You’ve probably met this man but you don’t know it, he is the legend that saves your skis after they’ve had a nasty incident with a rock or other hard object. As the tech at Killy sport he’s kept more dreams alive than we’ve had pints and to say he’s passionate, understatement of the century!
So how long have you been in Val d’Isere?
I arrived here about 25 years ago and started out just skiing all day every day, but after 6 months I needed a job and started as a ski technician in a shop here, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
What do you do in the summer?
I’m still here in the summer working for Killy, but at that time of year it’s a different kind of customer, less skis and more walking and climbing equipment, a few skis go in and out for glacier skiing, but not many. My wife and children are out here so this is our full time home with our cat that is named after Harry Potter thanks to my son.
So what do you do?
I’m the tech here at Killy so I service all the skis that come into us, including all the rental skis. It can be really busy sometimes, but it’s great and it’s a very different job now to when I started.
Why?
Well now we have all these big machines that can do a lot of the servicing for us, of course some people still want service by hand if they have a particular request, but usually we send them through the machine, which does just as good a job, they aren’t cheap though, it costs about €200,000 for a basic machine to prepare skis.
What do the machines do?
The machines can edge and wax the skis by themselves, but it’s all done by programming, so depending on the problem the skis or board can go through a number of times before they are in good shape. It all depends on what you want and what was the problem in the first place.
Done the skis of anyone famous?
I was employed years ago as the technician for some of the French ski team, but that’s about as famous as they get for me. I went with them to the world championships and to the Olympics in Calgary so it was a pretty amazing job.
Did you race?
I used to race for fun but never seriously or for money, but now I find it difficult to ski because I’ve had lots of operations on my knee and don’t have any cartilage left. The price I’ve paid for years of great skiing.
Why do you do your job?
I’m passionate about my job because it can make the difference to someone’s skiing. I always try and do a great service for kids skis, because most of them are learning, so if it’s easier then I want to help them out. Every ski is important to me, but I’ve had to stop looking for perfection, because it takes too long!
How many skis do you service?
We do between 500 and 700 pairs a week, which seems a lot, but once you get going it’s fine. We all enjoy our jobs and our work so we don’t complain.
Any strange requests?
A boarder once asked me to fit a pole to his board so he could attach a sail, a bit like a windsurfing board. I did it and apparently it worked, but it was very odd at the time!
Tags: S5E08
