and mentally.  I would still go out and ride every day after work when I didn’t have a lesson to do, but not because I had too for so and so reasons or a contest was 8 days away, but because I wanted to.  I think sometimes doing contests and the pressure of needing to succeed makes us forget why we wakeboard.  I landed more big tricks this past year than any other year.  This season I plan on doing about the same amount of contests and more travelling to ride different and exotic places, to meet more people passionate about the sport as well.  My trick wish list is very lengthy, as I want to do it all before I can’t anymore. However, I have two major goals that are secret and I’m setting them as a three year goal for myself.

4.       You coach a Girls clinic every year, and it is really starting to show in the level of riders from the ladies out in Saskatchewan. What is it like coaching these clinics and seeing the girls progress?

I coach a few girls clinics in Saskatchewan and Alberta.  I really enjoy doing the clinics especially when it is an all-girls atmosphere and the girls break out of their shells and everyone has fun.  There is definitely a group of returning girls every year and they are the ones I have seen progress the most.  Adam Burwell runs his wakeboard school and if he sees a girl with talent he’ll invite me to come out in the boat and ride with her to get her more stoked on the sport, so she can see how far she can progress.  Adam and I do and all girls clinic through his school which has a lot of success.  It is so awesome to see these girls progress and to help them reach their goals.  It was a great feeling to see a lot of those same girls on podiums at Nationals it lets me feel more settled and satisfied about the future of women’s wakeboarding in Saskatchewan.

6.       Do you have any sweet travel destinations or shred spots in mind for this up and coming season?

This upcoming season definitely will have a lot of travelling involved.  Past years I have posted up in Florida for spring and done the majority of my training there.  This year I’m going to explore the planet a little bit more.  My boyfriend’s mom lives in Abu Dhabi so I’m going to cruise out there to start my season the desert heat.  Abu Dhabi has recently opened a cable park and I’m sure I will be there everyday, and try to get some boat sets in as well.  Then I’m hoping to do a little wakebaord coaching at Paradise Adventures Costa Rica.  I’m really excited to ride Lake Arenal and see what all Costa has for me.  Melissa Marquardt is putting on an all girls wakeboard contest called the Monster Mash, so I will definitely head out to the West coast for another dose of shred and hopefully will stay over there for a little bit, and well it just wouldn’t be spring without a trip to Florida too.  I’m hoping to meet a lot of new people with the same passion in wakeboarding as myself and figure it doesn’t hurt to have sweet people like that all over the world.  If money and my day job cooperate I’m hoping this will all be a success.

7.       What do you do in the wintery off-season to make sure you still kick ass for the pro tour in the spring?

I am a total gym rat, I’m practically at the gym more than I am at home.  Depending on my schedule somedays I get up at 4:30am so I can hit the gym before work and then I go again after, people think I’m crazy but I love it.  To me keeping fit and going to the gym is a necessity just like drinking water and eating.  I do still remember to take time off from the gym here and there to avoid overtraining.  I’m always mixing up my workout, but I focus mainly on cardio and weights.  I try to work yoga in once a week.  I’ve also found the best way for a wakeboarder to train is by circuit training, doing a number of exercise consecutively to get the heart rate up.  Although I do not live near a mountain range…..I still manage to get on my snowboard a few times a year, just to fill the void of riding sideways.

8.       Who were some of the female riders that you looked up to when you first got into wakeboarding? Did any specific one have a big impact on your riding?

The first female wakeboarders I was associated with were a few Saskatchewanites Amber Pancyshyn and Ali Stakiw.  Amber never really competed but was one of the first girls I witnessed doing and invert.  Ali killed it back when I first started competing, she was definitely the first girl in Sask to land an invert and crazily enough, she lives four doors down from me now!!  Nationally wise I really looked up to the likes of Niki Trook, Tressa Main, Tiffany Finley, Sheena Price and Sunni Ann Ball.  I wish all those girls would come back and ride Nationals for one year so Erika Langman and I can I have a bigger division of sick riders!!!  Come on ladies!!  On a professional level now I’m always inspired by Dallas’s return to the sport after her tragic injury in Singapore, I remember watching her run at Wakegames when she first came back and I could just tell in the way she rode off the dock that she was there to win and wouldn’t settle for 2nd place.  The drive she had that day was really inspiring.  I also have to mention Amber Wing, I ride with Amber quite a bit in the spring and she’s serious about the sport but knows how to keep it fun as well.  She lives and breathes champion, she’s a very healthy girl, really into yoga and keeping fit and definitely pushing and violently shoving the level of women’s professional wakeboarding.

9.       Proudest Accomplishment: I have a few proud accomplishments, including a few national titles and a silver world medal, but I think the proudest accomplishment for me would be making the finals in Reno at the 2009 tour stop. My final run was uber crappy, but just to be in the final with Amber, Dallas, Nicola, Hayley and Melissa was crazy, seeing on my name on that list with those top names made me feel like I’m finally that much closer.

10.   Shout Outs:  I’d like to firstly thank ma and pa, for obvious reasons.  Max Henault and Pascal Mosain at Oneill for the continued support and sick product, Erik Lutgert at Gatorboards, Danny Elder at Offaxis Boardshop for getting me started, my boyfriend Scott for being okay with my lifestyle of hardly being home and people like Erika and Ally for this sick site where girls can show how rad they are to the world!!

Ready.. Set.. Rapidfire:

-          Chicken or Pig? chicken

-          Rabbit or Squirrel? rabbit

-          Nosepress or Front Blunt? nosepress

-          Indy Back One or Melon Back One? indy back one

-          Pizza or Fish Tacos? fish tacos

-          Heels or flats? depends on the outfit duh!

-          Short Shorts or Long Shorts? Long

-          Leather Jacket or Denim? leather

-          Pink or Green? green

-          Favourite Animal:  LION!

-          Favourite Sport other than wakeboarding: Basketball

-          Favourite Quote: “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital”

RELATED POSTS

1. Kelsey Chiappa
2. Oakley’s Wing & Butler Charging Australia
3. Louise Sawyer
4. Tynna Rosero: ROTM
5. Tiffany Tsuyuki