Dave Bouchard

Home Base: Mad River Glen, VT

Current Quiver: Team 100s, Storm BC and XCD Guides

Recent Accomplishments: New England Telemark instructor and judge, proud father of two.

Recent Media: Telemark Skier Magazine, Vermont Sports, full page Kombi Gloves ad, High Anxiety Films, and Meathead Films.

Freeheel skiing is an incredible outlet in my life. I get an incredible amount of energy from my involvement in the sport, whether it’s teaching kids to realize the potential of the gear, shooting videos or just going out with my family or good buddies on a powder day. I’ve been watching (and helping in some small way) this sport grow for the past 14 years. The sport always seems to give, so I try to give back. I have quite a few outlets for sharing what this sport brings me with others. As a school teacher I see kids learn from day to day in the classroom, but there’s nothing like getting on the mountain with a kid, watching them make their inaugural telemark turn on their fist day out with our school telemark program.

The progression goes pretty quickly from there. Once kids are comfortable on the gear, it doesn’t take long before they start asking the most common question, “Can we jump on these things?” I love it. I let them know, “Yeah you can jump on them – spin on them, rip them through powder, dodge trees at high speeds in the woods, climb a mountain on them or dance ‘em down a bump field.” Not to mention the three or four different turns you have available to you to glide, surf, charge and just plain ski the entire mountain. If they don’t believe this, I’m more than happy to convince them otherwise when we get down to skiing together.

Last winter I had a chance to talk the sport up a bit this season as Vermont Sports Magazine’s Athlete of the Month, and I graced the pages of a few of the more well-read ski mags dropping the knee in a full page Kombi ad, as well as lending my ugly mug to a few brochures and websites for folks like Mad River Glen, New England Telemark and North American Telemark Organization. Highanxietyfilms.com cranked out a sweet tele film that captures the spirit of Eastern hardwoods, which I had a big part in last year, and I worked with Meathead films again this year. I looking forward to another great year of wrapping freeheel skiing around my life as a father, teacher, friend and media slave. Hope to see ya out there.