What comes to your mind when you think of being on a ski trip?
Luxurious resorts? Drinking champagne on the Alps? A group of Black people dancing to Afrobeats in the middle of Bulgaria? If you’re struggling to picture that, don’t be alarmed I did too until I took a glimpse at Piste Ski Group's Instagram page.
Seeing Black people kitted up in snow gear altered my brain chemistry. Whilst I was watching their activities online I thought, why haven’t I thought about doing this before? And more importantly, why haven’t I seen a group of Black people on the Alps? I watched in envy as I saw people who looked like me ski, mingle with locals, and take shots in cosy cabins. It’s safe to say I had FOMO even though this is an activity I never imagined myself doing.
Typically, skiing is associated with the white middle class. Anyone who went to a predominantly white school will remember their peers taking annual ski trips with their families. It’s not a sport or holiday where Black people typically see themselves, but this collective of Black Brits wants to change that.
Off Piste Ski Trip is the largest Black winter sports group in the UK and they are on a mission to change the face of European ski resorts.
As it stands, Black skiers only make up 1.5% of people in ski resorts according to the National Ski Areas Association. In the past two years, the group has grown rapidly bringing together a unique group of millennial and gen-z trendsetters of Black and mixed heritage.
Their upcoming trip sold out in just 24 hours and is set to take place in early 2024, featuring four days of skiing or snowboarding, access to apres-ski parties, and a thermal pool party. The team is already counting down the days to their next adventure.
Seasoned sat down to speak to Off Piste about their introduction into the ski world, how the group came to be, and why more Black people should consider a holiday in the Alps.
Skiing, in its entirety, is a sport for everyone although it doesn’t seem that way.
Karen Grillo, who is a twin, was obsessed with Mary Kate and Ashley films. She recalls watching Getting There, a movie that featured the twins at a ski resort. She’s been waiting for that Mary Kate and Ashley moment ever since.
Frankie Dadzie has always had an interest in skiing but it wasn’t until she got into the corporate world that she seriously started to do it. “I overheard people saying they were going skiing in the office, which was interesting to me as those people weren’t extremely athletic. It made me understand that skiing could be for everyone, Dadzie says.
Like Dadzie, Temi Owoseni was allowed to go on a work-team bonding trip to Austria where the main activity would be skiing. “That was the first time I’d ever been given an opportunity to try skiing,” Owoseni says. “Once you go, it becomes contagious. You want to do it again and it can be quite addictive,” he adds.
Eventually, Grillo was granted her Mary Kate and Ashley skiing moment in 2022 after her friend booked a ski trip for her group of friends. Though the interest in skiing was there, she felt like it was still quite an intimidating sport.
“When you think of snow sports you have these dramatic visuals of people doing backflips and things like that. You don’t see people like us in the sport,” Grillo says. Though she had her concerns, the trip ended up being worthwhile as this is where she met some of her current Off Piste team members.
“We were probably the only groups of Black people there and I eventually ended up meeting Frankie on the slopes,” Grillo shares.
As it was most of their first experience skiing, they eventually became a group. “I remember a moment where we all looked around and were like ‘Hey, why haven’t we done this before? And why aren’t our friends and families doing this?” Grillo says.
That trip formed a bond between them and they knew they wanted to come back and bring more people the following year. Their plan was clear: to bring more people who looked like them on the slopes.
“There’s a big challenge here as Black people aren’t well represented in the sport. There are many reasons for that but this is why we started Off Piste Group,” Grillo says.
She continues: “Representation is a big part of that and by what we're doing, we've been able to be that representation for people who like me when I first had an interest in it but never saw myself doing it.”
When the group took to the slopes for the first time, several eyes were glued to their Instagram page. “This year, so many people are like, Oh my god, I'm coming next year. Why don't you invite me? We were getting all of those messages. And I think that's when the penny dropped that actually, this could be bigger than we think,” Grillo says.
There’s a big misconception about what skiing trips actually entail. When I think of ski trips, I think of an endless amount of time being spent on the slopes but there are way more things to do on a ski trip which Off Piste wants to highlight.
Dadzie found that the people running the organisations acknowledged how white the ski industry is and that there needs to be a change. “We had a lot of support in that sense and many people in the industry were aware that this isn’t usually a place where you see many Black people,” Dadzie says.”
Dadzie says Off Piste Ski Group aims to create an environment where their members feel like they can belong and just have a good time. Grillo shares that Off Piste Ski Group's experience this year was surreal and exciting because she knew that they were inspiring a new generation of skiers and snowboarders.
Owoseni says the ski trip was a life-changing experience. “I brought so many of my friends on his trip and now skiing has been infused into their lives.” Outside of all the fun, Dadzie says ski trips are quite serene and peaceful. “It's a great way to kind of escape, make connections, make friends, step out of your comfort zone, try something new.”
So, what are you waiting for?