Keegan o'brien

Profile and significance

Keegan O’Brien is a North American freeski filmer, editor and street skier whose fingerprints are all over the modern OS Crew era. Often credited simply as “Keegs” or “keegs_ob,” he works both in front of and behind the camera, threading together urban shots, backcountry clips and spring park sessions into some of the most talked-about independent ski films of the last few seasons. His name appears in the rider lists and credits for OS Crew’s ninth and tenth annual movies, “absORB” and “VORTEX,” as well as in standalone projects like “Dirtbag” and multiple “Beavus @ Hood” edits, making him one of the key creative engines in that ecosystem.

O’Brien’s significance is twofold. As a skier, he contributes heavy street and park shots in projects that tour festivals, theaters and online film guides. As a filmer and editor, he shapes how those same projects feel, cutting together footage from crews in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and beyond. Film descriptions and premiere blurbs single him out as the videographer whose eye drives “VORTEX,” while festival write-ups for “absORB” and major trailer roundups list his name alongside long-time OS riders. That combination of creative control and on-snow presence makes him one of the quieter but more influential shapers of today’s core freeski look.

Competitive arc and key venues

O’Brien’s “competitive arc” lives primarily in edits, films and freeride rankings rather than in World Cup bib numbers. In the formal competition world, his name appears on adult men’s freeride ranking lists, confirming that he has tested himself in judged big-mountain venues as well as in the street. He also shows up in multi-rider projects like the 2023 film “BLOWNZONE,” a comp-style edit featuring a roster of emerging freeriders, where he shares screen time with other athletes pushing their line-choice and big-snow skills.

The venues that matter most to his story, though, are creative rather than strictly competitive. On Newschoolers, his “Keegs.” profile lists a growing catalogue of work: multi-rider Hood sessions such as “Beavus @ Hood W/ Homies” and the re-edit “Beavus x OS at Hood,” his reflective short “Dirtbag,” and collaborations where he films and edits for athletes and teams at resorts like Mammoth Mountain. As OS Crew’s films moved from local premieres to entries in international film guides, those same credits grew in stature. “absORB” is recognized as OS Crew’s ninth annual film, and “VORTEX” appears in 2025 trailer roundups and festival lineups with O’Brien named among the featured skiers and primary filmers, marking his transition from homie-edit regular to a central figure in one of skiing’s most respected crew projects.

How they ski: what to watch for

Keegan O’Brien’s skiing is rooted in street and park, with an emphasis on technical rails and thoughtful line construction. A scroll through his clips reveals a rider unafraid of long, multi-kink handrails; one of his own posts highlights a six-kink rail from “absORB,” the kind of feature that demands perfect speed, early commitment and the ability to stay locked in as the rail changes angle again and again. He tends to approach these spots with measured in-run tempo rather than frantic speed, giving himself just enough room to hop on clean and adjust for each kink without looking rushed.

On park and spring builds, particularly in the “Beavus @ Hood” era and various Copper-area projects, his style carries that same calm. Spin directions and grab choices are classic, relying more on clean execution than on escalating spin counts, and he often uses knuckles, side hits and transitions between features to add extra butters or taps that keep a line feeling alive. Watch his skiing with an analytical eye and you will notice a few constants: his upper body stays comparatively quiet, his eyes look down the length of the rail rather than at his feet, and his landings are timed so he rides out with speed ready for the next feature, not fighting to recover balance.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience is baked into O’Brien’s role as a street skier and principal filmer. OS Crew’s urban segments do not happen in a single take; they are built on late-night shovel sessions, repeated winch pulls and a near-endless sequence of tries where the trick is almost there, but not quite. As one of the people most often listed behind the camera for “absORB,” “VORTEX” and clipped-out highlight reels of riders like Justin “Juice” Kennedy, O’Brien is not just dropping into rails; he is also hauling gear, setting angles, reviewing takes and going back again when the shot is not perfect. That willingness to live inside the process is what lets him cut together films that feel cohesive rather than like random trick dumps.

