Next Level Skiing S8E4: Tom Wallisch is skiing’s jack of all trades
Next Level Skiing Podcast, S8 E4: Tom Wallisch is skiing’s jack of all trades
Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. From the concrete staircases of Pittsburgh to the steepest and deepest lines across three continents, Tom Wallisch has pushed skiing into new realms for more than 25 years. The pioneer of urban skiing infuses a one-of-a-kind creativity and style across all sorts of powdery landscapes. His mastery of park and big mountain steeps is coupled with a filming prowess and business acumen that sustains a vibrant ski career at age 38.
Image by Aj Dakoulas
Listen in as Tom talks about his Pittsburgh roots, an “East Coast work ethic” that grows from failure, connecting mind and body and “using inspiration in a good way.”
TOPICS
1:30 - Finding skiing after unfulfilling spins through team sports
3:00 - Growing up skiing city handrails in Pittsburgh. “It’s all we had.”
4:10 - Flipping U-turns to check out quad kink rails
6:10 - Transitioning from rails to steep lines
10:20 - Thinking differently and creative approaches to skiing
12:40 - Honing a business expertise in the ski industry
15:30 - Balancing the core insiders with newcomers while announcing for NBC at the Olympics
23:10 - The “nitty-gritty balance” and edge control from rail skiing
25:14 - Body mechanics and repetition
27:00 - Learning how to fall correctly
29:10 - Listening to your body. Being smart. Knowing when to push
31:10 - Teaching kids at Camp Woodward
34:20 - Best advice: Find happiness or fun on the slopes on bad days on the mundane days.
QUOTES
“We didn't have powder. We didn't have anything like that. So the thing that was the most relatable and the thing that seemed achievable to me were the rails, the urban skiing.”
“With the Wallisch Project, the one thing we all wanted to do was film everything.”
“The work ethic from the East Coast, from rail skiing, is like, just hike it again, try it again. And at the same time, if you approach life in that way or skiing in that way, you never get overcome by failure.”
RESOURCES
For more listening, check out our full collection of "Next Level Skiing" podcasts here.
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Next Level Skiing Recorded by Jason Blevins.
Jason Blevins is a Colorado journalist and co-founder of The Colorado Sun who has been writing about mountain towns -- and skiing -- for nearly 30 years. Every week Jason's Outsider newsletter from The Colorado Sun delivers news and insights into the changing American West, with articles covering the businesses, industries, policies, characters, and of course ski news, that shape communities and cultures on the evolving Western Slope of Colorado. Jason lives in Crested Butte with his wife and a dog named Gravy. Click over to coloradosun.com/outsider to learn more.
