The Wild Indians | ABM | FULL FILM

Profile and significance

Alex Beaulieu-Marchand—universally known as ABM—is one of the defining Canadian freeskiers of his era, bridging elite contests and high-level filming with rare consistency. Born in Quebec City in 1994, he delivered a landmark result for Canada when he earned Olympic bronze in men’s ski slopestyle at PyeongChang 2018. That medal, combined with a haul of five X Games medals across slopestyle, big air, and Real Ski, and a 2019 FIS World Championships big air bronze in Park City, places him among the most decorated all-around freeskiers of the past decade. Just as importantly for fans, ABM is a rare athlete whose style reads as clearly on a slopestyle course as it does in an urban segment, making him essential viewing whether you follow competitions, street skiing, or both.

ABM’s reputation rests on substance more than hype. He first appeared at the Olympics as a finalist at Sochi 2014, overcame major injuries in the seasons that followed, and then returned to the very top of the sport by the end of the decade. His ski IQ—especially on rails—turned into a calling card: clean lock-ins, directional changes with purpose, and landings that keep speed alive for the next feature. That polish helps explain how he could step from podium moments at Aspen into the all-street format of Real Ski and still earn a medal there too. Few riders thread that needle as convincingly.

Competitive arc and key venues

ABM’s competitive arc traces the modern freeski pathway: early World Cups and Dew Tour appearances, a breakout X Games podium, and then a sustained period of podium-level runs at the sport’s headline events. He won slopestyle bronze at X Games Aspen in 2017, followed by the signature moment of his career—the Olympic bronze at PyeongChang 2018. In 2019 he produced one of the strongest single-year résumés of anyone in freeskiing: silver in big air and silver in slopestyle at Aspen Snowmass, bronze in Real Ski, and another big air bronze at the X Games stop in Norway. That same winter he added a World Championships bronze in big air at Park City, cementing his versatility.

Venues matter in how his skiing matured. Aspen has long been the proving ground for ABM’s jump and rail balance, while Breckenridge nurtured his early Dew Tour success and gave him the repetitions needed to scale tricks to XL features. Closer to home, the park culture around Quebec City—including Le Relais and Stoneham—fed his rail precision and urban instincts. It’s a circuit that spans manicured, high-speed courses and gritty winter cityscapes, and ABM has shown he can translate between the two without losing his identity.

How they ski: what to watch for

ABM’s skiing is built around clarity of intent. On rails, he emphasizes early edge commitment and solid center-of-mass control, which allows him to execute technical switch-ups and directional changes without scrambling. His exits are deliberate—he protects speed into the next panel of features, an asset in modern slopestyle scoring where momentum and link-up difficulty matter. On jumps, he’s known for precise takeoff timing and full-value grabs that stabilize rotations. You’ll often see him set rotations early and stay stacked in the air, enabling crisp axis control on doubles and triples and giving him options to alter grab sequences mid-spin.

What to watch in a run: ABM’s ability to vary spin direction and stance while keeping a consistent line speed. He can open rails with a high-difficulty lock-in, carry that speed to a left-spinning jump with a deep grab, then change direction for a switch takeoff on the next hit. The effect is a run that looks smooth to casual viewers but reveals dense technical content to experienced eyes. It’s the same economy you see in his street work—precise approaches, stable body position on impact, and clean outruns that don’t need dramatic recoveries to hold your attention.

Resilience, filming, and influence

ABM’s career includes significant injuries—collarbone, knee—that could have derailed momentum. Instead, those setbacks became inflection points. The comeback culminated in his Olympic bronze and the medal-laden 2019 campaign, but the long-term impact is broader: he demonstrated that a rail-forward technician could thrive in the biggest-air era by leaning into fundamentals and incremental difficulty gains rather than one-off risk. That template has influenced younger riders who prioritize repeatability and line design.

Filming has always been part of ABM’s identity. His Real Ski bronze established his credentials in the all-urban format. Later projects, including the short film “Mirage,” showcase a mature approach to concept and terrain selection, shifting seamlessly from park to natural features while keeping the same commitment to control and trick shape. For brands and fans alike, this duality—contest readiness paired with art-forward filming—makes ABM one of the sport’s most watchable athletes year-round.

