Pat Sharples

Pat is one of the leading names on the British Ski scene. Whilst currently spending most of his time managing and coaching, he is also involved in ski commentating, photo shoots, competitions and is still passionate about skiing for himself. He is also the creator of the UK Grom Camps.

He began his skiing career at the age of 6 in a racing environment. By the age of 16 he had left school, and England, to work in Courchevel. Here he discovered a talent for freestyle mogul skiing, leading him to compete in the England mogul team where he gained titles such as European Mogul challenge Champion and England Freestyle Champion. He was then selected as the England Freestyle Team Captain and remained in this position for 4 years. In 1996 when Newschool and Freeride skiing hit the scene Pat was taken on by Salomon and Oakley, and has remained with them ever since. Pat has competed in a range of freeride and freestyle competitions around the World.

He has had a great deal of media coverage including 8 front cover shots on ski magazines and sections in instructional and action movies. He has also appeared on TV programmes such as Blue Peter, Big Breakfast, No Balls Allowed, and programmes on Sky Sports and the Extreme Channel aswell as all the Ride events. Pat is also one of the main commentators on many big events, including the Ride series events, and Natural Born Riders, and was invited to commentate the first ever Jon Olsson Invitational.

Pat is currently the Ski Team Manager for Oakley and Salomon and has worked alongside Warren Smith  on the British Freeski camps since they started over 6 years ago. He is now the Head Freestyle Coach of the British Freeski camps. He also runs his own freestyle camps, some for seasonaires in France, and the Grom Freestyle Camps in the UK where he coaches Britain's youngest up and coming talent. In 2005, Pat co-authored a travel guide with his girlfriend Vanessa on the Top 50 Ski and Snowboard Resorts in Europe.

Even at the ripe old age of 30, Pat still enjoys competing at the Orange British Championships, where he always makes the finals. He has a section in this year's movie ‘Aggressive Alpine Skiing'. There are also things in the pipeline that Pat is working on, which will be released very shortly!