Raphaël Veillette - Off The Leash Video Edition (2024)

Raphaël Veillette

Raphaël Veillette is a Canadian street and park skier from Québec whose film-driven approach reflects the craft-first values at the heart of modern urban freeskiing. Rather than stacking a conventional contest résumé, he has focused on seasonal projects, crew missions and regional showcases that reward line design, clarity and repeatable mechanics. The result is a catalog that reads well on camera and ages well over time, because every choice—approach speed, pop timing, axis set, grab or press duration and exit—serves the continuity of the run instead of chasing novelty for its own sake. Viewers recognize the hallmarks of his skiing immediately: measured speed into takeoffs without chatter, early and decisive sets, quiet shoulders through impact and exits that leave enough runway to re-center before the next decision point. Veillette’s progression follows a deliberate cycle. Early winter sessions in resort parks are used to groove fundamentals on forgiving features, establishing habits that translate to tighter inruns and narrower runouts when the project moves to the streets. As conditions stabilize, filming blocks pivot to spot hunting, shoveling and salting to normalize speed, and camera blocking that preserves the architecture of the line. This rhythm compresses learning curves and builds a body of work that feels intentional. On rails he favors surface swaps, locked presses and controlled redirections that look purposeful rather than forced, demonstrating genuine edge fluency on imperfect steel. On jump features he treats grabs as punctuation, holding them to frame rotations so airtime remains legible from any angle. Equipment literacy underpins the way these segments come together. Street skiing punishes gear, so he treats setup as part of the craft. Mount points are chosen to balance swing weight with landing stability, edges are tuned for reliable hold without feeling grabby and bases are kept fast when salt cycles or cold mornings change surface feel. In boots and bindings he emphasizes ankle articulation and predictable rebound, so presses carry real weight and recovery after contact changes is quick. That predictable platform frees attention for timing cues and spotting rather than mid-feature fights with equipment, and it shortens the path from rehearsal to confident execution. Risk management is the other pillar. Urban features offer little margin for error, so Veillette leans on mobility to keep hips and ankles available, single-leg power to maintain efficient pop on short inruns and trunk stability to keep axes quiet through impact. Visualization bridges the gap between practice and full-speed attempts, turning cues into automatic responses before commitment ramps up. These habits keep late-day clips defined even when fatigue and variable surfaces threaten clarity. As his catalog grows across Québec’s winters and spring park laps, the mandate remains the same: add difficulty without losing definition. In a culture that increasingly rewards riders who make hard things look understandable and who communicate a coherent line on camera, Raphaël Veillette’s toolbox—technical rails without clutter, decisive takeoffs, measured speed and professional session management—positions him to keep stacking memorable parts and to convert that body of work into broader opportunities.