Jossi Wells, man in black. Cardrona Alpine Resort, New Zealand. Photo: Josh Bishop “That pressure, those goals, they all are internally driven. We’re deciding As a kid rising through the ranks, “I felt a certain amount of pressure Jossi would begin each season by plotting because my livelihood was my number one what comes out and how out all the competitions he wanted to win passion,” Jossi says. “I think some people we’re portrayed.” and tricks he wanted to learn. Now, rather burn out on skiing, and that’s why they walk —Jossi Wells than outlining goals, he’s crafting timelines. He’s away. But for whatever reason, I wasn’t [burned out]. But I still had obligations and relationships to maintain because it was still my job. Still is. So I had to find a way to keep pushing forward.” Jossi steered into the creative side of his life, taking his on-snow prowess and combining it more intentionally with his photo-graphic work. He set out to not only ski in front of the camera, but also produce and direct the content pieces in which he starred. His latest endeavor is Deviate Films, a self-described “ski film collective” founded by Jossi and fellow former competitive pro skier, Torin Yater-Wallace. Their two films, Deviate (2020) and Good Luck (2021), showcase the same warmth Jossi brings to his photographs by celebrating the in-between moments. It’s not a massive shakeup in format nor a cinematic revolution, but rather the two skiers’ vision of what a standard ski film can entail. “For most of my life, I had team managers watching me ski every month, or judges every other week validating what I’m doing,” Jossi explains. “Now that’s gone; it’s just me and my homies out there deep in the backcountry. And then at the end of the year, you drop a movie. But that pressure, those goals, they all are internally driven. We’re deciding what comes out and how we’re portrayed.” pulling together briefs, obsessing over shot lists, and cranking out pitch decks. He’s lining up travel, building schedules, and staffing shoots. The work ethic that catapulted a small-town kid from the South Island of New Zealand to become part of skiing’s zeitgeist remains intact, the compounding effort required to get a clip replacing the compulsive urge to outperform the next guy to drop. For a person who’s hyper-aware of his image, this shift provides Jossi with a new window into the pursuit that has defined his life since childhood. Through his newest venture, Jossi now gets to determine what success looks like. As winter descends on New Zealand’s Southern Alps, Jossi is in the planning stages of yet another project. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s hurt again, having sustained a ruptured patellar tendon—his second in two years. Facing a full Southern Hemisphere winter with his feet planted on the ground, he’s had to shift plans yet again. He hints at documenting a bike-and ski-touring mission later in the spring to cap off his light-duty winter, an inside look at the changing seasons of his lengthy ski career. “The fire is still there,” Jossi says. “But now I feel like I have some things I want to say.” Jossi Wells 065
The Ski Journal Volume 16, Issue 1: Page 65
