Leif Wilson
Canada | Active public archive: 2018-present | Known for: CHEF films, Grouse Mountain clips, Nor-Am slopestyle, skier-producer work | Current: creative park and street skier
Grouse Park When The Crew Was Still Young
The park at Grouse sat above Vancouver with wet snow under the rails and a short window before the light dropped out. Leif Wilson’s ski archive belongs to that North Shore rhythm: local laps, friends filming friends, compact features, and a crew slowly turning Grouse sessions into full ski films.
Wilson has a verified competition record, but his most useful ski identity is not a contest résumé. FIS lists him as a Canadian freestyle skier born in 2001, with official starts in slopestyle and big air. The larger public story comes through CHEF, where he appears as a rider, filmer, producer, and one of the voices explaining why the crew moved deeper into video projects after years around the competition system.
Leif Wilson On FIS Before The Film Shift
The official FIS profile identifies him as Leif WILSON, Canada, with FIS code 2534979 and a 2001 birth year. His results include Nor-Am Cup starts at Copper Mountain, Calgary, Aspen Snowmass and Stoneham during the 2022-2023 season.
The strongest single FIS result in the available record is seventh in slopestyle at Winsport Calgary on January 29, 2023. Other results show lower placements at Stoneham, Aspen Snowmass and Copper Mountain. That record confirms a real park-competition pathway without turning Wilson into a World Cup or podium-focused athlete.
PARADISE And The January-To-May Grouse Season
Wilson appears in PARADISE, published by CHEF in 2019. The video was described as a short film showing the crew’s season, filmed mostly at Grouse from January to May 2019. The skier list included Nick Hamilton, Leif Wilson, Alex Thucydides, Ben Lynch, Steven Kahnert, Kai English, Davis Mulder, Harry Smethurst, Will Penrose, Mitch Steven, Nick Thucydides, Jonas Hjohlman, Josh Martin and others.
That early credit gives Wilson’s profile a strong local base. Grouse Mountain is not a huge contest venue. It is a compact Vancouver-area hill where weather, snow density, night skiing, short park laps and community matter more than scale. A rider coming out of that environment learns to make small features count on camera.
Sundays, Ranch Revolution And The BC Crew Map
CHEF’s archive shows Wilson across the group’s early years. Sundays, published in 2020, was filmed at Grouse Mountain terrain parks and the Mount Seymour backcountry during spring. Ranch Revolution, also from 2020, listed Leif Wilson with Ben Lynch, Steven Kahnert, Cole Isfan, Mitch Steven, Kai Martin, Kai Smart, Alex Thucydides, Will Penrose and Joel Macnair, with Grouse Mountain and Sunshine as locations.
Those credits show a skier moving across a familiar British Columbia crew map rather than building a narrow athlete profile around one contest discipline. The locations and names repeat because the scene is social. Wilson’s record is strongest when read through that repetition: park laps, Mount Seymour sessions, road trips, and a group that kept filming even when the production stayed small.
Exit Strategy And The Producer Role
Exit Strategy is the most important marker in Wilson’s archive. Newschoolers described CHEF, formerly Chef Boyardee, as a group of roughly 20 friends who had produced edits for years before releasing their first feature film. The same article framed a conversation with filmer/editor Nick Thucydides and rider/producer Leif Wilson about the crew’s beginnings and the shift toward longer video projects.
That producer label matters. It places Wilson behind the project, not only inside the skier list. In a small ski crew, producing usually means solving practical problems: who can film, who can travel, where the snow is, how the premiere happens, how the footage gets organized, and how a group with mixed work, school and competition schedules still finishes a film.
Leaving The Contest Circuit For Video
The Newschoolers interview gives Wilson’s profile a rare first-person frame. He explained that many CHEF riders were moving out of the competition circuit and wanted to keep skiing by becoming more complete skiers and focusing on video projects. He described the crew as drawn to videos, with different approaches to skiing but one shared goal: coming together around a film.
That comment connects directly to his FIS record. Wilson did not come from nowhere. He had formal slopestyle and big-air starts, then became part of a group choosing a different route. For skipowd.tv, that is the central angle: a Canadian freeskier whose public identity sits between organized freestyle competition and a more creative, crew-led film path.
Fool Me Twice And The Wider CHEF Roster
Fool Me Twice, published by CHEF in October 2024, adds another major film credit. Newschoolers lists Stephen Lindsay-Ross, Leif Wilson, Alex Thucydides, Kai Martin, Luke Smart, Aidan Mani, Will Penrose, Alec Henderson, Steven Kahnert, Jarl Whist, Everest Hughes, Mitch Steven, Joel Macnair, Chase Ujeski, Stephen Siska and Floyd Guy, with editing by Nick Thucydides.
The roster shows how CHEF’s film world widened beyond a handful of Grouse regulars. Wilson appears among skiers with park, street and competition backgrounds, which fits the crew’s mixed identity. The film does not need to be framed as a solo part. Its value is in showing Wilson inside a group project that had grown from local edits into a recognized Canadian ski-film archive.
In The Bleak Midwinter And The Handle Tow Window
In the bleak midwinter, published by CHEF in 2026, places Wilson back in a small-session context. The listing describes “fun times on the handle tow before the snow got washed away” and features Will Penrose, Alex Thucydides, Trigg Colwell, Nathan Grandinetti, Jarl Whist, Davis Mulder, Asa France, Nick Thucydides, Leif Wilson and Valentin Pierson.
That description is useful because it shows the same practical skiing language that runs through Wilson’s archive. A handle-tow session before rain is not about perfect contest conditions. It is about speed checks, wet takeoffs, rail timing, compact landings and knowing when the snow will still hold one more try.
How Wilson’s Skiing Reads From The Record
The verified record supports a park and street reading with a real slopestyle base. Wilson’s skiing should be described through rail entries, switch movement, jump timing, press balance, compact rotations, short-feature speed control, and a camera-aware approach learned through years of filming with CHEF.
There is no need to invent a signature trick or sponsor list. The stronger technical point is adaptability. A skier who has Nor-Am slopestyle starts and also works inside crew films has to move between judged runs and messy real-world spots. That means understanding trick structure, but also understanding how a clip feels when filmed on a handheld camera at Grouse or Seymour.
Where Leif Wilson Fits Now
Wilson’s current public profile is coherent: FIS slopestyle and big-air results, early CHEF credits, PARADISE, Sundays, Exit Strategy, Fool Me Twice, and In the bleak midwinter. He should not be written as a top-tier contest skier, but he should not be reduced to a background crew name either.
For skipowd.tv, the best classification is Canadian park and street freeskier, CHEF rider-producer, Grouse Mountain video-scene figure, and former competition-pathway athlete. Future updates should track new CHEF releases, any verified solo segment, and whether Wilson receives more formal production credits on future ski films.
