EZ Panda | Core Shots

14:20 min • 13/01/2026

Swiss style lord Isaac Simhon aka EZ Panda takes center stage in Episode 5, Season 4 of Core Shots. Join EZ for a day of preseason shredding at Snowpark Zermatt, followed by a tour of the crib. This episode of Core Shots is presented by @el_tony_mate Filmed & edited by Blasco #skiing #freeskiing #downdays ___ We curate #Freeskiculture on a daily basis: https://www.downdays.eu Subscribe to Downdays on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/downdaystv Downdays on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downdays Downdays on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/downdays_eu/ Downdays on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@downdays_eu

Athletes

Isaac Simhon

Locations

Snowpark Zermatt

Isaac Simhon

Profile and significance

Isaac “EZ Panda” Simhon is a film-first freeski original whose style-forward approach has earned attention from Europe to North America. Born in 2000 in Cape Verde and raised in Geneva, he grew up lapping French and Swiss resorts before shifting his focus to street and park projects. A breakout came when Henrik Harlaut invited him to join the two-year movie “Salute,” which put Simhon’s relaxed precision and unmistakable flow in front of a global audience. Since then he’s doubled down on filming, appearing in rider-led projects and team edits while keeping a light competitive footprint through occasional Europa Cup appearances. The appeal is simple and durable: readable difficulty that looks effortless at normal speed.

Simhon’s identity today blends creative control with contest-tested fundamentals. He works closely with Harlaut’s crew, contributes to small-batch edits as well as full parts, and represents brands that reflect rider-led culture. Current partners include K2 Skis, Marker, Harlaut Apparel, the mate label El Tony Mate, and Swiss-based Nouch. The through-line across his output is the same whether the camera is ten meters from a city rail or perched above a spring jump: calm mechanics, early commitments, and landings that keep momentum alive.

Competitive arc and key venues

Though best known for films, Simhon’s path includes verified FIS starts and a memorable big-air appearance at the Launchpad event hosted by Les Arcs in 2021. Those bib days provided repetition on large, consequential jumps, but his real classroom has been rider-driven projects in Europe and North America. “Salute” placed him on street missions in Minnesota and creative sessions in Andorra, where he learned to translate park timing to handrails, wallrides, and tight outruns under pressure. He then featured in the Harlaut Apparel team output—“It’s That” and subsequent drops—filming across Finland, Bosnia, Austria, Stockholm, and the Pyrenees, and in 2024 he delivered a focused solo part shot in Stockholm and Andorra.

Specific venues help explain the skiing you see on camera. Early years between La Clusaz in the Aravis and the long-lap freestyle factory at LAAX built rhythm and edge honesty. Time in Andorra reinforced line design on compact, high-frequency park builds. In Switzerland, the spring lab at Pända Snowpark above Mürren offered consistent jibs and kickers to refine grab timing and presses. City work in Stockholm added the urban syllabus—short in-runs, quick redirects, and runouts that punish sloppy speed checks. The result is a toolkit that travels from resort to real-world features without losing its identity.

How they ski: what to watch for

EZ Panda skis with deliberate economy and musical timing. On rails he squares the approach early, locks in decisively, and exits with speed protected for the next setup. Surface swaps finish cleanly and presses carry visible shape instead of wobble. On jumps he favors measured spin speed and deep, functional grabs—safety, tail, or blunt depending on axis—arriving early enough to calm rotation and keep the shoulders stacked. Directional variety appears naturally, forward and switch, left and right, because every trick serves the line rather than the stat sheet.

