Profile: Keri Herman

This story originally ran in the October 2008 issue of Freeskier (V11.1). Words written by: Nicole Birkhold.

THE STANDARD STUFF

Hey Keri, what do you like to do?

Hi, my name is Keri Herman, and I like to party.

So do I. I"™m pretty sure that"™s why Mike Douglas calls us the cougar twins. How does that make you feel, being called a cougar?

When we"™re together, it makes me feel great "˜cause it"™s funny and it"™s fun. But when I"™m by myself, I"™m not that pumped. It"™s not that fun. When I was in Idaho with Poor Boyz and Anna Segal was there, they were calling me the cougar and her my cub. I was like, God damn it!

You"™re a bit older than some of the girls in the industry. Does that have its advantages?

It does kind of. Well, I don"™t know, it could go both ways.

But you were able to ï¬nish school before you concentrated on skiing.

Yeah, that was very important.

Why did you choose to do that?

Well, I didn"™t really. I kind of got into skiing while I was at school.

I assumed coming from Minnesota you would have grown up skiing a ton.

No, not really. I mean, I skied a little bit, but I focused on playing hockey in Minnesota. But when I came out to Colorado for school, I needed something to do so I skied almost every weekend. It became an obsession
when I moved to Colorado.

Compared to all the kids who grew up at academies like CVA, do you think growing up and going to school before concentrating on skiing was a beneï¬t?

I think they"™re both really beneï¬cial. I didn"™t even know about CVA or any of that stuff and I see kids in those programs and they have a really big advantage over other kids. But I don"™t think they really realize the importance of a classical education. I mean, they do to a certain extent, but it"™s not really emphasized as much. Where as, in my background, education is the most important thing. Which is good because once I was done with school, I was able to ski and have fun and joke around and not be serious about anything. But when I need to buckle down, I have my education to fall back on.

Photo: Erik Seo/PBP

I think the kids that are doing the summer school thing in Boulder have it pretty ï¬gured out. They"™re getting everything done; they"™re going to school and skiing at the same time. And I think that"™s so important. There are so many kids that are like, "˜I"™m just going to ski. I don"™t care about school."™ I think that"™s stupid. There are ways to do both.

So what are your plans for the summer?

That"™s a good question"¦ I want to go to New Zealand again. I haven"™t ï¬gured everything out but it will be my fourth year going down there. Just like I come back to Breckenridge every year, it"™s just easy. I"™ll be down there for like two and a half months. I like being down there the whole time or I get into trouble around here.

Speaking of Breck, how was living there this year and being able to ski with a bunch of girls?

It was awesome. So much fun. It was so fun being pushed by people on the same level. I had the best time. Finally having girls to associate with, travel with"¦ it was a consistent group of friends that all went to the same places. We were the Breck posse!