Fifteen-year-old pipe phenom Torin Yater-Wallace has been on a tear. He’s last year’s Gatorade Free Flow Tour winner and this season he rode the flow to pro wave and made the Dew Tour podium, collected X Games silver and picked up Target and Armada as sponsors. He’s ranked 7th overall in superpipe heading into this weeks’ Toyota Championships in Snowbasin, and he’ll be competing in slopestyle too. Alli caught up with Torin to see how it feels to have your career skyrocket at such a young age, and to find out what he has left to master in the pipe.
This weeks Winter Dew Tour finals will happen alongside the next round of Gatorade Free Flow Tour finals. How’s it going to feel knowing how far you’ve come?
I think it’s going to be really cool to be at the Dew Tour finals because last year when I went to the Gatorade Free Flow Tour finals I got to watch the pipe finals for Dew Tour. It was really cool that I went from the low amateur level to just the next year being in the position that I was watching. I’m really fortunate that the Gatorade Free Flow Tour came along. It definitely helped my career a lot.
What kind of difference have you noticed since winning the Gatorade Free Flow Tour and then doing so well on the Dew Tour?
This year I’ve definitely had more sponsorship offerings and more opportunities to go to different places for competitions. It’s really cool. This season is crazy. I’m doing a lot of competing and a lot more traveling, shooting and interviews. It’s pretty crazy but it’s really fun. I didn’t really expect to see this happen so quickly.
Then you got an invite at X Games and left with a silver medal. Was that even on your radar?
That was not on my radar at all. I thought like in the next few years, maybe I’d get invited to X Games. When I found out I was invited to X Games this year I was so happy, and then I did well, and it was insane. I would have never seen this coming even a month ago.
Do you think winning the Gatorade Free Flow Tour played a role in this at all?
I could have got into the Dew Tour though the Open Qualifier, but it definitely helped being prequalified. It just gave me a bigger name being in last year’s Gatorade Free Flow Tour and making it all the way from flow to pro. It’s really cool.
Did your Dew Tour results factor into the invite?
Yeah, definitely. I ended up 9th at the Grand Prix earlier this season, and then I got 5th at the Dew Tour, and that’s pretty much the results that got me in. If I wouldn’t have got those two results, I would not have got the invite to X Games, and obviously not have got 2nd.
At the first Dew Tour event of the season in Breckenridge, you were sitting in podium contention throughout most of the finals. What was that like for you to do so well right off the bat competing at the professional level?
It was pretty crazy doing well at that first Dew Tour because I literally just had no expectations. I was just going out, doing my first Dew Tour, you know. It was really cool that I made finals and then I got 5th and it was insane. I couldn’t have asked for a better result at that comp. Even getting 12th in the Top 12 Final would have been crazy.
Was that the first time getting to compete against Simon Dumont, Kevin Rolland and the rest of the pros?
In sixth grade I made it to the Finals at the North American Open in Breckenridge and I got to compete with them there. Then at Aspen Open I made the Finals, and a few other places. But those events were all Open events that I made it all the way. But at the Dew Tour event, it was one of the biggest events on the pro tour, so it was crazy to be actually prequalified to a competition with all those big pros.
You’re sitting in 7th overall with the Toyota Championships Dew Tour finals in Snowbasin this week. What are your goals going into the event?
It’s the same goals I’ve had all season. Just try to have fun, you know. It’s my first season doing the pro tour and being in the big league. I shouldn’t be mad when I don’t do well. I have so many more years to go with this, that right now I should be making the best of my first one and having a great time.
You’re from Basalt, Colorado and your home mountain is Aspen. Was it a lifelong dream to be a pro skier?
Since I was 7 when I joined the freestyle team, I knew then that this was my favorite sport and I want to do this for the rest of my life and I want to get pro at it. It’s pretty much always been my goal to be the best in the world, so hopefully one day. I’m still working at that.
Does your family provide financial support for your skiing, given that it’s such an expensive sport?
Actually, just this last year my dad’s company hasn’t been doing too well. It went bankrupt a few years ago and we haven’t been very financially stable. My local town has donated a little bit, and all my sponsors have helped out a lot. They’ve supported my family and supported me, and they’ve pretty much gotten me through all of it, so I thank them a lot.
This year you’ve picked up some new sponsors too, right?
Yeah. I picked up Armada this last August. And just a few weeks ago I picked up Target.
What was that like when Target approached you? That’s huge!
I totally did not think it was real. I still can’t believe that I’m on the Target team. It’s insane having the only other skier be Simon.
Are you still going to school or are you doing home schooling?
I go to Aspen High School, the public school there. I take a few of my classes online, and I do some online in the summer. But yeah, I’m doing the normal school. It’s really hard, but I got to do what I got to do.
What are you personal goals with skiing?
I definitely want to learn a few more doubles. I’ve only got one at the moment, so I'd definitely like to try and get a few more. Obviously the winning run at X Games had two doubles in it, and the last Dew Tour had three. So I’d definitely like to step it up because right now all I’ve been working in is going big and getting grabs with my tricks that aren’t doubles, to make up for only doing one. It’s working pretty good at the moment but I know that in the future I’m definitely going to need more than one.
Do you ever train in a foam pit or anything like that?
Yeah, for a month every summer I go to the Utah Olympic park and I train on the water ramps.
Are you into any other sports besides skiing?
I skateboard pretty much every day in the summer, which isn’t very good because I always get hurt. I broke my foot this summer. My coach doesn’t really support my skateboarding, but I love to skateboard. And I play soccer in the Fall. I surf, I skateboard, I wakeboard. I do everything “board’ except snowboard. When I was younger I did both skiing and snowboarding, but when I was 9 or 10, I knew I had to pick one, and I liked skiing more and I was better at it, so I picked skiing.
Torin is in the running for Ball Park Rookie of the Year. Check out the footage