If you’re evaluating a Simhon clip in real time, two cues stand out. First, spacing: he leaves room between moves, so each trick sets angle and cadence for the next one. Second, grab discipline: the hand finds the ski early and stays long enough to influence rotation, not just decorate the frame. That’s why his heavier spins look unhurried and why editors can run his footage at 1x speed without slow-motion rescue.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Simhon frames skiing as both craft and therapy, and that attitude shows up in the parts he chooses to make. Street shoots demand patience—shovel and salt, rebuilds after busts, and the nerve to walk away when the approach won’t hold—and his sections reward that process with clean landings and momentum that survives to the next feature. In collaborative projects, he’s a tone-setter: grips quiet, takeoffs patient, and landings finished early enough to ride out centered. Those habits make his skiing instructive for viewers who want a blueprint rather than a highlight reel.

Influence spreads through the same channels that built his name. Harlaut-led films and apparel drops give Simhon a platform that prizes style as substance, and his parts circulate widely precisely because they are legible. Younger riders copy the details—early grab commitment, subtle speed checks that don’t spill into landings, and a preference for trick choices that use an obstacle end to end. It’s a form of leadership that trades on execution, not volume.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place is the skeleton of EZ Panda’s skiing. Geneva provided proximity to the Aravis and early laps at La Clusaz, where firm winter snow and compact radii punish late commitments. Time at LAAX layered in longer lines and dense rail sections that reward cadence and clean exits. Andorra’s parks supplied repetition under variable light and quick resets between shots. Stockholm’s winter architecture taught approach discipline and quick decisions on short in-runs, while Switzerland’s Pända Snowpark refined jump timing across reliable spring setups. Put those places together and you get skiing that looks the same whether the background is a city staircase or a sun-softened rail garden.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Simhon’s kit mirrors his priorities. K2 Skis gives him a predictable, park-capable platform with balanced swing weight for early-grab, measured-spin tricks. Marker supplies dependable retention and straightforward adjustment when a spot demands multiple rebuilds. Soft goods via Harlaut Apparel fit the rider-led, film-first life—durable, mobile, and built for long days. Energy support from El Tony Mate and small-batch projects with Nouch round out a sponsor mix rooted in culture as much as function.

For skiers looking to apply the lessons, think category fit over model names. Choose a symmetrical or near-symmetrical park ski and mount it so presses feel natural without compromising takeoff stability. Keep bases fast so cadence doesn’t depend on perfect weather; tune edges to hold on steel yet soften contact points to prevent surprise bites on swaps. Above all, treat the grab as a control input—lock it early to stabilize the axis and land centered with speed for what comes next.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Isaac Simhon matters because he turns difficulty into clarity while keeping the vibe that drew many to freeski in the first place. His parts prove that style is technique—spacing, grabs that do work, clean exits—and that a line built on those choices reads beautifully in real time. Whether the setting is a Stockholm handrail, an Andorran park line, or a spring booter at Pända Snowpark, EZ Panda’s skiing offers a blueprint that fans love to rewatch and ambitious riders can actually copy on their next lap.

Snowpark Zermatt

Overview and significance

Snowpark Zermatt is one of Europe’s highest and most reliable freestyle venues, set on the Theodul Glacier above the car-free village of Zermatt with the Matterhorn as a permanent backdrop. The resort operates a dedicated winter park on the lower Theodul Glacier by the Furggsattel lift at around 3,250 m, typically from October into mid-May, and runs a summer park high on Plateau Rosa when glacier conditions permit—giving riders access to jumps and rails for well over 300 days most years. Official channels position the park as a flagship offering of the Matterhorn Ski Paradise and a staple for freestylers who want near year-round laps at altitude; regional tourism also highlights its long operating window and visibility among the Alps’ top parks (Zermatt Tourism).

What makes Snowpark Zermatt significant is the combination of location and cadence. At 3,000–3,800 m, winter snow stays dense and shapeable for stable takeoffs, and summer sessions deliver salted, predictable speed before midday. A modern lift network—Matterhorn Glacier Ride I & II, Furggsattel, and Plateau Rosa T-bars—keeps laps tight, while the cross-border connection with Italy via the Matterhorn Alpine Crossing adds logistics flexibility for mixed crews.

