Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

06:08 min • 08/12/2025

A two year personal season project put together by one of LINE's athletes Valerie Festavan. I had been competing in Freeride World Qualifiers and had been super close to making it on the tour. All I needed was a clean run and I decided to push the envelope and try a trick I hadn't done in competition. After a bit of heartbreak and wondering what I was even doing there. I had been trying to prove myself as a skier in the competition scene when my best skiing came from skiing with all the homies back home. I decided to take a step back and rekindle my fire and film with my friends. It's nothing super crazy... just a start of where I want to go, but it's my own. I'm super stoked that LINE supported my vision and Allowed Me to create something that is my own and progress my skiing to new levels. I found a new level of confidence in myself and in my skiing that I was unsure of before. That being said.... Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself... my name is Val :) Credits Editor / Sound / Color Valerie Festavan Skier / Snowboarder Valerie Festavan Post Production Assistant Pierce Kempton Filmers Lucas Billingsley Roman Yalowitz Dillon Flinders Jess Hotter Molly Armanino Finn Reddish Josie Alexander Bird Jay Burrows Addie Rafford Toby Rafford Ryan McElmon Trey Roeseler Valerie Festavan Other Skiers Dillon Flinders Finn Reddish Trey Roeseler Special thanks to all the homies :)

Athletes

Valerie Festavan

Profile and significance

Valerie Festavan is part of a new generation of multi-disciplined mountain athletes who move fluidly between freeride skiing, park laps, mountain biking, skateboarding and snowboarding. Raised in and around Park City, Utah and now based in Salt Lake City, she grew up in gates as a ski racer before gravitating toward freeride terrain, cliffs and creative features. On snow she competes in Freeride World Tour Qualifier and Challenger events, and off snow she has built a presence as a filmer, model and “Val The Vibe Creator,” a nickname that captures the way she treats sport as a vehicle for energy and community as much as performance.

In skiing, Festavan’s profile comes from the combination of competition starts and film projects. She has appeared in IFSA/FWT Qualifier fields at venues such as Kicking Horse and in freeride events like the Silver Belt at Sugar Bowl, gradually working her way onto the Freeride World Tour Challenger list in the Ski Women category. At the same time she has released self-driven film work: first as “the Mountain Mermaid” in a short presented by Sego Ski Co., and more recently through “Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself,” a two-year personal season project backed by ski brand Line Skis. Between those edits and a SuperUnknown 21 semi-finalist entry, she has become a recognized name for fans who follow women’s freeride and creative all-mountain skiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

Festavan’s competitive arc starts in a very traditional place: junior ski racing around Park City. As she has described in local community posts, she first learned to push herself chasing older athletes on the hill and in dryland training, long before she ever imagined filming her own ski project. Over time the gates gave way to more open lines and she began entering freeride contests, joining the IFSA and Freeride World Tour Qualifier ecosystem and dropping into judged faces rather than race courses. A result list for the Kicking Horse IFSA qualifier places her in the Ski Women field, confirming her participation at one of North America’s better-known big-mountain venues.

From there her contest map expanded to include events like the Silver Belt freeride competition at Sugar Bowl, where she appears in the women’s highlight reel, and eventually the Freeride World Tour Challenger series, which lists her as a 24-year-old Ski Women competitor from the United States. Those Challenger starts place her one tier below the main Freeride World Tour, riding the same kind of steep venues and variable snow, but with a field full of hungry athletes fighting for limited FWT tickets. Alongside freeride, she has branched into gravity mountain bike racing, with images from downhill events at Solitude Mountain Resort showing her on course in the Monster Energy Pro DH Series. Even as she has begun “moving away from competing in skiing” by her own account, that background in both ski and bike competition gives her edits and projects a foundation of experience under pressure.