His influence extends well beyond his own name in the rider list. In OS Crew teasers and raw-cut episodes, you will often find “Filmed by: Ian Russell, Keegan O’Brien, Mason Kennedy, Emma Jones and others” in the credits, a quiet acknowledgment that he is one of the people deciding how these projects will look and feel. External write-ups for premiere nights describe “VORTEX” as seen “through the eyes” of Roslyn-based videographer Keegan O’Brien, underlining that his perspective literally frames the movie. For younger skiers and filmers watching from the outside, he represents a path where creative control, patience and a strong sense of story can give you just as much impact as a headline contest result.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography of O’Brien’s skiing and filming spans many of the places that define modern North American freeski culture. Summer and spring edits place him repeatedly at Mount Hood, Oregon, where public park lanes and camp features create a long season of slushy laps and endless rail options. Multi-rider projects like his “Beavus” edits were built there, taking advantage of forgiving summer snow to push both tricks and creativity. Elsewhere in his filmography he turns up at Copper Mountain and Mammoth, shooting park days and team sessions in some of the most productive terrain parks in the United States.

More recently, premiere descriptions and local event write-ups call him a Roslyn, Washington–based videographer, tying him to the small town near Washington’s central Cascades. That location offers easy access to deep-snow resorts and backcountry passes, feeding OS Crew missions that venture beyond rails into powder, cliffs and natural hits. When you combine that with recurring street trips through Idaho and neighboring states for “absORB” and “VORTEX,” you get a toolkit shaped by urban architecture, resort parks and storm-day tree lines alike. It is a mix that lets O’Brien move comfortably from filming a kinked handrail downtown to capturing big-air sessions in a private spring park build.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

O’Brien’s visible gear choices reflect his focus on rails, film projects and everyday resort laps. On social platforms he tags brands like Vishnu Freeski and Bern Helmets, a pairing that makes sense for someone whose skiing leans hard into urban and park terrain. Vishnu’s soft, jib-oriented twin-tips are built to handle repeated surface swaps, presses and close encounters with concrete, while Bern’s helmet designs are popular among riders who spend long days in the park and on the streets. That combination signals a setup tuned more for creativity and comfort than for pure speed.

He also operates inside the broader sponsor ecosystem that supports OS Crew’s full-length films. Credits for “absORB,” its raw-cut series and “VORTEX” list backing from companies like J Skis, Dakine, Roxa Boots, Northpull or ReWinch winches, Wear Leathers and Spy Optic, shaping the gear environment around him. Durable twintip skis, supportive boots, tough gloves and packs and reliable winch systems all factor into how he and his crew can ski and film day after day. For progressing skiers and aspiring filmers, the practical takeaway is to aim for a coherent kit: skis that feel playful and trustworthy on metal, boots and helmets you are happy to wear for long sessions and outerwear that can survive shovel duty, cold nights and slushy spring afternoons alike.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Keegan O’Brien because he embodies a modern, crew-driven version of freeski success. Rather than arriving via a single viral trick, he has gradually built a body of work that stretches from early Hood edits to major roles in “absORB” and “VORTEX.” Each new project adds another layer: more refined filming, more ambitious street features, more depth in how he portrays the highs and lows of a winter. For viewers who follow ski movies as closely as other people follow contest livestreams, his name in the credits has become a quiet stamp of quality.

For progressing skiers and up-and-coming filmers, O’Brien’s path offers a realistic blueprint. Start by filming everything, not just your best tricks; learn how to tell a story about your crew and your hill; and be willing to spend just as much time behind the lens as you do in front of it. Watching his work, you can study both the skiing and the editing: how he or his friends build lines in the park, how the camera moves through spaces, how raw-cut episodes reveal the grind behind a single hammer. In an era where style, authenticity and storytelling increasingly define freeski culture, Keegan O’Brien stands out as one of the people quietly shaping what that culture looks like on screen.