B-Dog & BPaul Edit (2009)

Profile and significance

Paul “B-Paul” Bergeron is a French-Canadian freeski original from the Québec City area whose style-first park and urban skiing helped define the late-2000s and early-2010s film era. Coming up through Le Relais in Lac-Beauport, he made his name with Québec crews like NSF and ESK before linking with North American outfits including Stept Productions and the Inspired Media family. His parts—often cut from night sessions, compact parks and hand-built city setups—showed a movement language that riders could study and copy: calm approaches, long-held presses, clean swaps and on-axis spins that read clearly on camera. Alongside the film work, he coached at Momentum Camps on Whistler Blackcomb, helping translate film-grade technique into steps everyday park skiers could apply.

Bergeron’s significance is cultural as much as competitive. He was a finalist in Level 1’s SuperUnknown during the series’ formative years and appeared at rider-driven showcases that prioritized style over scorecards, including the B&E era centered on Les Arcs. Sponsor chapters over the years reflected his street-park focus—apparel and shop partners like Jiberish and D-Structure, plus project links with the Level 1, Stept and Inspired communities. By the mid-2010s, he had become a reference point for rail craft and patient jump technique in Québec and beyond.

Competitive arc and key venues

Rather than chase a full World Cup calendar, Bergeron built his profile through films, web edits and rider-curated events. Early momentum came from SuperUnknown recognition and iF3-era film premieres in Montréal, where Quebec crews like ESK and NSF were pushing a distinct look. He later logged time with Stept and Inspired, joining projects and session weeks that valued originality and how well a line was told on camera. That arc placed him comfortably in the same ecosystem as peers who shaped the period’s freeski grammar.

Venue-wise, his skiing maps cleanly onto places that reward repetition and definition. Le Relais near Québec City provided night-lap volume and a tight-feature rhythm that forces accurate edge placement; big-build weeks at Mammoth Mountain layered in wind reads, long decks and XL timing; and Whistler Blackcomb—especially during Momentum Camps—offered controlled environments to refine and teach. European trips tied to the B&E generation brought him to Les Arcs, where skate-inspired modules emphasized presses, butters and creative transfers over pure amplitude. Together, those venues explain why his clips have such high replay value.

How they ski: what to watch for

Bergeron skis with economy and clear definitions of each movement. On rails he prefers square entries, backslides and nose/tail presses held long enough to be unmistakable, and exits where the shoulders stay aligned so speed carries into the next hit. Surface swaps are quiet, with minimal arm swing; the base stays flat through kinks because edge pressure is set early, not rescued late. On jumps and side hits, the hallmark is patience into the lip and grabs established before 180 degrees, which lets tweaks breathe without knocking the body off axis. Landings read centered and inevitable—soft ankles, hips over feet, skis re-engaged immediately. It’s a toolkit that coaches can point to and riders can emulate.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Injuries eventually pushed Bergeron to rebalance toward filmmaking and creative direction. The shift didn’t diminish his influence; it extended it. He continued to appear in and shape projects with crews like Stept and the Inspired circle, and he shared process and perspective in long-form conversations and interviews that documented the era from the inside. At camps in Whistler he translated the same patient habits that defined his parts—tall approaches, early grab definition, square-shoulder exits—into simple cues that help developing skiers progress without overreaching. For many park riders who came up studying web edits, his clips remain a study guide for turning modest speed into memorable skiing.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Le Relais in Lac-Beauport delivers dense features and night-skiing repetition, ideal for sharpening edge placement and switch comfort; the resort’s club culture around Québec City has launched multiple freeski names, and Bergeron is squarely in that lineage. Weeks at Mammoth Mountain exposed him to consistent big-park shapes and California’s high-alpine variables, while Whistler Blackcomb provided spring and summer rebuilds where each attempt could be filmed, reviewed and repeated. European sessions tied to the B&E generation at Les Arcs reinforced the value of creativity at low to medium speeds. Each location left a fingerprint you can still see in his skiing and the way he frames others through the lens.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Across projects, Bergeron favored press-friendly park platforms and a setup that supports patient movement rather than brute force. For skiers looking to borrow his feel, the practical lessons are straightforward. Choose a true park ski with a balanced, medium flex you can bend without folding; detune the contact points enough to reduce rail bite while keeping dependable edge hold on the lip; and mount close enough to center that switch landings feel neutral. Apparel and community anchors matter too—brands like Jiberish and shops like D-Structure have long served as hubs for street-park culture in Québec. Just as important is process: film laps, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against clear checkpoints, and iterate until the movements become automatic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Paul Bergeron because his skiing made style specific and teachable. He showed that a press has a duration, a shifty needs room to breathe, and a clean exit preserves speed for what comes next—and he packaged those ideas in parts that still hold up to slow-motion scrutiny. Progressing riders care because the same choices are repeatable on normal-sized parks: calm entries, patient pop, early grab definition and square-shoulder exits will elevate any line. Whether the backdrop is a night lap at Le Relais, a glacier build in Whistler, a big-park session at Mammoth or a creative setup in the Alps, the read is the same: deliberate, stylish freeskiing that rewards attention to detail.

