Chillfactor Podcast with Reggae Elliss

Chris Benchetler - Reggae catches up with pro skier, artist film maker and designer Chris Benchetler by Freeskiing podcast by Chillfactor Magazine

Reggae's guest is Australian World Cup park skier Cameron Waddell, a born and bred Jindabyne local who grew up skiing Perisher from the age of two. Cam's competitive career started as a mogul skier but when he was 13 he followed his old brother Thomas into the Perisher park, started hitting the jumps and mogul skiing was done. 10 years later Cameron is our lone male skier on the FIS Freeski World Cup Tour and has been through the highs and lows of elite sport, now focussed on consistent top 10 finishes, his sights set on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

In this episode Reggae's guest is Kiwi freeskier and 2022 Freeride World Champion Jess Hotter. Jess grew up in the small North Island town of Ohakune, skiing in nearby Turoa before moving to Wanaka for the NZ winter in 2017 and working as pro patroller at Treble Cone for 3 years. She also started competing in Freeride events chasing events and points in the northern hemisphere winters and qualified for the 2020 Freeride World Tour. Two years later Jess won three out of five events and was crowned world champion.

Reggae Catches up with Andrea Binning, Australia's first internationally renowned big mountain skier, winner of the 2000 World Extreme Championships in Alaska who enjoyed a lengthy professional skiing career competing and filming in some of the biggest and steepest mountains in the world.

In this episode Reggae chats with the legendary Glen Plake, freeskiier, ski mountaineer and an icon of the sport. Glen's a natural raconteur and this conversation covers growing up in Lake Tahoe, mogul skiing, his multiple ski film appearances, his strong connection with Australia, "extreme" skiing, Chamonix and more.

Reggae's guest in this episode is Austrian/Australian professional freeskier and 2017 Freeride World Tour Champion Lorraine Huber. Lorraine was born in Austria but moved to Australia with her Australian mother when she was eight years old and grew up in Torquay and went to school in Geelong.

So how does a girl from Torquay become Freeride World Champ? Well, every Christmas holidays Lorraine and her sister would head back to Austria to spend time with their father in Lech, a ski resort in The Arlberg where their dad was a ski instructor. Lorraine’s skiing developed every year and she also became a ski instructor and qualified mountain guide.

Lech and the Arlberg have some in incredible off-piste terrain and Lorraine developed a passion for freeskiing which drew her into competition and a 10-year career on the Freeride World Tour, culminating in being crowned World Champ in 2017. She has a Masters in Mental Strength Coaching and is wokiging in that field with athletes and business leaders.

In this episode Reggae Ellliss' guest is Kiwi Professional Freeskier and mountaineer Sam Smoothy who talks about life growing up in Wanaka, his path into big mountain skiing and filming and his next ambitious project to climb the highest peaks in New Zeland.

Mogul skier Britt Cox is a four time Olympian who made her Olympic debut in the 2010 Winter games in Vancouver when she was 15 years old, the youngest athlete at those games. She went on from there to have a stellar World Cup career, winning the World Cup Crystal Globe as overall champ in 2016/17 and was also Australia's first female mogul World Champ. Britt has just announced her retirement and chats to Reggae Elliss about her long and successful career and her future plans.

Torah Bright is Australia's most successful winter athlete,a three-time Olympian who won gold in the halfpipe in 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and then silver at Sochi in 2014. Torah is also a two-times X games gold medalist, world champion and has won numerous international competitions. She has enjoyed along and illustrious pro career that started when she was 14 and two decades later is still going strong. Torah now focuses on filming and other projects for her long term sponsor Roxy and also has a young son named Flow. It's busy life and she has a great story to tell.

In this episode Reggae chats with four-time Olympian and bronze medallist Zali Steggall about her success as a World Cup ski racer, climate change and her move into politics as an independent in Australia's federal parliament