How they ski: what to watch for

Brands and crews describe Valerie as “creative, fast, and damn good at skiing,” and that triad sums up the way she moves on snow. Her racing roots show up in the speed she is comfortable carrying into freeride terrain; she does not tiptoe through a face, but instead uses strong, rounded turns to control pace while still letting the line flow. Watching her in freeride clips, you see a skier who is happy to open things up when the slope allows, then shut it down quickly above exposure or before a feature without losing composure. That balance between attack and control is one of the signatures of her skiing.

Creativity enters in the way she reads terrain, an approach clearly influenced by her time in the park and on a snowboard. Rollers become opportunities for nose butters or small spins, side walls are treated like natural quarterpipes and exit gullies are tightened into mini-halfpipe turns rather than simple survival skiing. In personal projects like “Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself” and in her SuperUnknown semi-final entry, she brings that same mindset to a mix of powder, cliffs and built features, showing that she is as comfortable using a takeoff shaped by a shovel as she is working with a natural pillow or wind lip. For fans trying to learn from her, the key is how often she turns “filler” terrain into something expressive instead of just connecting the dots between obvious hits.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience for Festavan is both physical and mental. In 2024 she broke her collarbone overshooting a hip feature at I-Street in Salt Lake City, an injury she has spoken about openly while describing how recovery forced her to slow down, re-center and work on neglected parts of her life. Rather than hiding the setback, she folded it into her story, talking about rebuilding strength, shifting focus temporarily from downhill races to road rides, and using movement as a way to reconnect with her body after time off snow.

On the creative side, she wears multiple hats as skier, filmer and editor. “VAL – The Mermaid of the Mountains,” a short released by Sego, introduced many viewers to her as both subject and storyteller. “Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself” goes further: a two-year season film she assembled with support from Line Skis, where she handled editing, sound and color herself while also skiing and snowboarding in front of the lens. In parallel, interviews for the ANIMA Collective highlight her work as a “vibe creator” in outdoor spaces—someone consciously trying to uplift the people around her, whether that is freeride peers, kids she coaches on the Outlaw bike team or friends chasing clips at the resort. Her influence is still emerging, but for many young women in the Wasatch she already represents a template for being unapologetically multi-sport and creative.

Geography that built the toolkit

Festavan’s toolkit is built squarely on the mountains of Utah and the broader West. Growing up in Park City meant cutting her teeth on the groomers, race courses and early freeride terrain of the Wasatch, often riding from home onto trails like Flying Dog on a too-small bike and learning early what it feels like to chase fitter, older athletes on snow and dirt. As she transitioned from racing to freeride, that local map expanded to include neighbors like Park City Mountain, the Cottonwood Canyon resorts and Snowbird, where she appears in ski imagery, each with its own mix of cliffs, bowls and trees.

Competition and filming have taken her farther afield. Qualifier starts at Kicking Horse introduced her to the steep, often wind-affected faces of interior British Columbia, while events like the Silver Belt at Sugar Bowl offered classic Sierra freeride terrain. The Freeride World Tour Challenger calendar adds even more variety, from European venues to North American stops with very different snowpacks and cultural flavors. On the bike side, racing and coaching with the Outlaw team and appearances in downhill photo galleries at Solitude Mountain Resort have deepened her relationship with Utah’s lift-served and shuttle-served terrain. All of this geographical diversity feeds back into her skiing: she reads snow and terrain quickly because she has had to adapt to so many different faces, parks and trails.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Valerie’s equipment choices mirror her all-terrain lifestyle. Early in her freeride career she was highlighted as “our very own Mountain Mermaid” by Sego Ski Co., appearing in a Sego short that emphasized her speed and playfulness on their freeride shapes. More recently, “Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself” was produced in partnership with Line Skis, positioning her within a brand known for blurring the lines between park creativity and freeride capability. On the softgoods side she is part of the ANIMA Collective, an athlete and ambassador group built around purpose-driven apparel company ANIMA Merx, and she leans into that relationship as a way to talk about intentional design, mindset and community.