Geography that built the toolkit

Quebec City winters shaped ABM’s toolset. Long, cold seasons and consistent snowfall give urban spots staying power, and the local lifts serve up the repetitions that turn rail ideas into habits. Laps at Le Relais and sessions at Stoneham honed timing on smaller, quicker features where approach and exit angles are unforgiving. That background helps explain his composure on World Cup-scale rails and why his street segments feel both ambitious and controlled.

On the contest circuit, Aspen Snowmass offered the clearest mirror for his best form, while Breckenridge remains synonymous with progression blocks where he added jump variety without sacrificing landing shape. The World Championship stage at Park City validated his big-air credentials in a setting known for meticulous jumps and high elevation, a combination that spotlights takeoff discipline and mid-air stability—two of ABM’s strengths.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

ABM rides Völkl skis with Marker bindings and wears Orage outerwear and Auclair gloves. The through-line across that kit is dependable platform feel and durability for both park laps and urban impacts. For progressing skiers using ABM as a model, the practical notes are straightforward: choose a park-capable ski with a balanced flex that allows proper presses on rails but won’t fold on large takeoffs; pair it with bindings that deliver elastic travel and predictable release; and invest in outerwear and gloves that keep mobility high across sub-zero sessions common to Quebec winters and late-night street shoots.

ABM’s gear choices support his style rather than define it. Even in the era of triple-cork arms races, his runs stand out because grabs are held, spin directions alternate, and landings are purposefully centered. Equipment is there to enable those habits; the technique makes them count.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

ABM matters because he shows what modern freeski completeness looks like: an Olympic medalist who can still film an urban segment worth replaying; a five-time X Games medalist whose best traits are accessible to learn from; a technician who treats rails as the backbone of a run and jumps as the canvas for clean, directionally varied tricks. If you’re watching slopestyle and big air to spot runs that age well on rewatch, ABM’s are a safe bet. If you’re a skier refining your own park game, study his line speed, his early grab timing, and how he exits rails with the next feature already in mind. That is the blueprint that took him from Quebec parks and streets to podiums at Aspen, Park City, and PyeongChang, and it’s why his skiing continues to resonate well beyond the scoreboard.

Profile and significance

Émile “Bmile” Bergeron 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. Years of clips with Quebec crews and frequent cameos in projects anchored by Phil Casabon and Brady Perron had already put him on the radar; Real Ski confirmed to a global audience what the core scene knew: Bergeron is a case study in readable difficulty. His best work turns complex spots into coherent lines that make sense at full speed, a quality that fans rewatch and riders can learn from.

Brand support reflects that identity. He rides for Armada Skis, wears Picture Organic Clothing, and stays rooted in Québec’s scene via shop partner D-Structure. The combination signals priorities—durable platforms, predictable swing weight, and a community-first approach—that line up with a career built more on edits than on bib numbers.

Competitive arc and key venues

Bergeron’s headline result is Real Ski 2020 silver, a medal earned in an all-video, judge-voted format where trick quality, spot selection, and line design carry as much weight as rotation counts. The segment distilled his approach: measured speed into unforgiving takeoffs, early grabs or presses that stabilize the axis, and exits that protect momentum so the next feature arrives on time. Before and after that moment, his calendar has centered on projects and scene events that sharpen the same habits. He turns up at spring gatherings around Sweden’s Kläppen, stacks street footage at home in Québec City, and keeps timing sharp with park laps at Le Relais and Stoneham when the storm cycle cooperates.

Two Québec venues, in particular, explain his toolkit. Night laps at Le Relais in Lac-Beauport reward honest edge angles and quick decisions on compact in-runs; mistakes get punished quickly, so economy becomes second nature. A short drive away, Stoneham adds higher-speed park panels and a dense rail zone that make cadence and line choice pivotal. Those places, paired with the city’s winter architecture, created the foundation for his street work. When he travels—Kläppen in the spring or larger resort builds in the Alps—the same rhythm holds: protect line speed, finish tricks early, and let the course breathe.

