Side of SEA: Clément Picart on his new clip and the SEA 108 ski

By: Scott Naismith March 26, 2025

Just like the tide, Clément Picart ebbs and flows between the mountains and the ocean – each winter rising in search of powder and each summer retreating to chase barrels. Following the release of his latest short film, Side of SEA, we caught up with Clément to talk about the project and his involvement in the development of SCOTT’s new “Ski Everywhere Anytime” ski range.

Hi Clém, first off can you tell us a bit about who you are and where you’re from?

I was born and raised in Font Romeu, in the Pyrenees in the south of France – that is also where I learned to ski. I am actually on my way back there as we speak to meet up with my friends who still live there.

For the last thirteen years, I have been living in Courchevel during the winter. I have been working with the ski resort over the years on a number of projects, as well as working as a ski instructor. Courchevel has a reputation—everyone knows it for the parties, the rich people, the high fashion brand stores and the fur coats, but no one really talks about the skiing itself. I have been working with Courchevel to help them to show that it is still a great ski resort with good terrain, good snow conditions and world-class skiing.

In the summer I am still living near the Pyrenees but on the other side of the mountain range, towards the Atlantic ocean, in Biarritz.

1. Clément finding the goods in Courchevel's almost endless terrain. Fabien Maierhofer

2. Jibbing around the Courchevel Family Park. Corentin Salle

Recently you released your film “Side of SEA” in partnership with SCOTT. Can you tell us about the film?

The idea for the film was to create something original, something different. Today there are a lot of athletes who are creating amazing films, and I am not Candide Thovex or Markus Eder, so I wanted to produce something that was about more than just the skiing itself.

I tried to imagine a short story that would represent the SCOTT SEA ski and how fun it is to ride everywhere on the mountain. So we decided to split the video into four parts: powder, slope, sidecountry and snowpark.

For the transitions between the different parts, I changed the outerwear that I am riding in. We wanted to use this, as well as interesting editing techniques, to keep the transitions between each part of the film fun and fresh. Having clear segments in the film allowed us to effectively represent the versatility of the ski and my vision for how it should be ridden.

As a Courchevel resident myself, I am not sure how happy I am about Clément giving away our closely guarded secret. Corentin Salle

We decided to film the whole project from the same side. After the intro, we kept the same angle from the same side of the skier for the whole edit. We wanted it to feel like an endless top-to-bottom run, but as you can imagine, it was a big challenge to film like that. It makes it much more difficult because when you are choosing spots to shoot, you also have to consider that the filmer has to ride alongside the skier on his right side. This limited the locations that would work for the film. This, as well as only having four days to shoot, made the whole process very challenging.

You are the subject of this film and do all the skiing. Did you also direct it?

Yeah exactly, the whole project was my idea. I worked hard with SCOTT to develop the skis themselves, so for me it was normal to help them promote it and to try to present my vision of the skis.

How did you get involved with the development of the SEA skis?

I have always really liked being part of the development of my kit, and when SCOTT approached me about working on this ski, I was really excited to be involved. The team is really passionate – the SCOTT office is full of passionate skiers – so they were very fun to work with. They let me imagine the sort of ski that I would like to ride and gave me a lot of creative freedom to develop this ski. I was involved in the design process from start to finish, from having an input into how I thought the skis should be shaped to product testing our ideas. They put a lot of trust in the way I wanted the ski to ride.

SCOTT has a long history in freestyle skiing culture. They used to work on skis with people like Tom Wallisch and more recently they have produced skis for ski touring and alpinism, for Jérémie Heitz.

When I started with SCOTT, all of the freeride skis had holes in the nose to be able to attach touring skins, in order to allow riders to access remote areas easily. I wanted a ski that was downhill-focused, that I could ski everywhere without compromise on downhill performance. Together with SCOTT, we wanted to build a ski that found the sweet-spot for a ski resort sender that mostly uses gravity to ride.

Clément is very happy with the way the SEA 108 rides. They're not bad to look at either! Corentin Salle

Through this project, SCOTT wanted to reconnect with the resort, with a new vision to make a more fun, playful ski for the younger generation. They wanted to express that you do not need to be riding super gnarly faces to be having fun. My vision aligned with theirs, so together we tried to imagine a ski that could play everywhere in the resort, off the side of the piste and in all conditions from powder to the snowpark. For me that was the goal, and I think we achieved that. I have put this ski on many of my friends’ feet and everyone enjoys it a lot.

Do you have any new projects in the pipeline?

I have been working this winter on a project for social media in the 9:16 format. The concept is simple – I am going to meet up with different friends to produce short three-minute episodes filmed over two days and one night. The idea is that we will go and stay overnight in interesting locations. This week in Font Romeu we are going to stay overnight in an igloo, other times we might be staying in a refuge. I am going to film four episodes this winter and hopefully it will be something we will take into next winter as well. The episodes are going to be pretty relaxed, raw and personal – we are filming a lot just with our phone cameras and GoPros. We are going to use lots of cuts and dynamic editing to hopefully make it exciting and fun to watch.

Ski Everywhere Anytime - even off roofs. Corentin Salle

What do you normally do during the summer?

I work in Biarritz in the video industry as a filmmaker and videographer, working on many different projects. I work with a lot of surfers and outdoor brands to create videos – sometimes just as a filmer, and sometimes as a director as well. I have tried to stay within the industries that I am interested in—I like working with athletes and outdoor brands.

Recently I went down to Nazare, Portugal to film the biggest waves in the world. Our original plan was to spend just four days down there, but in the end I stayed for four months. The waves were really good and I had lots of opportunities to get involved in different projects. I started working with some guys from HBO, who were shooting for the series 100 Foot Wave, which was a really good learning experience for me. It was better than any school you could imagine, and I ended up with some shots in that series. At the same time it was a great opportunity to connect with all of the top athletes. When you get to know them, you realize that those guys are completely crazy.

SEA goes beyond just the range of skis that Clément has helped to develop. It also includes equipment and apparel designed around the concept of Ski Everywhere Anytime.