The New King of Freeride
There's only one way Frenchman Xavier de le Rue likes his freeriding: fast
Xavier de le Rue Avalanche Footage
So why haven't you heard of him?
Has it become the norm in the world of mainstream snowboarding for the professional freerider to get overlooked in place of the X Games halfpipe superstar? There is certainly a place for this argument, but is it one worth fighting over? Beyond the big endorsements, flashy kits and teenage fan clubs is a world where to be bothered with too much acclaim and stardom would ultimately take away from the experience of what it is to be a big mountain rider. These guys are in it for nothing other than the pure passion and feeling only the mountains can provide, and Xavier—he embodies this sentiment.
Like the rest of the hopelessly deranged, Xavier made his way to Alaska in April to finish up his spot for the Standard Films new flick, "Black Winter." This is where I caught a glimpse into his life.
I think we should start with a little background info since many people are not familiar with you.
Yeah, sure. I grew up in the Pyrenees in the south of France at a small resort called Saint-Lary, pretty close to Spain. I started 15 years ago real easy style with some friends. I used to do alpine back then which was pretty much the norm in that region back in the day [Alpine, referring to hard boots and race boards]. Then I got into a little bit of everything—freestyle, alpine, freeride and lots of boardercross which I eventually became pretty good at. After I got semi-serious I ended up winning the Boardercross World Championships four separate times. Slowly though, everything converged and I started to focus a lot more on freeriding. My vision was always to master many different skills and then bring them all together to excel at what I really enjoy, and that is just being a well-rounded snowboarder who can ride anything—a freerider.
In the last three or four years you have really taken the European scene by storm, in the U.S. though, you are still a relative unknown.
Well, that's the thing with being from Europe. The interest just isn't the same in the U.S. But here's what I can say about what I've been doing: When I started focusing on big mountain stuff, I think I helped myself out by watching some of the established guys really intensely. I studied their lines and just tried to do the same stuff they did. So for a while I wasn't actually line riding, I was just picking out a main feature or two and dealing with that ... kind of like the guys who were winning the comps back then. Then a few years back Jeremy Jones came over to the Verbier Extremes and just did a very simple line, but he did it super fast. For some reason that rang a bell that I should start seeing things differently. So I went about riding less like a contest and more like I would be filming. I also looked at the skiers because they were going twice as fast as us and jumping way bigger and stomping.
I understand what you are getting at. I hate to see guys billy goat into something crazy and win the contest. There is no flow to that and to me it doesn't really award the guy who is charging the hardest.
Exactly. My thought was, "How can I still do that technical stuff but somehow include it into a line?" I was done ruining the fluidity of a line because of some super tech approach that others were doing.
Jeff CurleyXavier de le Rue has been carefully studying the best freeriders in the world. And now he's seeing things a whole lot differently. So fluidity is important to you?
Yeah, absolutely. Picking up a line and going straight down, not messing around, not traversing right to left—that's what I like. But seriously, those skiers really pushed me a lot and I finally got to a point where I was like, "We suck!" I'm not kidding. Big mountain snowboarding didn't compare to what they were doing. "Why don't we try to ride like this?" I thought. Also I was afraid to go really fast because I thought it would put me in more danger. Suddenly I said screw it and started riding way faster. I felt really confident and a lot more comfortable honestly.
Xavier rides faster than anyone I've ever seen. If one guy is going to give Jeremy Jones a run for his money, it's him.
—Jeff Curley, photographer
Did you feel like you were in control more?
Yes. I realized riding like this, that first of all, I was way safer in terms of avalanches and whatever. Then I just felt like I could hit anything I wanted because I was that much more focused. So it changed my whole way of seeing things as soon as I upped the speed factor. It also made riding a lot more fun. So I am really driven now that the world of freeriding has opened up to me.
Just for the record what contests did you compete in this year?
I did the Freeride World Tour and won that. I won Verbier, Tignes ... whatever ... I also won overall best line at that contest—that is skiing and snowboarding together. And I also won the Big Mountain Pro and I won the overall Swiss King of the ...
It's OK, you can just say that you won everything! So now you are in Valdez; have you ever been to Alaska before?
Yes, a couple of times but I had never got the real AK with the perfect conditions, spines and everything ... This time it's been great to come with the guys—Kevin Jones, Johan [Olofsson], Standard Filmer Chris Ondercin and Curley shooting photos. Also coming with Americans has been great because they know the people and have done this AK thing many times. With a Euro crew you kind of get screwed if you don't know exactly what is going on. Definitely more dialed in.
Is this the first year you have done something with Standard?
No. Last year, last minute, they saw some of my footage and made it work. So I had a small part last year. But this will be my first official part. It's great.
From a European point of view, what do you think about Alaska?
I always tried to convince myself that I didn't need to go that far to get good snow—that I could just stick around in Europe and get good stuff with everything that we have had set up the past few years. But coming here, the terrain has way more playful potential. In just a small area up here the options are endless. Back home we need much more area and a lot more searching is needed for terrain that suits filming. Here it is everywhere. This is perfect! The coastal snow is also amazing.
Is there anything that really surprised you about riding up here?
Actually, the first day I was surprised at how bouncy the snow was. We are a little late in the season so it hasn't been that super deep powder that you would think. With this the terrain sticks out a lot more. That means it's a lot more technical. So for my style where I just like to go at it—trying not to slow down too much—I really had to adapt and not charge things the way I normally ride under optimal conditions. Even if we didn't get the "epic epic," there is still so much you can do with your riding up here.
What do you like most about it up here?
Well optimally, you can get conditions where it is very stable and filled in. When the conditions permit you can ride the steepest of steep with the typical huge sloughs ... that's amazing. Scary, but amazing at the same time!
And the worst?
I only think there are positive things about this area. Well, the worst part would be sitting around in a hotel waiting for days. Especially when you are in the rhythm of the season. You kind of put the brakes on and shut down for a week or so then one day you're right back on top of it. It's weird like that.
OK. I don't know if this is a sore subject but last year you were caught in an avalanche that in all reality, should have killed you. Would you care to talk about what went down?
Well, I can say it is the best lesson you could ever learn. I think this thing was big enough that I can help other people benefit from it. After it happened I had all summer and fall to think about it and to reassess what I am doing. Of course I asked myself, "Are we taking this too far?" or " Is this just how it is supposed to be ... one day you just die and accept it?" So I had a chance to step back and look at things from a wider perspective. And in the end I was really happy to realize that by obeying some rules I would be able to get back out there and do it in a safe way.
Since then, the main lessons I have been learning as far as terrain choice is to pick out stuff with a good out run, something without big cliffs or that has a big safe zone at the bottom. I always knew that, but still sometimes I would just step out and do huge stuff anyways as long as I was confident about the conditions. So I learned about taking more time to analyze my choices; like maybe taking one more small run before stepping to the big stuff, or taking five more minutes to check out my line. It doesn't change much with your end result but in the long term some extra preparation makes a huge difference and can save your life.
Sometimes though, in my case, you may have taken all the precautions but haven't checked yourself. What I'm talking about is getting too pumped to do something that has serious consequence. It's hard when you have a film crew that's ready to go and you have been waiting days for the storm to clear and finally it's about to happen—sometimes you just gotta chill. I learned it the hard way obviously, and I know down the line I will continue to learn more, but I am quite satisfied with what I learned and why that happened.
I also had the airbag backpack on, which you can check out in the video. But it was only the third day riding with it and it totally saved my life. I've seen the results with many people that have been saved wearing it and it is just an amazing tool for what we do. I don't ride without it now!
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