Jacques Summermatter

Profile and significance

Jacques “Crackjack” Summermatter is a Swiss freeski rider from St. Niklaus in Valais whose film-first output has bridged Zermatt park laps and European street missions into a recognizable, replayable style. Born in 1997 and raised a short valley away from the Matterhorn, he cut his teeth on long seasons at Zermatt before exporting that polish to urban projects across Central and Northern Europe. By the late 2010s his “season cut” clips were circulating on core media; in the 2020s he turned those habits into full crew appearances and collaborations, including spring road-trip segments in Scandinavia and a spot in Migi Reibenschuh’s 2023 street piece, where his calm shoulders and decisive lock-ins stood out. Today he rides for Surface Skis and continues to balance on-snow output with small-crew production, the lane where much of modern freeski culture actually lives.

Competitive arc and key venues

Summermatter’s résumé is anchored in projects rather than bibs. Early visibility came from Zermatt-based edits that paired urban clips with high-volume glacier laps. Those were followed by features in independent street shorts and multi-rider travel segments—most notably a 2025 spring-trip cut through Scandinavia and a 2023 release led by Austrian filmer Migi Reibenschuh. The thread is repeatability: tricks that work on imperfect in-runs and still read under a broadcast-style pace. His “home” laboratory remains Zermatt, whose long rails and dependable speed windows are ideal for building consistent axes and grab timing. When the calendar swings north, he leans into the short-approach, cold-snow texture of Nordic cities, a contrast that pressure-tests his decision-making and keeps the film work honest.

How they ski: what to watch for

Summermatter skis with measured economy—the kind you can read at full speed without slow motion. On rails he favors a centered stance and quiet upper body so spin-ons, swaps, and pretzel exits look deliberate rather than forced. Approach angles stay conservative until the exact moment of commitment; lock-ins ride clean through kinks and small gaps, and exits land with glide so momentum survives into the next feature. On jumps—whether a compact street step-down or a spring booter—he places the grab early and holds it across rotation, keeping axis and trick identity obvious for the camera. He scales rotation to the day’s speed window instead of forcing a late cork, which is why his heaviest clips feel inevitable rather than lucky.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Street filming compresses the margin for error: short in-runs, imperfect landings, limited light. Summermatter treats those constraints as a craft. His parts show the same repeatable workflow—scout and measure, shovel and salt, test speed, refine angles, then roll when the make will read clean without filler. That process dovetails with his park habits from Zermatt, where long lines punish sloppiness and reward momentum management. As a result, editors lean on his shots to stitch segments together: they travel well from municipal rails to glacier booters, and they hold up on rewatch because the decisions are visible and the landings finish stacked.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the polish. Valais provides proximity to one of Europe’s most reliable playgrounds at Zermatt, where consistent speed and well-shaped rails turn both-way entries and pretzel exits into muscle memory. Spring road trips north add the other half of the equation: denser city infrastructure, colder snow, and short, consequence-heavy approaches that sharpen approach accuracy and landing discipline. That mix—big, forgiving spring parks and tight, high-stakes urban features—produces skiing that reads the same under April sun and January street lamps.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

As a team rider for Surface Skis, Summermatter leans toward true-twin platforms tuned for predictable swing weight and exits at speed. The transferable setup principles matter more than model names. A near-center mount supports both-way spins and stable switch landings; a consistent edge tune with a thoughtful detune at contact points reduces hang-ups on steel without dulling pop for lip-ons or step-downs; and boots with progressive forward flex plus firm heel hold help landings finish stacked when the snow is fast or chattery. Keep binding release behavior predictable across repeated impacts and your tricks will read the same from a city handrail to a spring booter.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Summermatter matters because he turns fundamentals into footage people replay. If you’re learning to “read” modern freeskiing—freeski slopestyle logic applied to urban features—watch how he preserves glide across multi-rail sections so the closer still has room to breathe, how he places and holds grabs to keep axes obvious, and how he scales spin to the available speed without sacrificing landing quality. For skiers building their own projects, the lesson is as much process as trick list: plan carefully, test speed, and commit to a make that will look inevitable at full pace. In an era where rider-led films often define the season more than scoreboards, Jacques Summermatter is a reliable reference for clean, camera-friendly skiing rooted in the Alps and sharpened on the road.