Hi. My name is Shelby Mahon and I am an addict. I truly believe I have the best addiction possible. Nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me feel as good. The second my sled turns over and that spark ignites the fumes in my cylinders, nothing else in life matters.
This addiction started at a very young age. It started St. Patrick’s Day of 2000, to be precise. At nine years old I was given the key to my dad’s MXZ 700 Millennium Edition and told to take it for a lap at a local radar run. Holding a 500-pound sled wide open for a 400-foot straight stretch, in my opinion, is the best way to get addicted.
Since that day I have spent every minute I could behind the handlebars of a sled. In 2012 I took the step from trail to track and have never looked back. Growing up trail riding I learned that there is nothing I couldn’t conquer on and off the trail.
My very first race was an eye opener. I’d always grown up thinking I was equal to the boys, but that was not how other people perceived me in this new world.
This first race was in the trail sport men’s class. I was beyond excited to try racing and I never once thought it might be a bad idea to race in a men’s class. I was feeling pretty good as the green flag dropped, but the next thing I knew I was sitting on the track, with my sled sitting behind me flipped onto its side! Turns out the boys weren’t fans of having a pair of pink skis beating them to the first corner and they had careened into the side of my sled, knocking me over.
After this I made it my goal to prove to everyone that I could be just as good, if not better than the boys. I painted my sled camouflage, wore men’s clothing, avoided pink and increased my normal tomboy attitude. I thought that if I looked and acted like a guy I’d be welcomed instead of run over.
Although I was excelling in the women’s classes, placing second overall in my first season as a trail sport rider and then third nationally in my first year running pro women’s (2012-2013), I still felt like I wasn’t doing enough to prove myself. I broke my wrist in February of 2013 (snowcross) and then again in July (dirt bike) and then again a week later in August (flight of stairs). This injury seriously put a dark cloud over my racing and even my riding.
I thought my dreams were over and that I could never beat the boys now. But something happened that would change my outlook on racing and life in general. I met Ami Houde in the fall of 2013 while working on a project in Parry Sound. Ami is a professional motocross racer from Manitoba and a true inspiration to women in the extreme sports industry. Ami taught me that it’s not about proving yourself to others, but rather proving yourself to yourself.
This meeting combined with my injury (thankfully I am heading in for surgery this spring) opened my eyes. I am no longer riding for everyone else, but rather I am riding for myself. I think women riders, and women racers, need to stop trying to prove themselves in a predominantly male industry. I believe we will be more accepted if we just be ourselves, ride for ourselves and be proud of ourselves for being who we are: women, not men.
