This Saturday, the 28-year-old’s among a world-class field competing in New Zealand’s biggest ever freeride event, Natural Selection Bike, at Queenstown’s new Mt Dewar course.
And, since Rampage is considered the world’s premier event, Robin will be favoured to take the women’s crown.
A part-time Queenstowner, Robin was brought up in the rugged Chatham Islands, where she hooned around on motorbikes.
At high school, initially in Christchurch, then Auckland, her sport was BMX, where she raced at a national level.
She then joined the army as a plant operator, where a friend introduced her to mountain biking, taking her to a spot in Palmerston North.
"We went down a grade 5 called Kissing Rock that I spent more time walking than riding, but I was determined to learn how to ride that whole trail, which led to me buying a bike asap," she’s said.
She recalls first visiting Queenstown for about a week in 2018 or ’19, then returning for summer in ’21 — "I just lived in a van and cruised around biking".
She also participated in a women’s training camp put on by Mons Royale at her popular hang-out, Fernhill’s Wynyard Jump Park.
A coach there, Queenstowner Emmerson Wilken, says the event, Future Ground, "just changed things because all of a sudden the women were put on a bit of a pedestal and showed what they can do, and to see where they’ve all taken it is incredible".
Robin came to international attention when she became the first woman to land a backflip in competition at Crankworx Innsbruck, in ’21, after which she started landing sponsors.
"I’d been backflipping outside of competition, but that moment was definitely like a turning point."
Interestingly, women have only gradually been able to enter the world’s biggest events.
"I think Rampage was the last event to have women in it, so that one was a long time coming.
"It was always a thought of mine that if we didn’t get a women’s category, I would one day attempt to compete with the men, but the opportunity came around so we don’t have to."
Wilken, one of three diggers, along with Robin, who built her course for Rampage at Virgin, Utah, says for a long time there weren’t enough top women riders to make up a category "but now in the last two or three years, all the women have just levelled up so much".
Asked why Robin’s ruling the roost, he points to her "head game".
"She’s very headstrong, she’s so determined, she sets herself a goal and kind of nothing stops her until she achieves that goal.
"Because she’s done that, she’s learned a bunch of cool tricks over the years."
Asked the same question, Robin — who also won the ‘best trick’ award at Rampage for two big backflips — says "I think if you want it bad enough, you’ll go after it and just do what it takes to go there".
What she enjoys most about the sport is "doing cool things in cool places with cool people".
As for injuries, "you can’t really avoid doing something to this level without getting injured, you just do what you can to minimise it".
"You can’t focus on getting hurt, otherwise you’ll never ride your best.
"I’m actually always pretty scared, I’m not doing this fearlessly, but you just learn to block it out and not focus on it."
Queenstown’s been Robin’s NZ base for the past three years.
"Queenstown is my favourite place in the world to go biking, it’s got all the kinds of riding you could dream of doing."
However, she’s also going to spend more time in Rotorua, where she’s building a training compound where she can learn new tricks.
As for her future, "I think there’s a lot more to be done — a lot of riders, especially in freeride, are doing it a lot older, and I think experience helps here".
Meanwhile, she’s amped for Saturday’s big competition.
"The course is insane, it’s pretty big and there’s a lot of features.
"It’s a world-class event, so it’s on par with the likes of Rampage — it’s going to be a cool thing for NZ."
