Le Franco Phoney

Candide Thovex, who allegedly fell out with the La Clusaz Tourist Office a few years ago, ending the his Candide Invitational (now replaced with the La Clusaz Free Sessions), has proved once again that he’s still got it.

A few days ago, Candide won the Redbull Linecatcher 2010 competition. This was his first competition entry since breaking his back two seasons ago on the Big Bertha jump at his own Candide Invitational competition. Here’s a quick video showing one of his runs and the three tricks he did that helped him win the Redbull competition:

Candide spent a lot of time in places other than La Clusaz last year, but his absence has made the hearts of locals grow fonder, not weaker: he was busy shaking people’s hands in the car park of La Balme last week. The day was over, and it was cold, but he still hung around chatting to kids and adults alike until finally they all seemed satisfied with their Candide time and he could go. I’m hoping he gets more time to ride in La Clusaz this year as he’s not only a nice guy, but an inspiration to watch on the snow.

After seeing the fresh snow at the end of June on the peaks of La Clusaz, some friends and I were motivated to do a road trip to Tignes for a day of skiing on the glacier. We arose at 4.30am and left La Clusaz within half an hour. We took the easiest route to get there, through Albertville, stopping only for breakfast snacks from a boulangerie. Here’s what happened:

1. Arrived in Tignes at 7am to find the funicular closed due to high winds on the glacier.
2. Ate a second breakfast and came back for a half-day ticket at 10.30am (handy, as it’s cheaper, and the snow will have softened up).
3. Funicular opened, tickets bought, high winds kept the telepherique closed, but two drag lifts open.
4. On snowboards, two of us ice skated up a t-bar, while the other friend opted out and just had a hot chocolate in the sun.
5. Dodged racers on skis at the second ice rink of a t-bar, and made it to the snow park that had something resembling snow (all other pistes icy).
6. Friend got scared about all the cool dudes doing cool things, so we ice skated back down the piste and joined friend for hot chocolate.
7. Left the resort by midday.

However, the drive home really made up for the disappointing snow. Before hitting the beautiful Barrage de Roseland — a big man-made dam that reflects the most lovely blue hues amongst the green peaks surrounding it, we came across this old hotel. Out the back was a structure made for a pool and a water slide, but neither were there. Inside, a great square-spiral staircase wound right to the top. As you can see from this photo, the façade is growing trees. Some of the windows have some glass panels in them, but most of them are now just square holes. My friend, an avid Candide Thovex fan, realised straight away that this was the building used on the Coreupt ski team website, of which Candide is now a member. Just a week earlier, she had discovered (and visited) the boulangerie used to film the short video which I wrote about here, where Candide is abducted by the Coreupt team. In case you’re wondering, it’s in le Petit Bornand. And yes, she has photos outside the boulangerie and the hotel, complete with a large grin in each picture.

So, what happened to this hotel? Was it ever finished? Or is this the shell from a hotel that was once grand and frequented by tourists? It seems odd that some of the windows have glass panels if it wasn’t ever finished, but at the same time, the structure doesn’t show any signs of decoration marks on the inside. And surely they wouldn’t have added that wooden cladding if it wasn’t near completion. Maybe the construction workers went off to sample the snow on the Tignes glacier and were so mortified at the lack of snow that they moved to Utah. What do you think?

1. Annecy. Last week, Annecy won the national contest to see which French city could bid for the 2018 winter Olympics. Congratulations to everyone involved so far. I’ll keep my fingers crossed until 2010 when the winning city is announced.

2. Candide Thovex was noticeably absent at the La Clusaz Free Sessions. He’s been busy working on his new project, Candide Kamera. The first video is beautifully shot, with a great opening scene looking down to Geneva airport, lots of amazing freeriding, and just a few tricks thrown in during filming. There’s also some footage of him being dragged out of a snowy river by his perplexed-looking friend. I wasn’t too keen on the ending, which reverts back to his old style, but at least he kept the time lapse footage to about three seconds, and there’s only one ‘nature’ scene of some deer. Check out the vid:

Interestingly, Candide’s website has a ‘coming soon’ page for the Candide Invitational. Does this mean there will be more in the future?

3. Bruno. Who is Bruno? Bruno is my cat, and despite this week’s new snowfall, it’s clear that spring is on the way because he has brought me his first mouse for the year. Not bad for a fourteen year-old, but I’d prefer no mouse and more winter.

Each year, La Clusaz puts on a free ski/snowboard movie. For the past few seasons, we’ve had Candide Thovex movies, and they’ve been great. Last year, despite waiting outside for more than an hour, the cinema finally let us in to take our seats, then made us wait at least another half an hour while—it was rumoured—Candide himself finished off the final editing of the movie. However, it was worth the wait. The movie was motivational, inspiring, interesting, and funny.