Terrain, snow, and seasons

In winter, the park line sits just off the Furggsattel glacier chair at roughly 3,250 m. The shaping team typically divides the layout into progression zones—beginner features, a rail garden, and medium/large tables as snow depth allows—set on a broad, groomed bench with clean in-runs and long, safe landings. The altitude and aspect mean maritime-continental storms deposit dense, workable snow that sets into supportive chalk on leeward panels between resets. Outside the park, laps on adjacent glacier pistes are ideal for speed checks and filming B-roll between sessions.

Summer shifts the scene a few hundred vertical meters higher to Plateau Rosa in Europe’s highest lift-served summer ski area, reaching 3,883 m at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. Mornings start early, with the public park and lanes running until around midday to preserve surface quality in the sun. Expect salted takeoffs, quick resets on the summer ski network, and a compact footprint engineered for repetition before warmth softens the snow. Zermatt’s official guidance is simple: start early, ride hard through late morning, and treat afternoon as recovery and review (Zermatt Summer Skiing).

Park infrastructure and events

Snowpark Zermatt is built for throughput. The winter park near Furggsattel prioritizes a clear ladder from learn-to-park features to medium/large jumps and a deep rail menu; in summer, the Plateau Rosa setup condenses into a high-frequency lane where you can stack many clean attempts in a short window. The crew refreshes features frequently—especially in summer—so lines evolve week to week while maintaining consistent speed and landings. A funslope often operates nearby in winter for mixed groups, and groomed glacier pistes flank the park for fast resets. While Zermatt isn’t marketed around stadium-scale freestyle events, its high-altitude reliability draws teams and camps during the off-season, and the public benefits from contest-grade shaping standards applied to daily builds.

Access, logistics, and on-mountain flow

Getting to Zermatt is straightforward and car-free. Private vehicles stop in Täsch; from there a 12-minute shuttle train or taxi completes the trip into the village (Zermatt arrival). For the winter park, upload via Matterhorn Express to Trockener Steg and continue to Furggsattel, or go direct when the chair is spinning. For summer laps, follow the Matterhorn Glacier Ride to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and drop to the Plateau Rosa park area. The cross-border Alpine Crossing makes it possible to approach from the Italian side (Breuil-Cervinia) without skis when operations allow.

Daily flow depends on temperature and wind. In winter, start by dialing speed on smaller features, then step to the main jump line mid-morning as lips set and light improves. In summer, set an early alarm; the best speed window is the first few hours after opening, with salted takeoffs and firm run-ins. Expect a glide-and-go rhythm on glacier lifts: park laps → quick return on T-bars/chairs → water and wax check → back to the line. Keep an eye on the live lift/piste status before you head out, as high-alpine operations can change with winds and visibility (lift & piste status).

Local culture, safety, and etiquette

Zermatt’s freestyle scene is international and pragmatic—progression early, filming when the light is right, and respect for the glacier environment. Inside the park, follow Park SMART: inspect first, call your drop, hold a predictable line, and clear landings and knuckles immediately so the lane keeps moving. Beyond groomed corridors, remember that you are on glaciated terrain; rope lines exist for a reason. Never duck closures to “take a look” at seracs or crevasse fields. For any step into off-piste terrain, treat it as true backcountry: beacon, shovel, and probe, partners who know rescue, and a morning read of the official Swiss avalanche bulletin from the WSL/SLF (SLF avalanche bulletin).

Altitude is a real factor here. Hydrate aggressively, use high-SPF sunscreen, and take short breaks; fatigue leads to speed mistakes. In summer, when operations pause around midday, respect closures and let the shapers do quick touch-ups that keep speed consistent the next morning. In the village, everything runs on foot or by electric shuttle—Zermatt is proudly car-free—which makes staying near the Matterhorn Express stations ideal for an early upload (car-free info).

