Wallisch grew up skiing in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. Learned tricks in shit ice parks, and backyards, where he started revolutionizing style, and put the "pretzel on the map in a big way (from what I remember his rail tricks where more progressive and steezier than most established pros at the time) . before college he won the West Virginia Open which got you an invite to the Vermont Open, I cant remember exactly how he placed there, but pretty sure it landed him a spot at the US Open. After that it was an invite to maybe the first JOSS as a complete AM, where he threw the F down on those massive jumps. Then he moved out west for college, and rode real parks all day and completely blew up.
not trying to D ride Tom (he aint no Delorme), but he put in work on shitty South East mountains and got good as F.
also not hating on Zahner he is a dope rider, but I started seeing him pretty regularly at Keystone A51 when he was like 16ish I believe, so not really sure what your saying with "jersey his whole life"
Guess my point is learn ya history boi!
this whole argument is also dumb...Tom is dope for being tom, zahner is dope for being zahner, etc. to each there own.