Sha Hermsen is now a familiar face to those who rode any NZ nationals races this year, and with a streak of bright pink hair she’s not hard to spot either. But there’s more to this chick than just having answers to all your last-minute-panic race questions: she’s a kick-ass rider and has a seriously cool MTB lifestyle. After getting involved with running Crankworx in Whistler last year, she came back to NZ to organise the DH and XC nationals races, getting paid to travel NZ and ride her Transition Syren on all the best trails. This year she’s off to Europe first with her freerider boyfriend Kelly McGarry, and then back to Canada to do it all again!

Martha Hucker sent her a few questions to suss out how she got into riding, and how she got to be living most mountain biker’s dream life…

Shanine Hermsen riding a drop in Whistler 2008.
Photo: Shanine Hermsen

So Sha, what got you into mountain biking?

My first ever ride was up the Hackett in Nelson years ago with a bunch of lycra clad lads who left me in the dust. My next ride was in Hanmer, hired a crappy bike, and Kelly took me down my first down hill single track, only to go flying over the handle bars within the first 10 metres, it apparently required a different skill set to the usual biking I did to get to work and around town on my cruiser. The rest of the ride was an adventure and I came back with a huge grin. Being obsessed with snowboarding I figured mountain biking would be a great summer alternative and saved up for my first ride – a hardtail from Village Cycles in Nelson. Kelly had moved to Whistler so I went solo and rode on easy tracks around Nelson and got used to the basics, but nothing too steep or technical. My first experience on a full suss was in Whistler when I went to visit Kelly October 2006. Borrowing a mates Specialized Demo 8, I got all kitted up in armour and hit the bike park with Kelly as my guide, looking back I can’t believe he took me down some of the trails on my first day but at least I didn’t go over the handle bars that time! After this the biking obsession really began and I moved to Canada the following summer, bought an ex-rental Kona Freight Train and went for it.

Shanine Hermsen and crew, Whistler 2008.
Photo: Shanine Hermsen

How did you get into MTB event management?
I have a Bachelor of Recreation Management and gained a lot of event experience from working at the Nelson City Council as Community Recreation Adviser for 3 years. I have also worked on events such as Queenstown Jazzfest, Montana Chch Winter Carnival, Folklore Festival, Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler, Canada and Whistler’s Cornucopia Wine and Food Festival.

Being experienced with events, it made sense to get into MTB Event Management because I am passionate about it at a personal level. It also means I can relate well to everyone involved because I ride too. I was in Canada when I heard about the Bike NZ role – my mate Seb emailed me the link to the ad saying ‘this is YOUR job’. I was stoked because I probably wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.

Tell us about your involvement with Crankworx 2008. What was your role? What was the highlight for you?
My official title during Crankworx was ‘Awards Host’. I was responsible for organizing the prize giving ceremonies on each day of the 10-day festival. Think medals, podium, banner, loads of prizes, big cheques, champagne, all set up in between bands on the main stage. It all had to be very organized and run smoothly. I also ended up working with the branding crew which involved anything to do with signage and sponsor bannering and making sure it was looking sharp.

Highlight for me – apart from writing out giant cheques for some of the biggest names in mountain biking a huge highlight was seeing the thousands and thousands of people watching the slopestyle comp and just feeling the intensity of what was going to be thrown down as the riders came down the course.

Shanine Hermsen on a wallride in Whistler.
Photo: Dan Frew

And you came back to NZ to work for BikeNZ organising our National Series races, XC and DH. Was it difficult to manage all that and still get time for fun?
It was most intense on the weekends, long days and having to stay behind long after all the spectators and racers were gone and then having to write up a media release about the day was sometimes a bit taxing. I didn’t end up doing much else on practice or race days because I was so tired. I certainly made up for it during the week, with just some paperwork and bits and pieces to sort out it meant I could catch up with mates and get out on my bike. Of course then there was getting myself to the next venue which took up time too. There were times when I thought I must be crazy – after the second day of DH in Rotorua I had to drive to Wellington to be there on time for the XC race the next morning, I was glad I made it through that weekend!
The whole trip was amazing, it was definitely hard work at times but it was very rewarding and fun to be part of it. All in all it was a dream summer job for me as it combined work with play and I got to witness some thrilling moments in such an exciting sport.

