Insiders: Alissa Bricourt

Finding Belonging. How Snowboarding Gave Me Freedom, Community, and the Power to Inspire Change.

As a Haitian American woman in the US there have been difficulties all my life simply because I look different. The one place I have always felt accepted has been on the mountain, snowboarding. If I could keep up, nothing else mattered. Snowboarding has been my freedom from the weight of the world. I can explore the mountain, and there are endless ways to experience it. 

It wasn’t until I was riding at an event in Tahoe when a girl came up to me and said, “Seeing you has inspired me, it means so much to see someone who looks like me doing what I love, it shows me what is possible”. In this moment I realized that some people don’t know what is possible until they see it being done by someone they can relate to. That’s when I understood how important my image and my voice were to people around the world, especially the younger generations. The movement to diversify is not a new one. People of different cultures have been coming together for decades, however, it is not always an easy process — it has created fear and hesitation for people to try new things. I am here to say it is possible and you can do it no matter how you look or what level you ride at: you are not alone and we are waiting for you in the mountains!

My experience when I first started snowboarding was the same as starting anything else, like my first day at school, or at a new job where I knew absolutely no one, but that didn’t stop me. I would go out on the mountain and ride chairlifts with strangers and hike the park alone till one day, I realized these people were no longer strangers, we had become friends. The chairlift was an easy place to make conversation. Same with the park, if other people were hiking it or passing through, it was easy to find people riding at my level. This led me to connect with different people from different places. I never once felt excluded because of how I looked, the fact that we shared a love for the mountains and the sport brought us together. The mountains very quickly became a place where I was never alone – there was always someone to learn new tricks with or just rip around the mountain. 

The more I have got into the industry, the more I realize how few people do look like me and I would love to be an inspiration to change that. Anyone can ride! It’s become clearer to me that not seeing many people of different ethnicities riding has prevented people from dreaming of themselves in that position, but I know this has now started to change. Zeb Powell is a major contributor to this change as well as programs like the Chill Foundation. Despite not seeing it, it is out there and, most importantly, we are being accepted. On the mountain, you find your crew, whether it’s lapping the park, cruising on groomers, or adventuring into the sidecountry, there are always friends to be made. Being able to be in a place where we all share something we love is what connects us. 

When you find something you are passionate about, I encourage you to pursue it. The journey that following snowboarding has taken me on is one I’ll never forget and is one that I am still following almost seven years later. The people I have had the chance to meet and the adventures that I have experienced along the way have been incredibly awakening. When you find a place where you can be yourself: that is where you belong.

Follow Alissa on Instagram: @Itsflippinallie