Ben Richards Interview.
The rising star of freeride who lets his skiing do the talking.
From ISSUE 105 2023
Words Hamish Acland | Images Greg Von Doersten & Mark Clinton
Editor’s Note: Since this interview was published, Ben went on an absolute tear, taking 3rd overall in the 2024 Freeride World Tour. A consistent performer, Ben built into his season like a veteran, before unleashing in Fieberbrunn, blitzing the field to take his maiden FWT victory.
It was during a classic pre-winter inversion day in Wanaka that I found myself catching up with my good friend Neil Kerr. He was giving me a sneak peek at this year’s magazine and was struggling to find a backup writer for an interview with rising talent, Ben Richards. In a wave of nostalgia to my former magazine days, I said I would do it. It would be the perfect distraction from my real job and remind me how much I love skiing.
Ben had earned an interview, not just because he had an amazing collection of images, easily enough to fill the six-page spread and bag the cover. He was coming off an epic breakthrough year, effectively going from an up-and-coming talent to a full-blown professional in a single leap. The year started off with a bang, when Line Skis approached him to join their international team. That was quickly followed by an offer from The North Face. With two freshly inked contracts in the bag, Ben headed overseas to see what he could achieve on the Freeride World Qualifying Tour. He slowly built results until an impressive second place at the Fieberbrunn (FWQ) 4-star event catapulted him up the rankings into a qualifying spot for next year’s Freeride World Tour (FWT). Another solid result in Verbier in April cemented that spot and he had earned himself a ticket to FWT for 2024
This is the underlying theme of our chat —A down-to-earth Kiwi kid with a massive passion for skiing and keeping it fun.
Ben had just arrived back in New Zealand the day I called him, so we arranged to meet in a local bar. I arrived early to do my research, which amounted to scrolling Ben’s Instagram feed to get the highlights of his ski life. It was a good show; a double back flip off the Treble Cone summit rock, triple back flip attempts in Verbier, hand drags on rails and synchronised skiing with Craig Murray. For those of older generations like me, you might note the pole plant on his cork three, a nod to the GOAT Candide Thovex… or it might just help his rotation. I didn’t have the nerve to ask. Much like the great Candide, it’s his vision and style in all terrain that keeps you entertained with classic hits out of Treble Cone’s Gun Barrel.
And it wouldn’t be a Kiwi freeskier’s feed without footage of a comp run stomped in shit conditions. It’s a good reminder that while powder photos may be the staple show pony look on the gram, it’s the comp runs in sketchy conditions that earn you the kudos. Ben arrived bang on time (this is not your normal freeskier) and we introduce ourselves and Ben explains that he has just come from the Cardrona-TC offices. He has a job coaching kids on the weekends for the Freeride Team at TC.
“I’ve done it for a while now and I love it. I have a good group of young shredders who keep me stoked on skiing even when its bad.”
"It restoked my passion for skiing and reminded me that my dream of making a pro-career out of skiing was still a thing."
How did you get here, where are you from? Long pause…
Was that too big a question to start with? Ha ha… Kind of… I was actually born in the US then moved to Wellington when I was six, before moving to Wanaka for my last four years of high school.
How did you become such a good skier then? I think it was simply down to spending so much time on snow when I was younger. Basically, from the age of 12 I was doing back-to-back winters ski racing. Training all New Zealand winter then spending time overseas made me pretty competitive as a junior racer.
How far did you get in the race world? I was competing in FIS events and even went to the Junior Worlds Champs, but then I quit when I was 18.
Tell me about the Junior Worlds? It was pretty overwhelming. It’s really crazy coming from little races here in New Zealand, to competing against a bunch of dudes who were already killing it on the World Cup scene. It was pretty humbling, and I felt way out of my depth.
