Tanner Hall "Continuance" - TYROLIA Obsession Diaries, Episode 1

02:44 min • 06/12/2020

What drives a world-class athlete like Tanner Hall to keep pushing at 37? We asked him this question and Tanner had a pretty convincing answer! So don't waste any time and take a look at this short edit featuring unseen footage and a little best-of of the scenes from his latest movie "Eternal". #KeepsYouBrave Rider: Tanner Hall Editor: Corey Stanton Welcome to the TYROLIA Obsession Diaries. For over 90 years the genuine obsession – building the best bindings in terms of quality, safety and technical perfection - lies at the core of TYROLIA‘s mission. When passion becomes obsession, a force develops that drives us and our athletes to pursue our goals. These videos are an expression of that force! Check out our collection on https://www.tyrolia.com

Athlete Presentation

Athletes

Tanner Hall

Profile and significance

Tanner Hall—universally known as the “Ski Boss”—is one of freeskiing’s defining figures. Raised in Montana and forged in Utah park culture, he turned the early-2000s twin-tip revolution into a permanent shift in how slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and backcountry segments are skied and filmed. Hall’s competitive résumé is unmatched in its era: 11 Winter X Games medals with golds across superpipe, slopestyle and big air, a haul celebrated even by his longtime ski partner Armada. He co-founded Armada Skis in 2002 alongside JP Auclair and a core crew, codifying the rider-run brand model that many teams still emulate. After his early contest peak, he extended his reach with influential movie parts and later brought his power and feel to freeride venues, taking a podium in Japan while competing on the Freeride World Tour.

Hall’s significance goes beyond medals. He helped define park and pipe amplitude, he changed what counted as “clean” style in urban/street skiing and backcountry, and he became an archetype for longevity: comebacks from devastating injuries, followed by a second act of heavy edits and freeride results. For skiers who judge by both scoreboards and film parts, Hall is a cornerstone reference.

Competitive arc and key venues

Hall’s rise runs from Montana to Utah to Aspen. He learned to ski at Whitefish Mountain Resort, moved in his mid-teens to Park City for structured training and then began collecting major results while progressing tricks that read clearly at speed. His early X Games wins in big air and slopestyle set the pace; the superpipe three-peat era established his signature amplitude. Aspen’s Snowmass and Buttermilk venues became recurring theaters for those runs. After injuries reset the trajectory, he rebuilt through filming blocks and selective contests, then stepped into big-mountain inspection with the Freeride World Tour, where he earned second place at Hakuba in 2019 and later returned on a 2023 event wildcard.

Two places explain the durability of his career. Park City Mountain gave him long seasons, world-class halfpipe shaping and the repetition to make amplitude look easy. In British Columbia, Hall invested time and energy around Retallack, where storm snow and sustained pitches turned his pop and edge control into stacked backcountry lines. The mix—contest-shaped parks and authentic powder terrain—lets his skiing translate everywhere from a floodlit pipe to glaciated pillows.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hall’s style is built on timing, power and definition. Into takeoffs he stays tall, sets late and locks grabs early enough that the axis reads from the lip. In superpipe, watch the way he organizes his edges and hips before the wall—he loads the ski so the release is explosive rather than frantic, which is why his height out of the pipe has long been a benchmark. On rails and in street, he favors square entries and presses held just long enough to be unambiguous, with swaps that look inevitable rather than improvised. In backcountry, he carries the same discipline into natural features: ankles and hips start the butter, shoulders stay quiet, and landings arrive stacked over the feet.

The common thread is clarity. You can slow a Hall clip and still read the idea: patient pop, honest grab definition, centered landings. That legibility is part of why his runs aged well and why his segments—park, street or powder—became study material for a generation.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Hall’s resilience is central to his legend. In 2005 he famously shattered both ankles overshooting Chad’s Gap in Utah; in 2009 a filming crash in Washington destroyed both knees. He rebuilt twice, returning to X Games podium contention and then retooling his career around heavy parts and freeride competition. Through it all he kept filming: Poor Boyz Productions classics, the Inspired era he launched with Eric Iberg, and a steady stream of late-career projects that proved power and style survive long after most pros retire. When X Games took freeskiing to video with Real Ski, Hall’s entries and later Real Ski 2021 appearance showed how his approach meshes with modern, edit-first formats.

Influence also flows through equipment culture. As a founder of Armada, he helped shift the center of gravity toward athlete-led design and storytelling. That brand’s presence in parks, urban parts and powder edits—along with projects honoring JP Auclair—kept Hall’s technical choices and aesthetic priorities visible for young riders learning the craft.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Whitefish Mountain Resort gave Hall his first laps and an all-terrain foundation. Park City provided length of season, high-caliber halfpipe construction and contest-ready slopestyle lines—the training ground for his medal years. Aspen’s Snowmass/Buttermilk complex hosted many of the runs that cemented his X Games legacy. North of the border, Retallack brought sustained fall-line snow and real-world decision-making, producing backcountry parts that matched the authority of his park clips. Thread those venues together and you see why his skiing reads the same whether the stage is a perfect pipe wall or a wind-affected pillow stack.

