B-Dog in Swissland

01:55 min • 20/02/2010

B-Dog early season in Switzerland, 2009 https://www.instagram.com/casablunt/ https://philcasabon.com Shot by JF Houle

Park

Athletes

Philip Casabon

Locations

Switzerland

Philip Casabon

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.

Switzerland

Overview and significance

Switzerland is a country-wide freeski playground where high-alpine scale, meticulous lift systems, and a deep park culture meet reliable long seasons. The headline names are familiar—Zermatt–Matterhorn, Verbier 4 Vallées, LAAX/Flims, St. Moritz–Corvatsch, Davos–Klosters, Engelberg–Titlis—and the common thread is how well they convert time on snow into progression. Glacier height keeps winter conditions in play for months; trains deliver you to base stations; and park crews from LAAX to Zermatt shape features to a standard that attracts national teams, the European contest circuit, and film crews. For competition pedigree, Switzerland hosts the LAAX Open in park & pipe disciplines, the Xtreme Verbier stop that crowns the Freeride World Tour champions on the Bec des Rosses, and recurring Europa/World Cup events across the Alps. Add car-free resort villages and you get a destination that makes a week (or a season) feel efficient from first chair to last lap.

Geography divides the action into three broad corridors. Valais holds Zermatt’s year-round glacier, Saas-Fee’s high camps, and Verbier’s bowls and couloirs. Graubünden brings LAAX’s slopestyle engine, Corvatsch’s competition-grade park above St. Moritz, and long fall-lines in Davos–Klosters. The Bernese Oberland and Central Alps add classic alpine faces around Grindelwald–Wengen and steep storm skiing at Engelberg–Titlis. Across them all, signage and grooming are precise, lift links are modern, and avalanche information is centralized—so you spend more time skiing and less time guessing.

Terrain, snow, and seasons

Switzerland skis “big.” Above treeline, you’ll find glaciers, ribs and gullies that read cleanly after storms; below, long pistes and gladed benches that keep definition when clouds hang. Zermatt’s Theodul Glacier and high lifts (Matterhorn Glacier Paradise to 3,883 m) anchor one of Europe’s most reliable late-spring and summer venues, with a dedicated winter park near Furggsattel and summer laps on Plateau Rosa (Matterhorn Ski Paradise). Verbier’s 4 Vallées stitch together big-mountain faces, rolling pistes, and sidecountry classics that funnel into villages without long skate-outs (Verbier 4 Vallées). LAAX rides like a purpose-built slopestyle campus: broad groomers on Crap Sogn Gion feed multiple park lanes, with consistent jump speed when temperatures settle (LAAX Snowpark). In the Engadin, Corvatsch–Corviglia offers cold, high aspects and a park that often scales to pro lines in peak season (Corvatsch Park). Engelberg adds steeper storm laps and wind-buffed chalk off Titlis; Davos–Klosters (Jakobshorn) layers in JatzPark with a reliable rail/jump ladder.

Climatologically, the country sits at a maritime-to-continental crossroads. Western and southern exposures catch denser, shapeable snowfall during active periods; as skies clear, leeward faces set into supportive chalk that preserves landings and takeoff lips. In mid-winter (mid-January through late February), cold snaps lock in speed for slopestyle and deliver soft resets in trees and alpine bowls. March and April trade a few storm days for blue windows and photogenic panels, with classic corn cycles on solar aspects while north faces remain wintry up high. Glaciers at Zermatt and (season dependent) Saas-Fee extend the season well beyond spring; early-autumn camps on the glaciers are common when coverage allows (Saas-Fee).

Park infrastructure and events

Switzerland’s park ecosystem is unusually complete. LAAX is the benchmark for scale and cadence: multiple parks (Beginner to Pro), a halfpipe, and a build philosophy that refreshes lines frequently without losing speed consistency—hence its magnetism for teams and its anchor role with the LAAX Open (LAAX Open). Zermatt contributes near year-round access with a winter park by Furggsattel and a summer setup on Plateau Rosa designed for high-frequency morning sessions (Zermatt Tourism). In the Engadin, Corvatsch Park is competition-grade and has hosted major slopestyle/pipe training blocks and events (Corvatsch Park). Davos’ JatzPark focuses on a clear ladder of rails and tables that rides well in colder temperatures (Davos–Klosters Snowparks).

