Meet the James Bond of Freestyle Skiing

Do you have to mentally prepare for stunts?

Actually, mentally I don’t prepare myself anymore because it’s in my blood. I have to prepare more physically. If I’m a bit injured, that’s when I start to question myself. It’s been 22 years I’ve been doing this and I do get scared. But I’m prepared for that and I love it. When you’re not afraid anymore or you’re not scared, that’s when you make mistakes.

What’s your worst injury?

Breaking both my heels. That was my big injury and I was off for nine months. It’s all about the way you do the rehab and the way your brain has to switch from the pain. I love skiing too much. You get injured and that’s part of the game. You just get back on your feet as soon as possible.

What else have you injured?

I’ve broken my ribs seventeen times, seven contusions, my shoulder, and knees. We have a lot of injuries in skiing. But that’s not just with big mountain skiing. It’s the same for freestyle and even ski racers, they have a lot.

What is it you like about Moncler?

I really like what they do, especially with the Grenoble collection (launching today). I’m super impressed by the quality of the product. It can’t be better. Even the shape. Some other brand’s have good materials but the jackets are sometimes too short, so I was really impressed that the fit was perfect. I love the shell jackets, but also the trousers too. The cargo pants that I wear in the video, I wear them every day to go skiing.

What’s your favorite place in the world?

I love Europe. But my two favorites are Japan from January to February, that’s where the conditions are just perfect; and Alaska at the end of the season. They get so much snow during the winter, and with the humidity from the ocean, the snow sticks to some super steep slopes. You have to ski down them pretty fast, so it looks really impressive. And the landscape is amazing.

What’s coming next?

I started a project a few weeks ago. It’s going to be a three minute clip where I end up skiing under water. We always want to appeal to people who aren’t interested in skiing, so you have to find the little ideas that will make people watch till to the end, while also making them question how you did it. So we found a way to ski underwater and to have that effect. We did it in Paris two weeks ago. We started with the end of the video, and now we’re going to start filming the skiing. In your 22 year skiing career, what are you most proud of? From skiing in the south Alps as a kid, and to ending up in the middle of Chile with Moncler is something special for me. Mathias was the director of photography for Athena and is nominated for an Oscar, so to be able to work with some people like that, it’s an honor.

This story originally ran on British GQ with the title “Richard Permin does skiing the hard way”