By: Liam Downey - We’re at UVM for the Level 1/ 4bi9 premiere and Tom Wallisch has been signing autographs for half an hour. The swarm of fans waits restlessly around the table where he sits. They push each other and jockey for position in the line, half of them leaving empty handed when it’s time for the 4bi9 movie to start. Once everyone is seated, Tom grabs the mic with a practiced smile and wave, “Wah-Daahp, Burlington?” An energized murmur goes up from the audience and some freshman kid yells “I LOVE YOU TOM WALLISCH” from the back. From what I can tell, either the UVM Ski Club or some freeskiing fan’s mom flew him out for the event… I’ve heard both stories but can’t pin Tom down on either one. Burlington isn’t worried about how he got here. Tom Wallisch has arrived.

Wallisch is one ski superstar who didn’t take the conventional route to the top. The majority of those who make it far in freeskiing have been tailored to be pro skiers from a very young age. Not Tom. When he moved from Pennsylvania to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah in the fall of ’06, Wally had ambitions of pro-skierdom, but he wasn't quite there yet. It turns out that if you can get good in Pennsylvania, you can get really good at Park City. At least that’s what Wallisch did, and his daily progression did not go unnoticed. Wallisch was ready to blow up, and the exploding popularity of YouTube coincided perfectly with his arrival in Utah. 4bi9’s AJ Dakoulas made edits every couple of weeks and before Tom had won his first contest or made a dollar skiing, he was already one of the most talked-about freeskiers in the world.

If you type “What Jesus” into the searchbar on YouTube, the first auto fill suggestion is “What Jesus Would Look Like If He Freestyle Skied." It's a video compilation from Tom’s first Utah season, and it tops a long list of less popular videos about Jesus, such as “What Jesus Looked Like”, “What Jesus Said”, and “What Jesus Did For Me.” My conclusion? Let's just say Tom Wallisch is getting to be pretty popular.

Despite his touted domination of Newschoolers.com threads and online message boards, Tom did not officially become the best park skier until last year, when he won slopestyle contests worldwide. Now he’s got a gang of new sponsors, an agent, and even an episode of "The Alli Show" on MTV2. Tom's in the Freeski episode, and while it also features Simon Dumont and TJ Schiller, Tom is the focus of the show. Let’s see what The People’s Champion of Freeskiing has to say for himself.