''SUPERVIEW'' A B-dog Bone

Profile and significance

Émile Bergeron (born 1995) is a Québec-born freeski original whose reputation rests on memorable street segments and a benchmark X Games result. Raised in the Lac-Beauport / Québec City corridor, he moved from early park edits into a film-first path, earning a silver medal at X Games Real Ski 2020 with a part that mixed high-consequence architecture, meticulous speed control, and clean, readable landings. Before that, he had already been on the cover of Forecast Ski Magazine and was releasing short projects such as Come Around (in collaboration with Picture Organic Clothing). Bergeron’s public footprint reflects Québec’s street tradition—methodical build days, creative trick selection, and a calm upper body through long, technical rails—along with selective appearances at style-driven events. The throughline: he’s a rider whose ideas travel beyond any one contest, shaping how fans and crews think about urban freeskiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

Bergeron’s most visible contest milestone is X Games Real Ski 2020 silver, delivered with filmer/editor support from Camron Willis and Paul “B-Paul” Bergeron. The part showcased dam-feature transfers, water-adjacent landings and heavy closeouts—big-picture line design rather than just one-off stunts. A few years earlier he placed third and took “Best Re-Direct” at Red Bull ReDirect, the Québec City street event that asked riders to change direction mid-feature, a format tailor-made for his timing and pressure management. Between film cycles he’s been a familiar face at Scandinavian sessions, especially Sweden’s Kläppen, and in long-season western parks like Mammoth Mountain to keep jump feel sharp. At home, the dense architecture and snowpack around Québec City and Lac-Beauport feed the spot-scouting that anchors his edits.

How they ski: what to watch for

Bergeron skis like a designer. Approach lines are drawn to the centimeter, with little drift and purposeful checks before gap-to-feature starts. Expect early, locked grabs on jumps; on metal, presses flow into swaps and redirects that use the entire obstacle. Shoulders stay quiet; exits square up. Even when the feature is large (dams, long kinks, wallrides), the clip reads clearly: set → grab/press → spot → stomp. That legibility is why his X Games part resonated—viewers could track each phase at full speed and still parse the trick on replay.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Street segments live or die on patience: shovel time, salting, rebuilds after warmups, and knowing when to walk away. Bergeron’s catalog shows that rhythm, alongside a pragmatic crew culture. He followed/assisted iconic Québec projects (notably with Phil Casabon) before leading his own missions, then parlayed that experience into Real Ski silver and follow-up shorts like The Grand Classik and The Big Batch. He’s also appeared in community-forward pieces and shop projects, reinforcing the idea that local ecosystems—skate-adjacent culture, independent retailers, and film-savvy friends—can produce world-class skiing. For younger riders, his influence is practical: pick spots you can build right, film with intent, and prioritize clips that will still look good five years from now.

Geography that built the toolkit

Bergeron’s toolkit is rooted in Québec’s winter cities—tight run-ins, awkward kinks, and variable salt lines—plus a circuit that keeps timing fresh. Scandinavia offers repeatable park shapes and style-led sessions at Kläppen Snowpark; long western seasons at Mammoth Mountain deliver sustained jump mileage; spring missions north to Riksgränsen add natural hits and late-light windows. Back home, Québec City’s official tourism footprint and Lac-Beauport’s compact terrain make scouting efficient, which explains the steady cadence of new spots across winters.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Bergeron’s support list highlights both global and local pillars: skis from Armada, outerwear from Picture Organic Clothing, and scene partnership with D-Structure. If you’re trying to apply the lessons rather than copy logos, think systems: detune contact points for rails while keeping underfoot bite for icy in-runs; choose a mount point that leaves tail for presses without killing switch stability; keep boot–binding delta and swing weight consistent across your “shoot” and “training” setups. Street days are decided by repeatability—if the kit feels identical from park laps to a night mission, you’ll hold grabs longer and land more centered when it counts.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Bergeron is a case study in readable difficulty. His Real Ski medal validated an approach that values line design, trick clarity, and build quality as much as spin count. For fans, that means edits worth replaying; for developing riders, a blueprint: map your approach first, pick tricks that use the obstacle end-to-end, and leave with a ride-away you could reproduce tomorrow. In an era where contest streams and film drops blur together, his work shows how local crews, strong fundamentals, and disciplined filming can still cut through.

Quick reference (places)

• Québec City
• Lac-Beauport
• Kläppen Snowpark
• Mammoth Mountain
• Vallée du Parc

Principal sponsors

• Armada — skis
• Picture Organic Clothing — outerwear
• D-Structure — Québec retail/scene partner

Liam Downey is an American freerider from Vermont, active since the 2000s and a prominent figure in ski films by Level 1. He became known for his authentic style and humor in memorable segments like Forward (2005) and Long Story Short (2006). In 2011, he joined the KLIŅT collective, continuing to bring a personal, creative approach to frontcountry and powder skiing. Downey has always favored film segments over competitions, believing that it’s the footage that truly stays in collective memory.