Best time to go and how to plan

For winter jump consistency and broad feature sets, target late January through April, when overnight freezes are reliable and the park can scale up with a deep base. The official winter park typically runs from October into mid-May depending on conditions, so early-season rail mileage and late-season slush sessions are very much on the menu (winter park). For summer park laps, July to mid-October is the classic window on Plateau Rosa, with best-in-class morning surfaces—plan to load early, stack attempts before 11:00, then switch to filming angles or recovery when the snow softens (summer ski info).

Build your day around two or three “anchor” features to lock speed and pop before stepping to the full line. Keep a pocket wax for quick temperature swings, and rotate lenses for flat light versus high-alpine glare. If you’re mixing riding with sightseeing or non-skiers, the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise platform and ice palace are easy adds without derailing a training morning. Always recheck lift status at breakfast on wind-prone days.

Why freeskiers care

Because Snowpark Zermatt turns altitude and access into almost year-round progression. You can learn and film on stable winter lips with glacier-cold snow, return in July for salted morning sessions under the highest lifts in the Alps, and do it all with efficient laps and real mountain views. Add the car-free village logistics, modern upload via the Glacier Ride, and a clear safety framework backed by the national avalanche service, and you get a park that rewards intent—a place to build skills steadily, session clean lines, and keep momentum across seasons.

Brand overview and significance

Downdays is a European freeski media house that has grown into one of the key reference points for modern ski culture. Founded in 2008 by four friends in Innsbruck, Austria, its original goal was simple and ambitious at the same time: unite the European freeski community and give it its own voice. Under the banner “The Home of Freeski Culture,” Downdays has evolved from a regional web-magazine into a multi-platform brand with a busy website, social feeds, print yearbooks and on-the-ground event presence.

Instead of focusing on race results or purely commercial campaigns, Downdays built its identity around the full spectrum of freeskiing: park, street, freeride, backcountry and human-powered missions. The site curates ski videos from around the world, publishes features and interviews that dig deeper than simple trip recaps, and runs an events and gear section tailored to skiers who live the sport year-round. For skipowd.tv users, Downdays is one of the most useful “companion” brands: where skipowd.tv organizes video in a powerful archive, Downdays adds context with stories, event reports, resort guides and brand overviews that help you understand the scenes behind the clips you watch.

Over more than fifteen years, Downdays has built strong ties to core riders, film crews and brands across Europe. Its editors and contributors regularly highlight emerging crews, independent films and lesser-known resorts alongside the biggest names and venues. That mix of underground energy and professional execution is why you will see Downdays logos on event backdrops, within major brand campaigns, and on the covers of high-quality print books that end up on coffee tables in ski houses across the Alps.

Product lines and key technologies

Downdays is a content and community brand rather than a hardware manufacturer, but it runs a surprisingly structured “product” ecosystem. At the core is a constantly updated website that is split into videos, stories, events and gear, with a dedicated Brand Guide and Resort Guide to help skiers make decisions about equipment and destinations. The videos section curates the best freeride, park, street and all-mountain edits from across the globe, while the stories area hosts interviews, travel features, opinion pieces and culture-focused articles.

The Resort Guide showcases hand-picked destinations that are particularly relevant to freeskiers. It includes heavy hitters like Absolut Park in the Ski amadé network and other European hubs, presented with a focus on terrain, park infrastructure and freeride potential rather than generic tourism language. Parallel to that, the Brand Guide breaks down gear and softgoods companies—from skis and boots to outerwear and safety equipment—giving skiers a readable snapshot of what each brand stands for and which kind of rider it serves.

Long-form print remains an important part of the Downdays offering. The recurring Ski Stories yearbook series is a carefully designed, high-quality book that gathers standout photography, essays and profiles from a given season. These volumes are sold through the Downdays shop and partner retailers, functioning both as collectible objects and as a funding mechanism for future projects. Alongside the books, Downdays releases limited merchandise drops—hoodies, caps and accessories—that reflect its visual identity and help riders show their connection to the brand in lift lines and city streets.

