Revisiting Sam Kuch's Breakout Segment Six Years Later

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Ski filmmaker Scott Gaffney, who directed Return to Send’er, also profiled Kuch for an issue of Freeskier. In the article, he describes hearing about Kuch from a friend. They called Kuch a combination of Candide Thovex and Sean Pettit. Gaffney was understandably skeptical. But after watching a video of Kuch skiing, he was an instant fan.

So was everyone else. In Return to Send’er, Kuch rips around his home resort of Whitewater before venturing to a grander proving ground, Palisades Tahoe. The birthplace of Squallywood might be the hardest place for a skier to leave an impression—how do you stand out when everyone else is a professional skier? But Kuch did just that, tearing up the Californian ski resort with his trademark, flowy mixture of freestyle and freeride.

The rest of the segment was an all-mountain masterclass, making two things very clear: Kuch was just getting started, and he had a long, fruitful career ahead of him.

But there have been some bumps along the way, namely a crash in February 2022 which left Kuch with a broken femur. Then, in December 2024, Kuch undertook a new challenge: he became a dad.

Before his son was born, Kuch was worried that fatherhood might sideline skiing. Those fears didn’t last long.

“It all kind of got wiped out once the season started and I realized that I was being fully accepted, and I was still skiing to my best ability,” Kuch told POWDER in an interview last month.

Kuch’s recent performance at the inaugural Natural Selection Tour event reinforced that sentiment. Amongst a stacked field of invited athletes, Kuch took second, beating out fellow showstoppers like Colby Stevenson, Kai Jones, and Markus Eder.

What about fatherhood? It’s “honestly been amazing,” said Kuch.