Photo: Mike Schirf

It’s not very often in the skiing world that the major ski media promotes the up-and-comers of the freeskiing world who don’t hail from the superpipe or slopestyle scene.  Yet the competitive Freeskiing World Tour (read as gnarly cliffs, manky venues and sometimes, billowy powder) has had its share of stars emerge from the ranks of ski bums and college students alike.

Chopo Diaz, Chilean Invader

Over the past few seasons, Chopo Diaz has been making a name for himself on the Freeskiing World Tour.  If you’ve tuned into the live web-broadcasts of the FWT competitions from Snowbird to Kirkwood to Aleyeska, then you’ve probably seen Chopo dropping huge cliffs with his signature Chilean style.  A lot of power and some smooth shredding are packed into his small frame, making for quite a show whenever he straps on those familiar K2 skis.  Below is a video of Chopo at Snowbird, in an effort to introduce our South American friends to some classic ‘Estados Unidos’ skiing.  Hailing originally from La Parva, Chile, Chopo brings a unique perspective to the steeps and deeps at Utah’s best known powder palace.

Photo courtesy of UniversalSports.com

Fellow POC athlete and Olympic downhiller, Steve Nyman, shredded some muddy water on the Colorado River recently after a brief stint at the Teva Mountain Games held in Vail.  He brought Ken Hoeve and Whitney Guild with him to test out their surfing mettle on the Colorado’s mighty flow down at the Glenwood Springs play wave.