Not bad for a little guy from Mont-Tremblant!

Skier and film-maker Alexi Godbout has just won the prize for the best film about Freeride Big Mountain at the latest iF3 Montreal festival with Before Blank, a film he co-directed and in which he demonstrates his extraordinary talent as a skier of the impossible.

This is the biggest award that Blank Collective has won since Alexi and his partners founded the film production house in 2014. “I’m really happy. Shooting and editing a movie takes several months and it’s fantastic to see our lengthy efforts rewarded this way,” said the young man, aged 27, when he was in Mont-Tremblant recently.

Before Blank is a trip through time which tells, via images, the genesis of the athletes that Alexi and his buddies have become. In it you see heart-stopping, aerobatic skiing on absolutely improbable slopes, notably in Japan and British Columbia, as well as images of the skiers as kids taken from the family archives.

A passion for skiing

“Alexi, I don’t know if you are looking at this or what age you are (now), but this is the way you started,” comments the voice of Pierre Godbout from off-screen in an old film showing his little boy on skis, from about twenty or so years ago.

“My parents passed a passion for skiing on to me. I will be forever grateful to them,” says the young skier, speaking of Pierre and of his mother, Louise Senécal, two stalwarts of the local ski scene, who are both Level 4s with the Canadian Ski Instructors’ Alliance.

Alexi mentions that he has two homes: one in Mont-Tremblant, of course, and the other in Pemberton, north of Whistler. He has lived in British Columbia for much of each year since he had a “revelation” in the winter of 2013-2014. Alexi was recovering from his umpteenth knee injury and his body had more than a decade behind it of professional freestyle and slopestyle competition, notably at the X Games.

“I did some heli-skiing in the Monashee chain and when I got back to the car, I’d made my decision. I would move to British Columbia to play in the powder and do big mountain skiing. Whether my sponsors would follow or not,” he recounts. Salomon, Rockstar and the others followed suit and are still there, four films and five years later.

“Previously, I traveled the world, but it wasn’t real trips because everything revolved around training and competitions. Now I can take the time to discover all kinds of things, because the culture and places we visit are often essential elements in our films.”

Occupational hazards

And now, the burning question: isn’t what you do on two boards kind of crazy?

“You always have to keep in mind that the mountain will always be the stronger. You have to train well, make good decisions and surround yourself with experienced people in whom you have complete confidence,” Alexi explains.

What’s next? Other festivals for Before Blank,including the important Powder Awards, in Colorado, on December 13, and a film this winter that will provide lots of opportunity for the up-and-comers. “I’d like to provide a chance for talented young people to show their stuff,” he concludes.

You can see Alexi’s film on tv.salomon.com or: