Champéry is a Swiss resort well known in the MTB scene because it owns one of the steepest tracks which became famous with the amazing run of Dany Hart during 2011 world champs. What people know less is that you can find a few more trails as fun as this one there. I spent a few days up there filming with Julien Fournier, one of the locals, and my mate Vincent Tupin in unexpectedly dry terrain for the season in these mountains. This year, winter starts pretty badly with few precipitations and warm temperatures under the sun. We had such a contrast between the sunny areas and the shadows. On one side of the mountain you can ride in the dust with your bike while you can ski at the same elevation on the other.
Jamie Mitchell is a one of the world’s most respected watermen. He’s a 10-time winner of the Molokai to Oahu Paddleboarding Race, an incredible standup paddler, an avid shortboard surfer, and he is increasingly in the spotlight as a big-wave surfer. Last week the Australian caught what was considered to be the largest ridden wave generated by Winter Storm Hercules, at the outer reef of Belharra in France. GrindTV caught up with Jamie to discuss that session.
Can you talk us through that wave?
I didn’t get close to catching a wave for a couple of hours. It was so hard to … More