“Here Goes”

Everything in Nelson, B.C., the traditional territory of the Sinixt, Ktunaxa, and Syilx peoples, is built on a hill.  

Like most of British Columbia, geography defines the places towns grow in, and here the steep slopes of the Selkirks tumble down both sides of the valley into Kootenay Lake. From the age of one, freeskier Sam Kuch was raised on a three-acre patch of hillside located just south of town toward the Slocan Valley, and on the mountainous slopes of Whitewater Ski Resort.  

Sam skis how many of us feel on our very best days: smooth, creative turns punctuated by large, stylish airs. Like Candide Thovex or Eric Hjorleifson before him, Sam is an impeccable sniper who can adapt on the fly and find transition in the smallest of features.
He tricks on big terrain, but the magnitude of those maneuvers is often overshadowed by sheer liquidity of movement. He flows like few others do, goes massive, skis fast, and makes it look impossibly easy. His ability to find the side hit and elevate it to banger status seems almost inherent.  

Right now, though, he’s in his self-declared “soulful era,” favouring a more tranquil ride of smooth landings and linked turns, where he can soak in every moment. “I’m not trying to prove myself as much anymore,” says the now 26-year-old. “I’m focusing on what’s most fulfilling for me, and that’s skiing more fluidly and having a real connection with the snow.” 

The Start of Stardom 

It makes sense; Sam started young and never stopped. He began skiing with the Whitewater Freeski Team at age 13, shepherded by Whitewater legends like Peter Velisek and Dano Slater, the influential big mountain skier the Kootenays skiing community lost to cancer in 2022. “Dano created this team that went on to being world class,” says Sam. “Some of these kids went on to join the Freeride World Tour. It wasn’t the usual team…. The coaches were our mentors, inspiration, but most of all, buddies.” 

Slater and friends instilled a sense of delight into the kids’ skiing progression, with a focus on powerful turns, reading and visualizing terrain, and of course, catching air, a talent Sam can hang his toque on. His air awareness is almost bird-like, something the agile athlete attributes to spending every off-snow moment on a piece of backyard equipment. 

“My mom and my siblings and I saved up and bought a good-quality trampoline,” he recalls. “I grew up on it. I would session it for hours every day. I was obsessed.” The air talent he gained from that trampoline would make up for Whitewater’s lack of a real terrain park. “I was able to visualize how to do tricks, and we’d build a kicker in the backcountry or in the sidecountry to learn our tricks. It was never in the park.” 

Over decades of skiing the Selkirk terrain that catapulted the Kootenays into a world-class ski destination, Sam honed his mental game to a sharp point, creating a pre-line routine. 

“I say a prayer to the mountains,” he tells me on the lawn of his high school, situated next door to his house on the same steep streets of Sherpas Cinema’s All.I.Can film. “I’ll be like, ‘Thank you for having me here. I appreciate everything that you’ve given me and I’m gonna do something pretty scary.’ Then I’ll close my eyes and breathe in a long, slow breath. And then I imagine myself exhaling butterflies, fluttering away.”  

Then he says to himself — every time — “Here goes,” and drops into his line.  

In 2015, Sam used this mindful approach as fuel to take second spot at the IFSA North American Junior Freeride Championship. By 2016, he stood at the top of the podium. It’s a time his dad, Cam, remembers well. “That was an impressive, beautiful moment because of how the kids were just having a lot of fun,” says Cam. “And for Sam to win while experiencing such joy.”  

After his title, the champion would not compete much more. Transitioning with ease to a hectic filming schedule, 2019 became the Year of Sam and he would win awards like Powder Magazine’s Best Male Performance, High Five Festival’s Male Skier of the Year, and IF3’s Best Male Freeride Segment. Seemingly out of nowhere, young Sam had taken flight, and the freeskiing world couldn’t take their eyes off his trajectory.  

