HANA BEAMAN
I started doing local USASA contests and did pretty well. I connected with a local shop, who had reps looking for shop kids to hook up and I got my first real sponsor (goggles).
Then the crew I ended up riding with all the time was centred around a board shop down the hill (Pharmancy Board shop) and they were a super rad crew and helped me out a bunch for a few years. Those were a big support during USASA and for Junior Nationals, but when I moved to Tahoe to go to college for a year I lost connection with most of my sponsors.
After a year of basically being unsponsored my “big break” was because of the crew of guys I met at Junior Nationals. I re-met them in college (Kevin Casillo) who re-introduced me to Danny, Kyle Clancy, Lane Knaack and the rest of the guys in Mammoth (the Grenade guys).
They were a big influence on me, knew more about the industry and got me invited to Superpark that spring. I was able to ride there and some people noticed me. I didn’t really have a plan to come away with contract offers, I just wanted to ride those jumps and shred with all the guys. From there it just kinda fell into place!
What I would say to kids is just find like minded people who wanna shred. Have fun, ride hard and try to get into events that people can notice you, whether it’s local am events or bigger events, but let your riding speak for itself.
