Reader Athlete: Nadine Budbill

Sky Barsch

Age: 31
Residence: Wolcott
Family: Partner, two cats, lovely community of friends
Occupation: Executive director of Girls Move Mountains
Primary sport: Mountain biking

VS: What do you like about mountain biking?
NB: I’ve always had a real connection with physical activity. I was a dancer when I was younger. Having that physical outlet and expression has been really important in my life. But I had never connected with traditional sports. In mountain biking I found something that was highly athletic and physically challenging, but was also so exciting and had this aspect of mental challenge. When I rode, I had to push myself and take risks, and I immediately saw that carrying over into other areas of my life. That was great.

VS: How have you incorporated your passion for mountain biking into your profession?
NB: In 2001, when Jess Graham and I founded Dirt Divas, our girls mountain bike program, we had only been riding for a year, tops. But we both had done work with youth and were educators. It was kind of an “ah ha” moment, when I discovered mountain biking and outdoor adventure as the tools I wanted to use to work with young people, particularly girls. So we started Dirt Divas, and it grew into something successful and viable. At the time I was living in California, and in 2004, I moved out to the Bay Area and heard about the NorCal High School Mountain Bike League. I wanted to get involved, and I became a mountain bike coach at Berkeley High School. A few years later, I became the assistant director of the League. At that point I figured out that this could actually be my career path.

I had known for a while that I wanted to return to Vermont and create an organization that provides adventure-based empowerment programs for girls. That organization, Girls Move Mountains, is being founded as we speak. Girls Move Mountains is nonprofit, created to house Dirt Divas and other adventure-based programs for girls in the state. Our next addition will be Divas Rock, a girls’ rock climbing program. The powerful thing about these programs is that they are so much more than just adventure-based activities; they’re about supporting girls’ positive development and addressing the challenges girls face.

VS: What kind of challenges do girls face?
NB: There are definitely a lot of body image-related challenges. There’s so much media out there that gives a very specific message about girls’ bodies and how girls’ bodies should look in order to be attractive; and that the purpose of girls bodies’ is to be for show rather than function. So one of the things we do is show girls that their bodies are really cool and useful tools that they can do something exciting with. Also, many girls struggle with relational issues. We help them develop positive, healthier relationships, both with their female peers and in romantic relationships. There’s all those relationship issues like cliques and gossip and backbiting, all that stuff that girls often do, which is just unpleasant and not fun. Programs like ours are really trying to support girls’ strengths and teach them to be allies to each other.

VS: Do you find that girls think mountain biking and rock climbing are “boy” sports?
NB: That’s a huge challenge. When most girls see a poster for a girls’ mountain bike camp, they’re not going to say, “That’s me, sign me up!” We have to do this whole educational piece, that this is a girls’ sport. Ninety-nine percent of the time, once a girl comes to our program she loves it. The challenge is getting them there because we are battling some entrenched cultural stereotypes.

VS: How do you encourage the girls in your program to keep going after they’ve had a fall or mishap?
NB: One of the things that we do from the very first moment is intentionally create a supportive community. We do a ton of team building, community building, and relationship building. In addition, we actively talk about facing challenges, persevering, and the mental and physical preparation needed to be successful on a bike and in life. We are super supportive, and we have a rule that any time a girl falls, once we assess her to make sure she’s OK, everyone cheers. When someone falls, you’ll hear everyone shout, “Diva down!” We are creating a positive culture around it. All of the scrapes and bruises they accumulate during the week become sources of pride. Though there are certainly moments of challenge, which provide many opportunities for growth and learning, we frame the experience as something that is positive and empowering.

VS: If anyone reading this wants to contribute to Girls Move Mountains, or learn more, how can he or she do that?
NB: We have a website, www.girlsmovemountains.org, or they can e-mail me at Nadine@girlsmovemountains.org.

VS: How successful were you as the assistant director of the NorCal High School Mountain Bike League, an organization dedicated to making mountain biking a sport in public high schools?
NB: There are about 40 teams in the public high schools in northern California. It’s not an official high school sport on the state level, but in some schools it is official and in some it’s a club. As of this year, there’s a SoCal High School Mountain Bike League, so growth is happening. Liability is a big concern of many school administrators. There’s a cultural notion of mountain biking being a really extreme and really dangerous sport, when in fact sports like football that are culturally accepted, have a very high rate of injury, especially head injury. Snowboarding used to be perceived as renegade, like mountain biking is perceived now, and now a lot of schools have snowboarding programs, so it just takes time for cultural ideas to change.

VS: How does the mountain biking in California compare to Vermont?
NB: Well, California is a really big place. I lived in the Bay Area and then up in Tahoe. Those two places were completely different. In Tahoe, the scale of things is very different, so you have these hugely epic rides out there. I love Vermont mountain biking. It’s way more gnarly and technical. Your average speed is slower, but it builds strong skills!

VS: What do you hope for the future of mountain biking in Vermont?
NB: I hope to see more and more diverse types of people involved in our sport. Of course, I’d like to see more women and girls on bikes in this state, as well as people from different socio-economic backgrounds. I’d love to have mountain biking be an accessible sport for all. I think sometimes there’s a perception—and a reality—that it is inaccessible and expensive. I’d like to see systems in place to help it not be viewed that way. We have a great state for it, and jumping on a bike is such a healthy, empowering release.

VS: Your father, David Budbill, is an accomplished poet and writer. Do you share any of his interests?
NB: We both share a real commitment to social justice and incorporating those tenets in our work. I am also a writer, and while I used to write a lot of poetry, these days I write mostly scholarly articles and program evaluation reports!

— Sky Barsch