Lucas Wachs

Profile and significance

Lucas Wachs is a professional freeskier from Bend, Oregon, whose career sits at the crossroads of modern backcountry freeski, park roots and creative filmmaking. Born and raised in Bend, he grew up with easy access to the volcano-shaped playground of Mt. Bachelor, where long groomers, a strong park program and nearby backcountry all shaped his approach. As a kid and teenager he came up through slopestyle and halfpipe, earning medals at U.S. nationals and local big-air and rail-jam events before shifting his focus away from start lists and toward skiing that was more about expression than scores. That combination of contest fundamentals and creative curiosity has become his trademark: a rider who can draw on structured technique, then bend it toward pillows, natural booters and steep faces.

Over the last decade Wachs has quietly become one of the most visible film-oriented skiers of his generation. Long associated with Lib Tech, he helped shape the UFO series, then spent seasons stacking segments with crews like Level 1 Productions, Matchstick Productions and Good Company. His part in Level 1’s movie “Romance” earned him the Breakthrough Performance award at the Powder Awards, a signal that his blend of big airs, deep powder and smooth style had moved him into the sport’s upper tier. More recently he has joined the blackcrows athlete team, releasing his own signature film projects while continuing to appear alongside some of the strongest big-mountain skiers in the world.

Competitive arc and key venues

Wachs’ competitive arc is the classic “start gate to film shot” story. Growing up in Bend, he learned to spin and slide rails in Bachelor’s terrain parks and gradually worked his way into regional and national competitions in slopestyle and halfpipe. Those years built a deep bag of tricks and a strong sense of how to control speed, pop and landings, but he never tried to build an entire identity around the contest circuit. Instead, as he got older and more comfortable on skis, he started building jumps on storm days, leaving the park to session windlips and side hits in the natural terrain that wraps around the volcano.

The true “venues” that define his ski career are the zones that show up again and again in his filmography. Mt. Bachelor remains home base, with its rolling, surfy terrain and frequent storm cycles providing endless pillows and transitions. From there he has ranged up and down the Cascades on “Volcano Voyage”–style trips, ticking off classic Pacific Northwest peaks and hunting spring corn as well as deep winter powder. Film missions with Matchstick and Level 1 have taken him to interior British Columbia, the high alpine of Alaska and European ranges where he links natural booters and exposed spines with the same confidence he shows on his home mountain. In recent seasons the blackcrows project “wave length” and other collaborative films have added far-flung lines in places like Georgia and the Lyngen Alps to his list, underscoring that his competition phase was just a launchpad for a wide-ranging film career.

How they ski: what to watch for

Lucas Wachs skis like someone who grew up in the park and then fell in love with deep snow. His stance is neutral but powerful, with hips stacked over his feet and a relaxed upper body that lets his legs absorb whatever the terrain throws at him. On open slopes he favors big, arcing turns that keep his speed alive, but he is quick to tighten things up when a line funnels into chokes, trees or wind lips. He has a knack for keeping his skis in the fall line even while playing with micro-features, so lines that would look choppy under many skiers read as fluid and surfy when he’s on them.

Trick-wise, the park background is obvious. Expect clean 360s with well-held grabs, corked spins, big laid-out backflips and the occasional more technical rotation when the takeoff and landing allow. What makes his skiing fun to watch is how often those tricks happen off natural features rather than park jumps: cornices, spine walls, wind-loaded rollers and pyramid-shaped pillows become his kickers. In a typical segment he might butter onto a windlip, launch a spin deep into a powder field, then thread a set of small drops without ever losing rhythm. That blend of freestyle, speed and terrain reading is what separates him from a pure park rider or a purely directional big-mountain skier.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience in Wachs’ story shows up in how consistently he has built his path, season after season, rather than in one dramatic comeback moment. From early “Tre Squad” edits around Mt. Bachelor to big-budget projects with established film companies, he has treated each winter as another chapter in a long creative project. Helping design his daily-driver skis, shooting month-long POV series, and working through erratic weather on trips to places like Alaska and British Columbia all demand patience and an ability to adapt quickly when plans change. When conditions shut down the primary objective, he is known for shifting focus and finding playful backup options that still produce memorable footage.

