X Games Real Ski Street Contest

Not every skier thrives in traditional contest formats. There’s a lot to deal with: announcers and roaring crowds, picture-perfect jumps and manicured rail lines—not to mention strict judges that tend to reward spins over style. Though few and far between, some skiers prefer the gritty creativity required by street skiing.

For the first time, X Games is extending their “Real Ski” contest format to the street skiers. Six top urban skiers (Clayton Vila, Ahmet Dadali, JF Houle, Cam Riley, Will Wesson, Tom Wallisch) were given six weeks to put together a 90 second part.

If that sounds like a lot of time to film a minute and a half of skiing—it isn’t. These pros will film all year long for a couple minutes of video, as most of their time isn’t actually spent skiing. In reality, most of their time is spent scoping spots, building features, setting up shots and avoiding security and police.

Tom Wallisch, a veteran urban skier and a top competitor for this year’s Real Ski contest, puts it best.  “Some of these rails” he says, “are as tough and as difficult as rail skiing gets.”

No perfect jumps, no announcers, no resort employees ensuring everything is up to spec. This is all up to the skiers and their respective crews. This is Real Ski.

Clayton Vila

While Clayton’s rail game is virtually unparalleled, the ending shot in this Real Ski edit is a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Ahmet Dadali

Always the king of style, Ahmet puts his own spin on the competition with grimy hand drags and tweaked out flips.

JF Houle

One of the best parts from a cinematographic perspective, JF went absolutely huge for this part.

Cam Riley

Cam’s part is definitely gritty—he bailed a few times on that last hit before sticking it.

Will Wesson

Wesson slides the unslideable, taking on tiered brick ledges, staircases and fire escapes in this jaw-dropping display.

Tom Wallisch

What a legend. Wallisch has one of the more creative approaches to this contest, linking together multiple features and throwing unexpected tricks.

Tune in to ABC on Saturday, February 20^th to see who won the contest. Be sure to vote for the fan favorite (winner revealed Monday, February 22^nd.