Freeriding is a style of snowboarding or skiing performed on natural, un-groomed terrain, without a set course, goals or rules. It evolved throughout the sport's formative early years as a contrary response to the highly regimented style of ski competition prevalent at the time. Snowboarders primarily refer to freeriding as backcountry, sidecountry, or off-piste snowboarding, and sometimes big mountain or extreme riding.
Freeskiing, or new school skiing is a specific type of alpine skiing, which involves tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from the growth of snowboarding combined with the progression of freestyle skiing. "Newschoolers", or those who specifically ski in this style, as opposed to traditional freestylers, freeriders, big mountain skiers, and racers, are often found in terrain parks, which are designed specifically for tricks.
Sarah Jean Burke was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah in 2012.
The Ski Channel is a Video On Demand Cable, Satellite and Telco television channel distributed on Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, Brighthouse Networks, Cablevision, RCN, AT&T U-Verse and Cox Communications. The technical term for a channel of this type is VODnet. It features mountain oriented sports, activity and lifestyle content and is devoted to year-round mountain activities such as skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, backpacking, climbing and other mountain sports. The channel launched on December 25, 2008. Tennis doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan are investors in the channel. It was founded by Steve Bellamy who also founded Tennis Channel.
Liberty Skis Corporation is one of the ski industry's largest independent ski manufacturers, and a leader in the manufacture of carving, touring, powder, and twin-tip skis, used primarily for a style of skiing known alternately as newschool skiing or freeskiing. Founded in 2003 by James Satloff and Dan Chalfant, Liberty Skis has grown to be one of the largest independent ski manufacturers worldwide, with shops and distributors in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Jon Anders Olsson Delér is a professional freeskier and alpine ski racer from Sweden. Born in Mora, Olsson Delér started his career as a ski racer but at age 16 he switched his race skis for twin tips and quit ski racing. Eight years later, after a 50 000 SEK (US$5826.22) bet with fellow skier Jens Byggmark, Olsson Delér started ski racing again with the goal of the bets being to make it to the Olympics in 2014. He now competes in both freestyle and ski racing. Olsson Delér is known for his invention of several new double flips, including a D-spin 720 into a flatspin 540, a switch double rodeo 1080, a double flatspin 900, and a switch cork 720 to flatspin 540.
Jacob Wester is a Swedish freeskier.
Charles Gagnier is a Canadian freeskier.
Michael David Wilson is an American professional freeskier. Wilson is recognized as one of the leaders of the freeskiing movement, and is known for pushing the limits by hitting bigger jumps and doing bigger rotations than almost anybody else. In 2004, Wilson introduced the first off axis double-flipping rotation to skiing, revolutionizing freeskiing competition.
Charles Russell Johnson III was a professional skier and a pioneer in the freeskiing movement. He became a top competitor and a favorite in ski films and was known for his progression, fearlessness, and passion for skiing. Johnson died in 2010 in a ski accident.
The Freeride World Tour is an annually toured series of events in which the best freeskiers and snowboard freeriders compete for individual event wins, as well as the overall title of World Champion in their respective genders and disciplines. The events take place on what's commonly referred to as "backcountry", "big mountain" or "extreme" terrain - essentially ungroomed powder snow on dangerously steep, mountainous slopes.
Matthias Giraud also known as "Super Frenchie" is a professional skier and B.A.S.E. jumper. He was born in Evreux, France and grew up skiing at St Gervais-les-Bains/ Megeve, France. His first highly publicized accomplishment was the first ski B.A.S.E. jump off Mississippi Head on Mt Hood, Oregon. Matthias Giraud started as a competitive ski racer, but moved on to freeskiing and later on big mountain skiing. Matthias Giraud is known for combining BASE jumping with skiing and completed several first descents and ski BASE jumps across the globe including the first ski BASE jump off the Matterhorn in Switzerland. He is also known for escaping an avalanche off Aiguille Croche in Megeve, France while performing a ski BASE jump with his friend Stefan Laude. Matthias Giraud currently lives in Bend, Oregon.
Tom Wallisch is a professional freeskier.
Dane Tudor is an Australian / American freeskier born in Sydney, Australia. He spent his time growing up between Palmer, Alaska and Rossland, British Columbia. Tudor still resides in both British Columbia and Alaska.
Devin Marie Logan is an American freeskier from West Dover, Vermont. She won silver in Olympic slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi.
Janette Hargin is a Swedish former alpine skier who competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. During her alpine skiing career she won six Swedish national titles and scored six top ten finishes in alpine skiing World Cup races, including a career best of second in a combined in Åre in 2002. At the 2002 Winter Olympics she finished 25th in the downhill, 27th in the super-G and 31st in the giant slalom, whilst in 2006 she finished 12th in the combined, 17th in the downhill and 22nd in the super-G. Her best result in an Alpine Skiing World Championships was a 12th in the super-G in 2003.
Poor Boyz Productions is a North American entertainment company which specializes on Freeskiing, Wind surfing and Standup paddleboarding films. The company was formed in 1994 by Johnny Decesare and is headquartered in Redondo Beach, California. In 2012 Poor Boyz began producing freeskiing videos in association with Red Bull Media House.
Augustus Richard Kenworthy is a British-American freestyle skier, actor, and YouTuber. He competes in slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. Kenworthy won the silver medal in Men's slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. As of 2019, Kenworthy represents Great Britain. He was cast as Chet Clancy the ninth season of the series American Horror Story: 1984.
Alexis "Lexi" duPont is an American professional big mountain freeskier. She is a Freeskiing World Tour contender and former Junior Olympics competitor, who has been featured in several films such as Warren Miller’s Wintervention and Tracing Skylines. Her mother, freestyle skier Holley duPont, was one of the first women to land a backflip on skis.
Michelle Parker is a pro-skier from Truckee, California, USA. She started skiing in her home resort Squaw Valley Ski Resort. At the age of 15, she started dedicating herself to freeskiing. She has subsequently competed in the U.S. Freeskiing open, X-games and Red Bull Cold Rush.
