Tom Wallisch
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
“I was an eight-year-old at the ski resort, and I was allowed to go off completely on my own where I was only limited by where my skis or where my mind could take me–the freedom was amazing.”
Tom Wallisch came of age in an era when skiing began to fracture. When the sport’s clean-cut alpine lineage collided with the youth culture. In the mid-2000s, Tom was a college student in Utah, studying architecture and filming tricks in the shadows of rusted railings. The footage was grainy, shot at night, and circulated online. His skiing is low, loose, and impossibly fluid. Watching it feels like a rejection of the mountain as an exclusive space.
“The East Coast is an amazing learning place for skiing with the bad weather, shorter seasons, and smaller mountains. It was such an amazing place to learn because I was able to focus more on the nuances of a simple rail slide before moving out west.”
What sets Tom apart is his ability to make risk appear serene. In his early edits, he lands tricks with a stillness that seems to turn city landscapes into poetry. His later films, including “Imagination,” set the bar for pushing style and technicality, and his influence runs deep in both the sport’s core and popularity.
“I’ve always convinced myself that hard work beats talent every time.”
By the time he entered professional competitions, Tom was already an anomaly. He was a YouTube celebrity in a sport still tethered to sponsorship hierarchies and Olympic aspirations. He won X Games medals, appeared in major ski films, and set records in slopestyle, but his most enduring impact came from democratizing his medium. Through self-produced edits and street segments, he made professional skiing feel participatory, even attainable. Kids could study his footage frame by frame, mimicking his posture. Tom’s fame wasn’t just about performance. It was about who got to define what skiing looked like, and where it could happen.
“It’s hard to keep up with 20-year-olds. It is very hard. I don't like it when I feel so old out there, but you know, they still need to be taught a lesson. I still gotta get in there and show them how to make it look good…The future and what I'm focused on is trying to give back in the events and access to skiing. I’m finding more of an ownership role in the sport in terms of advising and counseling and being a decision maker for the future to keep it the way it should be and to have an athlete perspective and an athlete voice at the table.”
Now in the comfort of an established career, Tom directs film projects, mentors younger athletes, commentates for XGames and TBL sessions while remaining attuned to the politics of the sport. His story mirrors the evolution of freeskiing itself: A movement that began in defiance of structure–and ended up redefining it.
Career Highlights
● Over 25 ski film appearances, including Teton Gravity Research, Matchstick Productions, Field Productions, and Level 1 Productions
● Athlete/Producer, Resurrection, Good Company (2019) and Vice Versa, Good Company (2016)
● World Record for longest urban rail slide on skis (424 feet) (2016)
● U.S. Freeski Team member, Winter Olympics, Sochi (2014)
● Featured athlete, The Wallisch Project (2013) and Good Company film series (2013–present)
● ESPN’s 50 Most Influential Action Sports Athletes (2013)
● Readers’ Poll Winner, Powder Awards (2010–2014)
● Best Male Performance, Powder Video Awards (2010, 2012)
● X Games Gold Medalist, Slopestyle (2012)
● Freestyle Segment of the Year, IF3 Festival (2012)
● Overall Dew Tour Champion (2009, 2010)
● AFP (Association of Freeskiing Professionals) Slopestyle World Champion (2010)
https://www.instagram.com/sage_cattabriga_alosa
https://www.facebook.com/TWallisch/
https://www.youtube.com/@GoodCompanySki