By: Chris Dane German and Matthew McEnery
If freeskiing had a Hall of Fame, Phil Belanger would be one of its first inductees. His skiing career spanned nearly two decades, and the video segments he recorded hold weight to this day. He quickly earned the respect of skiing legends like Jean Luc Brassard and J.P. Auclair, he dated skiing’s golden girl, won an X-Games medal, invented numerous halfpipe tricks, and was one of the first to have his own pro model ski. From humble beginnings at Le Relais ski resort in Lac Beauport, Quebec, he became an international skiing superstar in his own right.
With a level of foresight and maturity that set him apart from his peers, Phil invested the money he earned from his 2003 Dynastar pro model ski into a D-Structure ski shop franchise. Once spanning the globe from Europe to San Francisco, D-Structure Quebec remains the lone brick-and-mortar freeskiing shop on the East Coast, supporting the next generation of skiers in a challenging retail market.
Injuries and the inevitable march of time cut short his Olympic dreams of representing Canada, but Phil adapted. He became the head judge of the Olympic halfpipe events in Pyeongchang, Korea, and Zhangjiakou, China, ensuring the future of competitive freeskiing was handled correctly.
In early December, I had the chance to chat with one of my idols growing up. A trip down memory lane, followed by a reminder of his incredible achievements from the New Head, Old Head podcast with Eric Iberg and Ethan Stone, during a long winter drive along the 401, re-immersed me in one of Newschool skiing’s most remarkable lives.

How It All Began
Phil’s skiing roots run deep in Lac Beauport, where he grew up in a modest family that embraced the region’s winter sports traditions and culture. With Stoneham just minutes from town, Phil spent his early years watching the Canadian Air Force—a legendary group of Quebec aerialists who built DIY water ramps on the lake in summer and sent triples into icy landings come winter. Racing didn’t hold his attention for long, and he quickly shifted to moguls. Surrounded by an aerials site and a decent snowboard park to poach, Phil started mimicking snowboard tricks after his mogul training. It was there that he honed his skills alongside Phil Larose and Phil Dion, forming a trio that would eventually be dubbed the “Three Phils” by Dynastar and the ski media.
At the same time, while Mike Douglas, coach of the Canadian Mogul Team, J.P. Auclair, and the rest of the New Canadian Air Force were filming their first misty flips, back flip mutes, and D-Spins, the three Phils were quietly putting together their own video called “Free Bob” in 1997. With “Newschool” skiing not yet having a name, the Phils called the discipline “Free Bob”, which became the title of their homemade showcase ski video.
In Free Bob’s grainy footage, the Phils pulled misty flips, rodeo flips, switch 540s (on directional mogul skis), and off-axis 720s, at the same time the New Canadian Air Force crew was documenting these same tricks for their video Air Carving. Air Carving would go on to lead to the creation of the first production twin-tip ski, the Salomon 1080.
Belanger and the Phils’ big break came at the Tremblant FIS Big Air demonstration event in 1998. Invited due to their growing notoriety, they were immediately denied clearance to perform inverts and faced disqualification if they flipped. Facing rising stars like Vincent Dorion and Philou Poirier, they made a pact: Belen would land the perfect 720 Liu-Kang while Larose and Dion would put on a show, flipping their way to purposeful disqualification. The rest is history. The latter were disqualified, and Belen went on to win. A wild party night at Tremblant’s most infamous bar, Le P’tit Caribou, followed and cemented their careers. Within weeks, Dynastar, Phoenix Japan, and Smith had signed them to financially lucrative deals, changing the young men’s lives forever. U.S. Open medals followed, along with countless film segments in Poor Boyz Productions, TGR, Level 1 Films and Phil’s own production company – Plèhouse Films.

The Journey to D-Structure
The early 2000s were good to Phil. These were the days when the ski industry was booming, and money flowed like fine red wine. Back then, very few people could ski like Phil. The backcountry was far less crowded, and even fewer ventured into the streets to slide handrails. Skiers like Phil were incredibly valuable to sponsors.
His 2001 segment in Eric Iberg’s Royalty elevated him as one of the premier halfpipe skiers in the game. In 2002, he grabbed silver behind rising superstar Tanner Hall at the Global X-Games, instantly establishing himself as one of skiing’s best halfpipe skiers. During this time, he was dating the late Sarah Burke. He was one of the first people to carve spins off jumps and perfected the style of his craft.
Phil had lucrative contracts with Dynastar, Phoenix, and Smith. He had a pro-model ski. He was winning competitions and taking home substantial prize money. Back then, sponsors would match competition prize money winnings. Sponsors also paid bonuses to athletes for getting covers of magazines, let’s bring that one back!
Phil was doing well financially, and he was smart with his money. In 2003, instead of simply continuing as an athlete, he invested in a ski and in-line skate pro shop with Felix Rioux, Danny Laroche and Serge Maheu. D-Structure Quebec City was born. Around the same time, he started Plèhouse Films with Phil Larose, which helped showcase Quebec skiing talents like J.F. Houle and Alexi Godbout in five films shot in exotic locations around the globe.

