Print Lives: Victor De Le Rue Rorschach

What is the worst bet you have lost during a game of Uno with the boys?

Whoa, so many I can't even remember. Those games, and the bets, are just part of our daily winter life. Well, here are a few of the losing outcomes: drinking schnapps, doing dishes, cooking, cleaning, waxing, carrying the boards and backpacks to the top of the resort for the other guys, having to tighten and release the boot laces of my friends at the beginning and end of the day, having to open the door to the toilets whenever anyone has to go in there, close it when he is done, carrying all the big shovels to the top of the resort and down, eating dinner blindfolded and without hands, buying rounds of drinks, riding down the resort switch with one foot strapped in, getting butt-slapped by the whole crew, getting the shittiest bed of the apartment, having to call Vlad from Absinthe and tell him we were going to his zone, eating dog food and so many more.

You’re quite the joker, what’s the gnarliest prank you've played on a friend?

Shat in a box and sent it to our Finnish friend Janne Lipsanen for Christmas.

Janne’s dad wanted him to open the box at the same time as all the other family presents, but Janne had a feeling and thought he would open it in his room! It reeked for a week. God, I would I love to see his face! Janne is a legend - love him so much!

We are all familiar with one of your brothers, Xavier, but you are one of five boys in the family, correct? Are you the youngest?

Yes, and at some point all of them snowboarded. Some have continued and some have stopped and chosen to study instead. The oldest is 12 years older than me. I'm the baby.

Is that a good or bad thing? Lots of sympathy or lots of beat downs?

(Laughs) No, it was a great time. As the little brother you are always playing tricks on them. It was really fun and I was stoked to have older brothers and guys to look up to. There was always someone helping you and always someone around.

You and Xavier charge some flat-out insane shit. And it sounds like there are a few other De Le Rue rippers we haven't even seen! Where does the craziness and intensity come from, mom or dad?

We don't know actually. Our mom has ridden snowboard one day in her life and my dad has never ridden. They have a big ski shop in our home resort of Saint-Lary and have always worked so hard to give us the opportunity to do what we want. When we were kids they paid for us and then we quickly had sponsors and the sponsors were able to finance all that. Our parents let us do what we wanted. They don't really know that much about snowboarding but they are just proud that we are happy and doing what we do, even if they don't know exactly what that is. Hope that answers your question? (laughs)

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Indeed, just wondering where that spark to defy death was kindled?

We just want to do well in what we do and we are invested 200% in what we want to do. We just go step by step. When we started snowboarding, we'd see that there was a French Championship or something and it was like, "Sick. Let's try to do that." Then the year after, if you did well, we'd look for this or do that. I never had a big goal in my mind. I just thought, OK, next year let's do this and try to make it work well and put everything into it and see where we end up.

Have you ever filmed backcountry stuff in the Pyrenees?

One day, this day will come. Maybe…

What's the one foot obsession all about?

It just came about after shooting video parts for a couple years and trying a bunch of stuff. You watch a video part and there are all these spots everywhere but people don't realize how difficult it is sometimes to find a real good spot. Sometimes spots are super sick or super big and other times they are a bit smaller and leave you wondering what you are going to do, like, "This is going to be lame, this is going to be lame… OK, maybe I just unstrap one foot and I can make this look cool." That's the way it started. It felt really good so I just kept on doing it and thinking of other tricks I could do in that way. I just want to do new stuff all the time. After shooting for many years, you've done a number of tricks before and done them well. It makes me happy to keep improving and to do new stuff and it leads me to try things like that.

Yeah, don’t mean to pigeon hole ya, simply curious! The versatility in your riding is obvious when watching your parts from the last few years - mondo AK lines and big booters to street shit and one footed stuff. It’s all in there.

I like the diversity. I like to change it up - a bit of street, a bit of freeride, a bit of park, a bit of one foot, a bit of whatever. It's always good to change what you do. Everything comes together at some point and helps you with the other aspects, as opposed to just working on a halfpipe run your whole life or something. Keep it fresh.

Are the French taking over the snowboard world?

Yes, and going for the universe this upcoming season!

Is it true that French films, by law, must contain tits and ass?

Well, boobies sell well, so everywhere you have boobies you’ll have lots of people watching!

Can you tell us about your crazy nightmares? Perhaps the wild one in Sri Lanka? 

I was sleeping in such a nice place in Sri Lanka, having a lovely time there with my girl on a surf trip. I totally freaked out during the night (casual), dreaming about gigantic spiders or something random like that and thought I had to escape. I jumped on the balcony and my girlfriend followed, as I was yelling and ready to jump. And then I woke up, realized I was dreaming, felt stupid and went back to sleep. This is just one of them.

Does anything else scare you?

It’s mostly in my dreams or in the mountains: weird noises, snow noises, cornices, avalanches, crevasses…

Are you ever nervous you will get hit with a drone?

Eh, sometimes (laughs). But hopefully technology will continue to improve and we won't need to worry about that.

Are you nervous for your bachelor party, that is, if you decide to marry one day? De Le Rue bachelor parties have quite the reputation.

I am looking forward to it and waiting for those guys not to be pussies and to throw a good one.

What makes them so crazy?

We had one for one of my brothers three years ago and it was so gnarly. People heard about what happened and were just like, “What the fuck are these guys doing.” This year we had another one and it was really sick as well, but everyone was asking, “When is Victor going to get married?” Everyone is going to be out for their revenge!”

Trying to get revenge for all the male strippers you've ordered them?

Yeah, something like that.

What brands are paying for the cheese and fine wine these days, and last words?

The North Face, board sponsor to be defined soon, Shred, Slytech, Buff and Blue Tomato. Sorry, got to go surf now.