Michel Daigle

Michel Daigle (born September 20, 1950) is a pioneer of freestyle skiing. During his career, Daigle reached the winners podium 34 times. He is considered one of the founders of freestyle skiing, alongside Darryl Bowie and John Johnston and has been credited with the growth of freestyle skiing in the mid 1970s. Daigle competed in ski ballet, moguls and aerials.

Daigle also launched the first freestyle ski camps in Canada and built the first water ski ramps in the country. His camps and water ramps were instrumental in helping train a number of moguls, ballet and aerials skiers who went on to become world champions, in turn helping position Canada as a country that has dominated freestyle skiing since the early 1970's.

He is the inventor of the Daigle Banger, starred in Warren Miller's 1972 film, Winter People and co-authored Free Style Skiing in 1974. Daigle was inducted in the Laurentian Ski Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 2014.

Early ski career Daigle started skiing at the age of 13 and began racing at 19 with the Division Laurentienne de Ski (DLS). He raced for 3 years in Québec, Ontario and the Eastern United States and finished 2nd overall in the DLS championship in 1971.

That same year, at the end of the ski season, Daigle moved to Whistler in British Columbia. There, he worked with the ski patrol and avalanche rescue team for the Garibaldi Lift Company, the company that operated the ski lifts on Whistler Mountain. In April 1971, in preparation for the Whistler Mountain Gelandesprung, an aerials skiing competition, Daigle worked on the construction of the ski jumps for the event. Having tested the jumps, he was urged by colleagues to enter the competition.

Freestyle skiing career In the following years, Daigle went on to compete in a number of Canadian, American and European events organized by the emerging freestyle organisations, including the Canadian Freestyle Skiers Association (CFSA) and its American counterpart, the Professional Freestyle Association (PFA).

The Michel Daigle Ski Camp

Daigle hosted his first freestyle skiing camp on Whistler Mountain in April 1974. In July of the following year, he hosted the first "Michel Daigle Summer Camp" with John Eaves on Lac des Sables in Sainte-Agathe des Monts, Quebec, Canada.

The camp was the first summer skiing training facility in North America to offer aerials training on water ramps. Over 6-day sessions, campers trained for aerials on the ramps – a 25-foot and a 40-foot-high ramp – and on trampolines, and practiced ski ballet on a mechanical moving carpet. Canadian, British and world champion Mike Nemesvary, Yves Laroche, Dominique Laroche and Philippe LaRoche,

Selected freestyle skiing results Michel Daigle completing a double front flip at the 1971 Whistler Gelandesprung. Daigle finished in 1st place. 1971 - 1st place, Gelandesprung Aerial Championship, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 1972 - 1st place, Eastern Aerial National Exhibition Skiing Championship, Waterville Valley, NH USA 1973 2nd place, Labatt's National Aerial Championship, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 1st place, Canadian National Freestyle Championship Blue Mountain, Ontario, Canada 2nd place, Kimberley Professional Freestyle Championship, Kimberley British Columbia, Canada 1975 1st place, Canadian National Freestyle Championship 1st place, Northwest Open Freestyle Skiing Championships, Alpental, Washington, USA

Post-skiing career Following his professional skiing career, Michel Daigle held a number of positions in the sports industry, including ski and windsurfing equipment marketing and sales. He has coached executives from a number of Canadian and international organizations. Among other types of workshops he organises, he leads corporate groups on outdoor activities, including skiing workshops.