GAME 1 || Ferdinand Dahl vs. Nico Porteous || SLVSH CUP GRANDVALIRA '25

Profile and significance

Ferdinand “Ferdi” Dahl is a Norwegian freeski original whose blend of contest pedigree and culture-building has made him one of the most influential park and street skiers of his generation. Born in 1998 and raised around Oslo, he broke through on the biggest stages with multiple medals at the X Games—slopestyle bronze in 2019, slopestyle silver in 2021, and slopestyle bronze again in 2023—while stacking nine FIS World Cup podiums and two Olympic appearances, including an eighth place in slopestyle at PyeongChang 2018. Those results alone would secure his status. But Dahl’s impact extends further: he co-founded the rider-led Jib League series that reframed what a freeski “contest” could be, and he channels his design sensibility into the apparel label Capeesh Supply. The result is a rare dual footprint—elite competitor and thoughtful scene shaper—whose skiing reads clearly at full speed and whose projects elevate the wider culture.

Today, Dahl’s priorities span performance and stewardship. You’ll still see him under stadium lights at Buttermilk in Aspen during X Games week or dropping mid-winter edits from Europe and North America. You’ll also see him building spaces for others to shine, whether that’s hosting a jam-style Jib League stop with fellow founders James “Woodsy” Woods and Øystein Bråten, or releasing small-batch garments that carry Capeesh’s playful, skaterly aesthetic. He skis for Vishnu Freeski and rides with Monster Energy, a sponsor mix that mirrors his commitment to rider-run creativity and broadcast-level execution.

Competitive arc and key venues

Dahl’s contest résumé maps the modern freeski ladder. Early Europa Cup and World Cup starts led to a breakout Olympic debut at the PyeongChang 2018 Games, staged at Korea’s Phoenix Park, where he placed eighth in men’s slopestyle. World Cup consistency followed, culminating in nine podiums and back-to-back seasons ranked among the very best in slopestyle overall. In Aspen, the X Games medals arrived across four winters, validating a trick vocabulary and run composition that judges reward and fans replay.

Venue context explains why his skiing travels so well. Buttermilk rewards multi-feature flow and line design under heavy camera pressure; Phoenix Park’s Olympic stage compresses everything into immaculate takeoffs and unforgiving landings; Austria’s in-city Nordkette Skyline Park demands cadence on dense rail panels; Sweden’s Kläppen serves long spring laps where measured speed and early commitments separate a good run from a great one. As Dahl pivoted some focus toward film and rider-led events, he didn’t abandon competition; he reframed it. Jib League’s jam format—skier voting, style-forward criteria—moved the needle while keeping the difficulty and clarity that defined his World Cup and X Games success.

How they ski: what to watch for

Dahl’s skiing is a case study in readable difficulty. On rails, approaches are squared early, body position stays stacked, and lock-ins look decisive rather than dramatic. Surface swaps resolve cleanly; presses have shape instead of wobble; exits protect momentum into the next setup. On jumps, he favors measured spin speed and deep, functional grabs—safety, tail, or blunt held long enough to stabilize the axis. That early grab timing keeps shoulders quiet and landings centered, so the outrun breathes instead of becoming a last-second save. Directional variety—forward and switch, left and right—shows up without breaking cadence because every choice serves the line.

Two tells help you “read” a Dahl run in real time. First, spacing. He leaves room between moves, so each trick creates setup for the next one rather than stealing from it. Second, grab discipline. The hand finds the ski early and stays there long enough to influence rotation, not just decorate the frame. That’s why even his bigger spins look calm, and why editors can present his clips at normal speed without resorting to slow-motion rescue.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Longevity at the top level requires adaptation. After years of traveling the World Cup and major-event circuit, Dahl broadened his canvas: spring projects in the Alps, on-camera head-to-heads in SLVSH games, and the co-creation of Jib League with Woods and Bråten. The through-line is composure. Whether the setting is a single-hit scaffolding jump, a multi-feature slopestyle course, or a dense rail garden at Nordkette, he protects speed, commits to control inputs early, and finishes tricks with enough time to ride away clean. That reliability earns trust—from judges tallying slopestyle scores, from peers voting in jam formats, and from filmmakers who want clips that hold up after ten replays.

