Freeskiing
Next Generation: Young guns of New School skiing
Freeski pro Paddy Graham shares his top picks for the future superstars in new school skiing.
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Paddy Graham in action
© Christian Stadler
Red Bull asked British freeskier Paddy Graham to point out the five young skiers that he sees emerging to lead the next generation of new schoolers, and why he thought they were standing out amongst the talent pool. Here are his top picks for skiing stardom:
Oystein Braaten
© European Freeski Open/Christian Stadler
Oystein Braaten – he's from Norway. He's 18 years old, and he's a super technical skier, but he also has a lot of style. He's really good on rails, and pretty crazy. And his brother is a pro snowboarder as well.
Jesper Tjäder
© European Freeski Open/Christian Stadler
Jesper Tjäder – he's really good friends with Oystein. I'll put him up next. He's 20, and he's a rail machine – just spinnin', spinnin', spinnin'. He also likes to do a Switch 550s on boxes, and backflips and stuff off the rails. That's pretty cool.
Kai Mahler
© European Freeski Open/Christian Stadler
Kai Mahler – I guess people know him already, but he's still only 18. He's really stylish, and doesn't follow the same trends as everyone else in the competitions, so he's a different rider to watch. He doesn't get stuck on the competition tricks that everyone does in their runs. He switches it up with different grabs, and does bigger, floatier tricks rather than technical spinny-flippy tricks. He's a very graceful skier to watch.
Andri Ragettli
© European Freeski Open / Christian Stadler
Another young gun from Switzerland is Andri Ragettli. I think he's like 15. He's amazing – so young – and he skis in Laax every day because he lives close by in Flims. He's another kid who's a very technical skier, with a lot of style. And yes, he's definitely one of the future's bright hopes.
Next would be Beau-James Wells (Jossi's brother), he's 18 and really good at halfpipe and slopestyle. The last four skiers are all slopestyle skiers, but Beau is also really good at halfpipe. He's a really stylish rider as well. He doesn't do as many of the bigger tricks as the other guys, but he's got lots of style. He's into filming, and he reminds me of a skateboarder in his mentality. Beau's younger brother Jackson will also get into the scene and become better and better over the years – the whole family are amazing skiers.
Thanks Paddy for the heads up!
Watch out for interviews with Jesper and Kai in the coming days, and if you don't want to miss a day of our two 'Next Generation' weeks, follow us on Facebook.
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