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SKI SETUPS

Freeride & Big Mountain

Ben Richards

  • Freeride Skiing
Nationality
New Zealand
Hometown
Wanaka, New Zealand (born in the United States)
Turned pro
2024
Primary discipline
Freeride Skiing

About Ben Richards

New Zealand freeride skier, full name Benjamin James Richards. Born in the US, learned to ski at age 2 at Mammoth Mountain, moved to New Zealand at age 6 and grew up in Wanaka. Raced competitively in alpine gates as a teenager before relocating to Revelstoke, Canada and transitioning into freeride. Debuted on the Freeride World Tour in 2024, winning Rookie of the Year (3rd overall). Earned two 3rd-place podiums in 2025 (Baqueira Beret, Kicking Horse), then swept the 2026 season - winning Baqueira Beret Pro, Val Thorens Pro and the YETI Xtreme Verbier final - to complete a title hat-trick: Freeride World Tour Champion, inaugural FIS Freeride World Champion, and Xtreme Verbier winner.

2026 FWT Ski Men overall champion (rank 1, 32,000 points, with wins at Baqueira Beret and Val Thorens plus the Xtreme Verbier final) and the first winner of the new parallel FIS Freeride World Championships title. Raced alpine as a teenager before moving to Revelstoke, Canada to pursue freeride, debuting on the FWT in 2024 as Rookie of the Year and 3rd overall.

Sponsors: Armada Skis; The North Face Snow; Sweet Protection; Marker; ZipFit

Setup

3 items

Skis

Armada AntiMatter 114

  • Off-piste

114mm waist

Ski Richards competed and won on at the 2026 Baqueira Beret Pro per Armada's launch coverage.

Armada's newly-launched (2026) big-mountain freeride ski, part of the AntiMatter freeride collection.

Liners

ZipFit Corsa (custom cork-injected liner)

Alternate
  • Off-piste

custom cork-injected

Secondary equipment item (liner insert, not the boot shell brand); confirmed via ZipFit's own athlete page.

Custom cork-injected boot liner insert (not a full boot shell) used inside Richards's race/freeride boots.

Bindings

Setup verified 19 July 2026

Sources

  1. https://www.freerideworldtour.com/riders/benjamin-james-richards/
  2. https://www.armadaskis.com/en-us/athletes/ben-richards
  3. https://unofficialnetworks.com/2026/02/12/armada-hard-launches-new-ski-with-ben-richards-huge-fwt-win/
  4. https://zipfit.com/pages/ben-richards
  5. https://www.snowsports.co.nz/about-us/our-athletes/our-freeriders/ben-richards/
  6. https://www.sweetprotection.com/de/en/discover-sweet/our-athletes/ben-richards/