Robin Van Gyn (pronounced: van jeen) was young when she definitively connected snow with fun -- the medium is straight-up novelty when you grow up in the mild temperate climes of Vancouver Island. To decide then as a young dancer, field hockey player and track and field athlete, that she wanted to be a pro-snowboarder, based on the magazines that papered her bedroom walls, without even having tried the sport, was a dream that her parents chalked up to delusion. (They have since learned never to underestimate her will.) “Sometimes, you just find the thing that lights you up,” says van Gyn. She moved to Whistler fresh from high school, age 17, with no money, not even knowing how to snowboard, taking marching orders from her gut and finding her natural aptitude charging backcountry lines. When she started to compete in big air, rail and slopestyle while studying at the University of Calgary, she could feel how drawn she was to the life of an athlete and went all-in to commit her life to snowboarding – but not on the competitive circuit. Her first snowboard magazine photo appeared, followed by sponsorships and small filming parts, coaching gigs, and backcountry guiding work – playing out her mantra of “set the path,” bumping from one small goal to the next, as she became a household name in women’s freeride snowboarding and travelled to Alaska and Argentina. The momentum built to a swell-force in 2016, when she filmed Full Moon, for which she was recognized for the Women’s Video Part of the Year, and reached crescendo in 2021, when she won the inaugural Natural Selection Tour while also producing and directing a 5 part documentary series about sideways-riding change-makers, Fabric. An advocate for Protect Our Winters, she’s passionate about inspiring people to appreciate each other more and completing her qualifications as a guide.

Achievements

• Director, producer and host of “Fabric” (2022), 5 part documentary film series
• Winner of inaugural Natural Selection Tour (2021)
• Full Moon (2016), Transworld Snowboarding Women’s Video Part of the Year
• Depth Perception (2017), Transworld Snowboarding Women’s Video Part of the Year
• First published photo in Snowboard Canada, 2004
• Communications and Geography Degree at University of Calgary
• CAA Level 2