The Next Chapter
Over a decade later, as Phil’s career was winding down, it would have been understandable for Phil to step back from the sport. However, he did the opposite. While running D-Structure during difficult economic times, Phil transitioned to judging slopestyle and halfpipe contests under FIS’s new series of World Cups. At the same time, he began running after-school programs in his community to introduce kids to freeskiing. His “D-Jam” contest series, which elevated the likes of Phil Casabon and Kim Lamarre, would eventually become the Stepup Tour, the largest slopestyle event in North America.
To exemplify the prestige Phil brings to the sport, he was the head judge of numerous X-Games and World Cup events before being nominated to head the halfpipe judging at the Pyeongchang Olympics. He returned to Zhangjiakou as head judge before relinquishing the role of head judge to Phil Larose to focus on goals closer to home.

D-Structure Celebrates 25 Years with Special Edition Armada Ski
This D-Structure / Armada co-lab has historical significance. Here’s how the story goes:
Over a decade ago, when Armada Skis was first being founded, Phil Belanger and Phil Larose wanted to be involved in building Armada from the ground up, along with other legends like J.P. Auclair, Tanner Hall, J.F Cusson, Julien Regnier, Boyd Easley, Chris O’Connell, and Hans Smith.
Belanger and Larose made a pact. When renegotiating their contract with Dynastar, they would ask for a lot more money than what they were currently getting and WHEN rejected, they would simply part ways and join Armada. To their surprise, Dynastar accepted their offer! The Phils stayed with Dynastar and in 2004/05 they released the “Three Phil’s” line-up special edition Dynastar Trouble Makers. These skis were top of the line with bad-ass graphics, and they were wildly successful.

Passing the Torch
D-Structure team rider Jacob Belanger shares a last name with Phil Belanger, and they were both born and raised in the same town. Despite this strange coincidence, they are not related. As Jacob was growing up in Lac-Beauport, Phil became a mentor to him. Over the past two seasons, Jacob has been winning awards at IF3 while filming with filmmaker Joey Kraft in Whistler. But most impressively, he’s gracing the cover of this magazine! I wonder if Salomon will give Jacob a cover bonus like they did when Phil was featured on our cover in th mid-2000s.

Q+A With Phil Belanger
What went into creating the collab ski with Armada? Who is this ski perfectly suited for?
We wanted to do something special for the 25th anniversary of D-Structure, and the perfect fit for us was to collaborate with Armada using Simon to create the design. Simon is the artist who has been designing the Armada B-Dog skis for the past few years.
Our goal was to create a ski that would work for all skiers around the globe, and the ARV 100 was the perfect match. It’s a ski that’s super fun on groomers, works perfectly in the park, and can even be mounted with touring bindings.
Your old pro model with Dynastar and this new ski share a lot of similarities in the art.Can you describe the art for us?
For the Armada/DS skis, we wanted to incorporate all the influences that have helped D-Structure become what it is today. We included the B-Dog for Phil, the Gremlin for Henrik, and the bird to represent JP. We also added an Inspired Media flag to tie it all together. The Knight represents all the hard work we’ve put in to survive in to this crazy industry. As I often say, we are the only freeskiing-oriented shop in the world. We don’t sell snowboards, and we don’t sell race skis—only park, touring, and powder skis.
To still be in business after 25 years, we had to work our asses off to create a market for ourselves.
Do you have any parting words for the us?
Have fun, smile, help others, work hard, and live your life as if it’s your last day. 🙂
To all my coworkers and partners who make D-Structure what it is today, a big shoutout to Felix, Dany, and Serge for the vision they had 25 years ago to start a ski and rollerblade shop in Montreal. To all our customers who have been with us since day one and continue to show incredible loyalty—Thank you!
And to my friend Iberg, thank you for helping me with all the marketing craziness you do and for always including us.
Let’s go for another 25!

Phil Belanger has left an undeniable mark on freeskiing. From shaping the early days of newschool skiing to building D-Structure into a cornerstone of the community, his dedication has never wavered. Now, as D-Structure celebrates 25 years, Phil’s legacy continues to grow—whether he’s mentoring the next generation, bringing world-class events to Quebec, or chatting with customers under the shadow of his iconic pro model ski. The sport keeps evolving, but Phil’s influence is woven into its fabric forever.
Special thanks to Felix Rioux for finding all these great images of Phil. Cheers Felix.