Disney and ESPN
Here am I back to France for my first TV show with Disney and ESPN.
When I landed at Geneva airport I met the whole Disney crew and the three other guest pros. Beney Mayer is the other ski judge, and Hampus Mosesson and Cheryl Maas will be the two snowboarding judges.
Once we got to the hotel, turns out a game of hide and seek has started with the riders: they are not supposed to meet us till the day after, on the slopes - that was a surprise!
On the first shooting day we finally met the riders, with their parents. They came from all around Europe, and they were all very motivated.
The Skiers:
- The Swiss Frederick who is freakishly good at skiing!!
- Federico, from Italy who always pushes himself to the limits;
- Harris, the British who loves riding the Rails;
- and Anders, from Norway who can pull the sickest front flip I have ever seen!
For the snowboarders:
- Baptiste is the local competition of the leg and comes from les Carroz. He loves the pipe;
- Jan, aka “Jean de Turquie” who started snowboarding only one year ago!
- Kairo, the Spanish guy, who is always ready to liven things up;
- Jessy from Holland who lives for snowboarding
As each day went by, we could see them improving right in front of our eyes. It was so great to see a guy like Kuba - who was quite shy at the beginning - who emerged to become one of the best riders of the team; to see Jan jumping and dropping in a half pipe for the first time in his life; and all of them learning new tricks.
And with the other judges, we found a pastime: the Yam game is became a bit of an obsession: we played in the morning at breakfast, between two shots at midday, and in the evening at dinner…
Having all these camcorders around was as disturbing for us as it was for the riders, and to switch from English to our mother tongue did not make the task any easier…
I played the role of the translator for Baptiste, and I got so lost that he looked at me very confused… and told me that he didn’t understand a single word that I told him!
Learning off by heart two lines of text became practically impossible when those two lines are an answer you must give in French (but, they are written in English) and, you got asked the question in Swedish!
Then came the last shooting day, and we had to make one young budding rider happy and eight others unhappy. It was very difficult to make that decision, especially when you feel all these hopeful eyes on you.
After long talks, we were still not able to make a decision. So, due to the difficulties in assessing the levels of riders in two such different yet, albeit similar sports, we asked whether it would be possible to have both a skier and a snowboarder as winners.
Beney got the job of telling the riders the results… and the winners were: Frederick for the skiers, and Kuba for the snowboarders!
Frederick and Kuba, I’m really looking forward to seeing you in Tignes!! Practice a lot in the pipe and you are gonna be killers when you open the X-Games Europe!
As for Federico, Harris, Anders, Baptiste, Jan, Kairo, and Jessy, keep having fun practicing. The challenge was difficult, but I am still persuaded that you will have your chance next time!
All the News
Here am I back to France for my first TV show with Disney and ESPN.
When I landed at Geneva airport I met the whole Disney crew and the three other guest pros. Beney Mayer is the other ski judge, and Hampus Mosesson and Cheryl Maas will be the two snowboarding judges.
Once we got to the hotel, turns out a game of hide and seek has started with the riders: they are not supposed to meet us till the day after, on the slopes - that was a surprise!
On the first shooting day we finally met the riders, with their parents. They came from all around Europe, and they were all very motivated.
The Skiers:
- The Swiss Frederick who is freakishly good at skiing!!
- Federico, from Italy who always pushes himself to the limits;
- Harris, the British who loves riding the Rails;
- and Anders, from Norway who can pull the sickest front flip I have ever seen!
For the snowboarders:
- Baptiste is the local competition of the leg and comes from les Carroz. He loves the pipe;
- Jan, aka “Jean de Turquie” who started snowboarding only one year ago!
- Kairo, the Spanish guy, who is always ready to liven things up;
- Jessy from Holland who lives for snowboarding
As each day went by, we could see them improving right in front of our eyes. It was so great to see a guy like Kuba - who was quite shy at the beginning - who emerged to become one of the best riders of the team; to see Jan jumping and dropping in a half pipe for the first time in his life; and all of them learning new tricks.
And with the other judges, we found a pastime: the Yam game is became a bit of an obsession: we played in the morning at breakfast, between two shots at midday, and in the evening at dinner…
Having all these camcorders around was as disturbing for us as it was for the riders, and to switch from English to our mother tongue did not make the task any easier…
I played the role of the translator for Baptiste, and I got so lost that he looked at me very confused… and told me that he didn’t understand a single word that I told him!
Learning off by heart two lines of text became practically impossible when those two lines are an answer you must give in French (but, they are written in English) and, you got asked the question in Swedish!
Then came the last shooting day, and we had to make one young budding rider happy and eight others unhappy. It was very difficult to make that decision, especially when you feel all these hopeful eyes on you.
After long talks, we were still not able to make a decision. So, due to the difficulties in assessing the levels of riders in two such different yet, albeit similar sports, we asked whether it would be possible to have both a skier and a snowboarder as winners.
Beney got the job of telling the riders the results… and the winners were: Frederick for the skiers, and Kuba for the snowboarders!
Frederick and Kuba, I’m really looking forward to seeing you in Tignes!! Practice a lot in the pipe and you are gonna be killers when you open the X-Games Europe!
As for Federico, Harris, Anders, Baptiste, Jan, Kairo, and Jessy, keep having fun practicing. The challenge was difficult, but I am still persuaded that you will have your chance next time!
All the News
