Patrick Marsh

Profile and significance

Patrick “Paddy” Marsh is a Canadian freeskier whose story traces a classic arc from park contests and small-crew edits to backcountry-focused film projects. Growing up in British Columbia, he first appeared on the radar through the Silver Star Freestyle Club, throwing 720 mute grabs and other tricks on his home mountain during the B.C. Timber Tour series. That combination of competition results and style-rich edits under the nickname “Paddy Marsh” led to appearances on core freeski platforms and films from local crews, where his relaxed approach and solid fundamentals stood out. Over time, his focus shifted away from junior contests and toward filming and photo shoots, a path that would eventually bring him into bigger-mountain terrain.

More recently, Marsh has emerged as part of a new generation of Canadian backcountry and all-mountain skiers aligned with the K2 program. Event descriptions and film-tour writeups describe him as a Canadian skier making his mark in backcountry freeride and film segments, known for his smooth style and adaptability. He appears alongside high-profile names such as Sam Kuch, Manon Loschi, Addison Rafford, Micah Evangelista and Lucy Leishman in the K2 feature film Under/Cover, a Jake Price project shot in the mountains around Nelson, British Columbia. In that company, Marsh is positioned as a rising supporting character in one of the most interesting crews in modern freeskiing, contributing lines that knit together everyday relatability and serious skill.

Competitive arc and key venues

Marsh’s competitive arc is rooted in the Canadian provincial freestyle system. As a young skier with the Silver Star Freestyle Club, he spent winters learning classic park skills: jumps, rails and basic contest structure. Local news coverage highlighted his 720 mute grabs and similar tricks at B.C. Timber Tour events on the slopes of SilverStar Mountain Resort, reinforcing his presence as one of the stronger riders in his age group. Around the same time he began dropping season edits under his nickname on freeski sites, showcasing the same parks and tree lines where he had cut his teeth in competition.

Instead of stepping into the World Cup or X Games pipeline, however, Marsh’s path bent toward filming and non-FIS events. He appeared in small-crew projects like the “Ohana” films out of the Vernon region, where young skiers experimented with street features, hand-built jumps and creative lines around interior B.C. resorts. Those projects helped him refine a style that translated easily from slopestyle-style park hits to sidecountry terrain and, eventually, full backcountry features. By the time K2 invited him into Under/Cover, he had years of experience taking a park skier’s eye for takeoffs and landings into more natural environments.

How they ski: what to watch for

Patrick Marsh skis with a blend of park-bred trick vocabulary and freeride pragmatism. On jumps—whether park booters or natural windlips—he tends to favor classic, stylish spins rather than spin-to-win complexity: 360s, 540s and 720s with solid mute or safety grabs, often held long enough to give the trick shape. His background in freestyle clubs shows in how early he sets his grabs and how quiet his upper body remains in the air. The result is a rotation that looks more like a smooth roll through space than a hurried huck.

In more natural terrain, what stands out is his ability to read features and adjust on the fly. Watch his lines in Under/Cover or similar edits and you can see how he uses small terrain undulations to set up bigger moves—soft slashes to control speed, a quick tail tap or ollie to change direction and then a committed takeoff into a pillow stack or tree gap. He often keeps momentum in the fall line, using short, powerful turns between features rather than long traverses, which gives his skiing a sense of rhythm. For viewers dissecting his clips, the key details are how he maintains a centered stance even when the snow is inconsistent, and how quickly he returns to that stance after landing a trick.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Like many emerging film skiers, Marsh’s resilience shows up in the grind behind the scenes rather than in headline-making comebacks. Building a name from the ground up in interior British Columbia means juggling winter jobs, long drives and storm chasing while still finding time to shoot. Early projects with small crews demanded a do-it-all mindset: scouting spots, helping with shoveling and inrun work, and stepping up to hit features that might be built only once before conditions changed. Those years of low-budget, high-effort work laid the groundwork for the more polished segments he now contributes to brand-backed films.

His influence is currently most visible within the tight circle of K2 and Nelson-area skiers featured in Under/Cover and related tours. Film-night descriptions consistently mention his name alongside more established athletes, helping to introduce him to audiences who might show up initially to see bigger stars and leave remembering an additional face. While he is not yet a household name in the global freeski community, his presence in a carefully curated cast signals that both brands and filmmakers see long-term potential in his combination of backcountry awareness and freestyle roots.

Geography that built the toolkit

Marsh’s skiing is strongly shaped by the mountains of interior British Columbia. SilverStar, his early home hill, sits above Vernon and offers a mix of park runs, groomers and accessible tree skiing. Earning turns there through his teens gave him a base of solid edge control on firm snow, frequent park laps and plenty of chances to duck into glades on storm days. The surrounding Okanagan terrain—with its rolling ridges, short-but-steep pitches and mix of clear-cuts and old-growth—taught him to adapt tricks to off-piste features rather than relying solely on perfectly shaped jumps.

Later, filming and trips around the Kootenays expanded that geographical toolkit. Nelson and the surrounding ranges, featured prominently in Under/Cover, bring deeper snowfall, more complex pillow zones and longer fall lines into the mix. Touring days and sled-access missions in these mountains require a more nuanced understanding of snowpack, terrain traps and safe line selection, all of which feed directly into the way Marsh now approaches big features. Together, the Okanagan and Kootenay regions have produced a skier who looks comfortable whether he is sessioning a park rail at SilverStar, threading trees above Nelson or dropping into a hand-shaped backcountry booter with cameras rolling.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

On the equipment side, Marsh’s most visible partnership is with K2 Skis. As part of the K2 team in Under/Cover and associated film tours, he typically rides versatile freeride-freestyle models that can move between resort, sidecountry and backcountry without needing a full quiver swap. Skis in that category usually combine a playful twin or directional-twin shape with enough waist width to float in interior B.C. powder and enough stiffness underfoot to hold up to landings and variable conditions.

While details of his full kit are less public than those of higher-profile pros, the general pattern mirrors that of the crew around him: bindings set up for repeated impacts but reliable release, boots with enough flex to butter and tweak grabs without sacrificing support, and outerwear that can stand up to long days in wet, heavy snow. For progressing skiers, the lesson is not to chase an exact replica of his setup but to think broadly about versatility. If your goal is to follow a similar path—from park laps to sidecountry hits and early backcountry features—aim for a ski and boot combination that feels trustworthy across that full range rather than perfectly optimized for only one.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and younger skiers are beginning to care about Patrick Marsh because he represents a very relatable version of the modern ski dream. He is not yet the star whose name headlines posters, but the rider whose clips in crew edits and brand films make people ask, “Who was that?” His progression from local freestyle club standout to featured skier in a K2 backcountry movie shows how years of steady work in parks, on side hits and in small projects can eventually open doors to bigger stages.

For progressing skiers, especially those from regional clubs and mid-sized mountains, his story is both realistic and motivating. It demonstrates that you do not have to come from a major contest program or a famous resort to end up in meaningful film projects. Instead, you can build strong fundamentals at home, say yes to creative low-budget shoots, and lean into the kind of all-mountain versatility that brands increasingly value. Watching Marsh in Under/Cover and earlier independent edits gives a clear picture of that pathway—and hints that his best-known segments may still be ahead of him.