Semi 2 || Taylor Lundquist vs. Naomi Urness || SLVSH CUP GRANDVALIRA '26

Profile and significance

Naomi Urness is a Canadian freeski slopestyle and big air athlete from Mont-Tremblant, Québec, quietly becoming one of the most consistent young park skiers on the NorAm circuit. Born in 2004 and raised in a family deeply involved in freestyle, she started skiing at age three, joined the Mont-Tremblant Freestyle Club at eleven, and moved steadily through provincial, national and international ranks. She now rides for Freestyle Canada’s NextGen slopestyle/big air program, a stepping stone toward full World Cup status, and represents both her home resort and local shop partners in competition.

Urness’ résumé already includes a fourth place in big air and sixth in slopestyle at the 2022 FIS Junior World Championships in Leysin, Switzerland, along with a growing collection of NorAm podiums. In the 2024–25 season she stacked top-three finishes across North America, including wins and podiums at Mammoth Mountain, Copper Mountain, Aspen and Stoneham. Those results, paired with her selection as the 2019 recipient of Momentum Ski Camps’ Spirit of Sarah scholarship, mark her out as more than just another strong junior. For Canadian freeski fans, she is one of the clearest emerging names in women’s park skiing, with realistic ambitions of moving onto the World Cup circuit and eventually the Olympic stage.

Competitive arc and key venues

Urness’ competitive arc is a classic modern Canadian freeski pathway, compressed into a few intense years. After early seasons in the Québec freestyle system and regional events at her home hill of Mont-Tremblant, she began appearing in national-level start lists and earned selection for the Canada Winter Games representing Québec. That experience of multi-sport games pressure, complete with provincial colours and live scoring, set the tone for the next step of her career.

The real breakthrough came in 2021–22 when she travelled to Leysin for the FIS Junior World Championships. Against a strong international field, she finished fourth in women’s big air and sixth in slopestyle, a result that instantly validated her potential on the global stage. Those performances fed directly into Freestyle Canada naming her to the NextGen slopestyle/big air team in 2023, giving her structured support, coaching and a clear runway toward World Cup qualification.

Since then, the NorAm circuit has been her primary proving ground. Across the 2023 and 2024–25 seasons she has become a regular on the podium: multiple second places in slopestyle and big air at Stoneham and Calgary, back-to-back slopestyle podiums at Copper Mountain and Aspen, and a particularly dominant stretch at Mammoth Mountain where she won slopestyle and added a second place in big air. By the end of the 2024–25 season she had secured second overall in the NorAm big air standings, confirming that her junior world results were not a one-off but part of a sustained rise.

How they ski: what to watch for

Urness’ skiing is the product of hours in structured programs, airbag sessions and park laps at Mont-Tremblant. Her runs blend the composure of a race-trained skier with the freedom of modern freeski style. On jumps, she favours clean, controlled spins where the grab is held long enough to shape the trick rather than just touch for points; you often see her use switch takeoffs and solid grab variations to add difficulty without sacrificing consistency. Her fourth place in big air at Junior Worlds and repeated NorAm big air podiums underline how comfortable she is when the focus is a single, high-pressure hit.

In slopestyle, Urness builds her runs logically. She tends to open with a rail section that is technical but not chaotic, using solid lock-ins, changes of direction and tidy spin-offs to establish a strong base score before stepping into the jumps. Judges and fans notice how rarely she looks rushed; speed is managed carefully into each feature, and landings are usually driven out rather than fought. Her style is more about polish than wild improvisation, which matches the demands of high-level FIS slopestyle and big air where repeatability and control matter as much as creativity.

While her focus is primarily on park courses rather than full urban or street skiing setups, the way she skis rails shows the influence of that culture. Lines are compact, purposeful and built to link one feature smoothly into the next. For progressing riders, her runs are a strong study in how to use fundamentals—good stance, clean edging, committed grabs—to keep climbing the competitive ladder without rushing into tricks that are not ready.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Behind those results sits a story of resilience that local media in Mont-Tremblant have already highlighted. As a teenager, Urness broke her humerus in a training crash, an injury that required months away from snow and a careful return to impact. In interviews she has described the mix of fear and excitement that comes with trying something new, and how “good fear” becomes part of the process for any big air or slopestyle skier. Coming back from that break to compete at Junior Worlds and then to push for NorAm overall titles shows both physical and mental toughness.

Her 2019 Spirit of Sarah scholarship from Momentum Ski Camps is another window into her character. The award is given in memory of Sarah Burke to a young female skier who shows not only potential on snow but also qualities like kindness, determination and a positive approach to life. Receiving it as a 14-year-old from Mont-Tremblant placed Urness in a small, respected group of riders across Canada, and helped fund training time on the glaciers and park lines that have become central to her progression. Today, as a NextGen team member, she represents exactly the kind of athlete that scholarship aims to support.

