Local media (WIVB TV) expressed interest in documenting the sport I competed in from '76 to '81. Filmed at Kissing Bridge ski area just south of my home town of Buffalo, NY and produced by Larry Hunter. The Cable News Network (CNN) picked up the broadcast and replayed in four times nationally. Music: "Chase the clouds away" by Chuck Mangione.
This freestyle ski technique, a demonstration sport in the '88 and '92 Olympics, had names including, Trick, Exhibition, Stunt, Ski Ballet and Acroski, but I decided to add to the confusion by coining "Expressional Ski Movement" or "Ex-Ski-Mo", to emphasize its artistry and ability to convey messages in concept performance pieces I choreographed such as "Cyborg: Man Machine", that asked what happens to our psyches when the society around us undergoes rapid technological change.
December of 1979, at age 20, I joined ballet skiers Michael Russell ( '77-'78 2nd in world) and Alan Schoenberger ('76 world champ) in a trio to tour nationally, performing freestyle ski exhibitions and providing instuctor clinics with the debut season of SnowDance, touted as the world's first dance company on skis. Bernard Pump (Eastern USSA Ski Ballet champ) and later, Tony Weaver (Chevy ProTour skier) subbed in for an injured Schoenberger. We recieved multiple film studio coverage and national television broadcasts culminating the season with a filming for Warren Miller's 1980 feature; "Ski People". The full story is depicted in Russell's 2022 book "Winterdanse: the misplaced art of snow ballet".
As a 19 year old Freestyle ski competitor, I finished third for the season in Ski Ballet (later officially designated as Acroski by the International Federation of Skiing) and sixth in Aerials on the Rainier/Datson Snobust Pro Ski Tour and earned a portion of the cash purse on the Dearborn Cup National Pro Freestyle Series (Moguls, Aerial's and Ski Ballet). My one stop on the Western Pro Freestyle Tour at Bear valley, CA was canceled due to a snow storm.
I came out of retirement to compete in the USSA Freestyle Ski World Cup Ingress. I left out my pole flips and performed a four minute expressive theme-based routine, emphasizing the sports creative potential. Probably a big tactical mistake. Most athletes were doing a succinct ninety second tumbling flips and jumps orientated routine, a technique popular with the judges at the time. Diverting from the normal judging criteria and length of program I knew would hamper my score and undoubtedly it did, but surprisingly I outscored the winner in my first (but not second) of two runs. During my comeback I also finished first place at a stop on the Great Lakes Mogul Skiing Tour.
Sponsors have included Solomon, K2, Dale boot, The Ski, Serac, Scott USA, Astraltune, Bolle and Tomic. I was on Solomon's technical testing team, co-designed a freestyle ski binding system and collaborated on ski wear creations with Linda Lazzell of Lazzell Designs.
Prior to this, as an amateur I trained under the tutelage of Tony Sgro ('76 5th in world) and Eliza Sweeney on The Kissing Bridge freestyle ski team near Buffalo, NY and attended Mike Shea's and Airborne Eddie Ferguson's summer ski camps ('76-'78) in Vermont and Alberta, recieving coaching from legendary standouts Scott Brooksbank, Bruce Bolesky, Eddy Lincoln, Joannie Teorie, Marion Post, Deno Dudunake, Paul Nicholas, Robert Young, Mark Stiegemeier, Jack Johnston, Jeff Chumas and Scott Willingham. I trained there alongside future champions Frank Beddor, Murrey Cluff and Hayley Wolff.Then onto Bryce Veller's Freestyle East camp, also in Vermont ('79) as a "pro in training" where I trained with respected athletes Craig Peterson, T. George Vatis, Hilary Engisch and Ian Edmondson. Twords the end of this period I matriculated to the University of Portland in Oregon where I trained off-season on the glaciers of nearby Mt Hood, fraternizing and ski training with such freestyle stalwarts as Greg Athans, Mike Nemesvary, Dan Schindler, Chuck Heidenreich, Brad Milne and Rick Cole.
I was a judge and sound engineer for freestyle ski contests and produced a trampoline show with Sam Taub called "High Rise" for the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center Fall pl Ski Show.
Been fortunate to have met and/or trained with such luminaries of the sport as Wayne Wong, Suzy Chaffee, Bobby Burns, John Eaves, hacker Bob Howard, Lance Lana, Park Smalley, Daryl and Rick Bowie, Paul Krak Arntson, Jan Bucher, Joey Cordeau, Dean Murphy, Yves LaRoche, Lloyd Langlois, Ales Valenta, Jennifer Heil and Evan Dybvig.
Choosing my studies over freestyle, following this news story, I embarked on a career as a Podiatric Physician and Surgeon in Vermont taking up Alpine, Nordic and Snnowboard racing and Backcountry skiing. Remaining a freestyler in disposition kalinskaya and spirit.