For skiers looking for practical cues rather than logos, the pattern is clear. Her kit is built around freeride-oriented twin or directional-twin skis that are happy in powder but still reliable on hardpack, paired with boots stiff enough for confident landings and fast big-mountain turns. Because she bikes, skates and snowboards, she tends to favor gear that lets her express similar movements across sports—skis that like to be pumped through transitions, boots that transmit fine ankle movements cleanly and outerwear that can survive everything from rope-towed rail sessions to long ridge hikes. The takeaway is that if you want to ski the way she skis—fast, playful and adaptable—a versatile freeride setup you trust in many conditions will serve you better than chasing a hyper-specialized race or park build.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Valerie Festavan because she represents an accessible but inspiring version of modern freeride. She has real credentials—Freeride World Tour Challenger starts, IFSA qualifiers, a SuperUnknown semi-finalist spot and brand-backed film projects—but she presents them with humility and humor, often emphasizing the mindset work, self-talk and community building that sit behind the highlight clips. Her “Val The Vibe Creator” persona is not a marketing slogan so much as a reminder that every athlete helps set the tone of their scene, whether that is a freeride start gate, a bike shuttle lap or a casual resort day.

For skiers who see themselves in her story—people who started in racing but now chase freeride days, or who love skiing and biking equally and don’t want to choose—she offers a practical roadmap. Build strong fundamentals, stay curious across sports, and let creativity guide your line choices rather than chasing a narrow definition of success. Watching her films and competition runs with intention, you can study how she picks lines that suit her strengths, how she turns “in-between” terrain into something fun, and how she stays present and positive even after injuries or missed runs. In a freeski landscape where identity and storytelling matter as much as raw results, Valerie Festavan stands out as a young athlete whose blend of skiing, filming and vibe-setting feels very much of this moment.

Brand overview and significance

LINE Skis is a rider-driven freeski brand founded in 1995 with a simple mission: grow and rejuvenate skiing through shapes and constructions that make creative riding easier. From early twin-tip experiments to modern, all-mountain freestyle platforms, LINE’s identity has stayed consistent—fun first, with durability and predictable handling under riders who spend real time in parks, on street setups, and in playful natural terrain. Today the brand operates within the K2 Sports family while keeping an independent voice and a deep bench of athlete input. Product design and communication lean heavily on real-world laps and film projects, so skis arrive with personalities that match how freeskiers actually ride.

That focus has built a global following. LINE’s park classics and modern freeride twins show up in edit culture, on podiums, and across resort scenes where skiers value swing weight, balance, and strong edge stock. Signature collaborations—like long-running pro models and athlete-shaped freeride tools—underscore the brand’s credibility. In short, LINE is one of the clearest names in new-school skiing: approachable, progressive, and tuned for creative control rather than brute stiffness.

Product lines and key technologies

LINE’s current lineup maps cleanly to how freeskiers mix terrain. The Bacon collection refines the all-mountain freestyle idea with versatile widths and a lively, butter-friendly flex. Chronic models extend from park into daily resort laps with reinforced tips and sidewalls that accept heavy rail mileage. Vision models bring a lightweight, touring-capable feel that still skis like a LINE—playful and stable for down laps. Pescado remains the directional powder statement informed by surf design. Park specialists like the Tom Wallisch Pro keep the classic true-twin recipe alive for people who value predictable takeoffs, centered stances, and clean landings.

Under the topsheets, you’ll see recurring technologies: Thin Tip (a reinforced, lower-mass tip/tail zone to cut swing weight and increase durability), Thick-Cut Sidewalls (more material and bonding surface for edge strength and impact resistance), Bio-Resin layups (updated bonding chemistry for strong internal adhesion), Capwall construction on many skis (cap over the top with vertical sidewalls over the edges for a responsive yet solid ride), and 5-Cut multi-radius sidecut (blending several radii for intuitive turn shapes). On the touring-leaning Vision series, LINE’s THC layup combines fiberglass, flax, and carbon to mute chatter without adding weight.