Influence at this stage of her career is less about starring in feature-length movies and more about visibility and example. Through Freestyle Canada profiles, regional news stories and her own clips from NorAm stops, she shows young skiers from Québec—and especially girls—that it is possible to grow from a local club to international championships while staying grounded in school and community. As she climbs the ranks, that quiet influence is likely to grow, whether or not she chooses to step more fully into filming projects later on.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography is central to understanding Urness’ skiing. She was born and raised in Mont-Tremblant, with Station Mont-Tremblant as her home hill and a family fully invested in freestyle. Her stepbrothers and sisters all went through the same freestyle club, turning the resort into a daily training ground and playground. The terrain there—mid-sized jumps, dense rail lines, cold Québec winters and busy holiday crowds—teaches riders to be efficient and adaptable from a young age.

As her career expanded, the map of her skiing spread across North America and into Europe. NorAm events brought her to eastern parks like Stoneham, with its icy, wind-affected snow, and western venues such as Copper Mountain, Aspen and Mammoth, where larger jumps, higher altitude and rapidly changing conditions are normal. The Junior Worlds in Leysin added a Swiss Alpine dimension, with bigger mountains, different light and new snow textures. Moving through these environments season after season has built a toolkit that travels well: she is comfortable in everything from hardpack early-season laps to spring slush, on both compact NorAm courses and longer, more open World Championship-style layouts.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Urness’ official profile lists support from the Québec freeski shop D-Structure and her home resort Station Mont-Tremblant. Rather than being defined by a single ski model, her setup reflects the realities of a NorAm slopestyle and big air schedule. She rides park-oriented twin tips with enough stiffness to stay stable on NorAm-sized jumps but still forgiving enough for long rail sections and repeated training impacts. For aspiring riders watching her, the key lesson is not to chase a signature pro ski, but to choose a symmetrical or nearly symmetrical park ski that feels predictable both forward and switch in the kind of parks you actually ride.

Her partnership with D-Structure and close ties to Mont-Tremblant also highlight the importance of community-based backing. Access to coaches, tuned equipment, airbags, trampolines and safe jump progression lines can matter more than logo counts on a jacket. On the protective side, slopestyle and big air at her level make a modern helmet, back protection and well-fitted boots non-negotiable. The consistency she shows in NorAm finals is built on the confidence that her gear will behave the same way run after run, whether she is dropping into a big air in Mammoth or a slopestyle line back home in Québec.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Naomi Urness because she represents a realistic, exciting version of the freeski pathway. She is not yet a household name on World Cup podiums, but she has already proved herself against strong international fields at Junior Worlds and NorAm events, all while staying rooted in the culture of her local club. Her story shows that you can grow up at a resort like Mont-Tremblant, work through club programs, earn support like the Spirit of Sarah scholarship and NextGen selection, and end up battling for NorAm overall titles in slopestyle and big air.

For young riders, especially girls coming up through Canadian clubs, her trajectory offers a clear template. Spend time in structured training, build strong basics on rails and jumps, use local parks and airbags to progress safely, and then test yourself step by step: provincial events, national championships, NorAm starts and eventually international championships. Watching how Urness skis—how she manages speed, chooses tricks she can land cleanly and handles big days on the NorAm circuit—turns her career into a practical guide for anyone who wants to move from local park laps toward the level where World Cups and Olympic dreams start to feel genuinely within reach.

Profile and significance

Taylor Lundquist is an American freeskier from Utah whose imprint sits squarely in urban and street skiing while reaching into slopestyle, streetstyle, and the new women’s knuckle-huck era. Raised around Park City and lapping the parks at Brighton Resort, she became the first woman ever invited to X Games Real Ski, a milestone that widened the lane for female street skiers and cemented her cultural relevance beyond rankings. She has appeared at X Games Aspen in women’s Ski Knuckle Huck and Street Style, reached the podium at Dew Tour Streetstyle, and collected “Skier of the Year” accolades within the core scene—all while keeping her main focus on filming. For fans and progressing riders, Lundquist matters because she made style-driven, camera-literate street skiing legible to a broader audience and proved that a film-first career can still shape the contest conversation.

Her visibility is amplified by distinctive brand work and a growing body of video parts and short films. Between edits with independent crews and collaborations with major outdoor labels, she occupies a space where aesthetic judgment—spot choice, trick selection, line composition—carries as much weight as degrees of spin. That balance of influence and output places her among the notable modern figures in women’s freeskiing, particularly on steel.