Sha in 7 mile.
Photo: Greig Howell

So you got to travel all over the country for two months. Where was you favourite place to ride?
Oooh.. that is tricky, it was pretty much an eye opener for me to get to ride all over NZ. I have ridden so much in Canada now that it was awesome to get to ride all over my own country. I have to say Rotovegas was my favourite. Because I was by myself, it was so choice being able to use the shuttle service and meet people to roll with. The tracks were really awesome. Queenstown is my pick for the South Island, there are so many options and a pumping scene. The Week of Wonder events that Seb Kemp organized made that week before the Coronet Peak Race super bad ass too.

You were super awesome at all the events, by the way! Will you be back next year? (please, or who will answer all our stupid questions?? :P)
Ha ha, yes the questions… Where is transport? Will there be pro practice? Where is First Aid? Do you have any cable ties? Can I get a refund? And so on…but it was my pleasure to answer all the questions and act on any issues that came up. It is so cool to be part of the racing series even though I don’t race myself. I think because I ride I can relate to everyone and I know what they are going on about. Everyone involved is so wicked, it was great to meet so many enthusiastic riders, supporters and family, it really does feel like one giant bikey family all missioning around the country together. Will I be back? At this stage I am finding it hard to plan more than 3 months ahead but I have kept my van, and am under strict orders by Bike NZ to keep in touch. I think it would be hard not to be involved again really, but ask me in six months and I will know for sure.

Sha and her van.
Photo: Shanine Hermsen

Tell us the story about how you got your hotttttttt bike……
This is a pretty crazy story… Kelly and I did a wee road trip to a place called Creston in British Columbia, Canada to the Goat Style Bike Jam which Kelly competed in. There is usually not much happening in this small town which is home to Kokanee Beer, but this weekend the slope next to the recreation centre was transformed into slope style madness. I volunteered to help out with rider registration and became part of the crew. After this I decided it was time to watch some of the action. There were some other volunteers who had not met me who were going around the crowd selling spectator bands which you needed to have to be at the event. I got sick of getting asked to buy one so I handed over a 5-er and got me a green band with a unique number, tore off the loose number and put it in the ‘prize draw’.
On day one – qualifiers – they gave away a complete DJ bike to some guy in the crowd. On day two – the rain came pouring down and they had to can the finals which sucked. They still had a transition bottle rocket frame to give out and decided to add this to the riders prizes which they still gave out. They decided they better officially draw the raffle incase anyone complained. Because there were no spectators it was unlikely any one would actually be there to win the frame, so the riders were amped at the chance to win it. They pulled out 10 numbers out of the bag of over 1000, read out the first one, and it was mine – I held my arm up in the air and ran forward. The riders couldn’t believe it either as they handed me the frame, I was shaking all over and just saying sorry, sorry, sorry because they all thought they might win it. It was really awesome and the organizers were stoked for me. I ended up asking the bike shop I won it from to exchange it for the Syren, it took a while, but that is a whole other story!

Sha and her Syren.
Photo: Shanine Hermsen

What are you plans for this Northern summer?
Yikes, just the thought of this gets me psyched. Kelly and I are finally heading to Europe, he hasn’t been there yet and I want to see more. We are going to bring our bikes and ride where we can and Kelly is gonna ride in some slopestyle comps in places like Austria, Switzlerland and France so we’ll just see where our bikes take us. But as if we could miss a Whistler summer – we are heading back there in July for the rest of the Candian summer – yeeehaaaa!

Sha and Kelly, Redbull Rampage 2009.
Photo: Shanine Hermsen

Older: Rachel Atherton to miss first round of 2009 World Cup

Fresher: Pietermaritzburg National DH results (South Africa)

Published on 01/04/2009 by Martha Hucker.