Ride feel: who it’s for (terrains & use-cases)

If your winter is a mix of side hits, rails, and storm-day trees, LINE’s all-mountain freestyle shapes are built for you. Bacon skis feel loose and surfy when you want to smear or butter, yet track true enough to carve and land fast—ideal for skiers who obsess over pop and press without giving up stability. Chronic models suit riders stacking park and groomer laps, where centered balance, durable edges, and reliable swing weight matter. Park purists who live on jump lines and rails will appreciate the Tom Wallisch Pro for its balanced feel and reinforcement package. Vision fits skiers who split days between lifts and skintracks, preferring a playful downhill ride over a race-room chassis. Pescado is for directional powder days when planing and big, drawn-out turns trump switch takeoffs.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

LINE’s credibility rests on a visible, influential team. Longtime icons and modern street/park figures have shaped how the brand’s skis feel. Tom Wallisch’s signature park model is a staple for jump and rail riders; the women’s street scene has clear representation with athletes like Taylor Lundquist, whose approach highlights durability and progressive flex patterns. The brand also cultivates film and web series culture—most famously through its personality-driven projects—so product feedback loops quickly from real crews to the factory. The result is a reputation for skis that are forgiving when you’re learning a new axis and supportive when you’re dialing speed and amplitude.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

LINE’s roots are in the United States, with modern design and prototyping integrated alongside the broader K2 Sports infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest. The skis are tested across classic freeski hubs known for progression-friendly terrain and high-throughput laps. In North America, British Columbia’s resorts and backcountry corridors offer the mix of maritime snow and big vertical that stress-tests edges, sidewalls, and swing weight; on our platform, see British Columbia and the resort page for Whistler-Blackcomb for a sense of typical venues. In the Southern Hemisphere, national-team training at Cardrona Alpine Resort fits LINE’s park-forward DNA and keeps the feedback cycle running year-round.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

Durability is a headline feature. Thick-Cut Sidewalls and reinforced edge zones are designed specifically for rail seasons and repeated hard impacts. Thin Tip reduces mass at the extremities for quicker rotations and less lever-arm stress on landings while adding material where tips and tails take abuse. Capwall blends the damp, solid feel of a sidewall with the responsiveness of a cap, and 5-Cut sidecuts help skis feel intuitive at multiple speeds and edge angles. In touring-leaning models, the THC composite stack (fiberglass, flax, carbon) targets resonance control so lighter skis still track predictably in variable snow. Across the line, updated resin systems and thoughtful materials choices aim at strong bonding and consistent flex retention over many cycles. While LINE speaks primarily to ride feel and durability, these construction choices also tend to reduce waste from premature failures—practical longevity that riders notice.

How to choose within the lineup

Anchor your choice to where and how you ski most. If you want one pair for resort creativity—butters, side hits, occasional pow laps—start with Bacon at the width that matches your snowpack. If park and groomers dominate, Chronic provides the centered stance, balanced swing weight, and beefed-up edge package that handle repetition. For a jump-and-rail specialist with a proven contest pedigree, the Tom Wallisch Pro adds extra reinforcement without losing the classic true-twin feel. If you split time between lifts and short tours, look at Vision for a lighter skintrack experience that still rides like a playful resort ski. Dedicated powder days with a directional style point to Pescado. When in doubt on sizing, remember that LINE’s twins are sensitive to length: size up for more stability and landing support; size down for quicker spins and easier butters.

Why riders care

Riders gravitate to LINE because the skis make creativity feel accessible. Balanced swings, predictable flex, and edge packages that survive a season of rails remove friction from progression. The brand’s athlete presence—from signature park models to touring-capable freeride shapes—keeps the catalog honest, while a Pacific Northwest design engine and high-mileage test loops ensure updates are purposeful, not cosmetic. Whether you’re stacking night laps, filming spring lines, or linking park mornings with storm-day trees, LINE’s lineup delivers the playful control and durability that modern freeskiers expect from a true new-school brand.

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

Athletes

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Valerie Festavan

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