Gabriel Kocher brings YETI Natural Selection audiences up close

Gabriel Kocher (pilot name Gab707) will have arguably the best seat in the house when YETI Natural Selection returns to Revelstoke from March 10 to 17 to pit some of the greatest all-mountain freestyle snowboard riders in a competition highlighting Revelstoke’s mountain terrain.

A renowned drone pilot with years of experience capturing snowboarding moments, Kocher has been competing in his own race engineering and modifying drones, cameras and flight equipment in an effort to bring viewers even closer to the action on the slopes.

Using first-person view technology, Kocher dons a set of goggles similar to current market virtual reality sets, giving him a view through the camera broadcasting from the drone. Controllers in hand, he navigates the run alongside riders, pulling the drone close for action shots that previous filming technology either at the base of the run or from a helicopter overhead couldn’t catch.

“It’s very immersive. It allows me to be really precise and agile with what I do,” Kocher told Revelstoke Mountaineer.

Drone footage is a technology that pushes YETI Natural Selection a step closer to one of its goals of providing audiences with a unique and up-close live view of the best snowboarding has to offer.

Building the drone set-up himself, Kocher has been able to take the visual experience of a chase cam – a drone that tags to an athlete and follows at a set distance – and elevate it to a cinematic art that pulls wide to show the scope of jumps before weaving tightly through the trees with a rider. Each new adaptation and rebuild of his drones have a key target in mind: To magnify the skills of the riders and athletes he’s documenting.

“I just want to put the camera where it needs to be to get you the best perspective, the most  beautiful angles of what [riders] are doing and where they are. And also show how tricky it is what they do.”

Riders aren’t just relying on Kocher to score the perfect shot of their biggest jumps. His drone footage of competition areas help riders plan out possible routes leading up to competition. 

Still, there’s no communication between pilot and rider before the run starts; Kocher instead relies on his own snowboarding knowledge to predict which routes each racer might take so he’s in place for the best moments. 

Years of filming for Natural Selection and other snowboarding events means he’s built a familiarity with many of the riders and can guess moments of flair and probable routes. This is a comradery on the mountain that Natural Selection riders have come to enjoy, with 2024’s Dustin Craven telling Revelstoke Mountaineer it’s become a fun part of the competition to see if riders can make their run a challenge for Kocher.

It’s that relationship with riders, years of his own snowboarding adventures and hunting to improve on his own skills and the quality of his equipment that keeps Kocher betting on human skill over AI technology.

“You can have something that gets the job functionally done, that tech is possible. I’m trying to connect riders to the viewers in a way that is the most fun and engaging. A machine would miss that.”

Instead, Kocher is betting on his connections to the snowboarding industry to keep him on the hill and along for the ride as the sport continues to evolve.

“If you’re not there alongside it, not part of it then you’re not seeing it unfold.”

Catch Kocher’s drone skills during the competition window, March 10 to 17 when YETI Natural Selection brings some of the world’s best snowboarders to Revelstoke Mountain Resort. The competition will be live-streamed on Red Bull TV and replays will be available through YouTube.