Words: Jesse Malman
Photos: Virginie Tisseau and Matt Stauble
April showers bring May flowers. We all know that. What we also know is that May brings the Salomon Jib Academy World Final to Mammoth, California. Here, 12 young Jib Academy finalists from North America and Europe join the Salomon pro team for a week of park skiing and old-fashioned fun in the sun.
This year marks the 6th year of Jib Academy, Salomon’s nod to supporting progression in freestyle skiing, specifically on rails and jumps. For those new to the program, Jib Academy currently exists in the USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Finland [rumors of a UK program are circulating, too]. Each country hosts one or more Jib Academy contests for 13 to 16-year-olds, and the top rider at each contest wins a trip to the World Final in Mammoth. This time around, Salomon hosted five North American and seven European finalists, along with Salomon team riders Bobby Brown, James “Woodsy” Woods, Alexi Godbout, Thomas Krief, AJ Kemppainen and Vincent Gagnier.
James Woods and Bobby Brown say, "Hey, what's up?"
After four days of non-stop skiing, including a private sunset park shoot on day two, the participants all gathered at the swanky Hyde Lounge in Mammoth Village for a closing dinner and awards ceremony. While a lack of true competition and scoring exists at Jib Academy, it is still in fact a contest, and the Salomon pro riders act as judges to help pick overall winners.
This year, for the fifth straight year, a European skier was named Jib Academy Champion. Congratulations to Finland’s Aleksi Patja, who won himself a free trip to Momentum Ski Camp in Whistler. Norway’s Christian Nummedal took second while Switzerland’s Frederick Iliano came in third. A clean sweep of the podium for the Europeans. Well done, Europe!
Frederick Iliano, Aleksi Patja and Christian Nummedal.
As the 2012 edition of the Salomon Jib Academy came to a close, I found myself chatting with freeskiing icon Mike Douglas, alongside friends Jeff Thomas and Jeff Schmuck about the amount of talent that has come up through the Jib Academy in only six years of existence.
On average only 12 groms are invited to Mammoth each year, so we’re talking about a fairly small sample size of about 72 finalists that have attended the World Final in Mammoth. A quick glance at the list of past finalists brings the following big names to the surface: Torin Yater-Wallace (2nd place, 2009), Nick Martini (1st place, 2007), Sean Jordan (2nd place, 2008), Nick Goepper (2nd place, 2007), Elias Ambuhl, Henrik Harlaut, Kai Mahler (1st place, 2011) and Thomas Krief. By my count, that’s eight XGames medals and countless other podiums at major slopestyle, halfpipe and big air competitions.
Along with this all-star team, you have another list past Jib Academy shredders that are sure to make a big splash in the not too distant future: Jamieson Irvine (Canada), Alex Beaulieu-Marchand (Canada), Simon Ericson (Sweden), Cody Ling (USA), Willie Borm (USA) and more. It’s safe to say that a star is born from every year of the Jib Academy, with 2007 setting the bar very high [Thomas Krief, Henrik Harlaut, Elias Ambuhl, Nick Goepper and Nick Martini all attended the first ever Jib Academy Final in 2007].
Reflecting on his first Jib Academy experience, Martini notes, "I did the first jib academy ever at Waterville Valley, NH. After winning my local stop I was invited out to Mammoth to ski with the Salomon team. At the time it was a dream come true. It was the first time I linked up with Sammy [Carlson] and we have been good friends ever since. Skiing in the sunny spring Mammoth park was one of the best experiences I had, I still return every spring."
So the question then becomes: which finalist from this year’s Jib Academy Final will be standing on the XGames podium in the near future? And how is Jib Academy fostering so much talent?
Sunset shoot at Mammoth.
Bruno Bertrand, Global Alpine Sports Marketing Manager at Salomon, thinks it’s in the formula. “Salomon works with a handful of the countries who really embrace freeskiing and brings one or two of their top skiers to Mammoth. After a week skiing with the Salomon team, plus another few years of training and progression, odds are you’ll have a superstar in the making.”
So to all 12 of the finalists at this year’s Jib Academy Final, and for those of you who hope to attend in the future, know that you’re on the right track. Continue to chase your dream and train hard in doing so. It seems the odds are in your favor.
Group shot!
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