British Freeski Camps Coaches Warren Smith

Warren Smith

Warren Smith is one of Britain's leading freeskiers and the person who has created Britain's first official Freeride Championships in association with the IFSA (International Free Ski Association), 'The Verbier Ride' (Check out www.verbierride.com). Following the creation of the Verbier Ride came the Saas-Fee Ride, the London Ride and the Davos Klosters Ride.

As a youth, he pursued racing along side developing his coaching career. He studied skiing within the Austrian Professional Ski Instructor Association and eventually qualified to international standard, allowing him to work freely in and around Europe. Since then he has now become an International Performance Coach. In 94, after spending 5 years in the Tirol, he left Austria for Switzerland, Verbier to be exact. This is where his Freeride inspiration was found.

Verbier is the home resort for the likes of legends like John Falkiner, Dominique Perret and Francine Moreillon. Being in this sort of environment motivated Warren to explore the vast off piste of Verbier and the essence of Freeride. Warren now runs his own Academy (www.warrensmith-skiacademy.com) there coaching many of the UK's up and coming instructors and freeskiers. He also runs the British Freeski Camps in Saas-Fee in the summer and in Verbier in the winter.

Another side to Warren's workload is making films. He has produced, with his colleague Guido Perrini, Britain's first combined ski + board movies. Snow Odyssey, Snow Odyssey 2 and Snow Odyssey 3. www.snowodyssey.tv for more info. The new concept for 2002 was a movie and TV series called Snows In The House. Warren and Guido completed the trilogy with Snow's in the house 2 and 3 with Melody Sky www.snowsinthehouse.com.

In 2005 they released the freestyle movie Coefficient Drag www.coefficientdrag.com and in 2006 an art movie of timelapses, freeride and freestyle called Winter Requiem www.winter-requiem.com.

The Ride events www.ridefreesport.com also each have their own TV programme which are broadcast worldwide.

Warren also organises the National UK Snowsports Tour www.snowsports-tour.co.uk, which gives the chance to aspiring pros to try out freestyle skiing with the UKs top freestylers, learn about sponsorship, attend lectures in ski photography and filming, try out all the latest skis and watch some of the latest british ski movies.