I don’t find competing easy. Whenever I go to a comp and there are a lot of people there I don’t know or going to a new place. When all the attention is on me then I don’t like all the attention surrounding snowboarding.

I have Asperger’s which makes social situations 1000 times worse but as soon as I’m on a snowboard it just goes away and I’m ‘Normal Vaila’. To be able to snowboard is where I feel safe and I can talk to people about the same stuff and it’s like one huge big family, you just need to start and say ‘hey’…

My mum is ace and always takes me everywhere because I can’t drive yet. I train at the gym with an awesome lady called Denise, I know how vital it is to keep a level of fitness while snowboarding so she puts me through my paces!

On the snow, Lauren McCallum pushes me and for that I have to thank her for being a cool “coach” and helping me get to where I am today. It sounds cheesy but I would probably still be snowboarding at Hillend if these people didn’t help me and encourage me to keep pushing my limits to achieve more.