Returning to the Source  

When a skier leaves the surface of the earth, they set a rotation based on experience. Whether spinning, flipping, or simply sending a straight air, spotting the landing is a critical skill ski coaches strive to embed in an athlete’s brain early on. While not nearly as exciting as the trick itself, or as rife with anticipation as the take-off, where we land is more important in the long run.  

“I fantasize about skiing,” Sam says with a smile. “I’ll start thinking about a certain trick or line. I’ll do it in my head…like a thousand times over. And then finally, when it comes time to ski something, it’s as if I’ve done it already a thousand times.”  

This intentional approach is natural for Sam. He has no hint of an ego and embodies a Yoda-like presence, as if he’s trained to be a good person instead of merely a good athlete. Kindness pervades Sam and those he surrounds himself with. He meditates to get excited. He’s soft-spoken but confident. He hugs those he just meets. He listens intently and takes his time to form answers, which he delivers with a youthful wisdom.

Along with his partner, Jade, a small kitten that attempts escape whenever possible, and soon, his first child, Sam shares a modest house in north Nelson. The living room window overlooks Kootenay Lake. Numerous outsider art pieces and instruments ordain the walls. A beautiful Japanese steel knife adorns a cooking station, showcasing their appreciation for good food. So does the sleeping garden outside the window. From the beat-up enduro motorcycle parked in the driveway to the stunning cedar gear shed Sam built with his own hands, it’s evident Sam and Jade take pride in the nest they’ve constructed.  

His father, Cam, and mother, Sheila, glow when asked about their three children. As a family, they skied Whitewater Ski Resort as often as possible, beginning with Sam in a backpack under the Silver King chairlift. Sitting around a crackling fire, both parents look fit and happy in that way mountain-town folks often are: sun-kissed, casual, and joyful with a clear hint of physical strength lying just beneath. Sheila is a karate blackbelt and former competitive gymnast. Cam, a general contractor. Both are quick to shake your hand and invite you into their space.  

The Kuch’s neighbour and friend is Kirk Jensen, Whitewater’s general manager and Reel Action Pictures star who claimed first descents with legends like Trever Peterson and Eric Pehota. Sam’s childhood ski mates include fellow big-mountain stars Cole Richardson, Trace Cooke, and Jordy Kitner. Nelson is a small town with a ski talent that speaks in magnitudes, and Sam knows it is home beyond the traditional sense of the word. His career — and a short stint living in Whistler — have shown him what is out there, but only Nelson continues to bring him back. 

His impromptu band, Ymir Boat Club, is one example of how Nelson allows Sam to experiment freely. “I don’t really play any instruments, but I picked up the bass and helped my friends start a one-off band. We sold out our only show. It was so much fun.”  

A Kuch Kind of Way 

Whether skiing, mountain biking (Sam’s summer activity), or making music, he approaches it all with an open heart, unsaddled with the trademark edginess seen in so many professional mountain sport athletes. “I think something I’ve always carried with me has been gratitude,” says Sam. “I’m just so grateful to be in Nelson, to have been raised here. A lot of people here are really happy living a more modest, simple life.”  

Case in point: When Matchstick Productions titled his breakthrough segment “Is Sam Kuch the Best Skier in the World?” it made him fluster in embarrassment, not glow with pride. He’s as humble as the community that raised him, even at a calibre most would dream of. Clickbait title or not, many people answered the question in the affirmative. Maybe Sam is what they say. Maybe he isn’t. Whatever the answer is, he’s in the running. In Nelson, though, he’s just Sam…and that’s how he likes it. “Sam is such an authentic person and Nelson is such an authentic place,” says Jade. “I can’t imagine him being anywhere else.”  

As humans grow old, the luckiest of us realize that knowing where you want to be is far more important than knowing where you want to go. Looking forward to fatherhood in December, Sam, who calls being raised in Nelson “winning the lottery,” visualizes the same loving environment for his son and says, with all the serenity and optimism in the world: “Here goes.”