Pass or Crash - Rahlves Crosses Over

As one of the most successful skiers ever in World Cup competition, Daron Rahlves definitely earned the right to relax after retiring at the end of the ’05/’06 season, but that’s just not his style. He’s putting in more freeskiing time these days, but his competitive spirit drove him to start a new career in skiercross; in fact, he’ll be making his first appearance at the Winter X Games this year for the Skier X event. After releasing himself from the grueling World Cup schedule, Rahlves plans on riding motocross, surfing, and even skating with his new-found free time, as well as starting a family with his wife Michelle, so he’ll definitely have his hands full. There’s no telling what else he’ll get into if he happens to run across a moment of downtime, but whatever it is, you can bet he’ll be damn good at it.

I’m into having a good time. Hopefully it’s a good track and we have some good battles out there. I’m not into just being part of it, though; I want to come out on top. It’s a serious game; these guys are doing it for a living, and there’s a lot of prize money on the line. I can’t be doing it just for fun.

I’m looking forward to enjoying a whole other side of the sport. Being on the World Cup, you’re always in Europe, you only have one week in the U.S. The X Games is reaching a whole new group of people that we’ve maybe never reached before with World Cup racing.

Both ways. The level of commitment and seriousness in how I prepare myself for the World Cup is ten times more intense than skiercross. I feel that if I can pull from my natural skills and a little bit of tech skiing conditioning, I can be right there. I know these guys don’t want me to come in as a racer, as a newcomer to their sport, and steal the show or whatever, so they’re working a lot harder to beat me than anybody else, probably. At Sun Valley last weekend for the Honda Ski Tour, I had a wake-up call; my starts were way off, I was getting smoked. I had to make passes to advance. If the course is easy, then everyone can ski the same line and go through the terrain the same way, and it’s really difficult to make a pass. The more technical it is, the more demanding the terrain is, and if there are good passing zones, it’s going to be interesting. That’s more of what I’m looking for in the course.

Yeah, I just had a little introduction to all the top guys this past weekend at the Ski Tour. A lot of the guys I grew up racing with are in skiercross now. I met some of the Euros this weekend. Everybody’s kind of a threat; it all depends on the course. Casey Puckett has a great start and he’s a good skier. There’s Gavaggio, Lewen… there are a handful of guys who get out of the start hard; the holeshot’s important. I’ve worked on my starts for the last two days and figured some stuff out, so hopefully I can get out side-by-side with these guys instead of in the back.

It was awesome; I think they did a good job. I definitely had a good time. I could have gotten second [Ed. Note: Daron finished in fourth], but I’m not going to sit back and settle for second place. If there’s a chance to pass, I’m going to make the move. My motto in Skier X now is pass or crash.

For sure. I think it’s going to help bring a new crop of skiers up through the ranks. The guys who haven’t done that much in racing who still have some good racing skills are going to give it a go.

I’ve done a little bit, but I don’t really get in the halfpipe much. Every day I try to take two or three runs through the park, hit some jumps, get on the boxes, and do some sliders, but I’m just at the beginner level. I can pull off a 360; that’s pretty much the bag of tricks I have. I want to learn some new stuff and focus on backcountry freeskiing, get back up to Alaska with Matchstick [Productions] and do some filming.

Mainly just the skiercross and freeskiing. I just have more time to do other things, like this year I raced the Baja 1000. We bought a house in Encinitas, California, so I’ll have a chance to surf and ride dirt bikes more. I want to put some more time into riding motocross; I’m not going to be getting too serious, but I’d like to try to get to the intermediate level and have some battles and some fun with those guys. To me, that’s one of the best sports around. If I thought I had the skills and ability to get into the pro ranks with some hard work, I’d definitely be jumping on that, but I’m a long ways away. It’s just fun.

For the next two years, I’ll be getting more into skiercross and freeskiiing, and trying to inspire young kids to help them out. What I’m doing now is different from racing, but I still want to promote racing, try to get these kids coming up to stick with it and get there. It takes a lot of effort, a lot of hard work, and Americans don’t really see anything about the sport outside of the Olympics every four years, but the World Cup is where it’s at. You’re racing every week all over the world; you get to see a lot of places. I never wanted to look back at life and think about what I could have done. I wanted to take every opportunity, every chance to try to go out there and make something of myself.

I’m just trying to inspire kids and pass on my experience to people in the ski world.