Sponsored, Episode 28: Pep Fujas

On this episode of the "Sponsored" podcast, Pep Fujas, one of the most influential skiers of the 21st century, joins host Mike Powell. Known for his seminal segment in Session 1242, his role in Nimbus films, and his successful pro models, Fujas, who grew up in a yurt in Oregon without electricity or a phone, is also the father of two young daughters. The two discuss balancing fatherhood and travel and Fujas' influence on skiing, including the pole-less style he helped lead.

"Sometimes we'd drop the poles and you just get to experience a different way to move on the mountain," says Fujas. "Your hands are free, you can feel free to brush the snow, and since you're not thinking about having the poles in your hand, you can move in a lot of different ways and it starts to refine your movements, starts to quiet everything down, because if you have really erratic hand movements, it just looks terrible, and it's really hard to make skiing look without poles look really good. So I think it was just another way to express yourself on skis and it was really fun and we didn't really care what anybody thought."

1:51: Recap his season travels as a father of two children under 2 years old 4:15: Life has totally changed for Pep in the past three years 6:22: Growing up in Oregon, in a yurt 10:30: How did he get into skiing and what else is going on in life? 14:55: Boarding school, moguls, and competition 17:20: What skiers did Pep look up to? 18:35: How did the sponsors find him? 21:12: Pro models and the money he made 23:22: How did Nimbus come together and what did that entail? 25:31: Dropping his poles, HellBents in the X Games 28:35: What is the focus of his ski career these days and getting dropped by Oakley