The Chillfactor Podcast is the home of authentic stories about freeskiing culture. Hosted by Reggae Elliss, the voice of Australian skiing, it is a long format, interview style podcast released throughout the Australian Winter. Listen to this podcast as you drive up to the slopes or whenever you feel the need to listen to the World’s most interesting skiers talk about living and loving freeskiing culture.
Freeskiing podcast by Chillfactor Magazine
Billy grew up in Melbourne and go into skiing on a few family ski holidays to falls creek. His skiing career started in classic ski bum fashion, working night jobs in falls Creek and later Mt Hotham so he could ski during the day. That lead to season's overseas and during a Canadian season he started competing in freeride world tour qualifying events. Over the past few years he has been more focussed on filming and content production and he released his first film, aptly titled Passion, two years ago. His latest project was filmed in Iceland last winter and is due for release in late 2024
Reggae's guest is Kiwi freeskier Hank Bilous who has just released a new film titled The War On Style, an exploration into the skill sets and self expression he finds in skiing and surfing. Hank grew up in Wanaka and talks about his life there, his time on the Freeride World Tour and is open about mental heath and some dark days a few years ago. The Chillfactor podcast is brought to you by XTM Performance.
As we near the halfway mark of the season Reggae and Vaughan Dead frtoh on the recent snow dumps, the big ski and snowbiard events coming up and doff the beanies to Scott Morrison's cool younger brither Skimo, who coul dbe heading to the Olympics. Pow! Pow!
Reggae's guest is Australian freeskier Zanna Farrell who had a solid rookie year on the Freeride World Qualifying Tour with a number of podium finishes including a couple of wins in Europe.
Reggae Elliss and Vaughan Blakey are back, talking snow and a lot more in the latest episode of the Aussie snow chat show Pow! Pow! Reggae.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Valentino Guseli setting a new world record for a hip jump over three stories high! Reggae Elliss and Vaughan Deadly are back with episode 3 of Pow Pow Reggae to talk all things cold and slidey, and their special guest is Olympian, world record holder, halfpipe legend and Aussie snowboarding freak Valentino Guseli
Episode two of the new Aussie snow chat show with Chillfactor editor Reggae Elliss and Ain't That Swell's Vaughan Deadly
Here we go, the first episode of of Pow!Pow!Reggae, with Reggae Elliss and Vaughan Deadly, a new podcast covering all things white and cold in STRAYA! Is it any good? Well, if you take the 100% elite level knowledge of Australian snow culture Reggae has and combine it with the 0% knowledge of anything snow that Vaughan has, you have an average 50% something worth listening to - which is pretty bloody good, sort of.
In this episode Reggae catches up a with mogul skier Matt Graham, one of Australia's most successful snowsports athletes. Matt was just 15 years old when he competed in his first World Cup and since that time he has put together an impressive list of achievements that includes World Cup wins, World Championship medals and he is also a three-time Olympian and won the silver medal at the 2018 winter games in South Korea. Matt is about to head off for his 15th World Cup season and has no thoughts of retiring, his eyes firmly set on competing at his 4th Olympics in Milan in 2026.
Chris Benchetler - Reggae catches up with pro skier, artist film maker and designer Chris Benchetler by Freeskiing podcast by Chillfactor Magazine
Reggae's guest is Australian World Cup park skier Cameron Waddell, a born and bred Jindabyne local who grew up skiing Perisher from the age of two. Cam's competitive career started as a mogul skier but when he was 13 he followed his old brother Thomas into the Perisher park, started hitting the jumps and mogul skiing was done. 10 years later Cameron is our lone male skier on the FIS Freeski World Cup Tour and has been through the highs and lows of elite sport, now focussed on consistent top 10 finishes, his sights set on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
In this episode Reggae's guest is Kiwi freeskier and 2022 Freeride World Champion Jess Hotter. Jess grew up in the small North Island town of Ohakune, skiing in nearby Turoa before moving to Wanaka for the NZ winter in 2017 and working as pro patroller at Treble Cone for 3 years. She also started competing in Freeride events chasing events and points in the northern hemisphere winters and qualified for the 2020 Freeride World Tour. Two years later Jess won three out of five events and was crowned world champion.
Reggae Catches up with Andrea Binning, Australia's first internationally renowned big mountain skier, winner of the 2000 World Extreme Championships in Alaska who enjoyed a lengthy professional skiing career competing and filming in some of the biggest and steepest mountains in the world.
