In my three years living in the mountain town of Whistler, the use of GoPros and other helmet-style cameras has been an ever-increasing trend. They are extremely practical and their size allows them to be strapped almost anywhere.
I have witnessed them planted on the helmets of three-year-old ski-school kids, swinging on a pendulum device around a man in a one-piece who was snow-ploughing down a green run and attached to “selfie sticks” of all shapes and sizes. Recording yourself skiing can be great for self-analysis and improvement as well as showing off your skills on social media. The fact that any average Joe Bloggs skier can get his hands on a camera that is also being used by the best skiers in the world levels the playing field somewhat when it comes to making video edits.
As a fanatical follower of free-skiing videos, I have witnessed a shift in the type of content that is being released online. An increasing number of videos seem to be filmed by small personal cameras with footage containing lifts and pistes in view as opposed to the huge Alaskan pines or untouched pillow lines that have dominated free-skiing videos throughout the evolution of the sport. I think that these videos have become more popular due to their relatable content. Seeing pros skiing in accessible terrain makes the footage more relatable and lets us see what the best are capable of in areas that we are also able to ski. It is unfortunate that your average ski bum or vacationer doesn’t have access to a helicopter or thousands of pounds worth of video equipment. Therefore, more simplified videos seem to have enjoyed a refreshing spike in popularity.
Obviously the legendary internet-breaking video, Candide Thovex’s One of those Days 2, may have contributed to this trend. Although jumping chairlift ramps and double backflips aren’t quite within my skill range yet, it is inspiring to see Candide use the in-resort area with such creativity. Furthermore, the GoPro “Line of the Winter” award was helmet-cam footage of Léo Taillefer ripping down Piste Perdue in Val d’Isère, a run I used to enjoy skiing on family holidays as a youngster. He may ski it with a whole new level of speed and style, but the fact that I’ve ridden the area before means that I have a greater appreciation for the difficulty of what he is doing.
I’m definitely not opposed to watching people skiing deep powder from helicopter-accessed peaks, but small cameras and in-bounds footage has definitely been inspiring for me of late. The lack of snow pretty much everywhere besides Japan and the Canadian East Coast meant that powder footage coming from the 2014/15 season is limited. Despite the potentially worrying environmental signs of this drought in snow, it did mean that free-ski production companies had to be particularly creative with their annual releases. Lack of snow is never a good thing for this sport, but it is great to see that the inherent desire to have fun on skis prospers, even when the conditions aren’t so favourable.