How they ski: what to watch for

Bergeron skis with deliberate economy. Approaches square up early, shoulders stay stacked, and lock-ins look decisive rather than dramatic. On rails he favors surface swaps that resolve cleanly, presses with visible shape, and exits that leave enough speed for the next setup. On jumps he commits to the grab early—safety, tail, or blunt depending on axis—and holds it long enough to calm the rotation and keep his hips over his feet. Directional variety is there—forward and switch, left and right—but never at the expense of cadence. The tell in his clips is spacing: each trick creates room for the next one instead of stealing from it, which is why his lines read clearly at 1x speed without slow-motion rescue.

For viewers trying to “see” the difference, track three cues. First, he sets takeoff height with patience; there’s no frantic reach for the lip. Second, grab choice is functional, not decorative—it stabilizes axis and dictates landing shape. Third, you can feel momentum survive landings; he rarely needs panic turns or speed-killing checks to set up the next feature. Those traits scan just as well on a Quebec staircase as they do on a spring booter in Scandinavia.

Resilience, filming, and influence

The through-line of Bergeron’s career is composure. Long before Real Ski, he shadowed and collaborated with Québec’s leading stylists, absorbing a film grammar that prizes honest speed and clean exits. His own projects—shorts like “The Big Batch,” street pieces shot around Québec City, and contributions to friends’ edits—stick to that grammar. The result is footage that ages well: it’s legible at full speed, it shows decision-making rather than chaos, and it rewards rewatching because the trick math is transparent. Editors trust his shots because they don’t rely on quick cuts to hide sketchy landings; younger skiers emulate the way he finishes tricks early enough to ride away centered.

Influence also shows up locally. Backed by D-Structure and filming on familiar terrain, Bergeron helps keep Québec City positioned as a capital of urban skiing. The community sees how a Real Ski medalist builds a spot, maps approach angles, and chooses tricks that use an obstacle end to end. That approach has a ripple effect: crews raise build quality, riders invest in speed management, and the region continues to produce segments that travel well beyond provincial borders.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place is the skeleton of Bergeron’s skiing. The winter rhythm of Québec City—cold nights, reliable snowmaking, and dense urban features—teaches honesty. At Le Relais, night skiing and compact radii punish late commitments and sloppy edge angles, so repetition breeds tidy mechanics. Stoneham layers in faster snow and longer in-runs where early grab timing and centered landings become non-negotiable. The city itself supplies the stair sets, closeouts, and wall rides that form a street skier’s vocabulary. When spring moves the scene to Kläppen, the features are bigger but the demands are the same: protect speed, space tricks thoughtfully, and keep body position quiet so the line holds its shape from first hit to last.

This loop—local parks, city missions, Scandinavian spring blocks—explains why his skiing travels. Swap conditions and backdrops as you like; the habits remain portable because they’re built on timing and momentum management rather than on single-use spectacle.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Bergeron’s kit is designed for repeatability. Armada provides park-capable platforms with balanced swing weight for early-grab, measured-spin skiing and the edge durability street segments demand. Picture Organic Clothing covers long, variable filming days with weatherproof, mobility-friendly outerwear. D-Structure, as a home-province partner, keeps his setup grounded in the community that shaped him. For skiers translating this into their own choices, the lesson is category fit over model names: pick a symmetrical or near-symmetrical park ski and mount it so presses feel natural without compromising takeoff stability; tune edges to hold on steel yet soften contact points to avoid surprise bites on swaps; and maintain fast bases so cadence doesn’t depend on perfect weather. None of this replaces timing, but the right platform makes timing repeatable.