Finally, the events and calendar section functions as a living infrastructure for the community. The event calendar tracks everything from local rail jams to Freeride World Tour stops and World Cup slopestyle contests, while event reports and previews provide context and storytelling around those dates. Together with the news-style “Quick News” hits and gear spotlights, this ecosystem makes Downdays feel less like a static magazine and more like an operating system for freeski information.

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

“Riding” Downdays is about how you move through the sport mentally more than how you flex a ski on edge. The platform is built for skiers who see freeskiing as a lifestyle and a culture, not just an occasional holiday activity. If your winter involves lapping the park, checking storm cycles, following the Freeride World Tour, hunting for new films, and maybe even hitting a few street spots with friends, Downdays is squarely aimed at you.

Park and street skiers will find a steady stream of edits, film reviews and scene reports that mirror the kind of content they watch on skipowd.tv’s street and park categories. Articles unpack what crews are doing in places like Finnish rail lines, Austrian snowparks and city spots across Central Europe, giving depth to tricks that might otherwise flash past in a three-minute clip. Freeriders and tourers, meanwhile, benefit from trip reports, avalanche-focused pieces and destination features that blend aesthetic stoke with practical information.

Because Downdays intentionally blurs the lines between sub-disciplines, it suits skiers whose seasons are mixed: a weekend in the park, a trip to a big-mountain venue in Austria, spring touring missions and perhaps a street mission in a hometown city. The tone is inclusive rather than elitist—if you care enough to think about skiing when you’re not actually on snow, you’re the target audience.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

Instead of a classic “athlete team” built around contracts and logo placement, Downdays operates as a hub for many of the riders and crews that shape European freeski culture. Over the years, it has featured and supported projects from iconic film collectives, competition athletes, national teams and up-and-coming street crews. Coverage ranges from interviews with established pros to scene reports on local events and profiles of riders who are just starting to break through.

The platform has long-standing relationships with major events and partners. It regularly covers Freeride World Tour and FIS World Cup stops, X Games slopestyle and big air, as well as independent events like grassroots rail jams, park camps and creative team gatherings. Its event reporting balances results and rankings with human stories—travel mishaps, changes in weather, behind-the-scenes challenges and the way events shape local scenes.

Among skiers, Downdays has earned a reputation as “the European freeski magazine that never really turned corporate.” Even as it has grown and professionalised its design, production and partnerships, the brand has kept an editorial voice that feels rooted in the community. April Fool’s posts, long-running jokes, deep cuts about past edits and affectionate jabs at industry clichés all contribute to a tone that is serious about skiing, but not self-serious.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

Downdays was born in Innsbruck, a city that sits at the intersection of many of Europe’s most important freeski venues. From that base in the heart of the Alps, the brand quickly developed a pan-European scope. Its Resort Guide and travel stories highlight destinations ranging from glacier parks and Austrian mega-resorts to Swiss freeride strongholds, Italian valleys, Scandinavian street spots and emerging Eastern European areas.

Austria remains a recurring anchor: Downdays has covered multi-resort passes and regions like Ski amadé, produced travel pieces around hotspots such as Absolut Park, and documented the way large resort networks support both park and freeride culture. Switzerland and France are similarly prominent, with regular stories set in places like the Valais, the Arlberg corridor and classic big-mountain zones that many skipowd.tv viewers recognise from their favourite films.

At the same time, the brand consistently looks beyond the obvious. Coverage of Baltic scenes, Eastern European spots and smaller regional hills underscores the idea that freeski culture does not only live in mega-resorts. For riders planning their own trips, Downdays’ geographically broad perspective helps stitch together itineraries that combine high-profile destinations with lesser-known gems, often mirrored in the video choices they watch on skipowd.tv.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

For a media house, “construction” means editorial standards, visual identity and platform architecture. Downdays’ website is structured to keep long-form reading and quick hits side by side: deeply reported features in the Stories section, fast updates in Quick News, and a clear navigation bar that surfaces videos, events, gear reviews and guides with minimal friction. The layout prioritizes legible typography and high-quality imagery, reflecting the print roots of the brand even in digital form.

