Will’s Blog – Xavier De Le Rue Interview

Will Stolk, Japan. Image:: Courtesy Will Stolk

Pro-Blog | Will Stolk

Hello all.

It’s that time of year again. The snow is starting to fall and the skis or snowboards are starting to come out of the cupboard. You take them down to your local ski or snowboard store to get that fresh coat of wax and you start to feel that sweat on the back of your neck, that itch needs to be scratched. Slowly it starts to build. The days grow colder and now you’re starting to follow every snow report with a level of anticipation akin to a child waiting for Christmas. 30cm here… 50cm there. Yes winter is well and truly HERE!

My name is Will Stolk,

I’m a freerider and traveller whose main passion in life is powder and everything to do with sliding down the side of a snow-covered slope. Welcome to my new Mountainwatch blog. Every week or so I will be bringing you info, stories, interviews, videos, photos adventures and all sorts of stuff from the world of freeriding. And whether you’re on a snowboard or skis its all the same thing, In the end we all enjoy sliding down the same hill.

In this week’s blog I will be bringing you the first of two interviews with two totally different snow sliders. In the first interview we sit down with three time Freeride World Tour (FWT) champ Xavier de Le Rue. Rue has been called “the future of big mountain snowboarding” by Big Mountain guy Jeremy Jones and judging from some of the lines Rue rides and the faces he has ascended in TGR’s Deeper, I think this title might hold some strength.

The second interview will be with world record holder and TGR athlete Julien Carr, who not only holds the world record for an inverted flip off a cliff but has won numerous Sickbird awards on the IFSA tour.

These two diverse personalities are but a small part of the whole freeride community and they ride and see the mountain in two totally different ways. Yet both are still united by the same drive — passion and love of the mountains.
So enjoy and until next time, “Prey for snow”

Xavier De Le Rue at the 2011 Nissan Xtreme Verbier. Image:: C Margot/FWT

Xavier de Le Rue

How long have you been snowboarding?
18 years.

Did you do alpine ski racing before getting into snowboarding like most kids in France growing up in Alpine regions?

I did indeed do enough to get bored with it and then I rediscovered life through snowboarding. I grew up in the Pyrenees and attended my local ski club before finding out fast enough that snowboarding was way more interesting in terms of fun and fulfillment.

What was it like growing up in the Pyrenees as a child and now riding with the majority of the scene? Had you been in the Alps would this have influenced your riding early on?

I had the chance to be part of a snowboard club which provided me a snowboard family. At the time we were doing everything from freestyle to alpine to snowboard-cross. The main idea was to have fun wherever we could. As far as the scene, Pyrenees always and still has a really strong tour with passionate people involved. Hence the fact that many best riders from France are coming from the Pyrenees. Matthieu Crepel, Doriane Vidal, Mathieu Justafré, and lately my younger brother Victor, Dimitri Biau and Enzo Nilo.

What guys did you look up to in the early days of snowboarding?

I’ve always looked up at Terje mostly… always liked his broad vision of snowboarding… always trying new stuff, new styles…. That’s the way to step it up.

You’ve won four boadercross titles and world free ride tours and also done a bunch of racing back in the day…what made you pick the speed and freeride disciplines over the traditional freestyle paths most people follow?

Freestyle is still a part of snowboarding. Every early season I spend a week or so on a park to get my tricks and balance back on the board to be ready for the season. I guess I was more interested as a kid when it was needed. You had to read the terrain and put the pedal to the metal. Everything was cool back then and the idea to be able to perform in everything that was bringing fun was always in our mind. I’ve tried and still do a bit of everything. Snowboard-cross was the discipline that required me to be good at everything, like turns, jumps. It had the fighting spirit factor I like. My only training was to be riding as much as possible. Now freeriding is about the same only with the mountain culture much more present. It’s something that I’m into as I love to climb and do some mountaineering from time to time.

Swatch – Catch the Moment – Xavier de le Rue Profile from world of freesports on Vimeo.

Favourite resort in the world?

There is no place like home, St Lary in the Pyrenees.

