All photos by Jack Benzinger

Nick Goepper has had a pretty successful career as a slopestyle skier. Six X Games medals, three Olympic ones and a couple of World Championship bronzes. He announced his retirement at the start of 2023. If you’d been keeping up to date with his stories, maybe you won’t be too shocked by this announcement. Here’s a clue, I spoke to him at a halfpipe camp in Kaprun…

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Hi Nick, how’s retirement treating you?

Well, it was extremely confusing and kind of exhausting at first. I didn’t feel retired, I felt burnt out on skiing for sure. I felt like I still had a lot of energy and a lot of inspiration that I hadn’t really discovered. I knew that I didn’t want to hit jumps and rails for a job anymore though.

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You’ve been pretty busy on socials, some stuff wasn’t super serious. Is this switch to halfpipe something serious?

Yes. I’m going to compete in halfpipe and go to the next Olympics.

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Wow. So, have you skied much pipe before?

No. I skied a little bit of pipe back in 2016. I’ve always loved it. I’ve always loved transition riding, because of my rollerblading background, being at skateparks, and stuff like that. I’ve never fully committed to it, because I was obviously busy with slopestyle and I really wanted to commit to that.

Now though, I have time, I have the energy and it’s a new challenge. It’s a lot of the same things that I love about slopestyle and jumps, but it’s a little bit different.

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Does this mean that you’re doing a full comp schedule, in pipe, this winter?

That’s right! I’ve got to qualify for the comps and the tour, I’ll just take that step by step, but this is my new vision.

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Is it too late/early for the next X Games?

It is not too late. I’m doing the Copper World Cup, next month. There’s a chance, if I get a good placement there, that I could get an invite.

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Like I said, when I saw you posting in the pipe and I heard rumours, I wasn’t sure if it was serious.

It’s a bit confusing. I’ve kind of been delaying announcing that I’m doing it. I’ve been filling the time with all this random stuff. Now it should all make a lot more sense.

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You have been posting a lot, was that always the plan after you retired or were you just bored?

No. I’m active on socials because I only have two sponsors now. If I want to afford to pay for my house and be a professional skier, then I need to make myself marketable. I haven’t necessarily had to do that in the last ten years because I’ve been skiing. I’ve had pretty good sponsors and I’ve been making money, not tons of money, but enough to live a lifestyle. After I announced my retirement, a lot of my sponsors left. Which is understandable and that’s business. Now that I’m kind of back in the game, I need to get some Cheddar!

That’s why I’m marketing myself the way that I am.

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So, what are your plans for this winter? Just compete, compete, compete?

My plans this winter, are to compete but not go super hard. More just get experience. Also, I just want to make content. I hired a filmer this year, his name’s Jack and he’s from Colorado. Basically, in terms of content that we make, we have core and we have cringe.

Core is ski sh*t that you guys would understand and cringe is like influencer/mainstream stuff that actually gets the followers and drives the numbers. We’ll be focusing on both kinds and that’s the plan!

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It sounds like you’re pretty busy, but will you ever film a video project or part?

That’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s not in the cards this year. If I ever did that, it would be for fun. I won’t do that for sponsor money or anything, it’d be completely for fun.

The idea is, to get a few more sponsors again and that gives me the freedom to do that thing again, in the next two or three years.

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Well, good luck with the switch!

Yeah, it’s a little bit backwards. Most people get to the stage of their career, where I am, and they kind of phase out to softer and nicer snow. Maybe go to the backcountry, a little less gnarly. I’m doing the opposite and pushing myself. Not really though, because I love it.

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Is the training/preparation any different for halfpipe as opposed to slope?

No, that’s all the same.

It’s very simple in pipe you have to do five tricks and every pipe is the same. It’s not complicated, which I love right now. I’m super stoked to keep this train rolling and the number one thing for me is that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth it and I’m not going to be happy.

The last year has been a really personal goal for me, to figure out if this is actually fun and something that I enjoy. Because all of the other sh*t just doesn’t happen if it’s not.