Influence shows up far beyond podium photos. Jib League’s format centers skiers as voters and storytellers, and its stops have become required viewing for anyone who cares how style and difficulty can coexist. Capeesh, meanwhile, exports the same ethos via apparel drops and creative videos—small teams, rider agency, humor intact. Add in years of high-profile clips and a deep library of World Cup runs archived at Olympics.com, and you have a body of work that doubles as instruction: honest speed, early commitments, centered landings.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place is the skeleton of Dahl’s skiing. Oslo’s compact hills and firm winter snow built edge honesty and quick decision-making; repeated laps discipline the feet and hands. The Alps supplied longer radii and faster in-runs, especially at Nordkette, where dense features reward timing and rail economy. Spring blocks at Kläppen layered in rhythm on creative setups and medium-to-large booters, and the annual pilgrimage to Buttermilk honed broadcast composure. On the Olympic stage at Phoenix Park, he proved those habits survive the brightest lights. Stitch those environments together and you get a toolkit that travels: protect momentum, manage spin speed with the grab, and keep the run’s shape intact from first rail to last landing.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Dahl’s current setup mirrors his philosophy. With Vishnu Freeski he rides a park-capable platform with balanced swing weight and reinforced edges that tolerate repeated rail contact without unpredictable flex. Energy and event support from Monster Energy keeps the spotlight on projects that showcase skier agency, while Capeesh Supply lets him translate taste into design. If you’re looking to borrow from his gear decisions, the lesson is category fit over model names: choose a symmetrical or near-symmetrical park ski, mount it so butters and presses feel natural without compromising takeoff stability, keep bases fast so cadence survives cold or salt, and tune edges to hold on steel yet soften contact points to avoid surprise bites on swaps. Equipment won’t replace timing, but the right platform makes good timing repeatable across long filming days and pressure-heavy finals.

Equally practical is how he structures a season. Early repetitions on consistent parks sharpen approach mechanics; jam-style events test composure under variable pace and crowd energy; and marquee weeks at places like Buttermilk demand the full package—rail clarity, directional variety on jumps, and airtight landings. That rhythm is a template ambitious riders can copy on the path from local edits to international relevance.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Ferdinand Dahl matters because he turns elite difficulty into clarity and then uses his platform to grow the culture around it. He owns multiple X Games medals, deep World Cup credentials, and Olympic finals experience, yet he’s just as committed to rider-run spaces like Jib League and to creative output through Capeesh. The skiing itself is easy to follow at normal speed because the mechanics are honest: early grab commitment, measured spin speed, and landings that preserve momentum for the next move. For viewers, that means segments worth replaying; for developing skiers, it offers a concrete checklist—square the approach, use the grab as a control input, finish the trick early, and let the line breathe. That combination of results, readability, and stewardship is why Ferdi sits at the center of freeski culture today, whether the backdrop is an Olympic venue, a televised course in Colorado, or a rail garden above Innsbruck.

Profile and significance

Nico Porteous is a New Zealand freeski halfpipe phenomenon whose résumé combines Olympic history, back-to-back X Games Aspen superpipe titles, and a world championship. Born 23 November 2001 in Hamilton and raised in Wānaka, he became New Zealand’s youngest ever Olympic medallist with halfpipe bronze at PyeongChang 2018, then delivered the country’s first male Winter Olympic gold in the Beijing 2022 halfpipe final with a run anchored by back-to-back 1620s. He added X Games superpipe golds in 2021 and 2022 and a 2021 world title, establishing himself as one of the defining halfpipe riders of this era. In 2025 he announced he would step back from World Cup/Olympic competition to focus on projects, a move that shifts his influence from scorecards to filming and special events without diminishing his competitive legacy.

Porteous matters because he fuses the sport’s hardest progression with an execution standard that reads cleanly to both judges and fans. He is technical and composed under the highest pressure, but also thoughtful about how halfpipe skiing should look: deliberate axis control, long grab holds, mirrored directionality, and run composition that escalates without visual chaos. For developing riders and seasoned viewers alike, he became a template for modern halfpipe—equal parts difficulty, variety, and clarity.

Competitive arc and key venues

The arc begins on southern-hemisphere snow with national-pathway mileage at Cardrona Alpine Resort, whose program and machine-cut pipe provided repetition through New Zealand winters. As a 16-year-old at PyeongChang 2018 he seized Olympic bronze, signalling that his amplitude and back-to-back spinning would scale under pressure. Over the next quad he converted consistency into trophies: X Games Aspen superpipe gold in 2021 and a successful defense in 2022 at Buttermilk Mountain, then Olympic gold at Beijing 2022 with the landmark right-and-left 1620 combo that reset expectations for men’s halfpipe finals. He continued to stack podiums on the World Cup through 2024, and in June 2025 announced his decision to step away from Olympic contention while remaining active in skiing through film and selected events.

