00:00 [ Sound of waves ]
00:08 [ Music ]
00:29 The Bec d'Oraz and Verbier, Switzerland.
00:32 The temple of free riding.
00:35 This is where everything began nearly 30 years ago.
00:42 And where everything ends.
00:43 Every single winter in late March.
00:47 [ Sound of people running ]
00:53 This mountain evokes countless emotions.
00:57 Running the gamut from elation to despair.
01:01 Bizarrely, the attraction to riding steep slopes has gone global.
01:08 Start gates are popping up on mountaintops around the world.
01:12 [ Speaking in French ]
01:20 The recipe remains unchanged.
01:24 Incredible scenery, steep riding, winners, losers, parties, and all the rest.
01:31 [ Music ]
01:38 No one's ever done that.
01:40 The lifestyle, the highs and lows, the community.
01:45 It looks like a unique experience.
01:48 Yet no one can agree on exactly how to describe it.
01:52 In the end, it all comes down to a simple question.
01:56 What the f***?
01:59 [ Music ]
02:04 [ Beep ]
02:06 Describe the Freeride World Tour to someone who doesn't know anything about it.
02:11 Yeah, the Freeride World Tour is, it's actually really hard to describe.
02:15 It's kind of unique.
02:17 Like, it's clear but it's not clear.
02:21 There's a starting gate and a finish line.
02:23 And whoever can balance the risk and reward and ski the hardest run, the smoothest, essentially wins.
02:30 [ Music ]
02:34 Abel putting himself on top of this massive pillar.
02:37 Bang!
02:39 [ Music ]
02:46 Boom, Marcus!
02:49 [ Music ]
02:51 What is going on?
02:53 What you see on TV is so beautiful.
02:56 [ Music ]
03:00 The absolute tip-top riders pushing themselves in huge terrain.
03:05 [ Music ]
03:12 The tour can definitely make or break your career.
03:16 [ Music ]
03:19 It's the top, it's the only thing you want to have access to.
03:23 The day you win the title of world champion, you're a bit on the marble.
03:27 There's something, it's hard.
03:30 [ Music ]
03:32 Ten years ago, I was that little kid going to all the riders, getting some autographs.
03:37 Young rider, Max, is he going to come around?
03:40 Max with the double clean!
03:42 The first double backflip in Freeride World Tour competition.
03:45 [ Screaming ]
03:46 And yesterday, I was the one giving the autograph and they showed videos of me on the TV.
03:52 And that feeling was just insane.
03:54 [ Screaming ]
03:56 [ Music ]
04:00 The girls and boys dominating the Freeride World Tour nowadays weren't even born when this all began.
04:06 What's the secret to longevity?
04:09 What kept Freeride World Tour going all these years? I think it's its leader.
04:16 [ Music ]
04:20 The year is 1994.
04:23 A bright and ambitious young man named Nicholas Hale Woods has a visionary idea.
04:29 To become president of Landlocked Switzerland's surfing association.
04:35 [ Music ]
04:44 The Swiss Surfing Association definitely has a future.
04:47 Fortunately, Nicholas Hale Woods together with friend Philippe Boutet had another much better idea.
04:54 To bring the world's best mountain surfers to Verbier, Switzerland.
04:59 The Extreme Verbier is born.
05:03 [ Music ]
05:12 It's the good shit.
05:14 [ Music ]
05:30 Born in the 90s is a risky term when it comes to sport, especially fringe sport.
05:36 [ Music ]
05:39 There's a lot of born in the 90s fringe sports that aren't around anymore.
05:43 And we don't see a lot of rollerblading these days.
05:47 [ Music ]
05:50 Competitive Freeride has kind of ridden the wave and it's stayed, I think, in a huge part.
05:58 Because it's just so beautiful to watch.
06:00 [ Music ]
06:06 [ Speaking in French ]
06:11 As of year one, when we saw the first edition of Verbier Extreme, we felt that there was a huge potential.
06:17 [ Music ]
06:20 It became clear very quickly that we could go as far as freeriding in the Olympics.
06:27 [ Music ]
06:30 But there's been very, very tough moments when finances, sponsorship doesn't cooperate.
06:36 [ Music ]
06:38 Weather doesn't cooperate.
06:40 But at no moment I felt like we were going to shut down.
06:44 It has a potential that we have a responsibility to not let down and to grow.
06:52 [ Music ]
06:56 And then the final step, or the last before final step, is the merge with FIS.
07:03 [ Music ]
07:05 New events, a bigger network.
07:09 That brings us to the next level.
07:13 [ Music ]
07:16 The ultimate step being the Olympics, most probably as of 2030.
07:22 Nearly three decades after the inaugural edition of the Extreme Verbier,
07:26 the Freeride World Tour has grown into the global freeriding circuit.
07:31 [ Music ]
07:33 It's where the planet's elite riders come with dreams of rock star status,
07:37 glamorous lifestyles, and eternal freeride glory.
07:42 [ Music ]
07:44 Okay guys, let's go fix this binder over there quickly, okay? Go.
07:47 This is not the way I see it.
07:50 [ Music ]
08:01 What the [bleep]
08:03 (beep)
08:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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