Andi Naude Interview

Our road to Pyeongchang continues as we bring you the first interview in our Moguls preview series. We speak to one of the top Moguls Skier in the world, Andi Naude, about how heavy the competition is here in Canada, being part of a sweep with her teammates,  missing out on Sochi 3 years ago and what it was like to compete in Pyeonchang this past season. We also go over our "Hi My Name Is" Questionnaire, where Andi gives us the most surprising answer ever about her biggest fear.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.

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COLIN HILDING: We are back with more Off The Podium, and if you listen to our Pyeongchang Preview episode, or first of probably many Pyeongchang Preview episodes, then you know we tease that we're gonna be going into a little bit of a sport preview heading into the Winter Olympics next year. And I decided to be selfish and pick the first sport myself, being my number one favourite sport, not just in Olympics, but any type of sport, which is mogul skiing. For this preview, we're gonna do at least two interviews here we have lined up with moguls athletes who've basically just finished their season at the time of recording this. And as this is an Australian and Canadian show, we're gonna start it off with a Canadian interview with Andi Naude, who finished in the World Cup rankings, number four in the world this past year. And she's been around for several years and it was interesting to talk to her just about how competitive the Canadian field is for mogul skiing. I mean, it's really insane that going back even three years ago in the Sochi Olympics, that she was one of the top ranked skiers in the world and yet wasn't able to make the Canadian team. And of course we get to talk to her about how she got into this sport in the first place, how in some places in Canada, you're basically just born into this. And as she's basically just in the off season, we do touch on what can be expected with some of her upcoming training coming up now that the season's over. And most importantly, what it was like to compete in Pyeongchang this past year, since on the World Cup circuit, they were able to compete in these facilities and kind of get a preview themselves of what the Olympics are gonna be like next year. We're hoping one year from now, we will be seeing Andi Naude in the Pyeongchang Olympics. Pretty much no doubt as far as I'm concerned, but we do have this interview here for you with her. And stay all the way to the end, because just like we did in some of our summer athlete interviews, we go through that My Name Is team Canada questionnaire with her. And I will just tease it by saying one of her answers has to be the most unusual, the most hilarious answer you'd ever expect to one of those questions. So, here it is, our interview with Andi Naude. Ever since, at least, the Sochi Olympics, and even ahead of hockey, which is the national sport of Canada, moguls has quickly become my favourite sport, and I'm thrilled that we're here to talk to the currently ranked number four mogul skier in the world, and the reigning Canadian national champion, Andi Naude. Thanks for joining us here on Off The Podium.

ANDI NAUDE: Oh, thank you for having me. This is such an honour.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and like I said, this is hands down my favourite sport, and I think it's a sport that, I mean, there was some attention of obviously in the 90s, you know, with Jean-Luc Broussard and everything, and probably even more so with Jennifer Heil in the mid 2000s. But from Vancouver on, it really has just kind of been an explosion of moguls as a sport. I mean, before we even get into just your history in this, what have you noticed as an athlete in the last couple of years, like just the changes in the attention the sport's getting?

ANDI NAUDE: Well, you know, we've always had like a super, super strong national team with Jen Heil, as you said, and Alex Bilodeau. But I think like the last couple of years and since the games, the sisters, the Point sisters have been really big, a big, big hit. So as well as Mikhail Kingsbury on the men's side, and it's just been domination. So year after year, they're just always on top. And I think that's really pushed our sport and become more visible in Canadian eyes. So I don't know, it's really definitely special to be a part of that and to be part of such a strong team. And I think that, yeah, just moving forward, I want to keep that going for sure.

COLIN HILDING: And I guess if we do go back now, I mean, this sport was introduced, was it 1992? Was that the first time that Moguls was competed in the Olympics?

ANDI NAUDE: I think so, yeah.

COLIN HILDING: So, 1992, up until now, at what point did you first discover this, either as just a competitor or even as a viewer?