Travis Rice, please watch some of Candide’s stuff or movies like Steep. Your film was this year’s freebie, and I’m glad it was free. Despite the great reviews, Trav, your movie was a complete cliché of everything used in 1990s snowsports movies: an old car that gets wrecked (this one in particular featuring a Burton logo on the bonnet and a stick figure peeing on the logo); a ‘comedy scene’ (talking marks needed because it wasn’t funny) involving lumberjacks; lots of time-delay sequences of the sun, the moon, the clouds, an airport etc.; at least four snowboard throws (”look at me: I’m sponsored so I can just chuck my equipment where I want and if it breaks I’ll get new stuff”); stereotyping of each country visited (is talking pretend Japanese to a Japanese cameraman really funny or worthy of being in a film?); and let’s not forget the cheesy quotes, including; “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, and the eye-roll-inducing; “Snowboarding isn’t just a sport: it’s a way of life” right at the end.

Yes, the photography was very special and of that you should be very proud. I now know what some sort of mountain goat looks like in New Zealand. However, I wanted to see snowboarding and not nature. So let’s talk about that. If I’ve seen you jumping over a tree once or twice, I don’t need to see it a further five or so times straight after. I get it: you can jump a tree. I was impressed the first time, but I was bored by the last time. This also goes for your jumps: I’ve seen you do multiple somersaults in the air once, twice, ten times, no maybe thirty times now. Really, I don’t need to see that trick again just because the country has changed. Don’t get me wrong: I’m sure you’re very talented, but this really was the Travis Rice show. Despite luring in such amazing riders as Terje Håkonsen and Jeremy Jones, they barely got their faces on camera (except when Jeremy’s was covered in blood). When Jeremy and the other riders spoke, I felt motivated to take my board out and attack a mountain of white stuff. When you spoke, I felt like telling you to stop. They sounded professional. You did not.

Anyway, my mother always told me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all, so I’m sorry for all of the above. Let me make amends by reassuring you that I was impressed with the way you can ride on the tail of your board in powder and flick around to ride switch, and I’m sure you can do some other amazing things. Also, my friend enjoyed the movie and embraced the cheesiness as everything that a snowboard movie should be. But why not try to break those boundaries instead of reinforcing them? I’m left with the question: “That’s it? That’s all?” An appropriate title, with or without the question marks.

I received an e-mail from the La Clusaz Tourist Office a few days ago that announced the La Clusaz Free Sessions. This confirms the death of the Candide Invitational for 2009, with the event taking place in March (like the Candide Invitational), a concert on the Saturday night in the La Balme carpark (like the Candide Invitational), and an evening jib session (like the Candide Invitational). There are, of course, many differences: it’s being ‘endorsed’ by Seb Michaud (the 2008 world freeride vice-champion) and not Candide; the gig will feature ‘live rock and electro’ instead of ragga, and the competition will be held as team events (hmm—much like the Riderscup in Tignes, which Candide hosted earlier this month).

Actually, it sounds like the decision-makers of La Clusaz have actually thought this one through: the day-time events are freeride events held off-piste, filmed by professionals and viewable each afternoon before the evening jib session. My only concern is that the event will make La Clusaz look like a freeride heaven and attract freeriders who will inevitably take some of my fresh tracks from me!

As I predicted, Candide will indeed be holding an event in Tignes. It’s not actually called the Candide Invitational 2009, but it seems to be the closest thing so far. The Riderscup (yes, one word) will see two teams competing against each other: one led by Candide and the other by TJ Schiller, according to the Tignes.net website. The competition will involve an XXL half pipe and Big Air session. It’s being touted as the US against the Europeans, which seems a bit like a marketing ploy to me.

If you’re interested in going, you’d better get your skates on: it’s happening in early January.

No, that’s not a typo, there’s a new ski ‘posse’ called Coreupt (or coreUPT — they can’t seem to decide), and Candide Thovex is in with them. The news isn’t actually that recent, but I’ve only just discovered the (very short!) video (see below), which is kind of an odd one, and since Coreupt seem to be based in Tignes, perhaps the Candide Invitational 2009 will be held there instead! Coreupt seem to be collecting a pretty good team of riders. Anyway, I heard a rumour that Coreupt equipment will be available for testing on the last weekend of November. Don’t blame me if I’m wrong — I’ll be going to Tignes that weekend anyway for another snow fix before La Clusaz’s lifts open in December.

So…Candide Thovex. He’s a local hero here in La Clusaz, having won many freestyle skiing competitions and attaining the title of world champion a few years ago. He’s been holding the Candide Invitational freestyle competition — four days of bling, baggy-panted riders and wannabees taking over the otherwise sleepy French family-style resort of La Clusaz — for the past six years. But will he be holding it here this year? The Tourist Office’s calendar doesn’t mention a date, and when I asked them, they said that no date has been decided. So I asked them if it had been cancelled and their rather cagey response was: “No decision has been made yet. Sorry.” So, are the rumours that Candide fell out with the La Clusaz authorities during the last event true? And is that why I haven’t seen his face featured in any of the tourist brochures or on the La Clusaz winter website, even though he featured prominently in past winters?

Candide is a genuinely nice guy (he let me jump in front of him in the chairlift queue last year, not to mention the YouTube video showing him saving a girl from falling off a chairlift) and almost every kid in town loves him. Almost every female in town would like to love him. It would be a shame if the Candide Invitational did not happen this winter; and besides, it’s the only time in La Clusaz that I can check out the pro-riders to see what ridiculous patterns, colours and/or styles of clothing they think they can get away with.