The Ski Stories yearbooks are built to last in a more literal sense. Printed on quality stock with careful design, they are meant to be kept, revisited and shared rather than thrown away after one season. This focus on durable physical products, combined with a relatively small but curated merchandise line, stands in contrast to mass-produced fast fashion. For a culture that already consumes a lot of digital media, having tangible, long-lived objects helps ground the experience.

On the sustainability side, Downdays’ main contribution is cultural: it encourages skiers to think holistically about the sport, including environmental and social dimensions. Articles often touch on climate, access, diversity and the changing economics of mountain towns. By choosing depth and context over clickbait, and by championing scenes that might otherwise be overlooked, the brand helps build a more resilient and self-aware freeski community—one that is better equipped to navigate the pressures facing winter sports.

How to choose within the lineup

If you are new to Downdays, the best entry point is the homepage and navigation bar. Start with the Videos section if you primarily want a curated selection of edits, movies and episodes that align closely with what you already watch on skipowd.tv. When a clip or crew catches your attention, search their name on Downdays to see if there are related interviews, behind-the-scenes pieces or gear spotlights that give additional context.

For trip planning, head to the Resort Guide and the travel category in Stories. These pages help you compare destinations based on park quality, freeride access, snow reliability and cultural vibe rather than just marketing slogans. Pair that with skipowd.tv’s location pages—such as its in-depth coverage of Austrian venues—and you can build a nuanced view of where to go and what kind of skiing to expect.

If gear decisions are on your mind, the Brand Guide and Gear section will be especially useful. They gather product reviews, spotlights and backgrounders on everything from skis and boots to goggles and protective equipment. While Downdays does run brand partnerships, the editorial voice generally prioritizes clarity and rider relevance over pure hype, making this a strong complement to the sponsor profiles you see on skipowd.tv.

Why riders care

Riders care about Downdays because it feels like a living record of freeski culture rather than just another content feed. When you scroll the site or flip through a Ski Stories book, you see your own version of skiing reflected back: park kids, street crews, big-mountain riders, ski tourers, photographers, filmer collectives and everyday locals all sharing the same stage. That sense of recognition is powerful, especially for European skiers who spent years consuming mostly North American media.

For the skipowd.tv community, Downdays functions as a narrative layer on top of the endless video stream. Where skipowd.tv helps you discover, organize and binge-watch ski footage, Downdays helps you understand the people, places and decisions behind those clips. Together they form a feedback loop: a film discovered on Downdays might lead you to its full version on skipowd.tv; a resort you research on skipowd.tv’s location pages might send you to a Downdays travel story. In that ecosystem, Downdays stands out as a brand dedicated to curating, celebrating and occasionally poking fun at the culture that keeps skiers coming back winter after winter.

Brand overview and significance

El Tony Mate is a Swiss-developed cold-brew yerba mate drink that has become a familiar sight in lift lines, snowparks and contest edits across the Alps. Created by intelligentfood Schweiz AG, the brand takes the traditional “drink of the gods” from South America and repackages it as a modern, ready-to-drink energy booster for riders, creatives and night owls. Instead of the syrupy feel of classic energy drinks, El Tony Mate leans on freshly brewed mate tea, natural caffeine and a short ingredient list to give skiers and snowboarders a clean, sparkling pick-me-up that fits easily into a park backpack or roadside cooler.

While it is technically a beverage label rather than a hardware brand, El Tony Mate has carved out a real place in snowsports culture. Under the “Trust Your Madness” banner, it backs freeskiers, snowboarders and alpine racers, shows up on banners at parks and events, and even runs its own rider-driven video contest. For the skipowd.tv audience, El Tony Mate matters because it sits at the intersection of energy, style and community: a drink that fuels long days on snow and helps make independent film projects and progressive sessions possible.

