TYROLIA My Obsession - Phil Casabon

05:04 min • 12/01/2022

There it is, the perfect rail. It shouldn't be a problem to master it - or should it? Effort, despair and frustration set in as you try far too often and fail again and again. Is this rail your final opponent? Follow Phil Casabon on his journey of obsession to film a special rail segment for X-Games RealSki. A genuine obsession that lies at the core of TYROLIA’s mission, inspiring relentless innovation; a truly contagious passion that we share with the athletes on team TYROLIA, our own TYROLIA employees, and all other passionate skiers. #Obsession Skiing: Phil "B-Dog" Casabon Footage: Brady Perron, Raph Sevigny Cut: Frederick Iliano https://www.ilianofilms.com/ Thumbnail Shot: Alexandre Casabon Check out our collection on https://www.tyrolia.com

Athletes

Philip Casabon

Profile and significance

Philip “B-Dog” Casabon is a Canadian freeski icon from Shawinigan, Québec, whose style-first language—presses, butters, nollies, reverts, and shiftys that breathe—reshaped modern park and urban skiing. He rose through night laps at his local hill, Vallée du Parc, and became one of the most influential riders of his generation by proving that creativity, definition, and flow can outweigh brute force. His cultural footprint is matched by hardware: back-to-back gold medals at X Games Real Ski in 2018 and 2019, plus the 2018 Fan Favorite nod, cemented his status as a peer-elected standard. In the same window, he released the widely praised film “En Particulier” with Brady Perron and was named Freeskier’s Skier of the Year, a rare double for a rider focused on film and street. Casabon matters because he made style specific and teachable—clips that hold up frame by frame and a movement language that any progressing skier can study and apply.

Competitive arc and key venues

Casabon’s competitive résumé is unconventional by design. Early in his career he tested himself in slopestyle at Aspen, making multiple Winter X Games appearances when the discipline was still defining itself. As urban skiing’s broadcast moment arrived, he shifted to segments and rider-curated showcases that better matched his voice. The pivot paid off: his 2018 X Games Real Ski gold, delivered alongside the Fan Favorite award, was followed by a repeat gold in 2019—rare back-to-back wins that confirmed his dominance in the all-video, all-street format. In the culture-defining B&E era at Les Arcs, he collected “Best Style” honors in both 2014 and 2015 on a skate-inspired setup designed to reward touch and originality. Those landmarks—Aspen’s spotlight, Real Ski’s medals, and Les Arcs’ style awards—map the arc of a skier who used competition as a proof-of-concept for ideas refined in edits.

The places tied to his name help explain the skiing. Vallée du Parc gave him the repetition and switch comfort that show up in his lines. Aspen’s big-build tempo at Aspen Snowmass taught wind calls, long decks, and pressure management under cameras. The B&E park at Les Arcs encouraged butters into spins, long presses, and transfers that value feel over amplitude. Together they shaped a rider who reads features instantly and turns modest speed into full sentences of skiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

Casabon skis with economy and definition. Approaches stay tall and neutral. He sets rotation late, locks grabs early—often with unmistakable tweaks—and lets the trick breathe rather than rushing the set. On rails, the signatures are square entries, long-held presses and backslides that are obvious to the eye, surface swaps with minimal arm swing, and exits where the shoulders stay aligned so momentum carries into the next feature. Even when the spot is complex, he organizes edge pressure early to keep the base flat through kinks, which is why his landings read inevitable rather than rescued. On jumps and side hits the same patience appears: pop comes from the feet up, grabs are defined before 180 degrees, and the upper body stays quiet so the skis do the storytelling. The result is a blueprint any rider can study—calm entry, patient pop, early grab definition, square-shoulder exit.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Casabon’s influence runs through films and community projects as much as medals. He built a decade-long catalog of replayable segments, culminating in the late-2010s run that paired Real Ski golds with a festival-tested film presence. The work emphasized honest speed, horizon awareness, and compositions that make slope angle and body organization clear—choices that help viewers learn, not just watch. In the B&E era, his partnership with Henrik Harlaut created a platform where style was the scorecard, then pushed those ideas back into parks, streets, and product design. Interviews and long-form conversations from this period reveal a method that prizes durability over hype: habits you can repeat when conditions are imperfect and cameras are rolling.

That durability—plus a willingness to mentor—keeps his influence alive in a generation that learns from edits. Coaches use his clips to illustrate patient setups and clean exits; riders break down his presses and shifty timing to build their own lines. He is both reference and proof: you do not need the world’s biggest jump to show world-class skiing if your movements are organized and your choices are clear.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. Shawinigan’s Vallée du Parc is a human-scale hill where repetition is abundant and mistakes are obvious. Night laps there forged the switch comfort, precise edging, and patience that define his rail game. The spotlight and wind at Aspen Snowmass layered in big-feature timing and composure. The creative modules at Les Arcs rewarded a horizontal vocabulary—presses, butters, wheelies—that Casabon helped popularize, proving that expression at low to medium speeds can be as compelling as amplitude. When you trace the map, you see the fingerprints in every clip: local-hill repetition, big-park patience, and skate-park creativity applied to snow.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Casabon’s long relationship with Armada extended far beyond sticker placement. His pro model BDog and the experimental BDog Edgeless in Armada’s Zero Collection were designed to serve his priorities—predictable flex for presses and butters, confidence on switch landings, and swing weight that stays honest on slower-speed pops. The gear lessons for progressing skiers mirror that logic. 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 maintaining dependable edge hold on the lip. Mount close enough to center that presses sit level and switch landings feel neutral. Keep binding ramp angles that don’t tip you onto your heels. Then build a process that matches the hardware: film laps, compare shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack against a short checklist, and repeat until the movements become automatic. The setup is the scaffold; the habits are the house.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Philip Casabon because his skiing ages well. The clips prioritize timing, organization, and line design over noise, which is why they survive slow-motion scrutiny years later. Progressing skiers care because the same choices are teachable on normal parks and real snowpacks. If your winter looks like night laps on a small hill, weekend missions to a destination park, and a few street sessions with friends, his blueprint shows how to turn limited speed and imperfect conditions into memorable skiing. The medals—back-to-back X Games Real Ski golds and Fan Favorite in 2018—are milestones; the lasting takeaway is a method: calm entry, patient pop, early grab definition, square-shoulder exit, and a flow that connects a run into a single sentence. That is why B-Dog remains essential viewing for anyone who cares about freeskiing’s style, substance, and future.

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.

TYROLIA My Obsession - Phil Casabon

Athletes

Sponsors

Philip Casabon

Recommended Videos