“I love having so many possibilities”

Daron Ralves quite personally: In the second part of the interview the American talks about his new career as a free-skier, dangerous hobbies, family plans and his secret wish to live the life of a lazy bum in Hawaii.

In the first part of the interview we took a look at your career as an alpine ski star – so now let’s talk about the future. Firstly short-term: Now just after the end of your career, what are your plans for the next four weeks?
Well, first of all I’m going to go home for a few days. I’m from California, so that’s where I’m going to just relax and meet my family and some friends. After that, on April 5th I’m going to Alaska to do some Heli-skiing and filming there. I’m really into both – I love free-skiing and I love filming, so that’s going to be great.

There are rumours you might even want to start a second career in free-skiing - is there anything to that?
Yeah, I’m looking into that at the moment with my sponsors. You know, free-skiers have always kinda looked down on us. They’re like “that’s not real skiing; you’re only going down these groomed slopes …” But free-skiing has always been my passion. That’s what I do when I have a free minute. So it’s also some sort of challenge to me to prove to these people that I’m just as good in free-skiing. Of course, I don’t expect to go there and win all the competitions, but like I said – it’s a new challenge.

So is this going to be a full-time job again?
Yes, it might well turn into one. We’ll see. I’ve always been very active, always looking for something new. I love motocross, wakeboarding and surfing - anything outdoors.

You mentioned motocross – apparently you are a very good motocross racer, could that be a possible new career as well?
No way! I love motocross racing, and I did a few races last summer, but I could never compete with the professionals. That’s just not my league. People used to call me crazy for racing during the summer, they said it’s too dangerous for a professional Alpine skier ...

But you still carried on...
You know - I want to live my life now, I don’t want to save myself for something in the future, so I did it anyway. And I love the fact that there’s something for every season: in winter I go skiing, in summer it’s surfing or motocross – I love having so many possibilities.

Is there anything besides sports you would find interesting in the world of work?
Sure. For one thing there’s real estate. I’m really into that – my parents have their own family-business and I’ve been investing for years. And then: Michelle is a very good physiotherapist. Right now she’s thinking of starting a special program for kids in a ski-resort. I’d like to support her with that. I could use my expertise as a skier in that, so that’s very appealing as well.

Let’s get back to alpine ski sport: during your active time, especially over the last couple of years, the Americans have become stronger and stronger. What was it that helped improve the US team?
Well for one thing training with the Austrians (Note: most successful nation in the alpine World.) in Chile made a big difference. Before that it was like: we were so in awe of these guys, and we never thought we could compete with them at all. But slowly, when we saw them every day, we realized “Hey, we can do that!” Before that we used to do like 8 runs on a training day. The Austrians just did four, but they were into it one hundred percent. So we started to do that too. We became more focused, I guess.

In comparison to Europe alpine ski sport in your home country is less appreciated as a serious form of sport. How do you deal with the fact that your “discipline” is comparatively less popular, at least in the media?
Yeah, that’s true. In the US there is a very small community of people who love skiing. Only the very small broadcasting stations will show the races, you can only receive them via satellite. But the people who are into it - they really know everything there is to know about Alpine skiing. And then you have the big mass, and they are totally ignorant – they don’t even know that there are races outside the Olympic Games. That hasn’t really changed. Unfortunately. But I’m not giving up hope.

One more question to wrap this up: apart from your professional life, what are your goals?
The one thing I’m really living for right now is to have a family with Michelle. And then, you know, I’m just a lazy bum. My dream would be to buy a house in Hawaii, have kids, sleep in and then just grab my surfboard and ride the waves for a while. Just a simple and carefree life, that would be it. But then I guess: I’d enjoy that for some days and then I would probably get bored.