Travelling the world skiing since the age of eight, Australian freeskier Andrea Berchtold is one of the most well-known names in Australia’s history of snow skiing.
Becoming a junior world freestyle champ at just 15; a world cup mogul skier at 17; and countless podium finishes throughout his career, there’s no doubt this guy can ski...probably better than he can walk! “I have skied my whole life and it feels very natural to me,” says Berchtold. “I don’t think I’m the most gifted skier but because I’ve spent so many years skiing, I find it pretty easy to learn new things.”
‘New things’ isn’t limited to learning tricks on skis either. Andrea was one of the pioneers of new school free skiing in Australia. While he started his career out as a freestyle skier excelling in the disciplines of moguls and aerials, his real passion was to explore the concept of ‘freeskiing’ – a ‘new school’ phenomenon that started to appear around the world in the late 90’s. Through freeskiing, Andrea has continued travelling the world doing what he loves and featuring in big mountain photoshoots for magazines and television programs as well as competing in freeski comps such as slopestyle, big air and half pipe.
What attracts Andrea to freeskiing in particular is the freedom to do what he loves without the restrictions of strict competition guidelines. “It’s the feeling you get by going off a jump; by learning something new and by constantly challenging your abilities to improve your skills,” he adds. “I plan to continue skiing for Red Bull and doing well in comps, and I’m also passionate about helping young Australians do well internationally. We have a lot of talented skiers despite being restricted geographically and given the right type of support, we could do quite well as a country.”
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