Maude Raymond

Profile and significance

Maude Raymond—widely known as “MAAD Maude”—is a Canadian freeski standout from Montréal whose style-first approach helped define a generation of women’s park and street skiing. She grew up immersed in sport, competing in diving at a high level before moving to Whistler Blackcomb, where freeskiing became her focus. In 2013 she was named Female Skier of the Year by a leading North American ski magazine, recognition that reflected both her contest chops and the cultural pull of her edits. Beyond results, Raymond’s significance comes from the way she translated creativity into accessible media—her MAAD Maude web series and later projects showcased clean technique, expressive grabs, and rail precision that resonated with everyday park riders as much as with peers.

Raymond’s public profile also grew through brand collaborations and community initiatives that broadened the path for women in freeski. She partnered with O’Neill on a pro-model outerwear capsule, joined the athlete roster at SPY+, and became a long-time face of Armada. Her MAAD week coaching sessions in Whistler brought athletes and campers together in a supportive, progression-minded environment, reinforcing her role as both athlete and mentor.

Competitive arc and key venues

At the height of the slopestyle boom, Raymond earned a finals appearance at the Winter X Games in Aspen in 2011, finishing inside the top ten. She qualified strongly at Dew Tour stops and stacked appearances across North American contests, then balanced that pathway with rider-driven events and film travel. The breadth of her calendar—qualifier heat pressure one week, back-to-back park laps filmed the next—mirrors the era’s best freeskiers who refused to be defined by a single lane.

Her most formative venues map cleanly onto her skiing. Whistler’s glacier parks and winter builds gave her space to refine big-feature timing. The handrail-rich neighborhoods around the Laurentians and Sommet Saint-Sauveur sharpened approach speed and rail discipline. Seasons spent around Mammoth Mountain layered in wind management and XL spacing, while women’s shoots like Nine Queens and brand trips with Armada opened creative lines outside the start gate. In recent years, powder and travel pieces—Japan among them—have shown her range in natural terrain, including the Armada short “Ikigai.”

How they ski: what to watch for

Raymond’s skiing is built on patience, symmetry, and clear definitions of each movement. Into a takeoff she stays tall and neutral, sets rotation late, and locks grabs early—often with unmistakable tweaks that carry through the spin without scrambling her body position. Landings read centered and quiet; she absorbs impact with soft ankles and keeps the upper body still so the ski bases re-engage immediately.

On rails, her signatures are clean entries, long-held presses, and exits that look inevitable rather than reactive. Watch the shoulders: they remain square to the feature, which makes change-ups and switch exits look effortless and keeps the line flowing. Even in powder segments, the same economy shows up—measured speed, round turn shapes, and drops taken with commitment rather than over-correction in the air.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Raymond’s career includes serious injury hurdles, with multiple knee reconstructions and other setbacks that would have sidelined most athletes. Instead, she returned repeatedly, using filming to rebuild rhythm and confidence. The MAAD Maude web series crystallized her influence: short, replayable edits that brought high-level technique into a shareable format. Her Whistler MAAD week amplified that impact by giving developing riders real-time feedback and a community to push with. Interviews and long-form conversations have since illuminated the mental side of those comebacks—mindset, patience, and the discipline to rebuild fundamentals—which is why her story resonates far beyond podiums.

That balance of clips, camps, and candor helped normalize a wider definition of success for women in freeskiing. You could be a finals-level competitor, a film-first stylist, a mentor, or all three—Raymond showed how those roles reinforce one another.

Geography that built the toolkit

Montréal and the nearby Laurentians gave Raymond a technical base: short laps, dense rail gardens, and night skiing at Sommet Saint-Sauveur that reward precision over brute force. The move to Whistler Blackcomb added big-park speed control, long decks, and the patience required for XL features, while spring and summer glacier time layered in repetition without winter’s variables. Stints in California around Mammoth Mountain exposed her to consistent, high-end park builds and a deep film culture. Trips to Japan introduced blower snow and natural features that demanded a different kind of timing. Each place left a clear fingerprint on her style.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Raymond’s long partnership with Armada reflects a preference for playful yet stable park/all-mountain platforms—skis that accept detuned contact points for rails but still hold shape on bigger kickers and in soft snow. Her outerwear work with O’Neill emphasized fit and function you can move in, and her eyewear with SPY+ speaks to the value of clear vision and flat-light contrast in park laps. For progressing skiers, her setup lessons are straightforward: pick a ski with a balanced flex you can press without folding, mount at a point that centers you for switch landings, and detune just enough to stay confident on rails. Off snow, she’s a proponent of structured strength and balance work—habits that make her patient takeoffs and quiet landings possible.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Maude Raymond because she made high-level freeskiing look both beautiful and learnable. She proved that finals appearances and film segments can live side by side, that mentorship accelerates the whole scene, and that clean mechanics age better than trend chasing. For riders building their park toolkit, her edits are a study guide; for the broader community, her resilience and creative output set a durable standard. Whether the backdrop is a Laurentian handrail, a Whistler jump line, or a storm day in Japan, Raymond’s skiing reads the same: precise, expressive, and worth watching—again and again.