In this episode Reggae chats with the legendary Glen Plake, freeskiier, ski mountaineer and an icon of the sport. Glen's a natural raconteur and this conversation covers growing up in Lake Tahoe, mogul skiing, his multiple ski film appearances, his strong connection with Australia, "extreme" skiing, Chamonix and more.
Reggae's guest in this episode is Austrian/Australian professional freeskier and 2017 Freeride World Tour Champion Lorraine Huber. Lorraine was born in Austria but moved to Australia with her Australian mother when she was eight years old and grew up in Torquay and went to school in Geelong. So how does a girl from Torquay become Freeride World Champ? Well, every Christmas holidays Lorraine and her sister would head back to Austria to spend time with their father in Lech, a ski resort in The Arlberg where their dad was a ski instructor. Lorraine's skiing developed every year and she also became a ski instructor and qualified mountain guide. Lech and the Arlberg have some in incredible off-piste terrain and Lorraine developed a passion for freeskiing which drew her into competition and a 10-year career on the Freeride World Tour, culminating in being crowned World Champ in 2017. She has a Masters in Mental Strength Coaching and is wokiging in that field with athletes and business leaders.
In this episode Reggae Ellliss' guest is Kiwi Professional Freeskier and mountaineer Sam Smoothy who talks about life growing up in Wanaka, his path into big mountain skiing and filming and his next ambitious project to climb the highest peaks in New Zeland.
Mogul skier Britt Cox is a four time Olympian who made her Olympic debut in the 2010 Winter games in Vancouver when she was 15 years old, the youngest athlete at those games. She went on from there to have a stellar World Cup career, winning the World Cup Crystal Globe as overall champ in 2016/17 and was also Australia's first female mogul World Champ. Britt has just announced her retirement and chats to Reggae Elliss about her long and successful career and her future plans.
Torah Bright is Australia's most successful winter athlete,a three-time Olympian who won gold in the halfpipe in 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and then silver at Sochi in 2014. Torah is also a two-times X games gold medalist, world champion and has won numerous international competitions. She has enjoyed along and illustrious pro career that started when she was 14 and two decades later is still going strong. Torah now focuses on filming and other projects for her long term sponsor Roxy and also has a young son named Flow. It's busy life and she has a great story to tell.
In this episode Reggae chats with four-time Olympian and bronze medallist Zali Steggall about her success as a World Cup ski racer, climate change and her move into politics as an independent in Australia's federal parliament
Chris Davenport is one of the world's premier big mountain skiers and ski mountaineers, a free skiing pioneer with a CV that includes two-time big mountain world champ, first descents, summiting Everest and a 30-year pro skiing career that is still going strong. Chris has has lived in Aspen for 30 years and is married with three kids, is a director at Protect Our Winters and has a great story to tell.
Reggae Elliss chats with Australian free skier Anna Segal about living in Canada, growing up in Buller, her career as a slope style skier, making it has a female pro skier and the transition into filming, big mountain lines and the backcountry
Reggae catches up with legendary snowboarder Jeremy Jones to take about snowboarding, big mountains, family, surfing, business and founding environmental lobby group Protect Our Winters
Chris Booth was the leading Australian freeskier in the early 2000s and after graduation from uni worked as a layer before taking up an offer with his ski sponsor Black Crows to move to Chamonix, and help take the brand from a boutique big-mountain French ski company to an international brand. & year later Chris lives in Oslo with his Norwegian wife Lene and their daughter Ingrid and in this interview he talks about living as a foreigner, the ski industry and how skiing has defined his life.
Coen Bennie-Faull - Backcountry Freeskier, coach, thinker by Freeskiing podcast by Chillfactor Magazine
Nat Segal Podcast by Freeskiing podcast by Chillfactor Magazine
Reggae Elliss sat down with Australian ski legend Steve Lee back in 2019 to discuss his history with Chillfactor, life growing up at Falls Creek, is Olympic skiing career and more. Steve sadly suffered a serious stroke earlier this year and has a long way to go in his recovery. You can support his recovery via the link below. http://bit.ly/SLFightback
Cody Townsend, one of the world's leading professional big mountain skiers, chats with Reggae Elliss about skiing, Australia, growing up in Squaw Valley, fear and the life of pro skier.
Interview with Australian Freeskiing legend Russell Henshaw. Reggae talks to Russell about his recent retirement from competitive skiing, career highlights and the future.