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Steamboat Magazine

Taylor Gold

11/01/2013 11:31AM ● By Grant Johnson

Steamboat Springs, CO -

Q. How do you like to relax?
A. To relax after a day of riding, I like to watch TV, play guitar, and stretch.

Q. What’s your favorite place to train?
A. My favorite place to train is Breckenridge. The halfpipe is consistently well cut and the jumps are fun, too.

Q. What’s on your warm-up playlist?
A. I listen to all kinds of music on the hill, but I like listening to classic rock when I’m riding, like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and The Who.

Q. What’s it like to compete alongside your sibling, Arielle Gold?
A. I love being able to travel and compete with my sister. I’m glad that we get to ride together. I think we both motivate each other, which has definitely helped me progress. After the amazing way she rode and competed all last season, I’m feeling more motivated than ever to be riding as well as I possibly can when the Olympic qualifiers start.

Q. How do you train during the summer?
A. I have numerous on-snow camps that I attend throughout the summer. This summer, I went to Mammoth, Calif., in May with the U.S. Snowboarding Team to train in a private halfpipe with an airbag, and Mt. Hood, Oregon, to train at the High Cascade Snowboard Camp. In terms of off-snow training, Arielle and I workout six days a week in Steamboat. We go to the SSWSC gym at Howelsen, go mountain biking up Spring Creek and do core at home.

Q. How do you like to celebrate a victory?
A. I like to take a group of people out to dinner to celebrate, although I would like to be able to do it more often. Arielle had the privilege of buying most of the dinners last winter.

Q. What’s your biggest fear or phobia?
A. My biggest fear is in trying a new trick. Standing at the top of a halfpipe before I try something totally new is always a fearful experience, but it makes it all the more rewarding when I finally land it.

Q. What is your favorite memory from your childhood in Steamboat?
A. My favorite memories are definitely riding on powder days in Steamboat with a big group of friends from the SSWSC team. We’d rip through the trees all day, not even able to see over the feet of champagne powder. I can’t imagine a better place to grow up.

Q. Who is your favorite band or musical artist?
A.  Led Zeppelin.

Q. If you had three wishes, what would they be?
A. The ability to fly. A stop to global warming so our winters stay snowy. Invincibility.

Q. What is your favorite social networking site?
A. Instagram is fun.

Q. Whose autograph would you like to get in Sochi?
A. I’d like to be signing them, not getting them.

Q. Describe the longest day of boarding you’ve ever had.
A. I’ve had a lot of long days of snowboarding, but I think one of the longest was probably in Tignes, France, last winter during X Games. I woke up to a foot of powder, so I went exploring with some of my teammates, including Arielle. We rode powder all day, found some chutes and windlips to play with, and after dinner, we went to practice in the halfpipe for a few hours. After riding powder all day, practice was challenging, but still fun. I was exhausted after it was all said and done, but I was stoked. I think it was one of my favorite days of the season.

Q. What would you do if you won the lottery?
A. I would buy a jet and go heli-snowboarding with all my friends, get a house on a nice beach, and send my parents on vacation.