ANDI NAUDE: I think in 2006 when Jen won the gold in the Torino Games, I think that's when I started paying attention. It's not very clear. It's still a while ago, but that's when I was like, oh, wow, this is such a cool sport. I mean, it's so difficult looking and it's got so much to it that it really takes a lot to be on top. And to see a Canadian from out west to be on top, that was really special. And I think that sort of ignited my interest in freestyle. And I started out not necessarily in moguls, but more with like big air and park and all that. And had some really good coaches who sort of sparked my interest in moguls and then 2010 came along and it just sort of snowballed. And that was really interesting to watch the sport progress as the years went by.

COLIN HILDING: So at what age did you start skiing? Like you said, you didn't just start in moguls. At what point did you start skiing?

ANDI NAUDE: No, I started skiing when I was four years old. So from an early age for sure. Yeah.

COLIN HILDING: Do you have to take classes at that age? Or just your parents set you up on the skis and shove you down a hill?

ANDI NAUDE: I think it was a lot of just family just out for skiing. But it's funny because my parents are both from Africa, South Africa, and they're not skiers and they're not into snow. But put into ski lessons just every weekend. Every weekend we're out there skiing with the ski school and just really having a great time in the mountains and the fresh air. And yeah, I don't know. It just sort of went from there.

COLIN HILDING: Now, in doing some research, I mean, it always comes up that you are from British Columbia, obviously. But I keep reading that you were originally from Saskatchewan. So what age did you move from Saskatchewan to BC?

ANDI NAUDE: From Saskatchewan to BC around one years old. So I have no memories of Saskatchewan, but I was born there and that's where I spent the first year of my life. But definitely more British Columbia than Saskatchewan.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, I'm from Winnipeg. So just the idea that somebody could become, you know, this world class skier and be from the prairies just didn't really make sense to me. So you moved to the right spot, I guess.

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly. Definitely.

COLIN HILDING: So when did you first start getting into moguls and how did the transition happen to this being competitive?

ANDI NAUDE: I think I started touching on the moguls and freestyle in general when I was around 11 years old. I spent a couple years in the local club at Apex Mountain and just had such a great time with all my friends. And we sort of kept touching each other and ended up going to the provincial series and then that snowballed into the national and junior. And then I sort of got recognised for moguls at the age of 13 and spent two years on that team. And then the national team saw me when I was around 15 years old, but it was something to join the team then. So I was fortunate enough to have like a pretty one-on-one coach experience with the Canadian Sports Institute Academy team, which was like just two other guys and myself. And so that was a huge year of growth. And I learned so much about the sport and learned how to work hard. So I think that really set me up to be in a good position for the national team at the age of 16.

COLIN HILDING: Again, that's the other thing that's crazy, you know, as we were going through even just the Rio Games last year, and you see some of these sports like gymnastics, and it's crazy to think it's something like skiing. I watched this with my wife, and she sees you guys go down the hills and she's terrified for you, you know, especially when somebody wipes out, like we saw so many times this season. But I mean, as a 16 year old, I mean, how many hours a week do you dedicate to something like this?

ANDI NAUDE: You know what, I can't put a number to it, because I've never actually calculated, but definitely a full time job. And so with that in mind, I didn't really go to school full time, well, like a normal school, I did online school. So at the age of 16, I sort of spent the majority of my time on my skis, and then all the time that I had off was at home at my desk doing school. So it's definitely a huge dedication, but I loved it and still do love it. So I think it was definitely worth the sacrifices that I did have to make, even though it wasn't that much.

COLIN HILDING: We're going to talk a little bit later on about how competitive is it here in Canada, but did you come close to making Sochi?

ANDI NAUDE: Sochi was sort of, it wasn't all at all to make it there initially, but then I had one year on World Cup and I started doing well and I qualified for the World Cup, and that was in 2013 in BUS, and that was only the top four Canadians in both men and women who qualified for that. And then it opened my eyes. I was like, wow, if I carry on doing what I'm doing, maybe I could make it to the Games in Sochi. But unfortunately, missed that by just one spot and I was the first alternative. But yeah, I think that was a huge, huge blow to me, even though it wasn't my goal at the time. But I was just so close, but so far, you know.