Competitive arc and key venues

Lundquist’s competitive footprint has been selective but impactful. After early years in the Park City pipeline and regional starts, she pivoted toward streetstyle formats and high-visibility showcases. Dew Tour Streetstyle gave her a podium stage in a rail-first environment that mirrors her film identity. X Games invited her to the Real Ski video contest as the event’s first female competitor, a landmark for representation in a format historically dominated by men. In 2024 and 2025 she slid into X Games Aspen’s women’s Ski Knuckle Huck and Street Style fields, bringing her urban timing to an arena setting under lights at Buttermilk Mountain. While these appearances did not yield hardware, they confirmed her position as a standard-bearer for style-forward skiing in competitive spaces.

Geographically, familiarity breeds execution. Home mileage at Park City Mountain and Brighton Resort built the repetition and speed-read instincts that transfer cleanly to rail jams and knuckle formats. Filming blocks in rail-dense towns and travel for street projects transformed those instincts into segments with replay value, the true currency of the street skier.

How they ski: what to watch for

Lundquist skis with a relaxed upper body, tall approach, and a calm, late commitment to axis that makes tricks read clearly on camera. On rails she favors linkable lines over one-off hammers, pairing spin-on/pretzel-off variations with subtle body language that keeps edges quiet and shoulders level. Look for long, honest grab holds on medium-degree spins, controlled body position through blind landings, and the restraint to leave room for speed into the next feature. Her knuckle-huck entries showcase that same timing: feathered edge sets, low-impact takeoffs, and tweaks that reshape silhouette without forcing amplitude she doesn’t need.

Run and segment construction are deliberate. Instead of stacking difficulty indiscriminately, she sequences tricks so each shot or hit sets up the next—an opening that establishes style and rhythm, a mid-line feature that adds technical density, and a closer that rewards viewers paying attention to nuance. The result is skiing that looks inevitable when it works: nothing rushed, nothing wasted, every frame readable.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Street skiing requires a different resilience than contest circuits. It means night sessions, imperfect run-ins, hand-shoveling, and walking away when a spot isn’t safe. Lundquist’s filmography displays that patience and persistence. A notable part of her influence is simply showing up in spaces where women were underrepresented—then letting the footage carry the argument. Being the first woman tapped for Real Ski was more than a personal credential; it reframed expectations about who belongs in the heaviest urban contest of the year. Subsequent showings at Aspen and her continued output with core crews and brands kept that door open for the next wave.

Her filmmaking voice extends beyond tricks. She’s directed and produced her own projects, leaning into narratives that foreground feeling, music, and scene—proof that the modern freeskier can be both athlete and author. That agency over how skiing is presented is a key part of her legacy so far.

Geography that built the toolkit

Utah’s Wasatch front shaped Lundquist’s toolkit. Lapping the parks at Brighton Resort and the larger network at Park City Mountain enabled high-volume rail practice and jump repetition across variable winter light and snow. Those conditions forged habits that read in her street segments: speed checks that don’t kill momentum, conservative takeoff marks on sketchy in-runs, and a preference for features that allow clean exits into natural lines. When she travels for spots, that base shows up as calm decisions and tidy landings on first-and-second-hit attempts.

Occasional stints at spring glaciers and early-season rope-tow parks keep the muscle memory fresh and add the surface variety that keeps edges honest—another reason her skiing translates cleanly between film and comp formats.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Lundquist rides for Line Skis, including a park-tuned pro model that prioritizes pop, durability, and a flex window friendly to both rails and smaller jumps. Optics come via Smith Optics, useful when low-contrast street nights or flat-light park laps make detail recognition a performance variable. Outerwear and project collaborations with The North Face have supported her film-first calendar. For skiers translating this to their own setups, the takeaways are straightforward: choose a twin-tip with durable edges and a mount near center if rails and switch landings are your daily bread; keep bindings and boots tuned for cross-loaded landings; and treat lens choice as equipment, not accessory, when visibility is marginal.

Equally practical is her workflow: scout spots for run-in quality and safe exit, budget time for build and de-ice, and prioritize clips that preserve form over single-frame shock value. The best edit is the one you can still ski after.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Taylor Lundquist offers a blueprint for a film-centric freeski career that still moves the wider culture. Fans get segments and live appearances that privilege style and coherence over noise—clean blind 2s, controlled presses, held grabs, and lines that link. Progressing riders get permission and a plan: build fundamentals on repeatable features, learn to read speed and surface, keep grab standards high, and design shots and runs that make sense to the eye. In a sport that increasingly values both contest moments and durable media, Lundquist remains a reference for how street, park, and storytelling can add up to real impact.