Kye Petersen couldn’t find the perfect ski—so he made his own
INTERVIEW • JACK FOERSTERLING | PHOTOS • BLAKE JORGENSON
Kye Petersen has never been one to go along with the status quo. The son of the late Canadian ski mountaineering pioneer, Trevor Petersen, Kye was born and bred cutting his teeth in British Columbia’s Coast Mountain Range. By his early teens, Kye had already picked up several sponsors and was rubbing elbows with freeskiing icons by the likes of Glen Plake and Tanner Hall, and scoring major film parts with Sherpas Cinema and Teton Gravity Research—all while maintaining a unique sense of style and personality within the industry.
For the last eight years, Kye played an integral part of the team at 4FRNT and even helped design his own line of pro model skis. However, after Jason Levinthal of J skis bought out 4FRNT in June of 2017, leading to the dissemination of the majority of the 4FRNT team, Kye found himself without a ski sponsor for the first time in the better part of a decade.
While he had several companies approach him for potential sponsorships over the last two winters, Kye opted instead to partner with his Pemberton neighbor and custom ski builder Johnny “Foon” Chilton—the mastermind behind Foon Skis—to help launch his own brand of skis, Kye Shapes, hitting the market this fall. FREESKIER caught up with Kye to learn a little bit more about his new venture into the world of ski building and to hear what’s next for the newest indie ski brand on the block.
What pushed you to go out and make your own skis instead of finding a new sponsor?
It was basically my partnership with Johnny [“Foon”] that started it. I had always wanted to do my own ski and, after the dissolving of the team at 4FRNT, I started talking with Johnny. I had some other potential sponsors, which were good short-term opportunities, but I knew I had something even better long-term with Foon.
Why Foon?
Johnny has long been one of the biggest names in the ski mountaineering community along the Coast Range in BC. He was a good partner with my dad when they were young and, when I became a teenager, I started going out with him a lot more. He’s been making skis in his garage for 10 years— right in my backyard here in Pemberton—and his smaller operation allows me to have full control of the building process, giving me the ability to make exactly what I want.
What was the process of designing your new skis?
I had been helping design skis at 4FRNT for the last six or seven years, with my own line of skis for the last five, so I knew what I wanted in a ski. Making a good ski is creating the perfect sandwich—starting with the heart of the ski, the core, and slowly adding and changing each pieces around it until you’ve found the magic combination that allows the core to do what it’s supposed to do.
Can you tell us a little bit about the Numinous and the Metamorph?
The Numinous is a big dog freeride weapon. While it runs at a 189 length, it’s got a short running surface for such a big powder ski, making it super nimble with lots of pop. If you want to focus on powder, tree skiing and pillows, this is the ski.
The Metamorph is a magical combination of skis I’ve designed in the past. It’s got a longer running surface even though it’s shorter, giving it great speed while still maintaining solid float in powder. It’s the one I’ll take on longer trips traversing or touring, but it’s designed to not have limits.
What sets Kye Shapes apart?
I think, naturally, it sets itself apart. We’re a sub-brand of Foon, which is something you see in the surf world with brands endorsing pros to have their own shaping lines; but its not really something you see in the ski world. We’re going out on our own and designing skis that we want to ride.
While you’re only in your first year, do you have big plans for the future?
Big time—this is only the beginning! We don’t want to blow up right away, but rather lock down and perfect what we have. Indie brands have been the ones to push the industry to where it is today and there’s a lot more skis selling, especially in the freeride world, that aren’t from “the big five” brands. I’m stoked to be a part of it and stoked to try and make an impact in the industry.
Both the Numinous and the Metamorph are currently available for sale at kyeshapes.com and are set to deliver in mid-November of this year, just in time for next season’s snow. As an added bonus, every purchase of skis before their release date in November will include a 1/50 chance at scoring the heli ski trip of a lifetime with the Kye Shapes team in Whistler next winter.
