MORE THAN A CONTEST: Research & Development 2025 Recap, Results, and Photos

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.

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Butterfly in a Blizzard — Kimmy Fasani and her upcoming Film

Over five filmed years, Kimmy Fasani and Chris Benchetler’s story unfolds in ways they never expected from being new parents balancing pro athlete and artist careers and adventures, to deep personal loss, struggles, and a battle with breast cancer. Riding the highest highs and lowest lows, they remained committed, raw, and real—and left the cameras rolling.

At the bottom of chair 2 at Mammoth Mountain, California, on a crisp February day, Kimmy opened up about the pivotal moments that shaped the film, the people who helped bring it to life, and what she hopes audiences take away from her soon-to-drop passion project aptly and creatively titled Butterfly in a Blizzard.

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Research & Development – Robin Van Gyn Interview

Robin Van Gyn has spent over two decades redefining what it means to be a backcountry snowboarder. As one of the most influential freeriders of her generation, Robin’s career is built on a foundation of skill, grit, creativity, and an undeniable love for the mountains. Robin brings an intimate knowledge of terrain and safety, she’s not just riding lines; she’s leading and charging them — whether in iconic films like Full Moon and Depth Perception or as the 2021 women’s winner of the Natural Selection Tour.

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Snowboarding 20/20

This article is a rebuttal to Julie L. Kessler’s Los Angeles Times travel piece titled “At Deer Valley, you can ski without snowboarders” published March 13, 2020. Three resorts in the U.S. continue to ban snowboarders — Deer Valley, Alta, and Mad River Glen. I wrote this piece on March 15th and hesitate to publish it, as globally our lives change drastically each day with much hardship being faced. If nothing else, it felt good to write and get this off my chest for the love of snowboarding.

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MFG Place: Beer and boards at Saint Archer Brewing Company

Originally featured in Snowboard Mag 11.1: The Product Collection

Saint Archer Brewing Company is a modern example of the California Dream: Build a company from scratch with a collective of artisans, musicians, photographers, filmers, surfers, skaters and snowboarders who share a vision and love cracking open an ice cold craft beer.

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An Unexpected Journey: Rip Zinger, the global nomad

Originally featured in Snowboard Mag 11.3: The Primitive Issue

Rip Zinger’s life is an unexpected journey. Born Tomonori Tanaka in Tokyo, Japan, Rip would cruise around the vibrant, buzzing city on a Zip Zinger skateboard, hence where his moniker began. In the late ‘80s, Rip traveled to Hawaii for a mini ramp contest and it was there that he made friends in the skateboard world who were headed to Japan. “I had different friends that stayed at my house for the first time, English speakers — skateboarders, magicians, musicians and all kinds of different people,” Rip Zinger explains. These eclectic friends inspired Rip not only to open his English dictionary while playing Japanese host and tour guide when they visited, but to live a creative life of his own — a life outside a storage unit and travel bag.

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MTN Life Design: Mike Basich’s tiny house on wheels

Originally featured in Snowboard Mag Vol. 11, Issue 3 | The Primitive Issue

I am learning that finding the open road can turn into quite the addiction. It always seems to bring something new to the ultimate dream. Homebody or not, I must say the road offers something of a closer connection to people and your ever-changing surroundings. It is a feeling of home for me. Last season was such a low snow year at Area-241, I felt the need to expand my road options. Inspired by the tiny home movement I wanted to apply that same idea to a trailer. With a little bit of research I found the dimensions of road widths and heights and started to shape what I could within a 16-foot trailer!

– Mike Basich

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Artist Profile: Scott Lenhardt’s beautiful, strange and bizarre world of art

Originally featured in Snowboard Magazine 11.2: The Transcendent Issue

“Scott’s an incredible creative and talent. His attention to detail from large to incredibly small scale is awesome. I’ve always been amazed by the beautiful, strange and bizarre that comes from within him and the subtle or loud ways he expresses those visions — tiny garden figures to giant beasts, pet portraits to swamp monsters. The portrait he did of my old dog Jasper is among my most cherished possessions.” – Rick Levinson, Photographer

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JAMIE LYNN & the art of living

Skateboarding, art, music and snowboarding intertwine in the timeless, weird and wonderful world of Jamie Lynn. Jamie opened a door to a universe of art and inspiration when he took everything he dreamt of doing on a skateboard and applied it to snowboarding. Jamie rides and lives life on his terms and is one of the most authentic, soulful people you could ever hope to meet. The fact that Jamie has ridden for Lib Tech, Volcom, Vans and Dragon for over two decades speaks volumes on his integrity and loyalty to those who have supported him through thick and thin.

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Artist Profile: Adam Haynes

Originally featured in Snowboard Mag Vol. 10, Issue 2 | The 10 Year Anniversary Issue

Imagine a young boy in a small community in Central Oregon, who was surrounded by nature and books. A home without television made it essential for the boy to be creative as he explored the raw beauty of his natural world. Running through mossy, lush Pacific Northwest forests, beside a winding river’s fluidity the boy dreamed in color. This same boy later grew into a snowboarder, an artist, a man by the name of Adam Haynes – a man who earned a Fine Arts degree from Montana State University, a graphic design position at adidas and cultivated his reality into rich dreamscapes with mainstream appeal. Whether creating board graphics for GNU or projects with Nike, Timberland Boot CO., Quiksilver, Patagonia and Red Bull, Adam Haynes continues to live and work on his terms – quietly in the mountains. He’s living proof that “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

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Soundboard: DJ Shadow

Entroducing Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, though he needs no introduction. If you’ve watched any major snowboard movie in the last decade, tracks like “Organ Donor,” “Stem Long Stem,” “Mutual Slump” and “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt” set the mood for powder slashes and art forward edits. DJ Shadow is one of the most innovative artists of our generation and has created sound that often can’t be categorized. He was kind enough to sit down for this interview in Boulder, Colorado during his All Basses Covered tour…

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Soundboard: METRIC

Jimmy Shaw is a founding member, producer and lead guitarist who also contributes synthesizer and backing vocals to Toronto, Canada’s beloved band METRIC. Though some may see Jimmy as the guitar player with mystique beside front woman Emily Haines, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott-Key, Jimmy is a driving force behind the band and has been pivotal to METRIC’s longevity and success the past 15 years. I was able to catch up with Jimmy during METRIC’s Synthetica tour where we talked about music, life, creativity and independence.

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An Unexpected Journey: Amy Purdy, limitless

Originally featured in Snowboard Mag Vol. 10, Issue 3 | The Cerebral Issue

It was an average Las Vegas, Nevada day and 19-year-old Amy Purdy woke up feeling great. She went to work at the 5-star resort where she was a massage therapist, a gig that had her giving up to 7 massages a day, but this day was different. After the third massage Amy was exhausted and feeling like she had the flu she headed home. “I was lying in bed and I kept falling asleep and waking up and passing out and waking up and couldn’t figure out why I was so tired,” Amy explains. She fell into the deepest sleep she had ever experienced and awoke to a voice saying, “Amy, get up and look in the mirror.” It was a powerful voice and she immediately opened her eyes. Sitting up, Amy felt extremely weak and was gasping for air. Something was seriously wrong. “I scooted to the edge of the bed and realized I couldn’t feel my feet. I looked down and my feet were purple and I glanced at my hands and they were purple. Then I looked in the mirror and saw that my nose, chin and cheeks were purple. And then it hit all at once that I was dying and I knew I was dying.”

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