Dave Ryding: The Journey
12th June 2025 | Jane Peel, Chief Reporter
Last modified on June 14th, 2025
It’s been a long road for the 38-year-old and it started many years ago with a ski-crazy dad, Carl Ryding.
At the age of six, Dave, along with his younger sister Jo, was ‘encouraged’ to learn to ski at the local dry slope at Pendle in Lancashire.
Dad promised to take the kids on their first family skiing holiday to the mountains if they could get to a good basic level.
It worked.
They joined Pendle Ski Club and off the family went on what was to become an annual trip to the Alps.
Dave Ryding on an early family ski holiday to the Alps
Dave competed in his first race – on plastic – a couple of years later when he was eight.
A young Dave Ryding racing at Llandudno dry slope
Dave thrived on racing on dry slopes – a passion he shared with considerable success with sister Jo.
British Dryslope Champions Dave & Jo Ryding
When he was 13 he was selected for the English Schools Team.
But living in a country whose mountains can be counted on one hand, it was never going to be easy to turn his hobby into a career.
He didn’t get any race training on real snow until 2001 when he was 14.
That was when he began travelling to the mountains more regularly.
Even then it was only for three or four weeks each season, and it wasn’t all hard work.
Freestyle fun on a family holiday
Dave Ryding is the epitome of northern grit.
Northern grit – training in the garden
He has reached the very top of his chosen career thanks to hard work, determination, and a huge amount of talent.
And sacrifices initially made by dad Carl and mum Shirley.
Carl was a market trader who re-trained as a gas engineer so he could earn more to help fund his children’s ski racing.
Carl & Shirley Ryding
“It’s no small thing to do, especially for two kids,” Dave’s sister Jo Ryding told the BBC after his second place in Oslo on New Year’s Day 2019.
“My mum was only a hairdresser as well, so when he was re-training, she had to pick the bills up, so it’s definitely a two person effort.”
Jo says it was tough for her parents, getting up before dawn to drive them to races up and down the country.
Dave & Jo
Dave recognises the part his parents have played in his success.
“When I was younger they sacrificed a huge amount,” he once said.
“I owe them a huge amount of respect and gratitude.”
Carl & Shirley supporting Dave in every way
Dave’s parents insisted he completed his education before he could consider racing full-time.
At 18, after his A levels, that’s what he did.
A year later, in 2005, he was selected for the British Alpine team.
It was the start of a remarkable rise for the boy from Bretherton.
At the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010
His childhood ambition had been to be ranked in the top 30 ski racers in the world.
It must have seemed a lofty aim at the time.
He achieved his ambition in the 2014-15 season and has been re-setting his goals ever since.
In January 2017, he stepped on the World Cup podium for the first time, taking second place in Kitzbühel behind Marcel Hirscher.
It was the first podium for a British alpine skier since Konrad Bartelski won downhill silver in Val Gardena in 1981.
For most of his career, in order to find the tens of thousands of pounds needed to race on the international circuit each season, Dave had to rely on financial support from sponsors and the sport’s governing body, BSS (now GB Snowsport).
The elite funding agency, UK Sport, which allocates money on the basis of Olympic medal prospects, withdrew funding for the British alpine programme in 2010.
It was restored shortly after Dave Ryding’s second place in Kitzbühel.
That stunning silver made the world sit up and notice the Brit who had learned his sport on plastic.
He was all over the news in the UK and Austria.
Big news
“Overnight I was recognised everywhere I went in Austria,” he told PlanetSKI in an interview at the time.
“I had many, many phone calls and was on the TV news.
“You have got to embrace it. It’s what you dream of as a kid.
“With that result, being British, you have to take all these media opportunities because it’s important for the sport.”
His top achievement is that slalom victory in Kitzbuehel in January 2022.
Since then he married his long-time partner Mandy and they now have a daughter, Nina.
Dave Ryding with wife Mandy and daughter Nina in Schladming Jan 2024. Image © PlanetSKI
The family has made many sacrifices and Dave now says he is looking forward to spending more time with them.
“I’m really aware that I’m at a different stage in life than I was even a few years ago,” said Dave.
“I’ve had the most incredible support along the way from so many people, but nobody more than my family, and making this decision now is also about making a decision to prioritise time with the people I love in the years to come.”
Dave Ryding, PlanetSKI salutes you.
The Rocket in 2016
With thanks to the Ryding family for sharing their photos with us.
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