Vancouver, Canada - Mike Ridewood's Freestyle skiing career began 15 years ago, but not as a skier. In fact, Ridewood is the first to admit, laughing, that his skiing skills are "almost non-existent." That has never stopped him, however, from perching himself along some of the steepest mogul courses in the world to get coveted shots of Canadian athletes in action.


Over the decade and a half that Ridewood has been photographing the Canadian National Team for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association (CFSA), a lot has changed. Mogul acrobatic maneuvers have progressed from twisters and cossacks to back-fulls and cork 720s, but perhaps more revolutionary for Ridewood is the evolution that’s taken place inside the camera.

Canadian Freestyle Ski Association photographer Mike Ridewood.

Ridewood used to spend the hours after competitions painstakingly tinkering with his portable darkroom, trying to get a photo or two of that day’s competition from some remote ski town in the middle of Italy, or wherever, to Canadian press back home for publication in the next days’ papers. Now, with digital technology and the advancement of the Internet, at the click of a button highlights can be wired around the world in seconds.

These advancements have pushed the visually spectacular sport of freestyle from the sidelines onto the main stage, as photos of aerialists or mogul skiers in flight regularly grace the pages of newspapers and magazines.

As a photographer, Ridewood plays a unique role on the Canadian team. He considers himself a bit of a voyeur. “I like watching, I’ve always been that way. I like being behind the scenes.”

But talk skiing to him and you can’t help but be amazed at his knowledge of the intricacies of each athlete’s performance -- details that sometimes even their coaches may not notice -- because of his careful eye and his unique vantage point close to the action and behind the lens.

He also sees himself as a bit of a Freestyle historian, for he’s been present for many of the sport’s most important moments.

“Every year at the Mont-Gabriel World Cup I see Jean-Luc [Brassard] and he says, ‘you’re still here!’ When I started out I wasn’t too much older than many of the athletes – now I’m the same age as a lot of their fathers,” Ridewood mused.

Soon after Ridewood started with the CFSA, his prowess behind the camera was noticed by the Canadian Olympic Committee who hired him to shoot Team Canada in Atlanta in 1996. He’s been covering the Games for the COC ever since. The upcoming Vancouver games will be his ninth Olympics.

As such he has advice for those attending the world’s biggest sporting event for the first time. Number one: “Be patient. Make sure you have enough clothes to stand around for a long time.” Next, “Enjoy it, a Games in our own country gives us a lot to celebrate. The spirit and enjoyment is infectious.”

Ridewood should know, he recently realized that he was present for six of CTV’s top 10 Canadian winter Olympic moments of all time.

One of his personal most memorable Olympic moments was on the slopes at Sauze d'Oulx, Italy in 2006. “It was sunny in the afternoon for the qualifications, clear and quite warm for the night final. It was one of those events where I don't think I ever thought there was a possibility [Jenn Heil] wouldn't win. Her skiing and jumps were by far the class of the field. The next night at the medal presentation in Turin was an emotional night, the first gold for Canada.”

You would think that after all these years Ridewood’s job would be old hat, but the job still brings its challenges. He says that when the athletes have training days, he uses those for training too.

“I’m always trying not to be too predictable, so I have to look at ways to make the same situations different. I use background and light a lot and try to experiment when the stakes aren’t as high as race days. On race days I can’t risk missing a shot of the winners.”

The cold, and even more the wet, can be challenging too, especially when he’s standing on the sidelines with finicky equipment for hours on end.

However, for Ridewood, the most challenging thing after 15 years is still the skiing. Nine times out of ten he’ll choose to hike three-quarters of the way up a mogul run with all his heavy gear rather than strapping on his boards and skiing into position.