There’s a process lesson, too. Bergeron’s medal-winning part didn’t come from throwing the biggest possible trick first—it came from mapping approaches, building well, and letting trick selection serve the spot. That mindset works for anyone: choose lines you can finish cleanly, commit to early control inputs (grabs and body position), and leave with momentum intact. It’s how good skiing reads clearly, whether the camera is ten meters from a Quebec handrail or panning through a spring park in Sweden.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Émile Bergeron matters because he turns difficulty into clarity. His Real Ski silver validated a style the scene already valued—calm mechanics, spot-specific trick choice, and landings that feed the next move. For fans, that makes his segments endlessly rewatchable; for developing skiers, it turns “style” from a vibe into a checklist you can practice: square the approach early, use the grab to stabilize the axis, and protect momentum through the outrun. If you’re tracking freeski for street parts that hold up on first watch and on frame-by-frame breakdowns, keep Bergeron near the top of your list. The toolkit is proven, and the influence continues to ripple from Lac-Beauport to every park where riders learn to make hard things look simple.

Profile and significance

Jean “Jean-Spag” Prince, better known in ski credits as Jean Spag, is a core Quebec urban freeskier whose name is woven into one of the most influential street eras in modern skiing. As part of the WFProductions crew from Quebec City, he appears in the full-length movie “Le Grinch,” a 2012 film that follows the WFP family through a winter of handrails and night missions, and later in the urban project “The Wild Indians” alongside Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Émile Bergeron, Jérôme Vallée and Paul Bergeron. These projects, premiered at festivals and shared by major freeski media, helped define how Quebec street skiing looked in the early–mid 2010s: gritty, creative, and set to reggae and hip-hop soundtracks.

Jean Spag is not a contest skier chasing FIS points; he is a film rider whose impact lives in segments, web edits and crew projects. When magazines and websites highlight The Wild Indians as a heavy urban project and list his name beside internationally known pros, it underlines his status as part of a small, highly respected circle of Quebec street riders. For freeski fans and film nerds, he represents the archetype of the local specialist who may not be famous to the general public, but whose work is immediately recognized by anyone who followed the Quebec street wave of that era.

Competitive arc and key venues

Because Jean Spag’s story is film-driven rather than contest-driven, his “competitive arc” is really a timeline of projects and cities. Early on, he emerged as part of the WFP family in Quebec City, contributing shots to WFProductions movies that focused on urban features and park sessions. “Le Grinch,” the fourth film from the crew, showcased their 2012 season of rail missions and park laps, with Jean-Spag Prince listed among the featured skiers. The movie premiered to core audiences at freeski film festivals before being released online, instantly slotting him into the Quebec street canon.

Several years later, his name reappeared in the credits of The Wild Indians, an urban project built around Alex Beaulieu-Marchand and Émile Bergeron that quickly circulated through major freeski outlets. The film was shot largely in Québec, with a heavy emphasis on city rails, creative ledge setups and night sessions in industrial zones. As part of a compact cast that included some of the most technically gifted riders of their generation, Jean Spag contributed to a project that many fans now associate with ABM’s move from contest dominance to serious street credentials. In that context, his “results sheet” consists of being trusted to deliver shots in projects that still get replayed by street-ski fans years later.

How they ski: what to watch for

Although there are fewer public solo edits than for some of his co-stars, Jean Spag’s skiing in crew movies fits squarely into the classic Quebec urban mold: rail-focused, technically aware and tailored to look clean on camera. His spots are typical of the region’s street vocabulary—long handrails outside apartment blocks, kinked city stair sets, ledges alongside retaining walls, down-flat-downs in business districts. The emphasis is on control and commitment rather than sheer stunt size. Speed is usually set early, with calm approaches that leave space for the trick and the landing, instead of frantic speed checks at the last second.

On features, the tricks you see from him echo the broader Quebec style of the era: solid lock-ins on front and back slides, spin-on and spin-off variations, and the occasional transfer or wallride that uses the architecture of the spot instead of treating it as background. The skating influence that runs through many Quebec crews is visible in the way lines are pieced together—simple, readable tricks done with maximum confidence and minimal wobble, so that the viewer’s eye follows the whole feature instead of just a single moment. For progressing street and park riders studying these films today, the lesson is that clean execution, speed control and commitment matter as much as adding another half-rotation.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Street skiing segments demand a particular kind of resilience, and Jean Spag’s filmography reflects that. Projects like “Le Grinch” and The Wild Indians come from winters of shovelling snow into in-runs and landings, waiting for traffic gaps, dealing with security, and hiking the same stair set for hours to land a handful of tricks. Being part of multiple full-length releases from the same core film community shows that he was not a one-winter cameo; he was a reliable contributor across seasons, consistently bringing enough shots to justify his place in the credits.

