CSU Freeride Team: A Q&A With the Curator
In the fall of 2017, Tyler Stevens had his eyes set on his freshman year at Colorado State University. However, there was a void within Tyler that he knew he had to fill.
Hailing from Blackhawk, Colorado, Tyler Stevens is an avid skier spending many years competing and progressing as a skier. In creating his college list during high school, he found that there was one thing that gave some of his other college options precedence — a skier/snowboarder freeride team.
So, he started one himself. Here’s a quick look at what Tyler has done for both the CSU skier/snowboarder community and the greater Fort Collins skier/snowboarder community in the past three years:
Let’s start off easy: who are you, where are you from, and what is your involvement with skiing?
My name is Tyler Stevens, I’m in my last semester at CSU. Being from Blackhawk, it was easy for me to always be involved with winter sports — I started out skiing, and then transitioned into snowboarding, and then back into skiing. But, the last time I started skiing again, I got really into it — to the point where I started competing and dabbling in filming. This is what lead me to start the Freeride team my freshman year — and I’d say that’s my main involvement with skiing, but I’m also an ambassador for Saga outerwear and ski for Fat-Ypus skis, a small brand out of Colorado.
Nice, Saga is a sick brand. You mentioned filming, do you see yourself taking an interest in that for the future?
Yeah, the filming side of skiing is awesome. It’s really just a great way to get more creative with skiing and challenge yourself in a new way. For me, it’s cool because I’m more in front of the lens than behind it which is always fun, I just love documenting what myself and others do on skis. I can, you know, make an edit with my friends or work on a bigger project — and that helps my skiing get supported by brands. And, at the same time, it’s super fun and I’m contributing to someone else’s creative vision.
Yeah, as a videographer myself, I appreciate that you appreciate it.
I mean, it’s a crazy balance because I’ve been around action sports filmers/photographers my whole life and I’ve always seen the process, but it wasn’t until recently that I really understood it. It’s a lot of work. I mean, hiking four miles to then just waiting for the small sliver of light you need for the shot, and then not get the shot can really suck sometimes. But it’s this difficulty and work that makes ski and board films so rewarding. I’d still say that we're in the more amateur category because sometimes, you know, you go out there and everything goes wrong.
Oh yeah, I’ve been there and done that. Getting back to Freeride, what do you want to get out of it? What do you want to provide to the students of CSU?
There are a few things I wanted to get out of it. One is obviously to provide a competitive platform for people who want to competitively ski at CSU. Secondly, I wanted it to also be a way that I could get more connected with the industry more because, well, I see myself entering the ski industry in the future so why not kill another bird with one stone? Lastly, I wanted it to create a community where we grow as riders, not me. You aren’t going to grow as a rider if you’re riding with people that are just as good as you. I mean, you might a little, but I want to create an environment where we’re all pushing each other.
So, what about students?
I realized when we grew from five members to 90 members now, we have the ability to give people who may not have the money to compete in freeride skiing or boarding the opportunity to make it more affordable and kind of lower those barriers to entry. I really pride us on our low dues, it’s forty bucks to join and there are other freeride teams that are like two grand to join. We want to foster a community to get stoked at a low cost.
That’s really important, and I’ve actually written about the high barriers to skiing/boarding, not to even mention competing.
Yeah, I’ll just give you a frame of reference. I actually didn’t get to participate in competing this year due to COVID complications, but if I were to compete in Grand Targhee these are the costs: a $25 single-event registration, then about $150 to just register for Grand Targhee for IFSA, then a competitor lift ticket which is about $100, and then food, gas, and lodging. So, one day of competition can turn into a $300-$400 endeavor.
Sheesh, that’s crazy. So getting a little bigger picture, what’s the freeride team’s involvement with the Fort Collins ski/board community?
I would definitely say that since the start we’ve grown a lot through the years in the FoCo ski community as a whole. I would say to the point that people who we have never come into contact with know who we are. We’re getting closer with the people who run the AIARE courses and On the Edge Tuning and such. Ultimately, we’re the more freestyle riders in the community — like if someone were to see us on the Cameron Pass backcountry zone we’re there to build a boomer and do flips, not like go mountaineering and hike seven miles for one crazy line. That’s what I think we’re known as in the community, I think we’ve fortified it, and it’s only going to grow from there.
Do you want the team to be a kind of step stool for people who are already Freeriders to compete in college? I wanted to play college sports, for example, do you want the Team to have this kind of status?
100%. When we think and talk about our long-term vision, that’s what we want to be. We grow more and more each year, and I think we’re getting closer to that. I do want to say though, that we’re not trying to get to be like a CSU NCAA ski team — and there’s a number of reasons for that — but it really means that we get to have more freedom and fun. But yeah I get DMs all the time on Instagram from people from all over the country asking about details on the team and stuff. We’re starting to plant a lot of the seeds for this stuff and I’m excited about the future.
What do those seeds entail?
I think it really has to do with reputation. I think it’s really conducive to our sick edits, pics, and overall social media presence. If we didn’t have this and people didn’t see what we were up to, then we definitely wouldn’t have grown as quickly as we did, and I think that’s how we get there. We wanna get those clips and get people stoked, and then use that content as a recruitment tool. That’s how we get that kind of reputation that we want to reach.
Where do you want the Freeride Team to be in five years?
I definitely want it to be recognized on a larger scope in Fort Collins, and Colorado for that matter. I remember when I was deciding on where to go to college, the University of Utah’s freeride team is super sick, which heavily influenced why it was on my list. I want the CSU team to be seen in the same vein… that super rowdy, super fun ski team at CSU.
What about the team being a route for people who seek a college degree, but also want to pursue the opportunity to go pro?
Definitely, that’s kind of what Western State is doing already. Fort Collins is obviously different access-wise, I mean Crested Butte isn’t sitting thirty minutes away. But either way, yes, that’s definitely something I want to be.
So the Freeride team is also an outlet for people to go pro?
Yeah, I mean if you’re trying to go pro you need a platform. If we can do that, which we can and we’re getting better at doing, then yeah I definitely think it would aid that process.
That’s not something that I knew the Freeride team could provide, and I think it’s so sick that you guys can and are getting better at doing. Anyway, it was great talking to you, Tyler, any closing comments?
It’s been awesome, and yeah, just hit me up if you ever want to ride sometime.
Hah, no doubt.
