Trailblazing Sandy Ward from Lil’wat Nation scooped the top prize at this year’s Dirt Diaries. The athlete-turned-filmmaker used her space on the big screen to show off Lil’wat youth strutting their stuff on their traditional territory.
Crankworx and Whistler Blackcomb’s video throwdown took place at Whistler Olympic Plaza on Wednesday, July 24. Six filmmakers each had four to six minutes to impress the judges with their short films. Teams had to include the Whistler Valley and Whistler Mountain Bike Park in a quarter of their film.
For Ward, keeping everything local was key.
She recently co-directed award-winning Slides on the Mountain alongside Seth Gillis. The film followed two brothers from the Lil’wat Nation as they prepared to ski down Ts’zil (Mount Currie), the mountain they grew up under.
Ward told Pique she has been riding a high since her name was announced on stage.
“I honestly can’t believe it,” she said. “I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that this would happen in my life.”
She hopes to continue to bring attention to the great things Lil’wat youth have to offer to the biking world and beyond.
“We wanted to showcase Lil’wat youth mountain bikers,” she said. “We wanted to show the mountain bike industry how they can mentor our youth.”
Lil’wat athletes are finally getting their share of the spotlight after years of shredding local trails just for the fun of it.
“Just to create these opportunities for the youth Is really something else. I am so stoked,” said Ward. “Our kids have been biking forever. It’s been a part of our community for a long time, but we were never really represented. People just used to go out and ride. When I created the Youth Mountain Bike program for the Lil’wat Nation three years ago, we started to see just how talented our athletes are. We knew we needed to showcase this.”
Find the rest of this year's Dirt Diaries entries on Crankworx's YouTube channel.
