this is a man that has built a name for himself on this website and throughout the Quebec freesking community for being a solid rail skier and frontswap aficionado. Fred is, to put it lightly, a star at his home mountain of Mont Avila and dare I even say, a household name.I can't even count the times where as I go up the chairlift sitting with young aspiring skiers, I overhear conversation about what Fred just threw the run before and how SICK his k-fed on the flat bar was. Rails just have no secret for him anymore , just look at the perfect form he displays here while gripping this box to set a picture perfect ''switch out''
It is not a secret anymore that this yoke face mask and jeans wearing skier is nothing short of an absolut rail prodigy, but what little people know is that Fred was also, once upon a time a very solid jump skier. He has shown his jump skills time and time again at mont avila in front of hundreds of young skiers who looked up to him.Fred was very dedicated to his craft. Jumping was an art for him.
just look at what lengths he was ready to go to, just to perfect his jump skills.
Here we see a young Frederic hiking up to the highest peaks of Mont Avila in June to session a little booter that Axis had built in collaboration with the Akamp for young skiers, such as Fred, who were driven to progress and become the next big thing in skiing.
And here, we can see a very impressive aerial manoeuvre on said booter.
he was the up and coming slopestyle phenom. Dominating the Quebec slopestyle scene and showing us how skiing should be : stylish, easy , impressive and more importantly flowy.
Fred was on a mission. His coach Philou Poirier, a pioneer of our sport was pushing him in the right direction. teaching him how to perfect his grab and what mental state he had to adopt in order to perform.
that was untill that fateful january day. Fred was sessioning the biggest jump we had at the time in Avila, it was about 80ft easy. Kids and their parents swarmed the knuckles to see this young prodigy in his element, but as the day progressed, the conditions worsened.Fred wasn't concerned, he was a fucking all star. who gives a shit if the lip is getting icier and icier ? not Fred, Fred had no worries whatsoever. Fred was wrong, he should have listened to the people telling him to call it a day.
Fred threw one last corked 7. there was nothing hard about corked 7 for Fred, those were a pocket trick for such a talented young man like him.he even landed a 900 once. But no one is safe out there. Fred lost his ski on the takeoff and broke his ankle in a Tanner Hallesque manner.
''MY ANKLES, MY ANKLES ARE BROKEN AHHHHHH MY ANKLES ARE BROKE''
''HE'S GOT BROKEN ANKLES'' I screamed
we rushed him to the ER where we learned the sad news.
''he's got broken ankles'' the doctor said.
and that was the end for Fred. he never hit a single jump since then and that was the end of his slopestyle career. people wouldn't even know who Nick Geopper is if it wasn't for that day.
But now, it's time to make ammends. Fred is up in Carinthia with the NS crew to cover Superunkown.
and I would like to formely challenge him to hit the big jump.
the Challenge consists of not only hitting the jump, but to hit it naked.
it's been long enoug and I will not stand for your neglection of jumps Fred.
Feel free to pressure Fred into accepting my challenge NS.
leave your thoughts and encouragement below to inspire Fred to renew his love of jumps.
thank you
-emile-