Sounds like quite the experience. Did it push you to switch to freeride? Yeah, it was probably the catalyst for me quitting ski racing. And yeah, I fell out of love with the sport. Then I went on a working holiday for a winter just to try something different. I ended up in Revelstoke with a bunch of Kiwi friends, worked in ski shop, and skied as much as I could. I had the sickest time and remembered why I loved skiing.
You’re now 23 so that was four years ago. Was that a turning point for you? Definitely, I’d say it was a bit of turning point for me. It restoked my passion for skiing and reminded me that my dream of making a pro-career out of skiing was still a thing.
How did you start competing in Freeride? That same season I went over to Kicking Horse to watch the Kiwi boys compete on the http://www.freerideworldtour.com and I was inspired to enter the FWQ events that were on the same week.
There was a 2-star event which I think I blew up and crashed on my first hit, but I managed to land a run in the 4-star. I probably wouldn’t be that proud of it now, but at the time I thought it was pretty good and I managed a sixth place or something.
The majority of our readers won’t have competed in a Freeride Comp. Can you explain what it’s like to stand in the start gate of a big event? It’s a real hard mental battle. You’ve scoped your line from the bottom of the face, so you’re trying to orientate yourself while convincing yourself that the run you want to do is going to be good enough. Another hard part is that you can sometimes see parts of other people’s runs, which makes you second guess what you’ve planned. It’s definitely as much about mindset as skiing skill, and it’s taken a while to figure out how to control all my nerves and excitement. I try to stay as calm as possible and remember it’s just skiing.
"The Fieberbrunn face is an emotional rollercoaster. The top is really scary but then pretty chill."
You must have it pretty dialled because you podiumed at the FWQ in Fieberbrunn Austria, which was a key result in qualifying for the FWT. Can you tell us about that? It was pretty funny because we got to watch all the FWT skiers compete on the same venue the day before, so we got a super good idea of how all the different cliffs and lines were running, plus how the snow conditions were. That took a lot of pressure off for me because I got to see skiers doing similar runs to what I wanted to do.
And how did the run feel, can you remember it? Yeah I can actually. The Fieberbrunn face is an emotional rollercoaster. The top 100 metres out of the start gate are really steep, scary and above some heavy exposure, but then the rest of the run is pretty chill, with not that many features. So, once you get the freaky top section out of the way, then the bottom half is almost boring. When I got to the finish I kind felt like I hadn’t done enough so didn’t have many expectations, but it worked out.
What are your plans for next year and being on the FWT? Well the FWT calendar doesn’t come out for some time yet, so it’s all a bit unclear. I am really hoping they bring back the tour stop in Japan in January as I would love to start my season there. The rough plan is base myself in British Columbia somewhere and then travel to all of the tour stops and hope I make to the finals in Verbier.
As an ex-racer, what do you think about FIS now being the governing body of the FWT? I have no idea to be honest. I was pretty concerned when I first heard the news, but then after watching last year’s tour I relaxed about it as FIS didn’t seem like they got too involved or changed much. But it does sound freaky that they want it to be an Olympic sport as I’m not sure how that works.
Would you prefer freeride events to be in the Olympics and go the direction of less mainstream events like Natural Selection? I’d prefer it to go the Natural Selection direction, it seems more athlete driven which allows the sport to progress. The Olympics would definitely bring more money and exposure into freeride but I think they would likely do a lot of damage too.
As you may have noticed from some of his answers, Ben is a man of few words. However I left the bar impressed with Ben’s humble attitude and thoughtful demeanour. He considered all my questions, never rushing a reply or talking himself up. A perfect insight into his character was when I asked him if, after a bad comp run, he ever wants to break his poles. He simply replied:
“No I’m more of a go sit quietly by myself for 30 minutes then pop back out and go celebrate with those that did do well.”
This quiet, reticent nature means Ben lets his skiing do most of the talking and from what I’ve seen so far there’s plenty to listen to. I’m looking forward to watching more of Ben’s Instagram feed this New Zealand winter and I’m excited to see how this young Kiwi talent goes in his debut season on the Freeride World Tour next year.
