How did you get started in aerials? How do you build up to doing multiple flips and twists 30 feet in the air?
I started both gymnastics and skiing when I was 4 years old. The first time I saw freestyle skiing, it looked like the perfect combination of both of my favorite sports, and I knew I wanted to try it. So my dad signed me up for a program, and I started competing soon after, but of course at a very beginner level.

I did my first flips on skis into a pool, at a camp for new jumpers in Lake Placid, New York. I was 12 years old, and after that I was hooked.

We started with single front and back flips, and added more difficult maneuvers as I improved, learning new tricks on water and then moving them to snow. I'm now competing on the World Cup Tour with triple twisting double back flips.

How many times will you attempt a jump before you compete with it?
In our sport, progression is very important. As with most things, it's vital to learn the fundamentals before performing a new jump in order to do it well. Each skill always builds on the last. So, for example, when we have a new athlete join the sport, it's required that she perform, at the very least, 200 back flips into the water. The coaches must also judge her as "qualified" before she's allowed to progress to snow.

The progression gets quicker as we become better, and there are fewer fundamentals to learn. When I debuted my new trick last season, a double full full [three twists, two flips], I spent several months working the individual skills involved to do that jump, training on both the trampoline and jumping into the pool. Then I performed the whole jump around 100 times before being qualified to do it on snow. After that, the new jump is fine-tuned until the coaches and athlete together decide that it's time to debut it in competition, which is always very exciting.