While he has also expressed creativity outside of skiing—under the “JeanSpag” name on other platforms—his influence within freeskiing is mainly tied to the visual record of those years. When modern articles and video tags group him together with ABM, Émile Bergeron and Jérôme Vallée in the context of Quebec street skiing, they acknowledge his part in a movement that helped push urban skiing into tighter, more technical and more artistic territory. For riders who discovered freeski through those films, his sections are part of the visual language that still shapes how they think about city rails and winter missions.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography plays a big role in explaining the spots and style that define Jean Spag’s skiing. Quebec City and its surroundings are a natural laboratory for street riding: long winters, frequent storms, and dense urban zones full of staircases, government buildings and neighbourhood railings. Locations seen in WFProductions work capture that environment—concrete steps buried in snow, rails framed by stone walls and old brick, and night sessions lit by street lamps and car headlights. This kind of terrain forces skiers to adapt to icy stairs, variable snow depths and tight run-outs, sharpening their instincts for speed, angle and impact.

Montreal and other urban centres in the province offer complementary terrain: modern architecture with handrails of different heights and lengths, plazas that become natural jib zones after a storm, and industrial backdrops that suit the gritty aesthetic of reggae and hip-hop soundtracks. Spending winters hunting spots in and around these cities builds a toolkit of creativity and toughness. The result, as seen in Jean Spag’s segments, is a style that feels both spontaneous and carefully considered—a product of local winters as much as of individual talent.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

There is little public information about specific sponsors or signature products for Jean Spag, which fits the low-profile, core nature of his presence in films. However, the type of skiing he does dictates certain equipment choices. Urban and park riders in this scene typically rely on durable twin-tip skis with reinforced edges, mounted near the centre to make switch takeoffs and landings intuitive on rails and ledges. A medium flex that is forgiving enough for presses and butters, yet strong enough underfoot to survive repeated impacts on metal and concrete, is the usual baseline for the kind of spots seen in Quebec projects.

For skiers inspired by his segments, the practical gear takeaway is straightforward. Prioritise edge durability and predictable flex over high-speed carving performance. Detune tips and tails to avoid catching on kinked rails, keep boots snug enough to handle drops without heel lift, and choose outerwear warm enough for hours of standing around in sub-zero temperatures between attempts. None of this gear will automatically make you ski like a Quebec street rider, but it will give you the same kind of platform that crews like WFProductions relied on while filming projects that still get replayed today.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Jean Spag because he represents the working-class heart of a famous scene. When people remember the Quebec urban wave, they often think first of the biggest names, but those stars were surrounded by equally committed locals who spent the same long nights on the same stair sets. Jean Spag is one of those locals whose contribution shows up not in podium lists but in film credits and re-watchable segments, especially in “Le Grinch” and The Wild Indians.

For riders coming up in small parks or thinking about their first street missions, his path offers a realistic blueprint. You might never become the main headline in a film, but being part of a crew, consistently bringing solid shots and keeping the energy high on cold, difficult nights can still leave a mark on ski culture. Watching his appearances alongside friends and heavy-hitters in Quebec projects turns those films into more than just entertainment—they become a reminder that the culture is built as much by dedicated locals like Jean Spag as by the world-famous pros they share the screen with.

Profile and significance

Jérôme Vallée is a Quebec freeskier whose name is closely tied to one of the most interesting eras of urban and park skiing from eastern Canada. Active through the late 2000s and early 2010s, he grew from posting small personal edits online to riding in full-length ESK Media movies alongside some of Quebec’s most respected street and park skiers. Those films—especially “Interlude” and “Souvenirs”—put him on the radar of core freeski fans as part of a tight-knit crew stacking creative spots in Québec City, Montreal and beyond, at a time when the province was a global hotspot for progressive urban skiing.

