Seb Michaud: the Wisdom of Experience

When Paul Coelho said, “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience,” he could have easily been speaking about Seb Michaud.

At 38 years old French skier Seb Michaud is one of the oldest riders on the Freeride World Tour. He began his 22-year competitive skiing career on the French freestyle ski team before competing in freeride events for 15 years including all four years on the Freeride World Tour and as one of the first skiers at the Verbier Xtreme. With a career like that there are plenty of other tempting projects that come knocking on the door and Michaud approached the FWT11 with a few doubts.

Nevertheless he launched into the season with a remarkable run against a strong field of riders on a particularly challenging course at the 4*FWQ La Clusaz Radikal Mountain. After the event he told us, “It’s a good organization, there’s a good feeling between all the riders, and we share good times together. The tour is helping the sport evolve, which is good so I’m excited to take part in the 2011 stage. I will see how I feel after Chamonix and Engadin, see how my body feels and how my results are and decide whether to continue with the tour in the US or stay in France and shoot photos. I’m still confident and I really want to go back to California and Russia.”

However in the first FWT event of the season, Michaud finished a disappointing 16^th place at the Nissan Freeride de Chamonix Mont-Blanc 2011 by Swatch. “After La Clusaz I was at the top of my game so I went into Chamonix with confidence. But before our runs, when we checked the face, we still didn’t know how the snow was. It all depended on the start and the exposure. So when I started everything was OK but during the run I worried a bit about my knee and when I arrived at the two last cliffs, in a split second, I decided not to take the risk. The season is long and if you’re not sure, you don’t go. I didn’t want to crash and lose my whole season for one small mistake. So I went around the two rocks and decided to concentrate on the next stage, which was St Moritz. I know the face there and although it was the first time I took that line I had already been on the face before and that’s an advantage. So I checked my line and the snow was good. I took a lot more risk than in Courmayeur and the difference was that in my head I was 100% confident. The difference between Courmayeur and St Moritz wasn’t physical – I didn’t ski a lot between the competitions – it was totally mental.

At the Nissan Freeride Engadin St. Moritz 2011 by Swatch Seb started his run with one of the biggest drops of the day followed by fast smooth skiing and finished off with a perfectly stomped backflip. The only thing that kept him from a perfect run was an ugly mid-course sketchout and Michaud finished a very respectable third place on a day marked by highly aggressive riding from a wildly talented field. Following the event there were questions from athletes and spectators alike about how someone can finish on the podium with a run that includes a crash.

“It was nice but you know it’s hard for me to understand because I checked the line for two and I checked for big air and when I arrived on the day I went on my run and I stomped every jump. And I don’t know exactly why but I made a little mistake on an easy part, otherwise I might have won the event. I’m a little frustrated. You can see that we take a lot of risk to go for a big jump and then we make a small mistake on an easy part and that’s frustrating. But it’s all right because I’m back in the ranking and I’m motivated for USA, Russia and, I hope, Verbier.”

Having participated as a judge in the past, Michaud knows the challenges the jury faces. “I was a judge in Verbier and it’s really difficult. I heard some guys weren’t happy with the results but like I say, every time you take part in a judged event you have judges, you have rules and you all need to agree on that. The judges need to be as fair as possible. I think they are fair but it can be really tight between three or four guys and in the end they have to make a choice, no? I think next time I do a good run and someone with a little crash scores better than me then I have to accept that. Torgrim had a bad landing off his first cliff but he had a lot of cliffs, had a great run and he took second and that’s how it is.”

It’s this kind of attitude that exemplifies the kind of wisdom and grace that only comes from years of experience as a competitive freeskier. And as for the future?

“So I feel good. I’m skiing better and better and I want to go to the States, compete on the whole tour and take my chance at the overall ranking. And of course I want to be with all my friends like my new friend Jeremy Prévost who is a strong skier and a really funny guy. So it’s great to be a part of the 2011 world tour.”