We noticed on a video of an interview with you on the Nissan site that you say you get better every year from doing the world freeride tour? Is this still the case?

Competition always helps to use your entire skills. Many times I would have to call it a day without even riding, given the snow conditions we had on certain events. The fact that I was in competition mode pushes me to seek the best line according to the conditions. During the FWT we have a few days to analyse the snow conditions and the face, something that we can’t have during filming sessions, and this helps us to master challenging faces. In a way I keep on believing that competing helps me to learn and improve, although it always makes me nervous.

I’ve seen the Verbier Xtreme live quite a few times. It’s quite amazing that so many people watch the competition. It really is a huge crowd and the town of Verbier really gets behind the event. How is this event different to the rest of the events on the WFT?

The Face is a monster. It’s a do or die type of day when the event is on. It’s another kind of planet when you’re at the top of Bec des Rosses. As I spent part of my winter in Verbier, I see this face from the early season and every time I look at it I have the chills. There is every comp out there, whether it be FWT or other, but there is nothing like Xtreme Verbier. It’s in it’s own league.

The Bec De Rosses is quite a massive face that’s really long. You’re known for shredding gnarly lines very fast. Are there any lines on the Bec you’ve yet to do or that you have in mind?

I just look at the face when I need to, usually a month or so before the comp. Snow conditions always decide what’s doable or not. There is certainly still more lines to open, but I’m not willing to put energy into finding them without the snow pack allowing them.

Do you find that they host the finals on the same venue every year to be boring , or do you find that every time you go back you find a new line,and more comfort with the Bec Des Ross in general?

You will never be in your comfort zone at Bec des Rosses unless you loose your mind. Bec des Rosses is like AK for filming, you want it, but you also fear it at the same time.

Your new web-series on www.timelinemissions.com for swatch…what’s it been like?

It’s been great. The crew is made of friends that share the same vision of the mountain. It gives me the option to film and shoot with the same crew; Tero Repo for still and Guido Perrini for moving pictures. Travelling and working with friends is the best when you are away most of the season, plus they all excel in what they do and help me deliver the type of riding I want to show.

Xavier De Le Rue. Image:: C Margot/FWT

Do you like the way the internet has influenced the way action sports media is being put out into the world? Now it seems like every new trick and line is put on YouTube within 15 minutes of it happening, while you poor guys back in the day only had access to snowboard footage via yearly videos. How do you think this has contributed to the overall progression of snowboarding ?

Gotta to live in the present, not in the past. The best has yet to be seen on internet on our side, as we keep the best actions/angles for Standard Films TB20 and VideoGrass. We’re releasing a movie on our own showing what it takes to get a part in major video productions, showing the best action and lifestyles from the season.

What was it like going to the Olympics for your country?

The Olympics is the only snowboarding global event that reaches non-snowboarders and you can feel it when you’re there. Although snowboarding isn’t a type of thing I do for others. It felt funny to know people in France, who never heard of me or the others from the French team, or even snowboarding, were supporting us like we were family to them.

Will you be competing at the winter Olympics in Sochi?

I will.

If you were given an unlimited heli budget and could ride any mountain range in the world with any three people, dead or alive, who would they be and where would you ride?

I would go with Marco Siffredi, my brother Victor and probably my buddy Richard Permin…. And I guess I would go either for north east Nepal or Antarctica’s peninsula or just in basic AK….

What do you think of the introduction of freeride skiing into the Verbier Xtreme knowing that it started off once as just snowboarding. Do skiers influence you at all and if so in what ways?

Skiers are giving me a boost and influence has been great on the tour. We see and approach the mountain the same way and seeing others charge only gives you the will to charge more. There are faces where skiers can charge more and others where snowboarders shred harder.

Is there anything you’d really like to achieve before you retire from competing?

An Olympic medal would be nice, kind of the only box to tick on that side. Winning Mt Baker Legendary bank slalom a second time would be great too, if I can find time to go there again.

Would you ever consider hosting your own invitational freeride event like the Candide invitational but for big mountain riding?

It might happen. I have a couple of ideas in mind, but the freeride event is quite tricky to organise.