Later, freeride stops from Japan to the Rockies gave Hall new canvases, but the fingerprints remained consistent: measured speed, stacked landings, and choices that keep flow intact for what comes next.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Hall’s name is inseparable from Armada Skis. Over two decades he’s ridden and influenced platforms that span park icons to deep-snow shapes—tools chosen to pop predictably, press cleanly and stay stable at his trademark amplitudes. For skiers trying to borrow the feel, the hardware lesson is principle-based. A true twin with a balanced, medium-stiff flex will let you load the lip without folding and still hold presses on steel. A light detune at the contact points reduces rail bite while preserving trustworthy grip for pipe walls and jump takeoffs. A near-center mount keeps switch landings neutral and presses level. Binding ramp that’s too aggressive pushes you into the backseat; aim to stack hips over feet so you can release power on demand instead of rescuing landings.

Equally important is process. Film the lap, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against a short checklist, and repeat until patient pop and early grab definition become automatic. That workflow—visible across his edits and Real Ski entry—is the part any motivated skier can copy.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Tanner Hall because he merged progression with clarity and then proved it lasts. The medals at Aspen, the segments from Park City to British Columbia, the later freeride results in Hakuba—each chapter shows the same readable language: calm into the lip, explosive but organized release, and landings that keep the line moving. Progressing riders care because those choices scale to ordinary parks and real snowpacks. You don’t need a contest bib to apply the blueprint—just patience at the takeoff, early grab definition, square exits from rails and stacked landings that set up the next hit. Two decades after he helped design the culture around athlete-led brands and film-driven skiing, the Ski Boss remains a living checklist for how modern freeskiing should look and feel.

Brand overview and significance

Tyrolia is one of skiing’s foundational binding makers. Founded in 1847 in Vienna and now part of the HEAD Group in Schwechat, Austria, the company has spent decades refining how power transfers to the ski—and how that power releases when it should. Tyrolia’s catalog spans race, frontside, all-mountain, freeride/freestyle, junior, rental/demo systems, and touring, making it a true full-line specialist rather than a niche label. For Skipowd readers, the brand hub for Tyrolia pulls together edits and projects that show how its bindings appear everywhere from rope-tow parks to World Cup tracks. The simple value proposition is reliability with a ride feel that matches modern skis: elastic where you want forgiveness, precise where you need edge control, and predictable when falls get complicated.

Tyrolia’s importance rests on two pillars. First, a long engineering arc—from early diagonal-release concepts to today’s Protector heel—has pushed safety forward without abandoning strong retention. Second, the company builds for the entire spectrum of skiers: a park rider on a twin, a carver on race plates, a freerider in tracked powder, a touring skier on a long approach. That breadth, paired with alpine heritage and the resources of a major group, keeps Tyrolia central to how skiers think about bindings.

Product lines and key technologies

Tyrolia organizes by use-case, so choosing a family is straightforward. The freeski core is the Attack line—clean mechanics, wide stance, alpine/GripWalk compatibility, and a step-in that stays crisp after seasons of laps. For skiers who want additional knee-safety engineering, the Protector series adds a dedicated full-heel lateral release designed to reduce ACL strain in typical backward-twisting falls, while otherwise skiing like a modern resort binding. On the race side, Freeflex platforms pair with plates to let the ski arc cleanly at high edge angles; on-piste skiers who love precise carving often choose these for their damp, planted feel. Tyrolia’s system/rental rails (PowerRail, SLR) prioritize quick, tool-light adjustments for shops and families, and junior lines scale springs and interfaces appropriately for lighter skiers. Touring is covered by Ambition frame bindings for skiers who value a familiar alpine feel on the descent but need an efficient pivot for the climb.

Key mechanics repeat across the range. Tyrolia emphasizes elastic travel to resist pre-release in rough snow and to return smoothly to center after impacts; adjustable toe height and a proper anti-friction interface preserve consistent release with alpine and GripWalk soles; wide mounting footprints increase leverage on broader skis; and heel tracks are engineered for repeatable forward-pressure settings so performance doesn’t drift mid-season. The net effect is a “sorted” ride: predictable step-in, firm edge hold when you want to lay it over, and a clean, timely release in the kinds of falls skiers actually have.

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

All-mountain and park skiers gravitate to Attack for its low-stack, unflustered feel on jumps, rails, trees and chopped-up afternoons. If your winter mixes groomers, side hits and storm days, the platform’s elasticity and stance make it a reliable daily driver. Carvers and ski-club chargers who spend mornings on hard snow will appreciate the plate-ready race constructions that steady the ski at speed and keep turn shape tidy when the piste turns slick. If knee safety is high on your list, Protector gives you a modern resort binding with an extra release pathway at the heel—useful insurance for the backward-twist scenarios that catch even expert skiers.

