10 THINGS THAT WILL SURPRISE YOU ABOUT CANDIDE THOVEX
Who said that snow is necessary to ski? It sounds strange because, just by imagining it, it is out of everything that until now we consider as "normal". In fact, there is a person who is capable of showing you that, if you are a lover of off-piste skiing, this variety may be perfect for you. After all, off-piste skiing is also going off the beaten path, right? You will only need a pair of skis, a hill and... a great desire for adventure!
Candide Thovex best describes what it's like to truly be a freerider and feel the need to glide anywhere, from the foothills of the Rainbow Mountain in Peru , go down the steps of the Great Wall of China, cross Buddhist temples jumping between windows or, why not, cross the middle of the tropical jungle and fall in the middle of the desert, raising sand instead of snow. Sounds unbelievable? Yes, you have to see it to believe it, but in our article today we are going to tell you those 10 things you may not know about Candide Thovex.
1. WHEN AND WHERE WAS CANDIDE THOVEX BORN?
He was born on May 22, 1982 in the town of Annecy, France. However, where his passion for snow sports really grew and awoke was in what he himself considers 'his station': La Cluzas.
2. HOW DID CANDIDE THOVEX LEARN TO SKI?
Their story is somewhat similar to that of the Fernández Ochoa brothers, but it differs in that their destiny was marked from the origin of their name. And it is that Candide in Spanish means "a more resplendent white". This, whether or not it would then come true, caused the snow to already be in its path in some form. And it is that his father was a ski instructor at the La Cluzas station, so at two years of age he was already making his first contacts with the snow. In just a few months he would learn to do jumps and turns, first inside the house and at the age of 5 he was already experimenting outside. So much his passion for this sport, that at the age of 6 he joined a local ski club and developed a taste and passion for Mogul Ski.
3. WHAT WAS THE FIRST YEARS OF CANDIDE THOVEX'S CAREER LIKE?
When Candide was 14 years old he made his first debut in the national championship of the Mogul division, since since then he was already teaching skiing in a different and very innovative way. A year later he was already signing endorsement deals with Quicksilver. His professional life seemed to be just beginning and with great speed, so much so that at the beginning of the year 2000, at the Gravity Games in California, he marked a milestone in the history of freestyle performing a 720 turn, marking this as the largest rotation seen in history. . In fact, they began to call him "the flying Frenchman." Unfortunately, however, subsequent injuries began to weigh heavily on his health, highlighting the need to reconsider competitions.
4. HOW MANY GOLD MEDALS DOES CANDIDE THOVEX HAVE?
So far, the French freerider has won three gold medals corresponding to different modalities within the Winter X Games: Big air, Superpipe and Slopestyle. And at the age of 27 he won the Chamomix stage on the Freeride World Tour as a rookie in this competition.
5. WHY DID CANDIDE THOVEX DECIDE TO CHANGE COMPETITIONS FOR FILMMAKING?
After years of competitions and proudly consecrated glories, Candide had already suffered several falls and accidents that were debilitating him physically and emotionally. The worst was in 2007, when he was at the height of his career. He suffered a fracture in his back that injured several vertebrae, which is why his progress and progress in the world of freeride was put in suspense, since the best thing to do was to stop skiing. For this same reason, he spent a year without skiing, resting and recovering from his injuries. However, his desire to continue discovering the world through his exploits was enough for him to combine his two passions, filmmaking and skiing.
6. HOW HAVE YOU RECOVERED FROM YOUR INJURIES?
Although much of his recovery was based on several physiotherapy sessions, he also claims that his mentality has helped him a lot. Although he can no longer perform many of his old feats and now has to be more careful, he trains every day: he has a stretching scale and a muscle relaxation machine that is always helping him.
7. WHY IS "LAS CLUZAS" SO IMPORTANT TO CANDIDE THOVEX?
Thanks to having been the station that saw him born and grow as a freerider, he considers it his spot, his playing field. It reminds him of all the times he accompanied his father to work, since he was an instructor at the ski school at that station. For him it was his best training center because he was always surrounded by potholes. Normally, according to Candide, when you learn freestyle you find the odd bump and you focus on them because later comes the rest. But in La Cluzas there is no such rest: you get out of a pothole and fall into another. In this way, you must be dodging and jumping all the time and that has been the best way of learning for him. He attributes all his capabilities to this place. We already understand why they call him the "flying Frenchman" or the "iron boy".
8. WHEN DID CANDIDE THOVEX'S NAME GO VIRAL?
In addition to knowing him because of her track record, Candide was going viral on networks because of her videos on YouTube, especially with a series of videos called One of those days . There were three videos that reached more than a million views where everyone hallucinated with the exploits of the Frenchman. And it was from there that brands worldwide took notice of it as good advertising content. In fact, one of the videos that has surely taken the breath away of more than one are the ones he made sponsored by Audi, which we leave here for you to see and discover that, to be a freerider, you only need one! hill and lots of adrenaline!
9. HOW MANY FILMS HAS CANDIDE THOVEX MADE?
Throughout his career he decided to participate and create several film productions. One of them has been Few Words a film that premiered in 2012 and won awards for best documentary and best screenplay. This production narrates the life of Candide from his moments of glory to the most difficult.
Consequently, his most recognized work was One of those days, which was divided into 3 seasons, each released in 2013, 2015 and 2016, where the freerider, along with an action camera , records his journeys in the middle of the hills of different parts of the world where he can practice freeride, the last of this series of productions being the one that became the most viral when he established a challenge for his followers. In the same way that he showed his day skiing, he also wanted others to imitate his style and show him in small video shots what another freerider's day was like. The result? Whoever had the best video would win a freeride ski day with Candide.
Another of his productions was Explore Mont Blanc was sponsored by Google. The idea was that, from the point of view of the skier, a satellite view would be made of the best routes of Mont Blanc. Impressive, right? On the other hand, it should be noted that the recent productions of Audi's Quattro were a complete spectacle. These productions caused admiration and aroused interest at the post-production level.Candide stated that there was editing in some shots, but that all of his skiing moments were true, right down to crossing a desert and ski-surfing.
10. DO YOU INTEND TO DEDICATE YOUR WHOLE LIFE TO SKIING?
In several of his interviews, the freerider Candide Thevoux has stated that, if one day they take away his ability to ski, it would be like ending his life. However, he is aware that there is some degree and level of physical expiration in this sport. He wants to finish earning a living doing what he loves but he also wants to continue deepening his career in the audiovisual world, that is: movies; while he plans to retire himself to a sunny spot, listening to reggae (which we've discovered is his favorite type of music). Pretty out of the ordinary, isn't it? Well, in the same way that his style is, which after all has made a difference in the trade, so is his life outside the professional field. Another of his dreams is to set up a school on his Las Cluzas track. Definitely.a restless and passionate ass of life! Just like us.
