Philou Poirier

Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada | Active: late 1990s-2000s | Focus: freeskiing, quarterpipe, superpipe, big air, ski films | Current: Cybercycle co-owner and Tremblant trail builder

Buttermilk’s First Ski SuperPipe Final

Buttermilk’s pipe walls were firm under Aspen’s January cold, each skier landing high enough to scrape speed out of blue shadow. Philou Poirier dropped into the 2002 Winter X Games SuperPipe final in a field still learning what ski halfpipe could become. Jon Olsson won with 86.00, Philippe Larose took silver with 85.33, and Poirier earned bronze with 78.33. It was the first Skiing SuperPipe event in Winter X Games history, and Poirier’s medal placed a Mont-Tremblant skier inside a format that would later become central to freeski progression.

Tremblant Before The Word Freeski Settled

Philippe “Philou” Poirier was born on June 6, 1977, and learned to ski at Tremblant, Quebec. SKI Magazine’s 2001 profile listed him among North America’s Top 25 skiers, with a start age of two and a half and Tremblant as both hometown and current ski mountain. That background matters because Poirier’s generation did not inherit a ready-made park system. The early freeskiing scene had to borrow from moguls, aerials, snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX, quarterpipes, hand-built jumps, and whatever terrain a resort would tolerate. Poirier came from that messy transition, where style was not separated from invention.

The 1999 U.S. Open Big Air Breakthrough

In the SKI Magazine interview, Poirier named the 1999 U.S. Freeskiing Open Big Air as the moment he realized professional skiing was possible. ESPN’s state-of-the-sport recap described him as almost unknown when he entered the U.S. Open Big Air and beat a field that included Winter X Games gold medalist JF Cusson. Newschoolers’ historical discussions later remembered the trick as a switch backflip, a move that fit Poirier’s reputation for high-speed backward takeoffs. At a time when twin-tip skis were still new, landing and taking off switch carried a different charge. It proved that ski tricks could move through the same reverse-entry language snowboarders had already made familiar.

Core Games, Orage, Gravity Games

Poirier’s 2000 contest record shows how quickly the early scene moved between formats. SKI Magazine listed second place in quarterpipe at the 2000 Core Games in Japan, a win at the 2000 Orage Big Air, and first place in quarterpipe at the 2000 Gravity Games. Those events were not standardized like today’s FIS slopestyle or Olympic halfpipe. A skier might move from a big-air jump to a quarterpipe wall, then into a pipe contest with different judging priorities. Poirier’s favorite trick at the time was the McTwist 900, which he described as two and a half off-axis front flips in a quarterpipe. That sentence alone places him in the experimental zone between aerials, skate ramps, and modern freeski pipe.

The Salomon Teneighty Crew

The equipment story is part of the legacy. Teton Gravity Research described the New Canadian Air Force as Mike Douglas, JF Cusson, Vincent Dorion, Philou Poirier, and JP Auclair bringing Salomon the idea for a high-performance twin-tip ski, leading to the TenEighty. Skieur.com’s 2008 iF3 report placed Poirier with the original Salomon team at a ten-year Teneighty celebration beside Cusson, Auclair, Dorion, and Douglas. The technical change was simple but revolutionary: skis could take off and land backward. That opened switch backflips, rodeos, misty flips, mute grabs, and rail approaches that would have been awkward or impossible on traditional directional skis.

Poor Boyz And The Game Era

Poirier’s film record sits inside the VHS and early-DVD years when ski culture spread through shop premieres, mail-order tapes, and local crews replaying parts until the footage became instruction. The Game, released by Poor Boyz Productions in 2000, included Poirier alongside skiers such as JP Auclair, Shane Szocs, Mike Douglas, JF Cusson, Candide Thovex, Vini Dorion, Seth Morrison, and others from that first freeski boom. A later street-skiing history video even traced a Saint-Jérôme down-flat-down rail back to Poirier sliding the last down in 2000. Those clips matter because they show freeskiing leaving the mogul course and moving into rails, walls, streets, and terrain that skiing had not traditionally claimed.

MSP, High Society, And Ski Movie

Matchstick Productions also carried Poirier’s image into the era. SKI Magazine listed him in MSP films, Poor Boyz films, Warren Miller’s 50, and TGR work. Ski Films specifically lists him in Ski Movie 2: High Society, released for the 2001 / 2002 season, while the Matchstick Ski Movie archive places him in the 2000 release with Brad Holmes, Chris Davenport, Dean Cummings, Jonny Moseley, Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Vini Dorion, and Wendy Fisher. That context is important. Poirier was not presented only as a contest skier. He appeared in the same moving-image ecosystem that shaped how young skiers copied grabs, takeoff direction, rail speed, and pipe amplitude.

Skateboarding, BMX, And Pipe Body Language

The 2002 X Games report noted that Poirier credited skateboarding for part of his SuperPipe ability, while also pointing out that ski stance and tricks made the discipline distinct. SKI Magazine listed skateboarding and BMX among his off-hill pastimes, which fits the way he approached quarterpipe and pipe riding. The key was not only rotation count. It was body language: shoulders opening late, skis coming through with enough pressure to hold the wall, and backward takeoffs treated as normal rather than theatrical. His McTwist 900 reference sits in that crossover space, using a skate-derived idea on skis that were finally shaped to come back down switch.

How Philou Shaped The Laurentian Line

The Musée du ski des Laurentides states the legacy directly: Poirier was one of the early freestyle skiers, with Vincent Dorion, JP Auclair, and Jean-François Cusson, who broke away from traditional freestyle and formed a freer branch of skiing. The same museum inducted him in 2017 as a co-creator of freeskiing. That recognition gives the story institutional weight beyond nostalgia. His influence also runs through later Tremblant and Quebec skiers. The Powell Movement’s profile of Alexi Godbout describes Godbout as a local kid following new-school legend Philou Poirier before building a long pro career. The connection is geographic and stylistic: Tremblant laps, Salomon history, park technique, and Quebec’s habit of turning small scenes into global influence.

From Twin-Tips To Fatbike Trails

Poirier’s post-ski chapter stayed close to terrain. Canadian Cycling Magazine reported in 2019 that he was co-owner of Cybercycle and part of the Mont-Tremblant mountain-bike community, with experience building trails in the region. The same interview said he manages the Tremblant fatbike network and described winter trail maintenance in practical terms: fresh snow can damage traction, groomed routes need constant care, and the network can require around 120 hours of maintenance between November and April. That work is not separate from his ski past. It is another version of feature building: reading snow, shaping routes, managing speed, and giving people a way to move through winter.

The Handplant Still Explains The Era

A 2000 handplant photo from Mammoth, remembered in ski media years later, still captures the visual logic of Poirier’s career. One ski high, body inverted, hands contacting the wall, and the trick borrowing as much from skate ramps as from aerial skiing. That image belongs beside the 1999 U.S. Open switch backflip, the 2000 quarterpipe wins, the 2002 X Games bronze, and the Salomon Teneighty story. Poirier’s record does not read like a modern points chase. It reads like a blueprint from a moment when skiers were trying to prove that pipes, rails, switch landings, and film parts could belong to them.