Certain venues shaped the look of his skiing. Aspen’s Buttermilk pipe—long walls and a broadcast-heavy environment—rewarded his talent for finals-day upgrades. Beijing’s engineered halfpipe magnified the value of clean takeoffs in tricky wind and cold, which his tall approach and delayed rotation exploited. Cardrona remained the laboratory where left/right balance and switch hits were drilled across seasons. The combination produced a rider who could read speed and walls on first drop and still hold form when the stakes were highest.

How they ski: what to watch for

Porteous skis with a tall approach, quiet arms, and late commitment to axis. He delays the initiation of rotation until the last beat of the takeoff, keeping skis and shoulders level so the silhouette stays organized and the grab can be pinned. His calling card is variety with integrity: left and right rotations across the wall sequence, switch amplitude that matches forward amplitude, and grabs—safety, tail, and blunt variants—held long enough to change how a trick reads on camera. The much-discussed back-to-back 1620s are notable not only for degree count but for how composed they look: clean edge set, early grab contact, and landings that preserve speed rather than scrub it.

Run construction is narrative rather than maximalist. He often opens with foundational 900s or 1080s to establish amplitude and cleanliness, mirrors direction to satisfy modern judging variety, and escalates to 1260s and 1620s late where impression and risk-reward are highest. If you watch closely, the tell is economy: minimal arm noise at the lip, skis that leave the wall flat and quiet, and grabs pinned long enough that there’s never doubt about control.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Porteous’s career is a case study in resilience and timing. Managing growth from teenage prodigy to Olympic champion required not just trick progression but also strategic scheduling and recovery blocks. His ability to peak for Aspen and then Beijing within weeks in 2022 reflected meticulous planning and a narrow, highly polished trick library deployed with confidence. After consolidating his status with more podiums, he chose in 2025 to step back from the grind of qualification series and refocus on filming and special formats. That pivot mirrors the path of the sport’s most durable names, prioritizing longevity, storytelling, and a broader definition of impact.

Influence extends beyond results. Porteous has become a reference for how halfpipe runs should be assembled in the current judging era and a North Star for New Zealand’s pipeline of freeskiers. As he shifts toward projects, expect segments that translate his contest polish into creative lines and location-driven narratives—a move that will likely pull a wider audience into halfpipe mechanics through cinematic expression.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography explains the tempo of his skiing. The Wānaka basin—with Cardrona as the training hub—delivered long, consistent seasons in a pipe that holds shape, letting fundamentals like edge-change timing and switch entries become second nature. Northern-hemisphere campaigns layered in altitude, cold, and broadcast pressure at Buttermilk, plus the engineered precision of Olympic venues where wind, temperature, and wall hardness can turn small inefficiencies into major deductions. That blend yielded a rider whose amplitude travels: the same calm posture and long grab holds show up whether the camera is on a New Zealand training day or an Olympic final.

New Zealand’s community context matters too. Sharing a scene with peers and mentors who value execution—across park, pipe, and film—created a feedback loop where style and cleanliness were non-negotiable. The result is skiing that feels inevitable when it clicks because it has been rehearsed across different lights, snows, and wall shapes until the variables are absorbed.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Porteous rides with support from Red Bull and hardware partners including Atomic, optics from 100%, and action-camera projects with GoPro. The kit reflects a simple philosophy: predictable pop and torsional stability for wall-to-wall neutrality, goggles with lens options for flat-light and night finals, and a binding/boot setup that tolerates cross-loaded impacts without deadening ski flex. For progressing skiers, the lesson is to choose a pipe-capable twin tip with a lively yet controlled flex, mount in a position that preserves switch confidence, and keep tune consistent so speed reads don’t change between training and contest day.

Venue selection functions like equipment. If your local hill has a repeatable mini-pipe or standard jump lane, treat it as a laboratory. The micro-beats that define Porteous’s look—quiet lips, delayed spin, grabs held to the bolts—are built on thousands of near-identical approaches. Consistency of feature breeds consistency of form.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Nico Porteous is a benchmark because he solved the modern halfpipe equation at the highest level and did so with style that holds up on slow-motion replay. Fans get finals where the biggest moves arrive with composure, not chaos, and seasons where the sport’s key trophies—the Olympics, X Games, Worlds—align on a single shelf. Progressing skiers get a blueprint: build amplitude on repeatable walls, mirror directions across the run, treat grab standards as non-negotiable, and escalate difficulty only as fast as you can keep the silhouette clean. As he transitions toward films and special events, his impact should broaden, carrying halfpipe precision into stories and segments that invite more skiers into the details of great riding.