Rather than chasing FIS points or World Cup start lists, Vallée followed the classic Quebec film path: winters built around finding rails, ledges and wallrides in cities and resorts, then stitching the best shots into parts and crew segments. In “Interlude,” he appears in a cast that includes names like JF Houle, Charles Gagnier, Alex Bellemare, Émile Bergeron and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, a lineup that underlines how seriously the local scene took his skiing. The follow-up movie “Souvenirs” again lists him among the featured riders in a project described as “mature and creative urban skiing,” reinforcing his status as one of the solid, camera-ready street specialists of his generation in Quebec.

Competitive arc and key venues

Vallée’s story is built more on filming than on podium photographs, but a rough competitive arc still emerges if you look at where his skiing appears. Early on he shared small online edits—short “petit vídeo de ski”–style clips showing park laps and playful freestyle skiing with friends on Quebec hills. Those early uploads carried the same DNA as the later film parts: creative use of modest features, an obvious love of sliding steel and an eagerness to grab any camera that was rolling.

His major “venues” became the locations chosen by ESK Media. Urban segments in Québec City and Montreal put him on long handrails, concrete ledges and kinked setups that defined the province’s street image during that era. Resort-based sessions at Mont-Sainte-Anne gave him more traditional park and side-hit playgrounds—jump lines, park rails and spring sidecountry lines filmed when the snow softened. The crew then exported that formula to Europe, with “Souvenirs” shot in places like Tignes and Val d’Isère, proving that their approach to street and resort jibbing translated smoothly from Quebec to the Alps.

Instead of a list of contest results, Vallée’s “competitive record” lives in how often he is named in trailers, reviews and festival write-ups. When film descriptions single out “some of Quebec’s best skiers” and include his name in the same breath as internationally known riders, it shows the respect he earned inside the scene. For a freeski culture that often values filmed impact as highly as formal medals, that credit is its own kind of result sheet.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching Jérôme Vallée in ESK Media films is to see a skier built for the streets: compact, balanced and clearly comfortable on metal. His urban segments are dominated by rail and ledge work rather than giant step-down gaps. Approach lines are tidy and deliberate; he sets his speed early, squares up to the feature and then lets the trick develop without last-second panic. Expect front and back slides that lock in for the full length of the rail, smooth spin-ons and spin-offs, and the occasional wallride or transfer line that uses the architecture of the spot rather than just the most obvious handrail.

On resort features, the same habits show through. Park rails at places like Mont-Sainte-Anne become testing grounds for the technical tricks that later appear in city spots, while mid-sized booters provide room for clean spins and solid grabs that still feel grounded in real-world skiing. His style is not about the largest spin count; it leans more towards tricks that match the scale of the feature and can be repeated and refined over a season. For progressing park and street skiers, the useful lesson is how much of his skiing relies on good basics—speed control, centred stance and early commitment—rather than wild, last-moment improvisation.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Vallée’s influence comes from persistence and presence in a specific slice of freeski history. Being part of multiple ESK Media movies meant showing up year after year: scouting spots in frigid Quebec winters, shovelling landings and in-runs, and accepting that most attempts would end in bails before one clip finally stuck. That willingness to endure cold nights, broken shovels and repeated tries is a quiet form of resilience that every street skier recognizes, even if it never appears in a result list.

Inside the crew dynamic, his role is that of a reliable segment rider—someone who can be counted on to produce a handful of strong shots during a season and to keep morale high when the weather and logistics are difficult. The fact that reviews and trailers for both “Interlude” and “Souvenirs” mention him by name, alongside riders who went on to larger international careers, shows that editors saw his footage as part of the films’ backbone. For younger skiers who watched those movies when they dropped, he was one of the faces that made urban Quebec skiing feel both aspirational and relatable.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography behind Jérôme Vallée’s skiing is almost a character in its own right. Québec City and Montreal provide dense urban canvases: long concrete stair sets, metal handrails buried in snowbanks, city park paths and industrial backdrops. Winters there are cold and snowy, which means the spots are plentiful but the conditions are harsh, forcing riders to deal with ice, wind and short daylight. That environment naturally develops precision on takeoffs and landings, careful inspection habits and a tough mindset when it comes to hiking a set of stairs fifty times for one clip.