COLIN HILDING: And see, that's the thing. I did a lot of bragging. The other hosts we have on the show are Australian, which of course they're going to become more acquainted with Moguls now, you know, with what we're seeing with Matt Graham and Ruby Cox. But to explain to somebody outside of Canada, you know, how big this is here and the fact that it's not even unusual to see a sweep of Canadians. I mean, you've participated in more than at least one, maybe more than one sweep of like Canadians right across the board. So it must be really hard to be in a position where you could be, you know, if you're in any other country, guaranteed you're making the Olympics. And obviously, you're young and you have lots of chances to go ahead, you know, as we're going into the next games. But to be that close and yet still be, you know, only like fifth in Canada, I mean, it's crazy just to think about how competitive it is.

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. And at the time I was ranked ninth in the world, and that meant that four others were ahead of me in the world rank. So any other country, even the United States, I would have gone to the Sochi Games. But just because our team is so competitive and so good, we all have the chance to be on the podium on any given day. So I think it's hard for big events such as world champs and Olympics. But I think in the end, it makes us a stronger team. And that's why we're doing so well, I believe. So I don't know, it's sort of, it's tough, but it's also good at the same time.

COLIN HILDING: You mentioned the Deferla Point sisters and obviously, McKell Kingsbury and you know, Audrey Robichaud and everybody, I mean, there's this huge contingent of East Coasters, primarily Quebecers who are on this national team and you know, you're kind of the lone one out there in the West. I mean, do I don't know if everybody, obviously the Deferla Point sisters are probably going to train together, but are you, you know, do you think at more of an advantage for training on your own that you can kind of get the more one-on-one focus?

ANDI NAUDE: For the most part, we do train together. It's just more so in the gym when we're at home by ourselves that I'm working more alone. But yeah, for the most part, we are together and we do camps together and we take turns like travelling out West and out East. So it's been time to share people. But it's definitely from out West and to be the only one because it's sort of special. I mean, I don't know, I'm trying to learn French and trying to become fluent, but I've got a little ways to go yet. But yeah, I don't know. It's cool to ask that like, how do you do it from out West and all this? But I don't know, I just just trying to stick with my guns and keep doing what I love to do. And I think that's taken me this far. So I don't know, I feel like it doesn't matter if you're out from out West or East, as long as you love the sport and you have the drive and you want to do it.

COLIN HILDING: And not from the prairies, I should add, because I don't know if we've produced many skiers.

ANDI NAUDE: That's true. You've got Mark Morris, but I don't know, not many skiers, that's for sure.

COLIN HILDING: Now there's one thing that this is something that not a lot of people are going to notice unless you're watching moguls every single week like I am. But there was a mention, it wasn't even on the CBC coverage, it was on the NBC coverage one week, where it was mentioned that there were some changes in the scoring system this year. Can you clear that up? Were there any changes this year?

ANDI NAUDE: Not some of them this year, but they did make changes, but they've changed the weighting of the scores. So it's now 60% on turns, and 20% speed, and 20% jumps. So whereas before it used to be like 50%, 50%, but I mean, with that, I haven't really seen the whole difference in my rankings or how this... I don't think it's made a huge change, but it's definitely a little bit different because we spend so much time on the jumping side of things as well. It's a bit of a bummer it's only 20% of the score. So I don't know, just have to keep in mind that it is mogul skiing and that it is based on the skiing more than the jumps and the speed. But yeah, I mean, it's still a sport that we love and it hasn't changed much.

COLIN HILDING: Maybe again, this is just the perception from around the world that Canadians are the ones to beat here. But when I was watching it on NBC, they had Jonny Mosley on, who of course won in Nagano. And he came right out and said, you know, this scoring system was changed to try and even it up a little bit. So there wasn't such a Canadian dominance. So maybe it's just like feeling a little bit inferior at this point, the Canadians are just sweeping everybody.

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly. I don't think it's really changed that up, to be honest. But I mean, if he says that, that's great if he believes it. But I don't know. I think it's sort of like a, I don't know, sort of way you view it personally. And I think that hasn't changed much, to be honest. So yeah, just have to keep skiing and doing well, but.

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, and like you said, with the scoring, it hasn't really had that much of effect. I mean, you said you were ninth a few years ago. You were what, fifth last year you finished?

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly.

