Research & Development is not just an event, it’s a community experience supporting, mentoring, and fueling the next generation of women’s backcountry freestyle riders. Robin Van Gyn put so much heart into RnD 2025, down to the Arc’teryx Athlete Hub space inside The Adventure Hotel in Nelson, BC. A place to connect, fuel up, rest, and recharge. Robin straightened chairs and tidied up after the last ride day—the cap to a week she had been planning since the 1st inaugural Research & Development event, last year. 

The riders warmed up their legs with a powder day at Whitewater Ski Resort, followed by avalanche training, a scope day with legendary mentors, a beacon drill seeding event, two film days with some of the top photographers and filmers in snowboarding, and a gold-themed awards party—it was on, or “It on!” as the typo turned new RnD tagline exclaimed. 

“This event has been so insane. I’ve never been on such steep and exposed terrain before and being able to learn from everyone here on how to navigate it has been absolutely amazing.” – Ellie Weiler

Robin and the judges’ panel/mentors, Hana Beaman, Jess Kimura, Kimmy Fasani, and Marie-France Roy shredded, mentored, judged, mentored some more, watched all the riders’ footage and tallied the final results. Saturday night in Nelson The Royal crowd was electric as the riders’ RnD footage played—a progressive women’s snowboard movie made in 3 days. The decibels maxed when local rider Eva Van Vugt’s massive cliff drop rolled and nearly combusted when Egan Wint sent a double backflip. 

Sarka Pancochova took the RnD win with technical freestyle, freeriding, and her contest run with a smooth frontside 360 to backside 360 combo. Sarka also earned the coveted Natural Selection Tour spot, after barely missing a NST Duels spot earlier this season. Estelle Pensiero took silver for the 2nd year in a row with a clean contest run, tweaked grabs, and a smooth backside 3. Last year’s Mountain Goat, Mia Jones, rounded out the podium in 3rd. Mia opened new course zones and rode them with speed, control, and confidence.

“RnD was sick. I’m just stoked to see it all go down and we got to ride really good snow so thank you Mother Nature and Robin Van Gyn.” – Katie Kennedy

“It was just incredible. I saw so many familiar faces and also so many new faces that I connected with, and I think that was a big part for me that made it so amazing and worth it. As an added bonus, the snow was incredible and it was almost too deep in spots where people were just riding out and getting all sluffed. It was just amazing. I couldn't imagine better conditions besides the viz and the connections are for a lifetime for me.” – Cali Loeb

“We’ve been calling them the aunties. Robin is a huge beam of light for us. Hana Beaman, Marie-France Roy, Jess Kimura, Kimmy Fasani. Everybody’s riding up to them asking questions, picking their brains, trying to find their wisdom. They’ve made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons that we’re lucky enough to not have to make because they tell us not to.” – Egan Wint   

It’s the morning after the second inaugural R&D event at Whitewater Ski Resort and the gold-themed awards party was last night. How are you feeling?
Robin Van Gyn: Uh, tired? No, I'm overwhelmingly stoked on how the week went. The judges had their work cut out for them; it was really difficult to decide because the top six were so, so tight, but really, it came down to lands and clean flow, and that’s where we ended up on the podium. We had Mia Jones in third, Estelle Pensiero in second, and Sarka Pancochova in first. 

Then we had some other awards, including the Airchair Award, which Enni Rukajärvi won after overshooting the first jump by about 20 feet. We had a Style Award for Ellie Weiler, who really just focused on good snowboard style, proper execution. She did a switch toedeo, a backflip tuck-knee, and we just felt like she deserved that one. Then we had Billy Pelchat, which we called "Very Proper," and it was kind of an overall award—every photo we got, every video clip we got, her style was on point, and her execution was on point. She just rode so strong all week. 

There was also the Mountain Goat Award, which went to Marissa Krawczak, who won the beacon drill seeding event in one minute flat. She’s also just so good at freeriding, and all of her clips were really strong. Overall, just really strong snowboarding from her. Then we had the House Award, which went to somebody who bet everything on the house in the film days, and that was Egan Wint. She tried to get a double backflip both days of the filming days, and honestly, if the snow was a little bit better or the landing was a little bit steeper…, it wasn’t her fault; it was the conditions. So we gave her that, and she got the golden bong because she likes weed. We thought it was appropriate. And then we had the Seal Team Sender Award, which was $1,000 cash, and it was so obvious to us who that was: local girl Eva Van Vugt. She threw down the whole contest; just pedal to the metal the whole time.  just going for it the whole time. She won $1,000 cash—$1,000 US. 