For tour-curious riders chasing sidecountry laps or spring traverses, Ambition frame bindings offer a practical crossover: efficient enough for regular climbs, familiar on the way down, and friendly to a wide range of boots. Families, growing juniors and shop fleets benefit from the brand’s rail systems, which make correct sizing and stance adjustments quick and repeatable.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

While bindings rarely headline athlete rosters, Tyrolia’s presence is obvious in two arenas. On the racing side, its plate and binding systems appear under world-level athletes aligned with the HEAD ecosystem, where clean edge hold and measured elasticity directly affect timesheets. In freeskiing, Attack is a common sight in film segments and park edits precisely because it balances retention and step-in simplicity during long shoot days. Inside liftlines the brand has a plain-spoken reputation: durable hardware, DIN that feels honest, parts you can service, and behavior that doesn’t surprise you at speed.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

Tyrolia’s engineering and manufacturing live in Schwechat near Vienna, embedding the brand in Austria’s dense network of race clubs, glaciers and freeride venues. That context matters—repeatable test lanes, real storms, and clubs that put a thousand miles on gear each season. To picture the environments that shape the product, think of Austrian venues like Kitzbühel on race weeks and the glacier routines of Stubai and Kitzsteinhorn. On the freeride and film side, the bindings rack up mileage across British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest; our place page for Whistler-Blackcomb shows the kind of variable, high-volume terrain where Attack and Protector spend their days. For a broader regional view, the Skipowd overview for Austria situates the parks, pistes and glaciers that keep testing loops tight.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

Under the housings, Tyrolia uses reinforced toe and heel architectures with purposeful spring curves and ramp profiles so the ski tracks rather than chatters. Wide-body toe pieces spread loads on modern skis; long heel tracks maintain alignment over seasons of use; and anti-friction interfaces are designed to stay smooth under pressure, which keeps release values accurate. The company’s race plates allow the ski to flex naturally underfoot (rather than “hinging” at the binding), and resort platforms aim for low, even stack heights that preserve feel.

Durability is as much layout as material. Protected AFDs, robust heel towers and serviceable brakes reduce failure points. Published compatibility with alpine and GripWalk soles simplifies boot swaps, and spares—brakes, AFDs, heel tracks—extend service life. On the responsibility side, the most important signal is longevity: a binding that can be maintained and re-mounted over multiple ski lives avoids churn and waste far more effectively than a minor material swap. Being part of the HEAD Group also aligns Tyrolia with a wider sustainability framework around materials, packaging and energy, even as the bindings themselves remain metal-and-polymer tools built for the long haul.

How to choose within the lineup

Start with where and how you ski. If your days are lift-served and split between groomers, trees and park, a modern freeride/freestyle chassis like Attack covers the bases with a confident step-in and broad brake options. If you prioritize knee-safety engineering for backward-twist falls, Protector builds that additional heel-release pathway into an everyday resort binding. For hard-snow precision—carving drills, club training, or beer-league timing—race-derived Freeflex bindings paired with appropriate plates keep the ski quiet and the edge loaded cleanly.

Next, match DIN honestly. Use body weight, boot-sole length and ability as the baseline rather than ego. Properly set bindings (including toe height/AFD and forward pressure) hold when they should and release when they must; a shop technician should set and verify these on your actual boots. Then size your brakes—aim for a width close to your ski’s waist or a few millimeters wider, avoiding arms that snag in ruts or flare beyond the edges. Finally, confirm sole standards: if you alternate boots, make sure your bindings are labeled for both ISO 5355 (alpine) and ISO 23223 (GripWalk), and get the toe height checked whenever you change shells.

Tour-curious skiers should decide between frame and tech. Tyrolia’s Ambition frame binding is the brand’s answer for riders who want uphill efficiency with a downhill feel that mirrors their alpine setups—great for spring missions and sidecountry laps without rebuilding the entire boot/binding system. If most of your winter is lift-served, this simplicity can outweigh the gram savings of niche options.

Why riders care

Bindings are invisible—right up until they aren’t. Tyrolia’s appeal is making that invisibility the norm: a calm, repeatable step-in; a ski that tracks the line you asked for; and a release that behaves the way modern fall mechanics demand. From Austrian race lanes to British Columbia storm cycles, the brand’s platforms map cleanly to real use-cases: Attack for daily resort laps, Protector for added knee-safety engineering, Freeflex for precise carving and racing, Ambition for pragmatic touring days. Layer in a century-plus of alpine manufacturing and the resources of a major group, and you get a binding label that earns trust season after season—quietly, which is exactly how your bindings should work.

Tanner Hall "Continuance" - TYROLIA Obsession Diaries, Episode 1

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Tanner Hall

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