Mont-Sainte-Anne and other regional resorts add a complementary layer. Spring sessions at Mont-Sainte-Anne offer softer landings, park jumps and rails that can be lapped repeatedly, letting Vallée and the ESK crew refine tricks that will later appear in the streets. When the project expanded to Europe for shoots in Tignes and Val d’Isère, the crew brought that same Quebec-bred creativity to glacier parks and alpine resort features. For viewers, understanding this geographical mix explains why his segments feel both gritty and polished: they grow out of real winter in Quebec cities, but they are sharpened on park lines at home and abroad.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Vallée’s segments sit firmly in the realm of urban and park skiing, and the equipment visible in ESK-style projects reflects that world. Riders in those films typically use modern twin-tip park skis with reinforced edges, mounted close to centre to make switch takeoffs and landings feel natural on rails and ledges. Stiff enough underfoot to survive repeated impacts on metal, but soft enough in the tips and tails to allow presses and butters, that kind of ski is the baseline tool for the kind of spots he skis.

For viewers and aspiring jib skiers, the practical takeaways are straightforward even without a detailed sponsor list. If your winter revolves around the kind of features seen in “Interlude” and “Souvenirs”—urban handrails, park rails, small drops and side hits—prioritise durability and predictability over pure high-speed performance. Detuned tips and tails, strong edges underfoot, boots that let you flex and absorb impacts, and outerwear that can handle long, cold nights in city streets will all do more for your skiing than a race-room setup. Vallée’s clips show what becomes possible when that kind of gear is paired with patience, repetition and a crew willing to put in the work.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Jérôme Vallée because he represents the working heart of a scene that shaped modern freeskiing. In an era when Quebec urban movies were inspiring riders around the world, he was one of the names in the credits doing the unglamorous, essential work: hiking stairs, learning new rail tricks, and helping fill out films that still hold up as snapshots of that time. He may not have the contest résumé of some of his co-stars, but the fact that he appears alongside them in well-regarded projects is part of what makes those movies feel inclusive and authentic rather than like pure star vehicles.

For skiers progressing in small parks or dreaming of their first street spot, Vallée’s path offers a realistic template. Start with simple edits with friends, focus on clean execution rather than the biggest possible trick, build or find features that fit your level, and treat each winter as a chance to add a few more strong clips. Watching his sections in ESK Media films turns into both nostalgia and instruction: a reminder that a dedicated local rider, given a camera, a crew and a lot of stubbornness, can help define how an entire region’s skiing looks on screen.

Profile and significance

Paul “B-Paul” Bergeron is a French-Canadian freeski original from the Québec City area whose style-first park and urban skiing helped define the late-2000s and early-2010s film era. Coming up through Le Relais in Lac-Beauport, he made his name with Québec crews like NSF and ESK before linking with North American outfits including Stept Productions and the Inspired Media family. His parts—often cut from night sessions, compact parks and hand-built city setups—showed a movement language that riders could study and copy: calm approaches, long-held presses, clean swaps and on-axis spins that read clearly on camera. Alongside the film work, he coached at Momentum Camps on Whistler Blackcomb, helping translate film-grade technique into steps everyday park skiers could apply.

Bergeron’s significance is cultural as much as competitive. He was a finalist in Level 1’s SuperUnknown during the series’ formative years and appeared at rider-driven showcases that prioritized style over scorecards, including the B&E era centered on Les Arcs. Sponsor chapters over the years reflected his street-park focus—apparel and shop partners like Jiberish and D-Structure, plus project links with the Level 1, Stept and Inspired communities. By the mid-2010s, he had become a reference point for rail craft and patient jump technique in Québec and beyond.