On the freeride stage, Switzerland owns the finale: Xtreme Verbier on the Bec des Rosses crowns the Freeride World Tour champions in late March or early April—an enduring showcase of line choice and control on consequential terrain (Freeride World Tour). Elsewhere, Europa/World Cup calendars bring park & pipe and alpine race weeks to Swiss venues most winters. The practical upside for public riders is consistent shaping and predictable jump speed throughout the core months, plus cleaned-up runouts and fencing around event periods.

Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow

Swiss logistics are part of the draw. Trains run like clockwork, often right to the lifts: the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn terminates in car-free Zermatt (drivers park in Täsch and shuttle the last 12 minutes), Verbier’s Le Châble gondola is integrated with rail service, and LAAX is a short post-train bus from Chur (SBB/CFF/FFS). Car-free villages such as Zermatt and Saas-Fee smooth mornings and keep air clear; even in drive-in resorts, wayfinding and parking tend to be straightforward.

Daily flow is about windows and aspect. In storms or flat light, default to treeline laps: LAAX’s lower benches, Davos–Klosters’ sheltered pistes, Verbier’s lower forests. As ceilings lift, step to bowls and ridges: morning sun in Verbier’s Mont-Gelé/Mont-Fort sector or Corvatsch; preserved winter on north-facing ribs in Zermatt and Engelberg. For park mileage, warm up on small/medium lines to calibrate wax and pop, then move to main jump lines as lips firm and winds relax. When you’re mixing resort days with touring, structure plans around lift-served “ski routes” and posted opening times—they’re common in Switzerland and let you access bigger terrain without leaving the boundary.

Local culture, safety, and etiquette

Switzerland’s safety framework is explicit and centralized. The national avalanche bulletin and snowpack analysis are published by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF); it’s the baseline check before any off-piste or touring day (SLF avalanche bulletin). Glaciated terrain demands extra respect: stay inside marked corridors on Zermatt/Saas-Fee glaciers unless you’re roped up and with trained partners, and never duck perimeter ropes to “peek” at seracs or slots. Inside resort boundaries, expect staged openings after storms as patrol manages wind loading and cornices.

Park etiquette is non-negotiable: inspect features, call your drop, hold a predictable line, and clear landings/knuckles immediately so the lane keeps moving. Many Swiss parks run multiple parallel lines; choose the one that matches your speed and feature size rather than weaving. Helmets are the norm, and slow/merge zones are enforced near lift mazes and learning areas. In car-free villages, plan your transfers; electric taxis and hotel shuttles replace personal cars, which keeps the streets walkable and mornings calm.

Best time to go and how to plan

For cold snow and repeatable jump speed, target mid-January through late February. That’s when overnight freezes are most dependable, landing zones stay supportive, and wind-buffed chalk sets on leeward faces. March–April bring longer days and classic corn cycles by aspect, with higher, shaded faces remaining wintry for weeks—ideal for filming and for big-mountain intros when stability allows. If you’re chasing nearly year-round laps, Zermatt’s winter park typically runs October into May, with summer sessions on Plateau Rosa in the morning window; Saas-Fee often hosts late-summer/early-autumn glacier training when coverage permits.

Build itineraries by corridor to minimize transit: a Valais loop (Zermatt/Saas-Fee/Verbier) for big alpine variety; a Graubünden plan (LAAX/Corvatsch/Davos) for park-first flow plus long pistes; a central stretch (Engelberg + Bernese Oberland) for steep storm laps and Eiger–Mönch–Jungfrau scenery. Each day, check lift/park status and the SLF bulletin at breakfast, then pick sectors by aspect, temperature, and wind. If you’re rail-heavy, keep a “jibs only” backup plan for days when gusts make jump speed inconsistent, and use glacier mornings for high-frequency reps before surfaces soften.

Why freeskiers care

Because Switzerland turns altitude, access, and craft into momentum. You can lap contest-grade parks at LAAX and Corvatsch, ride a near year-round park at Zermatt, push line choice on Verbier’s natural faces, and do it all on a network of lifts and trains that keeps the day moving. Add a clear avalanche framework, car-free villages that simplify mornings, and an event calendar that spans park, pipe, and big-mountain finals, and you have a destination where learning faster and filming cleaner is the default—not the exception.

B-Dog in Swissland

Athletes

Locations

Philip Casabon

Switzerland

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