“Phil Casabon and Mike Hornbeck had yet to arrive. Tom was on his own hiking a trapezoid rail off a residential street. He didn’t like his shot, but it was -10 degrees and he hiked the feature until dark. He’s always had a legendary work ethic, but maintaining that level of focus 17-plus years into a professional career is another level.” Minneapolis, MN. Photo: Josh Bishop Words Megan Michelson HUNKERED “My kind of job doesn’t last forever,” says Wallisch, one of skiing’s most visible stars for more than a decade. “I’ve got to learn how to invest what I’ve made.” It’s spring 2020—in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic—and Wallisch has been grounded at home for weeks. Several of his ski and film trips were waylaid, so, like much of the rest of the world, he’s staying busy—perfecting his breakfast sandwich, landscaping his backyard, organizing his garage. And yes, becoming an amateur stock trader. It’s a wise move for Wallisch, and hardly out of character. This is the guy who started studying business administration at the University of Utah in the fall of 2006, but a couple of years in, took a hiatus to focus on his burgeoning ski career. Despite rising to ski superstardom, he eventually graduated (after a seven-year gap) while recovering from ACL surgery in 2018. Wallisch is the breed of business-savvy pro who shows up at sales meetings and talks margins on his pro model. He can call up the CEO of a big company like GoPro and dis-cuss contracts just as easily as he can shoot the breeze with a 10-year-old grom he meets at a ski movie premiere. One of the more highly paid freeskiers in the industry, Wallisch has appeared in global ad campaigns with The North Face and inked deals with Verizon. But he got there as ski-ing’s version of a blue-collar workhorse, gaining fame from homemade internet edits featuring guerrilla-style rail-sliding behind the computer at his home in Park City, UT, Tom Wallisch is obsessively researching. He’s not watching ski videos or scouting the next loca-tion he wants to film. Actually, it has nothing to do with skiing. He’s doing a deep dive into the stock market, enrolled in an online course on financial analysis. in frozen parking lots and outside closed city libraries. All in all, he’s a bit of an anomaly: a skier not only revered by the counterculture, but also celebrated by the mainstream. “I don’t think there’s another skier out there who balances respect for the core community and being on the front lines of what freeskiing is now with the ability to cross over into corporate America,” says Tom Yaps, Wallisch’s longtime agent. Wallisch has a fan base that treats him like a god. His first viral YouTube clip, which won him Level 1’s SuperUnknown contest in 2007 and launched his career, was once posted with the title, “If Jesus freestyle skied.” Podcast host Mike Powell once called Wallisch the “Justin Bieber of skiing.” After all of these years, Wallisch still may be one of the most popular freeskiers on the internet. His Instagram videos easily get as many as 50,000 views and last February he was the first inductee into the Newschoolers Hall of Fame. Wallisch turned 33 years old this summer, and the Pretzel Man (as he is known) is just as relevant now as he was when his rail tricks first started blowing up the internet, back when George W. Bush was president and YouTube was an exciting new platform. Yet it’s a different kind of relevancy today. It’s smarter, more strategic, more forward-thinking. “I don’t have a set goal for what my next career in the ski industry will look like, but I plan on being involved forever,” Wallisch says. “If I can inspire someone along the way, that’s even better.” Tom Wallisch 071
The Ski Journal Volume 14, Issue 1: Page 71