Competitive arc and key venues

Rather than chase a full World Cup calendar, Bergeron built his profile through films, web edits and rider-curated events. Early momentum came from SuperUnknown recognition and iF3-era film premieres in Montréal, where Quebec crews like ESK and NSF were pushing a distinct look. He later logged time with Stept and Inspired, joining projects and session weeks that valued originality and how well a line was told on camera. That arc placed him comfortably in the same ecosystem as peers who shaped the period’s freeski grammar.

Venue-wise, his skiing maps cleanly onto places that reward repetition and definition. Le Relais near Québec City provided night-lap volume and a tight-feature rhythm that forces accurate edge placement; big-build weeks at Mammoth Mountain layered in wind reads, long decks and XL timing; and Whistler Blackcomb—especially during Momentum Camps—offered controlled environments to refine and teach. European trips tied to the B&E generation brought him to Les Arcs, where skate-inspired modules emphasized presses, butters and creative transfers over pure amplitude. Together, those venues explain why his clips have such high replay value.

How they ski: what to watch for

Bergeron skis with economy and clear definitions of each movement. On rails he prefers square entries, backslides and nose/tail presses held long enough to be unmistakable, and exits where the shoulders stay aligned so speed carries into the next hit. Surface swaps are quiet, with minimal arm swing; the base stays flat through kinks because edge pressure is set early, not rescued late. On jumps and side hits, the hallmark is patience into the lip and grabs established before 180 degrees, which lets tweaks breathe without knocking the body off axis. Landings read centered and inevitable—soft ankles, hips over feet, skis re-engaged immediately. It’s a toolkit that coaches can point to and riders can emulate.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Injuries eventually pushed Bergeron to rebalance toward filmmaking and creative direction. The shift didn’t diminish his influence; it extended it. He continued to appear in and shape projects with crews like Stept and the Inspired circle, and he shared process and perspective in long-form conversations and interviews that documented the era from the inside. At camps in Whistler he translated the same patient habits that defined his parts—tall approaches, early grab definition, square-shoulder exits—into simple cues that help developing skiers progress without overreaching. For many park riders who came up studying web edits, his clips remain a study guide for turning modest speed into memorable skiing.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Le Relais in Lac-Beauport delivers dense features and night-skiing repetition, ideal for sharpening edge placement and switch comfort; the resort’s club culture around Québec City has launched multiple freeski names, and Bergeron is squarely in that lineage. Weeks at Mammoth Mountain exposed him to consistent big-park shapes and California’s high-alpine variables, while Whistler Blackcomb provided spring and summer rebuilds where each attempt could be filmed, reviewed and repeated. European sessions tied to the B&E generation at Les Arcs reinforced the value of creativity at low to medium speeds. Each location left a fingerprint you can still see in his skiing and the way he frames others through the lens.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Across projects, Bergeron favored press-friendly park platforms and a setup that supports patient movement rather than brute force. For skiers looking to borrow his feel, the practical lessons are straightforward. Choose a true park ski with a balanced, medium flex you can bend without folding; detune the contact points enough to reduce rail bite while keeping dependable edge hold on the lip; and mount close enough to center that switch landings feel neutral. Apparel and community anchors matter too—brands like Jiberish and shops like D-Structure have long served as hubs for street-park culture in Québec. Just as important is process: film laps, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against clear checkpoints, and iterate until the movements become automatic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Paul Bergeron because his skiing made style specific and teachable. He showed that a press has a duration, a shifty needs room to breathe, and a clean exit preserves speed for what comes next—and he packaged those ideas in parts that still hold up to slow-motion scrutiny. Progressing riders care because the same choices are repeatable on normal-sized parks: calm entries, patient pop, early grab definition and square-shoulder exits will elevate any line. Whether the backdrop is a night lap at Le Relais, a glacier build in Whistler, a big-park session at Mammoth or a creative setup in the Alps, the read is the same: deliberate, stylish freeskiing that rewards attention to detail.