Photos by Brady Perron

Phil Casabon AKA B-Dog announced last week that he was running a street skiing video contest with a grand prize of $5k. The vision is simple: get 90 seconds of street skiing from as many skiers as possible, from legends to up-and-comers, out to the world. I wanted to learn a little bit more about the project, the Off The Leash series as a whole, and ask a few more questions while I had the legend on the end of the line. When I caught up with Phil he was down in the south of France taking in some sun and pro surfing on the coast.

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Milo: This is another instalment of your Off The Leash series, can you tell me a bit about Off The Leash and what it means to you?

B-Dog: The Off The Leash title is the umbrella that encompasses my projects that are there to give back to skiing through events, this is in partnership with Eric Iberg, who first conceptualized this video contest as you see it today.

We wanted to make one Off The Leash for each season. We had the invite-only street session in the winter, we have the park edition in Minnesota in spring, the summer edition is likely to be somewhere in Quebec and the fall edition is this video event. Aside from the winter event, the Off The Leash events are aimed at those with less backing behind them and to create a platform for the next generation.

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Milo: Who do you draw inspiration from in skiing, across all generations?

B-Dog: In terms of a younger generation, it’s riders like Jake Mageau, Joona Kangas, Antti Ollila, Edjoy, Dani B, Tormod… obviously the list goes on and on. I am really impressed with Ferdinand Dahl at the moment, he is running possibly the biggest event in skiing right now, Jibleague. Things have evolved so much because of his event.

There’s always the roots, my old influences, people still doing it, Hornbeck, Henrik, P White, Candide, Tanner, Sammy Carlson etc. I grew up around them and still look up to them for inspiration.

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Phil Casabon is a legend of street skiing with countless video parts and an X-Games Real Ski Gold to his name. His unique style, creative spot selection and dedication has set him apart for years. His work with Brady Perron has been a symbiosis that has gifted us so much great skiing.

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https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/925771/Phil-Casabon--Real-Ski-2019---World-of-X-Games

Phil Casabon X Brady Perron Winning X Games Gold

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Milo: What is it about street skiing you want to keep pushing and to shine such a light on it?

B-Dog: “Well I’m certified, I’ve got the credit to do so. It’s not off the cards but it would be weird for me to come out and do a backcountry event for instance. Also being located in Quebec, all we have is small hills and street skiing. We get snow in the streets all around so we go there to change the scenery and create some unique imagessome images that are unique.

Street skiing is a very prominent facet of the sport and there’s no platform for it. There is no way to make money and very little support existsthere’s very little support there. There was X Games Real Ski but they shut it down, and even in the last year you could include anything. I see there’s no compensation for street skiers and it’s a shame. It’s up to people like me, so we’re doing it!

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Milo: This is going to differ slightly from Real Ski though, you’re running it independently for a start.

B-Dog: Yeah exactly, this is straight from my bank account into skiing. I am really trying to get more eyes on street skiing. Though nobody has to risk their life for my platform, it can be skiing that’s already out in the world or whatever you’d like to include. In the end we’re all going to be winners, it’s an excuse to cut your best footage up over the next month and showcase what you’ve got. I will be honored for people to partake either in chase of the grand prize of the ‘Golden Dog’

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Always Maxing Out The Style Meter

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Milo: What do you think the future of skiing, street specifically, for you personally and the sport more generally as a whole?

B-Dog: There’s so much in store within skiing, I pray for those doors to keep opening. There’s no limit because there’s so many new things that have arisen that I would never have expected; a comic book, a video game, a store and so on.

In the near future I know I will be focusing on the Armada movie with the Armada crew. We’re in a two-year project and the whole team is involved, heavy hitters. I am going to be involved with the post-production as well as being a skier. There’s more events coming, so I just want to keep fit so I can elevate my skiing to where it wants to go. I do like to run it as spontaneously as possible though.

In the case of skiing as a whole, it’s so difficult to say. I see more skier involvement in ownership, it’s gotten so diluted. With the Olympics and FIS owning the events space for a bit there. We have Joss with SLVSH, Ferdi with Jibleague, Henrik’s doing something too that I know of. Of course, you guys recently took back ownership of NS, I’d heard a bit about that but I’m stoked to know it’s gone ahead.

Lots of people are putting on events that are uplifting the culture rather than taking away from it. I see it moving organically to ownership within skiing that are not big corporations - yet still funded by big corporations so everybody can get theirs!

There’s the other side, like Eileen Gu making booku booku money and that’s all great, as long as everybody who’s putting their life on the line gets it too. Nowadays you’ve got to be more than just a skier to make it. You’ve got to be a marketing agency of your own and all that.

I do think skiing has a prosperous future in the case that we keep getting snow every year.

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https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/732495/Oil---Water-Presented-by-Armada-Skis

Oil & Water from Armada Skis has some of B-Dog's finest skiing

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Milo: Any closing words?

B-Dog: I want to thank everyone in advance for their submissions. I’m getting really antsy to get on the skis so this is gonna get me extra stoked. I can’t wait to watch all your clips and watch some skiing I’ve never seen before.

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It was great to catch up with Phil, his insights into skiing were pretty inspirational and I left our call feeling hopeful of the future -if as always, a little scared for the environment - and buzzing for the winter ahead. It seems skiing is in a great place and events such as this are exactly what we need to keep the culture alive and kicking. If you've got any street clips you're sitting on, spend the shoulder season editing and get 'em submitted!

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Full Rules:

- 90 second edit of your all time best street skiing.

- All music allowed.

- Email a wetransfer of your edit to bdogofftheleash@gmail.com by Friday November 1st.

- Make sure to label your video file with your full name.

- Make sure to have a graphic title in the video intro with your full name.

- Your video will be posted on Phil Casabon’s Youtube page on Sunday November 3rd.

Winners:

- Most viewed video on Friday, November 22nd, will receive $5,000 USD direct from B-Dog.

- Winner must have a PayPal account.

- B-Dog’s favorite video will win the Golden Dog award.