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Shelley Gottlieb remembers hardly anything about one of her best professional performances on the world snowboarding stage.
The gutsy woman from Ohakune had qualified second in the women's slopestyle competition at the US Burton Open, in March - one of professional snowboarding's premier international events.
Going into the finals as the third placed rider, the 29-year-old lined up her first run, crashed, and was knocked unconscious.
However, they breed them tough in carrot land in the central plateau of the North Island and Gottlieb got back on her board to make her second run and complete the competition.
Despite the horror crash she finished fifth in the slopestyle field of 50 of world's best professional female snowboarders.
"I don't remember a thing about it," she says. "I couldn't even tell you the date."
Gottlieb is not one for overstatement.
The straight talker has been riding snowboards for the past decade and chased winters for seven years, before deciding to try her hand on the international circuit, three years ago.
A move to Queenstown coincided with the decision and Gottlieb started coaching other women - firstly at Snow Park, near Wanaka - to help pay the bills.
She will line up for her first major slopestyle competition of the year - the New Zealand Burton Open, at Cardrona Alpine Resort, starting today.
"I don't get too caught up in the whole competitive thing. I just go out and ride.
"It's what I do every day, so I try not to treat it too differently whenever I come to a competition," she says.
She prefers to compete on just the slopestyle circuit, because "I just like the jumps and the course. I'm not really into halfpipe competition as a rider".
Her choice to pursue solely slopestyle competitions has undoubtedly cost her some financial support, but that is not what drives this athlete.
"I didn't really pick snowboarding as a sporting pathway. It's just something that sort of chose me. I get to travel, ride nearly every day, and that's what I like," she says.
Unlike snowboarding halfpipe, slopestyle is not an Olympic sport, and New Zealand competitors are unable to qualify for any financial assistance from Sparc.
However, Gottlieb's performances over the past year have certainly attracted the attention of the Sparc-funded New Zealand Snowsports Association, which named her snowboarder of the year at the NZSSA awards ceremony in Wanaka last month.
Several top-10 finishes on the FIS slopestyle and Burton World Riders tour have also attracted the attention of US snowsports magazine Snowboardermag, which invited her to take part in a four-day photo shoot along with some of the best women riders in the world.
The Winter Games slopestyle competition, in 10 days' time, will be held at the Remarkables - a Queenstown mountain and terrain park which is familiar territory for Gottlieb.
However, her immediate focus is on the Burton Open, where she will be trying to better her fourth place result from last year and climb on the podium alongside top international performers, such as returning NZ Burton Open champion and Winter X Games slopestyle gold medallist Jamie Anderson.
She hopes riding well at the two forthcoming events will raise the profile of snowboarding in New Zealand.
"We've got some real world-class snowboarders here in New Zealand, but no-one really pays any attention."
Waiting in a registration queue at the Burton riders room at Cardrona, yesterday, she gestured at New Zealand athletes around her, including Queenstown snowboarders and international pro riders Nick Hyne and Jake Koia, while up-and-coming women Steffi Luxton, of Wanaka, and Rebecca Torr, of Te Puke, waited in the wings.
"Here's hoping we can inspire others and also help raise the profile of our sport."
GOTTLIEB'S STATS
• Age: 29.
• Born: Ohakune.
• Lives: Queenstown.
• Slopestyle specialist.
• 5th at US Burton Open, Vermont, March 2009.
• 5th Aspen Open, Aspen, Colorado, February 2009.
• 4th Burton Series, Keystone, Colorado, March 2009. 4th Burton Open, New Zealand, August 2008.
• New Zealand Snowboarder of the Year, June 2009.