COLIN HILDING: And then up to fourth this year. I mean, obviously, the trend continues, you know, you're going to be right there in the medal position when we see you in Pyeongchang next year. But what is the point where the qualification is official for the 2018 games?

ANDI NAUDE: You know, it's not up until like two or three weeks before the games, to be honest, like we already have a World Cup season that's pretty packed prior to the games next year. I think there's something like seven starts. So yeah, the team isn't decided until quite, quite shortly up until the games. So it keeps us on the on the edge of our seats. That's for sure. Nothing set in stone for a while here.

COLIN HILDING: But you did have the luxury this year of competing in Pyeongchang. So do you want to tell us a little bit about what it was like there? You know, just the the city as a whole and then also the facilities.

ANDI NAUDE: I mean, Pyeongchang is awesome. I can't even games as it always is, but just being able to go there and to ski the course and to see what it's going to be like during the games next year. That was awesome. Really big advantage to be able to go there. But everything is really neat. So I mean, the aerials site and mobile site have the same finish and the hat around the corner. And so I think that's really cool. It'll make it sort of like a close community. I know, like in Sochi, it was quite spread out. But I think Pyeongchang will be really cool.

COLIN HILDING: And your results, if those hold true, then again, we're seeing you in a medal position because that was one of your podium finishes this year.

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly. That was definitely exciting. And I was honoured to stand on the podium there with my teammate, Justine and Britt as well. And just to be there, it made it sort of like a reality came in. And I was like, oh, wow, next year I could be standing on the podium here. You know, like it sort of hit me and I was like, wow, this is really cool. I mean, I'm going to keep focusing on the process and the skiing. But I mean, this could happen. It could very well happen.

COLIN HILDING: Has that kind of been the goal ever since you got into this, that one day you want to? Because I always find it interesting when somebody gets into any sport. You would assume when you watch the Olympics, when you're seeing Alex Bilodeau or McKell Kingsbury or even back to Jennifer Hile or John Bursard that they get into this like, I'm going to be an Olympic medallist one day. But in actuality, most people just get into it probably for the fun. So for you, did you have that goal or what point did it become a goal? It's like, I want to be there at the Olympics one day.

ANDI NAUDE: You know, ever since I was a really small child, I think in grade one, I had a list of things that I wanted to do when I was older. And one of them was go to the Olympic Games. So I think it's been there in my mind. I didn't know what sport I wanted to go for, but the Olympics has always been big. And I think that when I got into mogul skiing, I was like, okay, I can do this. You know, like, this is my goal. This is what I want out of the sport.

COLIN HILDING: And we just finished a season. And so now we're in the off season. What is a typical off season like for you?

ANDI NAUDE: A typical off season is really quite busy. We have this month off sort of like to end of April. So that's nice to always be home and get some downtime and rest and recover and get back in the gym and on the bike and all that. But we usually go by camps. So we have like a camp in May, June, July, August, basically up until the World Cup season starts in December, like one big camp per month. And it really depends on where we're at and where the snow is at. So I think we're heading to Whistler here shortly, and then we'll probably end up in France and Australia and Switzerland. But at some point, but yeah, it's busy for sure. But it's a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

COLIN HILDING: So do you actually have to chase the snow in doing this? Or are there certain months where obviously there's no way you're going to find any type of slopes anywhere. So you have to improvise other ways?

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly. Most of the time we'll try find snow and we're lucky to have Whistler here. And that's good for snow up until July. But I think in the warmer summer months here, we spend a lot of time water ramping, and that's like working on our jumps into a pool in a safe environment. But we also travel down south into the southern hemisphere for their winter while it's summer here. So Australia or Argentina. But past couple of years, we've been going to Australia searching for snow. And yeah, I think we'll probably do that again this year. And then in October, we head to Europe, Switzerland for for another on snow camp.

COLIN HILDING: And the season will start again. What is it? December, November?

ANDI NAUDE: I believe it will be in December. This year, I'm not 100% sure, but probably early December.

