Indie Spotlight: Gpsy Feelin
HUCK meets the local Tignes shredding crew who are appearing at Looking Sideways.
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The winter season looks to be closing in here in Tignes with days upon days of bluebird skies and slush pistes. That’s not to say that the resort isn’t packed: the Winter X Games Europe is about to kick off and Looking Sideways is well under way.
And here to ride the mini-ramp purpose built for Looking Sideways at the Loop Bar is local crew Gpsy Feelin, who stay loyal to their hometown of Tignes regardless of conditions.
“The idea behind Gpsy Feelin is easy: it’s just a group of friends doing different sports like ski, snowboard, skateboard, telemark, all sports that slide,” explains Pom AKA Thibaut Pomarat, one of the crew’s founders. “We decided to try to make something together, because we’re all riders, but we have different ideas for creativity and street sports or other sports.”
Gpsy Feelin was officially launched three years ago by four Tignes natives, Pom, Yann Barthelemy, Leo Teillefer and Jeremy Feburier as a way of showing a different angle to all manner of 'sliding sports'. Together, the four break down the sometimes catty conflict between skiers and snowboarders. “We just want to create something to give a good message to people about fun and love. We’re just friends and we don’t want to break any links we have together for our different sports,” says Pom.
Pom enjoying the spring sunshine outside the Loop Bar.
Intertwining creativity with boardsports, the group pool together their skills to create podcasts, video projects and events throughout the year. But these aren’t your average core riders. In a break from the norm in the snowsports industry, they distance themselves from sponsorship and the slick, shiny video edits that go with it. Instead, the guys claim to be purely in it for fun and helping others to improve their shred time.
“Something we do differently with Gpsy Feelin is that we aren’t better than anyone else you might find on the slopes,” says Pom exceptionally modestly for someone who’s been on the snow for 23 years. “I started snowboarding just to have fun with friends and I love that. Without snow and snowboards, it’s a damn boring life.”
Although they want to progress, these fun-loving sliders don’t ask for much. Already well established on the French scene, the crew just want to keep doing what they do best: enjoying themselves.
“We’re just going to try to do things better year after year, but maintain the spirit that we had first time around and keep the essence of why you start riding,” puts the Frenchman plainly. “When you watch videos about Gpsy Feelin, just do one thing; take your skateboard or your snowboard or skis and go shredding with your friends! We just want to give a bit of inspiration and get more people involved with our Gpsy days.”
Check out Gpsy Feelin's end of season session in Tignes from April 23 - 24 featuring a handmade snowpark, barbeques and deejays.
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Indie Spotlight: Gpsy Feelin (text) by Liz Seabrook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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