Profile and significance

Philip “B-Dog” Casabon is a Canadian freeski icon from Shawinigan, Québec, whose style-first language—presses, butters, nollies, reverts, and shiftys that breathe—reshaped modern park and urban skiing. He rose through night laps at his local hill, Vallée du Parc, and became one of the most influential riders of his generation by proving that creativity, definition, and flow can outweigh brute force. His cultural footprint is matched by hardware: back-to-back gold medals at X Games Real Ski in 2018 and 2019, plus the 2018 Fan Favorite nod, cemented his status as a peer-elected standard. In the same window, he released the widely praised film “En Particulier” with Brady Perron and was named Freeskier’s Skier of the Year, a rare double for a rider focused on film and street. Casabon matters because he made style specific and teachable—clips that hold up frame by frame and a movement language that any progressing skier can study and apply.

Competitive arc and key venues

Casabon’s competitive résumé is unconventional by design. Early in his career he tested himself in slopestyle at Aspen, making multiple Winter X Games appearances when the discipline was still defining itself. As urban skiing’s broadcast moment arrived, he shifted to segments and rider-curated showcases that better matched his voice. The pivot paid off: his 2018 X Games Real Ski gold, delivered alongside the Fan Favorite award, was followed by a repeat gold in 2019—rare back-to-back wins that confirmed his dominance in the all-video, all-street format. In the culture-defining B&E era at Les Arcs, he collected “Best Style” honors in both 2014 and 2015 on a skate-inspired setup designed to reward touch and originality. Those landmarks—Aspen’s spotlight, Real Ski’s medals, and Les Arcs’ style awards—map the arc of a skier who used competition as a proof-of-concept for ideas refined in edits.

The places tied to his name help explain the skiing. Vallée du Parc gave him the repetition and switch comfort that show up in his lines. Aspen’s big-build tempo at Aspen Snowmass taught wind calls, long decks, and pressure management under cameras. The B&E park at Les Arcs encouraged butters into spins, long presses, and transfers that value feel over amplitude. Together they shaped a rider who reads features instantly and turns modest speed into full sentences of skiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

Casabon skis with economy and definition. Approaches stay tall and neutral. He sets rotation late, locks grabs early—often with unmistakable tweaks—and lets the trick breathe rather than rushing the set. On rails, the signatures are square entries, long-held presses and backslides that are obvious to the eye, surface swaps with minimal arm swing, and exits where the shoulders stay aligned so momentum carries into the next feature. Even when the spot is complex, he organizes edge pressure early to keep the base flat through kinks, which is why his landings read inevitable rather than rescued. On jumps and side hits the same patience appears: pop comes from the feet up, grabs are defined before 180 degrees, and the upper body stays quiet so the skis do the storytelling. The result is a blueprint any rider can study—calm entry, patient pop, early grab definition, square-shoulder exit.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Casabon’s influence runs through films and community projects as much as medals. He built a decade-long catalog of replayable segments, culminating in the late-2010s run that paired Real Ski golds with a festival-tested film presence. The work emphasized honest speed, horizon awareness, and compositions that make slope angle and body organization clear—choices that help viewers learn, not just watch. In the B&E era, his partnership with Henrik Harlaut created a platform where style was the scorecard, then pushed those ideas back into parks, streets, and product design. Interviews and long-form conversations from this period reveal a method that prizes durability over hype: habits you can repeat when conditions are imperfect and cameras are rolling.

That durability—plus a willingness to mentor—keeps his influence alive in a generation that learns from edits. Coaches use his clips to illustrate patient setups and clean exits; riders break down his presses and shifty timing to build their own lines. He is both reference and proof: you do not need the world’s biggest jump to show world-class skiing if your movements are organized and your choices are clear.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Shawinigan’s Vallée du Parc is a human-scale hill where repetition is abundant and mistakes are obvious. Night laps there forged the switch comfort, precise edging, and patience that define his rail game. The spotlight and wind at Aspen Snowmass layered in big-feature timing and composure. The creative modules at Les Arcs rewarded a horizontal vocabulary—presses, butters, wheelies—that Casabon helped popularize, proving that expression at low to medium speeds can be as compelling as amplitude. When you trace the map, you see the fingerprints in every clip: local-hill repetition, big-park patience, and skate-park creativity applied to snow.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Casabon’s long relationship with Armada extended far beyond sticker placement. His pro model BDog and the experimental BDog Edgeless in Armada’s Zero Collection were designed to serve his priorities—predictable flex for presses and butters, confidence on switch landings, and swing weight that stays honest on slower-speed pops. The gear lessons for progressing skiers mirror that logic. Choose a true park ski with a balanced, medium flex you can bend without folding. Detune the contact points enough to reduce rail bite while maintaining dependable edge hold on the lip. Mount close enough to center that presses sit level and switch landings feel neutral. Keep binding ramp angles that don’t tip you onto your heels. Then build a process that matches the hardware: film laps, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against a short checklist, and repeat until the movements become automatic. The setup is the scaffold; the habits are the house.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Philip Casabon because his skiing ages well. The clips prioritize timing, organization, and line design over noise, which is why they survive slow-motion scrutiny years later. Progressing skiers care because the same choices are teachable on normal parks and real snowpacks. If your winter looks like night laps on a small hill, weekend missions to a destination park, and a few street sessions with friends, his blueprint shows how to turn limited speed and imperfect conditions into memorable skiing. The medals—back-to-back X Games Real Ski golds and Fan Favorite in 2018—are milestones; the lasting takeaway is a method: calm entry, patient pop, early grab definition, square-shoulder exit, and a flow that connects a run into a single sentence. That is why B-Dog remains essential viewing for anyone who cares about freeskiing’s style, substance, and future.