Mike Hornbeck, from Bangor, Michigan, has established himself as a key figure in urban and freeskiing thanks to his fluid style and creativity on rails and features. He rose to prominence in Level 1 films like Real Time and After Dark, later joining Armada and working on ambitious video projects with his own crew. A humble, hard-working Midwesterner, he’s balanced skiing with carpentry to support his family. A true street skiing icon, Hornbeck inspires with his straightforward, authentic approach, championing skiing as something accessible to everyone.

Philip Casabon, known to skiers around the world as B-Dog, is a Canadian freeski legend from Shawinigan, Québec, whose influence on street and park skiing spans more than a decade of groundbreaking video parts, signature products and era-defining style. He emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s as a rider who could make complex tricks look effortless, pairing technical precision with a relaxed body language that reads clearly on camera and in person. While many athletes built careers around podiums, Casabon built a catalog around originality and storytelling, proving that progression in freeskiing is measured not just by spin counts, but by ideas, rhythm and the way a skier uses terrain. Casabon’s breakthrough years were intertwined with a creative partnership with Henrik Harlaut under the B&E banner, culminating in invitational events that showcased style, flow and unconventional features. Those projects amplified a philosophy that still guides his skiing today. Lines are designed like sentences with a beginning, middle and end. Approach speed is chosen to preserve cadence rather than to force difficulty. Takeoffs are decisive and axes are set early so rotations remain readable and landings ride away clean. The result is footage that ages well and remains instructive for younger riders studying how to combine rails, walls, gaps and banks into coherent sequences. The contest world eventually embraced video-based formats, and Casabon became a benchmark there as well. In X Games Real Ski he delivered all-urban segments that balanced heavy enders with subtle touches: nose and tail presses that carry real weight, surface swaps performed on imperfect steel, redirected spins that treat walls and banks as extensions of the rail line. Those edits demonstrated mastery of spot selection, logistics and risk management under tight timelines. They also highlighted a symbiosis with filmer and editor Brady Perron, whose eye for pacing and framing magnified Casabon’s skating-inspired approach to edges, balance and transitions. Equipment is a central part of Casabon’s story. His signature park and street skis became known for playful flex in the tips and tails, supportive underfoot platforms and shapes that feel neutral on unknown landing angles. He is meticulous about mount points that keep swing weight balanced without sacrificing landing stability, and he is vocal about edge durability, torsional support and base speed on contaminated snow. In boots, he gravitated to progressive designs that preserve ankle articulation and rebound for presses and quick recentering after surface changes. This product literacy turns gear into a creative partner rather than an afterthought, and it informs a steady stream of feedback to designers who translate rider needs into shapes and constructions that withstand urban abuse. Casabon’s training habits reveal why the style looks so effortless. Off snow he emphasizes hip and ankle mobility, single-leg strength for efficient pop on short run-ins, and trunk stability to manage off-axis rotations without letting the upper body flail. Trampoline and air-awareness sessions break big tricks into components, rehearsing set mechanics, grab timing and spotting before full-scale attempts. On snow he builds lines from low-consequence moves, scaling them patiently into heavy features once speed, angles and snow texture are predictable. That incremental method reduces injuries and preserves longevity in a discipline where impact tolerance is often mistaken for progress. Storytelling is another thread that runs through his career. Casabon treats each project like an album rather than a single, choosing music, color and pacing that serve the skiing. He shows the process in behind-the-scenes moments: shoveling and salting to control speed, testing inruns at dawn when light is flat but traffic is light, cleaning spots and restoring environments out of respect for neighborhoods. This transparency sets a standard for urban filming etiquette and keeps doors open for future crews. It also explains why his films are rewatchable; they offer both the satisfaction of heavy tricks and the narrative of how those tricks were made possible. Community impact rounds out his profile. Casabon mentors younger riders by translating complex technique into simple cues: align early on the inrun, commit to a clean set, keep shoulders calm through impact, and ride away with purpose. He is honest about fear management, using visualization and measured increments to turn nerves into information rather than noise. In camps and informal sessions he shares the small adjustments that create big gains, from binding ramp angle to edge bevels that keep rails viable on cold mornings. As freeskiing continues to evolve, Casabon remains a reference point for authenticity. He releases tightly curated video parts, appears at select events, and collaborates with brands in ways that preserve the integrity of his style while pushing product design forward. His legacy is not confined to medals or one winter’s highlight reel. It lives in a generation of skiers who learned that creativity can be systematic, that style is a skill built on fundamentals, and that a line that reads beautifully will always matter. For fans and aspiring riders, Philip Casabon stands as proof that street skiing can be both refined and raw, both disciplined and free, and that the most enduring progression happens when craft, culture and community move together.