Ski, snowboard club hosting season kickoff

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Freeride Academy, a club for student skiers and snowboarders, will hold a Sherpas Movie Premiere for the film “Into the Mind” Oct. 18 to kick off the winter season.

Since the club started one year ago, it’s had enormous success. From the time of the launch to the close of the season, there were 550 paying members involved with the club. This made Freeride the largest student-run organization at BYU.

This club is the only BYU student-run organization that can produce such a huge movie premiere and bring a huge community of skiers and snowboarders together. The Sherpas Cinema movie will come to Provo during a tour that brings the movie to Germany, Scotland and across the United States.

The movie immerses viewers into the mind of a common skier as he attempts to climb and ski the ultimate mountain. This movie takes its viewers to Alaska, Bolivia, the Himalayas and many other places.

“This movie is top of the cinematography game as far as movie premieres go,” said Theo Harris, marketing team member for the club. “They use different perspectives. They have a skier and are going to follow the skier throughout the movie, but they’re going to thread it through other athlete segments. It’s more of a story.”

Besides showing the movie, this event will involve sponsors, athletes and giveaways for BYU students.

“We have a free pair of poles in the raffle along with hoodies, beanies, snapbacks and T-shirts,” Harris said. “We have a ton of gear from Dakine and Discrete and Char poles, which are aluminum poles that can be customized and hold tools in the grip. Also, we have Zeal Optics that will provide awesome goggles and Jib Kids, a local BYU student-run clothing company, that will be giving out apparel.”

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“Into the Mind” will premiere on Oct. 18 on BYU campus.

Michael Didier, club president, is avid about gaining sponsors to help the club reach its highest potential, which is how the club got on the movie tour schedule.

“I go to the outdoor retailer trade show and meet a lot of people there; it’s just networking,” Didier said. “I’ll call sponsors and pitch them ideas; if it’s valuable to them we’ll put it in writing and move forward.”

In picking the movie to premiere, the club had different options. “We arrange it when movies come out and companies try to promote them,” Harris said. “We look into those movies and make sure it’ll engage attention.”

The club’s networking skills have paid off because Julian Carr, who was recently shown on ESPN, will also be at the premiere. Carr is a sponsored skier and owns a company, Discrete, on the side.

The movie will be shown in 151 of the Tanner Building. Tickets are $10 for students who aren’t members of Freeride and $3 for members. Club members also get discounted season passes to different resorts in the state such as Alta, Snowbird and Park City.

When asked what her favorite part of the club was, member Annie Taylor responded, “The movie premieres are a ton of fun; I also like that I get discounts at ski resorts.”

Because it has to start up new every season, the club currently has about 150 paid members and 250 that are signed up and haven’t paid dues. “I think that number will skyrocket once we announce the premiere,” Didier said.

Any members of the BYU community are welcome to the movie premiere.

“It’s just a big premiere that people can come out to and have fun,” Harris continued. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a hard-core skier or not.”

To find out more information about Freeride Academy and the “Into the Mind” premiere, visit the club’s Instagram, @freerideacademy, or the academy’s Twitter, @freerideacademy.

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