COLIN HILDING: There's one thing we have to do here. We've done this with the other athletes we had on from the Rio Games, because back during the past Olympics here, the Team Canada website had this fun thing set up where there were questionnaires given to all the different athletes. And some of the questions are kind of funny, and some of the questions are just typical ones. We like to ask this to all the different athletes. So if you have a second, we can go through this and you can get this out of the way. We don't know if they'll be doing this in 2018. If not, you get to be the first one on the team that gets to complete one of these questionnaires.

ANDI NAUDE: Perfect.

COLIN HILDING: So it was called Hi My Name Is. So we can obviously fill in the blank here. My name is Andi Naude and I'm Canadian. That's obvious. This one, this one's always a fun one. The greatest Olympian of all time is.

ANDI NAUDE: Oh, wow. I don't know. I think for me it's Clara Hughes. She's awesome going for sports in both winter and summer games. That's she's definitely an inspiration.

COLIN HILDING: And for Manitoba as well. So we have some success here.

ANDI NAUDE: Incredible. Yeah, exactly.

COLIN HILDING: Funny enough, I'm using Emily Overholt, a swimmer. I'm using her page here and she wrote Clara Hughes as well. So Clara Hughes is not the first time. It's not the last time she'll be brought up on here. Here's the first Olympics. The first Olympics I remember watching was?

ANDI NAUDE: The 2006 Olympic Games in Trino.

COLIN HILDING: I'm going to skip this one because we can't see what you draw. It says draw a picture of yourself, but I'm going to assume you draw a picture of yourself on skis. That's what I would hope.

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, exactly. I'm not a very good draw. So that's a good thing that we're not doing that.

COLIN HILDING: My favourite ice cream flavour is.

ANDI NAUDE: Oh, wow, I think it's got to be salt, sea salt caramel.

COLIN HILDING: Oh, that's so good. And I know we read through another one of these that had that, too. If I were a baseball player, my walk up music would be this one might be a tough one.

ANDI NAUDE: Oh, man.

COLIN HILDING: Or you have like a ski down music.

ANDI NAUDE: You know, I don't listen to music when I ski or do anything like that. But how about some Beyoncé Beyoncé Queen Bee Queen Bee?

COLIN HILDING: Let's see if this one is the same as earlier or if there is a different one. My guilty pleasure snack is I think it's got to be cereal.

ANDI NAUDE: I love all different types of cereal, maybe like a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch or something like that.

COLIN HILDING: Oh, unfortunately, I've mentioned this on the show, but you probably haven't listened to our show, so you wouldn't know this, but I can't eat gluten, so my cereal options are so limited.

ANDI NAUDE: Oh, no, that's horrible.

COLIN HILDING: But the good thing is that Cheerios has now gone completely gluten free, so like Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, we go down to like Grand Forks or Fargo and we just bring back like every box of Cheerios imaginable because they have like Strawberry Cheerios and everything else down there. So I'm right with you with that.

ANDI NAUDE: That's crazy. That's awesome.

COLIN HILDING: The most recent TV show that I binge watched is?

ANDI NAUDE: That has got to be Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

COLIN HILDING: I saw one or two episodes of that when it first started and it's not that I disliked the show, I just didn't have the time to continue watching it, but it's one of these things that everybody keeps talking about now. Is it really that good?

ANDI NAUDE: I really enjoy it. I love light comedy and the TV shows because they're easy to watch. But yeah, I really enjoy that. It's a good one. I'd recommend it for sure.

COLIN HILDING: This one will be fun. My biggest fear in life is?

ANDI NAUDE: My biggest fear in life? I think this is quite weird. I'm an odd one. I really don't like fruit and mangoes scare me.

COLIN HILDING: What specifically?

ANDI NAUDE: I'm not lying. Everyone thinks I'm insane.

COLIN HILDING: What is it? Is it the taste that scares you, the appearance of it?

ANDI NAUDE: I think it's sort of the taste and the texture. It just really gives me the and my coaches always give me a hard time for that.

COLIN HILDING: Do you get assigned diets and stuff like that while you're training?

ANDI NAUDE: Luckily, no, we don't. We obviously try to eat healthily on the road at all times, but we're not very strict with our diet. We're lucky in that respect for sure. We're not like extreme triathletes or anything where we have to really watch what we eat.

COLIN HILDING: The funniest answer, but mangoes. I don't know if we'll ever be able to top that one.