What goes into creating RnD? It must be stressful at times.
RVG: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s just really amazing. It’s a really big lift, and when you’re in it, it’s hard to see the impact, but last night, when you get to see the results of the contest, the energy of the riders, the footage, the photos that come out of the event—everything is worth it, like a thousand percent. That’s why we do it. We’re here to usher in the next gen, whether it’s giving the women who are already at that level the spotlight that they need or giving the women who don’t have the opportunity to learn from others the chance to come in, be a part of it, meet people, make connections, get mountain partners, film for the first time, shoot for the first time, learn how to pat down a jump, learn how to ride a line. We’re trying to create a little incubator for women’s snowboarding to be elevated. It’s amazing.

Was there anything like this when you were coming up in snowboarding?
RVG: Hell, no! I didn’t have any resources. I feel like I was just trying to keep up and begging people to be part of their crews. I was so broke, I had no support, and I was literally just begging people to let me shred with them. But there were a few women who really opened the door for me, and I don’t forget that. That was a big turning point in my career when Leanne brought me into Runway, when Hana brought me into P.S., when Tara took me under her wing for two weeks of that first winter of filming. Those moments had an insane ripple effect for me. It was getting your first legit video shot. It was getting your first article. Stuff like that. So for me, it’s really important to pass it along. At this point in my career, I just want to spread the love. I don’t want to be relevant forever. That’s not the point. But if I can pass the torch in a meaningful way, I think that is the point.

What impressed or surprised you most this week?
RVG: I think what surprised me—and this is kind of a weird one—but you think you’re gonna get 53 centimeters and then another 25, and like that’s the best conditions. But I don’t think it is actually. It was so challenging when it’s that deep. There are just a lot of learnings. I think there is a mega challenge in managing so many riders and so much media. However,  the biggest surprise was the feel vs. the outcome on my end. It felt disjointed, unorganized, a bit of a  clusterf**k. We are flying by the seat of our pants every day. But when you see the outcome every day, the motivation of the filmers, the riders, and the joy, no matter how it feels, when you have good ingredients, it comes together in the end. That, to me, was a big surprise. I really felt like we were dropping the ball, and then at the end, when I saw the footage and the contest day and everything, I stood back and kind of looked at it from a broader perspective and thought, "There wasn’t a miss here." When you give the riders the things they need to succeed, they will take that and use their motivation to make it happen. To me, that’s incredible and speaks to the need of something like this. In the second year, we’re seeing a shift. Yeah, of course we need the Kimmy’s, the Jess’s, the MFR’s, the Hana’s, but at this point, they’re almost helping each other. We’re just there to cheerlead, maybe fix a pat-down here or there, help them navigate and execute, but they’re learning from each other and leveling up on their own too.

Arc'teryx was a really big supporter and created this athlete hub where we’re doing this interview, and Gillian doing massages and also riding in the event. The food was amazing, and you took care of the riders' well-being from a community sense. Can you talk just a little about the sponsor support?
RVG: I think over time, what I’ve learned about snowboarding is that you’re always going to perform your best when you feel supported and healthy. And so if we can—and that’s always been part of Arc'teryx's mission statement—they really take care of our mental health, physical health, and make sure that we’re supported in the community. It’s more of a family vibe. So we really wanted to bring that to R&D with the wellness center, making sure there are resources for the riders to get fixed when they fall, feel less sore, stretch and roll out, stay hydrated, eat good food, and have snacks for the road. At the same time, being supported with all the other riders around. To me, the fun of snowboarding is being together with people in the mountains. And sometimes, at least in my experience, competing can feel really isolating—like the riders are competing against each other in a serious way, and you don’t get that community vibe. That’s just not what we’re about.

Any final words or shout-outs?
RVG: I just want to thank the riders for coming, the judges, and everybody who worked on the crew, the mountain, the operations, the brands — there are so many people to thank. 

You thanked everyone last night! 

Riders: @bigmountainmarissa @ennirukajarvi @mia__jones_ @sarkasnow @estellepensiero @evavanvugt @billy_pelchat @ellery_manning_ @gillianandrewshenko @celia.petrig @zoefloweee @isabella__gomezz @curlsinthewild @katie_kenzz @ellie.weiler @caliloeb @amaya.potts @princess.menace

Sponsors: @yeti @arcteryx @jonessnowboards @burton @the.adventure.nelson @tributeboardshop @naturalselection @whitewaterskiresort @nelsonkootenaylake