Product lines and key technologies

The El Tony Mate range is built around freshly brewed, cold-brew yerba mate tea sourced from the Pindo farm in Misiones, Argentina. The core recipe uses a high mate-tea content, a splash of lemon juice, organic cane sugar and natural caffeine, resulting in a lightly sparkling drink with noticeably fewer calories and sugar than many soft drinks or classic energy drinks. The brand emphasises that there are no concentrates, no preservatives, no artificial acidification and no synthetic “E-number” additives, and all products are vegan and gluten-free. In practice, that means a clear label you can read in seconds and a flavour profile that feels closer to iced tea than to candy.

From that base, El Tony Mate spins a small but distinct lineup. The classic “Pure” version focuses on clean mate and citrus notes. Flavoured variants add subtle twists rather than heavy syrup: Mate & Ginger sharpens the taste and gives a slight spicy edge, while Mate & Mint doubles down on refreshment with a cooling finish. Other brand concepts in the wider “El Tony’s World” universe, such as the Turbo Tony line, lean into higher-energy nightlife settings, but the core mate products remain the everyday choice for slope days, park laps and long drives between resorts. All are designed to deliver roughly coffee-level caffeine in a more sessionable, drinkable form.

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

On snow, El Tony Mate sits in the same mental drawer as a thermos of coffee or a pocket snack: it is part of the rhythm of the day. Riders typically crack a bottle on the way to the hill, between park laps or during a mid-session break at the park rail line. Because the drink is based on tea and carbonated water rather than thick syrup, it feels relatively light and crisp, which suits the stop-and-go pattern of modern freeskiing—hiking a feature, waiting for friends to drop, then pushing into another run. The caffeine hit is pitched as steady rather than extreme, aiming to help riders stay switched on without the jittery peaks and crashes associated with some energy drinks.

El Tony Mate is especially well suited to skiers and snowboarders who treat a day on snow as a full lifestyle block rather than a short workout. Park and slopestyle riders filming with crews, freeriders stacking long laps in variable weather, coaches and filmers who spend hours standing still with a camera, and seasonaires who go from opening bell to late après can all use the same drink in slightly different ways. It is just as likely to show up at a laptop editing session or on a night drive to the next resort as it is at the top of a slopestyle course.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

Where El Tony Mate really overlaps with ski culture is through El Tony Sports, the brand’s athlete and event program. The roster blends freeskiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers and alpine racers, including names that Skipowd viewers recognise from contest livestreams and park edits: freeskier Kim Gubser, Lukas Müllauer, Gian Andri Bolinger, Sam Baumgartner, Sybille Blanjean and Isaac Simhon; snowboarders like Celia Petrig and Lucas Baume; and alpine racers such as Camille Rast, Mélanie Meillard, Justin Murisier and Marc Rochat. The idea is to support riders who live the “Trust Your Madness” credo in different disciplines, not just to drop logos on bibs.

Beyond individual athletes, El Tony Mate has stepped into the role of content and event creator. The El Tony Crew Clash is a prime example: a ski and snowboard video battle where five pro crews, each captained by an El Tony athlete, meet in Davos to shoot, edit and premiere their own short film over a tight window of days. Instead of traditional judged runs, teams are evaluated on creativity and overall edit, with awards for best film and standout riders. The brand also partners with projects like the Downdays Snowpark Tour and other freestyle initiatives, reinforcing its image as a label that invests directly in the progression of park and freeride culture.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

Geographically, El Tony Mate is anchored in Switzerland. Product development and brand direction are handled by intelligentfood Schweiz AG in Rotkreuz, positioning the drink right in the heart of one of the world’s most active freeski playgrounds, as reflected on Switzerland. That proximity to major alpine corridors means the cans and bottles you see in edits are often coming straight from local shops and fridges rather than from a distant global headquarters. Riders can pick up El Tony Mate at convenience stores, bars and mountain-town venues in many Swiss destinations, and distribution has spread into neighbouring European markets.