ANDI NAUDE: I know it's a weird one.

COLIN HILDING: Can you eat any type of fruit? Do you have a favourite fruit? Now I'm really curious.

ANDI NAUDE: You know, I do enjoy fresh apples from my neighbour's farm, and also their raspberries.

COLIN HILDING: Okay.

ANDI NAUDE: It has to be fresh and I have to know where it comes from. It's really weird. I'm quite picky that way.

COLIN HILDING: Hence, part of the fear is not knowing where was this mango.

ANDI NAUDE: Exactly. It's too questionable.

COLIN HILDING: I can't live without.

ANDI NAUDE: I can't live without my cats.

COLIN HILDING: Your cat. You know, I was looking up on YouTube. I was trying to find some videos of your events this year, and I found a whole bunch of videos with you and cats. I was wondering when I saw them. Is that the same cat I saw in another video?

ANDI NAUDE: Yeah, I'm sure it was. I've got two at the moment, and they're really quite cute. I love them.

COLIN HILDING: What are your cat's names?

ANDI NAUDE: One is named Marty, and the other one is Mr. Blue.

COLIN HILDING: Do you get to travel with the cats?

ANDI NAUDE: Unfortunately not, no. My mum just sends me pictures, which is awesome. I'm very thankful for that.

COLIN HILDING: The last one here, this is a drawing one, but if you could even just visualise it and dictate to us what it would look like, what would the coolest Olympic medal look like?

ANDI NAUDE: I think the coolest medal would be of detail, I think. Nothing plain, nothing unusual. I think it would have to be some crazy shape or sort of like 3D, like the, well, they're obviously all 3D, but sort of like the Vancouver ones, they were really cool and sort of texture. I really like that. So I think just something unique.

COLIN HILDING: If this were to be done as a picture, I'm assuming you would draw it as that medal around your neck sitting on the podium next year.

ANDI NAUDE: Exactly. That's the power of positive thinking.

COLIN HILDING: And not in the shape of a melon as well or a mango.

ANDI NAUDE: Exactly.

COLIN HILDING: Well, we wanted to thank you for being on the show and for helping us kick off this preview of Moguls, which like I said, it's my favourite sport. And you know, every time I have like my nieces or nephews over, I always save, you know, whatever's on that week, whatever CDC is showing to show it to them. So I've got like all my nieces and nephews watching this. My wife started watching with me this year, and I do have to say just on her behalf that when we are watching, I think it might have been the World Championships and your scores were coming up. She was getting angry that your scores weren't higher. Like she takes it very seriously and in more than one event, she's been rooting for you above like the deferral of points above everybody. So you have big fans in my house.

ANDI NAUDE: Wow. Well, I'm honoured. I really appreciate it. It's been great.

COLIN HILDING: And big thanks again to Andi Naude for taking the time out to do this interview with us, basically just within a week or so after wrapping up the season in the World Championships. And I honestly can't say enough about how great this sport is. If somebody's never seen it and you took the time to listen to this entire interview, then definitely even just check out some YouTube clips. I mean, it's incredible competition in this sport right now. And speaking of competition, we did touch briefly in this interview with Andi about about Brittany Cox, the Australian skier who's pretty much blowing away everybody right now. And as we continue this preview of moguls heading into next year's Olympics, we will be having Brittany Cox on the show next week. And I can already say it was a really good interview. And it was the first time, I think, as Ben's been covering these Australian athlete interviews, I've been covering the Canadian ones. It's the first time I was able to cover somebody from his side of the ocean. So you will get the Canadian side of interviewing the Australian mogul skier that's dominating all of our athletes right now. That will be coming next week. And as for now, we have lots of interviews that have gone up over the last couple of weeks. Vault interviews, we're calling them mostly ones that Ben did when he was hosting radio last couple of years. Some of them were before the Sochi Olympics. We're still up in the air as to what our next preview sport will be. But we're going to be having lots of athletes on now and 2018. Just make sure to subscribe to us on iTunes. And like us on Facebook. And give us your suggestions if there's somebody you'd like to hear from. Let us know and then we'll try to get in touch with them. And we will see you next time on Off the Podium.