His filmography is where that persistence becomes visible. Beyond “Romance,” he has appeared in Matchstick’s “Huck Yeah!” and other feature films, in collaborative projects like “Digital Style: Japan,” and in his own concept-driven movies such as “Recreate,” which mixes skiing and biking, “Lost in Thought,” and the more recent “wave length” with blackcrows. These projects emphasize not just tricks but mood, pacing and the experience of moving through mountains with friends. For younger athletes who watch his segments, Wachs represents a model of how to carve out a sustainable film-based career: stack strong video parts, cultivate long-term brand relationships and keep pushing creative ideas rather than relying on one contest result or viral clip.

Geography that built the toolkit

Bend and Mt. Bachelor are central to understanding how Lucas Wachs skis. Bachelor’s 360-degree lift layout around a single volcanic cone, combined with regular Pacific storm cycles, creates an environment where you can ski everything from sheltered trees to wind-scoured ridges in a single day. Growing up there, he learned to treat the entire mountain as a terrain park, using natural features in place of rails and boxes and treating side hits on groomers as seriously as man-made jumps. The relatively low tree line and playful terrain built his instinct for finding transitions and “trannies” that less practiced eyes might miss.

As his career expanded, so did his geographic range. Trips up and down the Cascades brought him to other Oregon and Washington volcanoes, where long approaches and big, smooth faces taught him the patience and pacing needed for ski mountaineering-style lines. Film missions with Matchstick and other crews pulled him deep into interior British Columbia and eventually to Alaska, where the scale of the terrain and the sensitivity of coastal snowpacks demand a more measured risk calculus. More recently, blackcrows collaborations have seen him exploring new ranges in Europe and Central Asia, applying his Mt. Bachelor-honed creativity to entirely new shapes of mountains. Wherever he travels, though, his skiing still looks like an extension of the Bend and Cascadia education that started it all.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Lucas Wachs’ equipment story mirrors his evolution as a skier. For many years he was closely tied to Lib Tech, riding and helping design the UFO series—playful, twin-tip skis with enough backbone to handle big drops and chopped-up landings while remaining happy in the park. His name became synonymous with that line, and he used it in everything from hometown edits to international film segments. Later, after more than a decade with Lib Tech and nearly as long with Dakine, he shifted onto the blackcrows team, where he now rides freeride and all-terrain models that line up with his blend of carving, jibbing and backcountry powder skiing.

Softgoods and accessories complete the picture. Outerwear and gloves from Outdoor Research, packs and luggage from Dakine, and long-running support from 10 Barrel Brewing reflect a lifestyle built around travel, storm chasing and long days outside. For viewers, the key takeaway is not that you need his exact setup, but that his gear system is designed for versatility: skis that can smear and carve, binders and boots that stay trustworthy when he steps up to bigger features, and clothing that works in everything from cold high-desert mornings in Bend to humid storm days in coastal ranges. Thinking about your own equipment with that same “system” mindset is much more useful than simply copying a pro’s signature model.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans connect with Lucas Wachs because his skiing and his projects feel both aspirational and approachable. His segments deliver classic freeski ingredients—big airs, deep powder, creative lines—without losing the sense that he is simply having fun with friends on terrain he genuinely loves. He is equally at home in a solo POV edit lapping Bachelor, a big-budget Matchstick movie, a Level 1 production, or a self-directed project where the storyline matters as much as any single trick, and that range helps his skiing resonate with a wide spectrum of viewers.

For progressing skiers who dream more about freeski and film than about traditional contests, Wachs offers a clear example of how to build that kind of career. He leveraged early park and slopestyle experience into strong fundamental skills, gradually pushed those skills into backcountry and big-mountain environments, and worked consistently with brands and filmmakers to turn his ideas into finished projects. Watching him is a reminder that in modern freeski, style, creativity and good partnerships can be just as important as raw difficulty. Whether you first encounter him in “Romance,” “Huck Yeah!,” “wave length” or a short clip from a storm day at Mt. Bachelor, following Lucas Wachs gives you a window into what it looks like to live a life where freeskiing, travel and storytelling are all part of the same line.