At the same time, the drink’s core ingredient and story reach back to South America. The mate tea used in El Tony Mate comes from the Pindo farm in Misiones, Argentina, where mate has been cultivated for decades. The brand highlights full traceability back to that farm, tying Swiss on-snow culture to a specific origin in the subtropical hills. On the snowsports side, hubs like Davos host signature projects such as Crew Clash, with filming and riding taking place on terrain around Davos–Klosters, including busy venues like Davos - Parsenn. In practice, that means El Tony Mate lives both in South American fields and in European lift lines.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

“Construction” for a drink brand is really about sourcing and processing rather than topsheets and edges, but the same logic applies: good raw materials, thoughtful methods and a long-term view. El Tony Mate stresses that its beverages are brewed using a cold-brew process with mate from its own Pindo farm nurseries, which have been producing seedlings since the 1920s. The gentle drying and fine cut of the mate leaves are presented as reasons for the drink’s mild, non-smoky taste, especially compared to roasted, dust-heavy mate blends. The final recipes are kept short and recognisable: mate tea, water, lemon juice, organic cane sugar, natural flavours and caffeine.

Sustainability is woven into the way the brand talks about its supply chain. Workers on the mate farm are described as fairly paid, socially insured and protected by clear safety standards, and the company frames “fairness” and “sustainability” as part of basic quality, not just a marketing label. For riders who think about what they buy as well as how it tastes, that emphasis is significant. Choosing a drink that is traceable to a specific farm, produced without preservatives or concentrates and handled by a dedicated supply team in Switzerland fits neatly with a broader push in the ski world toward responsible travel, better product choices and longer-term thinking.

How to choose within the lineup

Picking the right El Tony Mate for a ski day is mostly a question of flavour, context and how sensitive you are to caffeine and sweetness. The classic Pure version is the most straightforward choice if you want something crisp, tea-forward and versatile—easy to drink in the morning on the way up the valley or between afternoon laps without feeling heavy. If you like a bit more bite, Mate & Ginger adds warmth and a sharper profile that works well in cold, windy conditions or as a small jolt before another rail session. Mate & Mint, by contrast, leans into pure refreshment and is a natural fit for sunny park days, spring slush or road trips where you are looking to stay alert without feeling weighed down.

Practical details matter too. Bottles and cans fit differently into backpacks, camera bags and jacket pockets, so riders often experiment to see which format survives the day best. For long days where hydration is a concern, many skiers use El Tony Mate alongside water rather than instead of it—sipping mate for focus and flavour, and backing it up with plain water to stay balanced. Because the drink sits somewhere between classic energy drinks and functional iced tea, it can also be a good bridge if you are trying to reduce heavy-sugar options while still wanting something more interesting than plain water.

Why riders care

Skiers and snowboarders care about El Tony Mate because it feels like a drink that grew up alongside them rather than being dropped in from a distant marketing plan. The brand understands that modern riding days stretch from early-morning rail work to late-night editing, that creativity and community matter as much as rankings, and that riders increasingly pay attention to ingredients and sourcing. A can of El Tony Mate on the knuckle or in the editing suite signals membership in that culture: you are part of a crew that values both progression and the stories around it.

For the skipowd.tv community, El Tony Mate occupies a clear niche in the brand ecosystem. It does not compete with skis or outerwear; instead, it supports the people using that gear, giving them a reliable, more natural-feeling energy option and backing the events and projects where the most interesting skiing happens. Whether you are heading to a local park, watching a Crew Clash edit from Davos, or just scrolling clips from your sofa, El Tony Mate has become one of the small, recurring details that link distant sessions together—a taste of South American mate reimagined for Swiss mountains and the wider world of freeskiing.

EZ Panda | Core Shots

Athletes

Locations

Sponsors

Isaac Simhon

Snowpark Zermatt

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