This is big adventures.
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Guys. Welcome.
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I've got a real exciting guest.
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We're going to jump over to Ski World
in a big way.
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In this conversation, I,
we feel, We'll see, we'll see, we'll see.
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But, Phil
McNichol is sitting here with me.
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And thanks for being here, Phil.
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Oh, it's my pleasure.
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I've been looking forward
to this little visit for quite a while.
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Phil has been a, well known
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ski coach for years and years and years
throughout the system.
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The USA team and head
coach of the men's team,
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during their heyday, and,
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used to be a Flagstaff kid
and worked at Humphrey Summit
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and all kinds of cool connections
we both have with the skier.
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But, Oh, let's,
as usual, we want to get started with,
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your younger
years, your for your early years.
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Can you share with us
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where you were born?
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We're going all the way.
Are we going all the way back to.
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Back to the diapers, and I'll get out.
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We'll start at the diapers. Well,
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my passport says, Providence, which isn't,
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has no religious
overtones, but, Providence,
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Rhode Island, the smallest state in
the Union, is where I was born.
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Oh, yeah, to a man.
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My dad,
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who served in the Navy
in the Korean conflict.
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I had the GI Bill at Manhattan College.
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He grew up in Bronxville, New York.
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So he was in what, they used to call
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personnel management
before it was called H.R.
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Yeah. That's what he studied.
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So he got into factory work
managing people.
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And there was a Gant factory.
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Gant shirts,
which is, old school, men's dress shirt.
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In Providence, when Providence was kind
of a manufacturing hub.
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And also Uniroyal made
the first rubber call core golf ball in,
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Providence.
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So that's what put us there.
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But then as a young kid,
I don't own three or so, 3 or 4 years old.
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We moved to Connecticut because he.
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If you ever used that number
two pencil, he, worked
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in the Eagle Pencil factory
and married Connecticut.
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And he was, all the while doing
personnel manager.
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Yeah,
he was all the time, managing people,
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and he
and he didn't like working for the man.
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And he bought himself,
a little carpet store and,
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Litchfield
County in its off old route seven,
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in the tiny
Berkshire mountains of Connecticut.
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And, he thought we'd be the Waltons.
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And my two brothers and I would.
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Go grow up.
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Working, not living downstairs,
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living upstairs of the carpet store
and working every day was a work day.
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And that would
bring us all closer together in nature
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on the shipyard River
in, in Connecticut. And.
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Yeah, that's that's where it all started.
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Did it bring did it work?
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I'm going to say no.
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Yeah, we know it was great,
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but I mean, it's
I don't know, it sounds romantic, right?
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Like.
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But work and whether you grew up on a farm
or you grew up in a family business,
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you either, you know, take to that.
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My dad was a bit of a hard, hard
driven individual.
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So he probably ran us a little bit
more like,
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like employees than than he did
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children of his of his fold.
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And that was, that was, you know,
it was a it was one way to do it.
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And my brothers and I are
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all close in age, but very different.
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And we all, we all skedaddled,
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you know, the day after graduation,
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we all ran out of there
as fast as we could, and,
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I went to summer summer school,
university in New York,
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just outside of Queens.
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And. Yeah.
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And what was high school like was.
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Good high school at the shipyard.
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Valley high was, what they call in that
neck of the woods, a regional school.
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So it was three towns, Bridgewater,
Roxbury and Washington, Connecticut.
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There was 55,
60 kids in my graduating class.
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So it was a small little regional school
in, small
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town of Washington, Connecticut,
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which is just peppered all the way through
New England there with prep schools.
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But I was at a public school
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and a school
so small we didn't have a football team.
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But the the town,
there was a municipal football team.
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So I grew up playing football.
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And, basketball for the high school and
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ran track and field and,
and got into skiing
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when I was about nine at the Woodbury
skiing racket,
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which was, one T-bar Hill and Woodbury,
Connecticut, and,
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a guy by the nickname of Super Rod
Taylor ski in the 68 Olympics.
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I believe
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that was his little place.
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And I thought he was like,
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Zeus come down from the clouds.
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And he.
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Because he was this cool guy,
he drove one of those Mercedes
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sports cars with the or butterfly doors.
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And, the first time I saw him ski
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on his ski boots,
I just about, like, lost my mind.
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I was like,
how did somebody ski on their ski boots?
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That good?
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And it's not easy now.
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That's why they.
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That's why most of us are using skis.
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Yeah.
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And like, man,
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it took me a lot, a lot of years
to figure that little trick out myself.
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But I mean, it was anyhow,
it was no one in my family skied.
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It was in our jam to do
country club sports, and but I had some
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kids that lived on the other side
of the tracks that I got to know
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when I was quite young and did certain
things like motorcycling and skiing
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and so I would either hitchhike
or get rides to the ski hill.
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And that's how it all started.
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And but you enjoy your high school years,
they say, yeah.
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No, I was like a cool. Yeah.
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I mean, to me.
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Yeah, I plowed through it and
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I struggled with dyslexia
and was told I would never go to college.
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So that's why I went to college
to prove everyone wrong.
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Just as everyone said,
you couldn't be a B skiing.
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And so I became a skier.
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Like.
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All you had to do is tell me all you had
to do is tell me what I couldn't have.
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And I wouldn't dare tell you anyway.
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So. And then you went to a small college.
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I went to a small Adelphi University,
which is a kind of junior Ivy League
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private school in
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Nassau County,
New York, right on the Queens border.
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And worked five jobs
paying for private school
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and was going to be a rich million dollar,
you know, bank
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finance guy and not live upstairs
the carpet store anymore.
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That was my that was my path.
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And what disrupted such an honor of,
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Well, I was not cut out for the city
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and hanging up all the things I grew up
doing, running around in the woods
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and playing sports and skiing
and all that stuff just to make
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that, you know, to chase the chase
the dollar.
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And I was disillusioned
with the whole kid.
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And I met a young fella
that I became friends
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with from Pennsylvania, Kid,
whose dad was a brain surgeon.
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And, he was a bit rebellious from his,
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kind of upper echelon upbringing.
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And he wanted to come to this place
called Flagstaff, Arizona, to this school,
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Northern Arizona University.
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Yeah. I've heard of it,
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Because it had, a quite well known
forestry program, and he wanted to be
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he wanted to flip his dad
the bird and, become a forest ranger
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and work in the Forest Service business
and not be a doctor.
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And I was like, all right, well,
I want to just get out of here.
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And, so I applied to a few schools out
west,
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UCLA, Colorado State
University of California, San Diego.
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I didn't know what Flagstaff was,
but he was my ride.
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And then I was going to
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once I got here,
I was going to say goodbye
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and get on a Greyhound and start
looking at these schools and pick
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which school I was going to go to.
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And, and then I came here
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and, my life changed.
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As it has for so many.
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Yeah.
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And then, like, what year was that?
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That would have been 1982.
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Yeah. 1982.
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And so I. Was just.
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Turning in and you.
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Yeah, I was just turning 21.
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Who was that, anyway? That
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you jumped in the car with?
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Kevin, I can't think of Kevin's last name.
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It'll come to me.
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I obviously lost touch with him
four decades ago.
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We. Pat.
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We kind of parted ways
a semester or two into it
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as I drifted into skiing
and other things than college.
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Although I finished my university studies
here, I was more of a night student,
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part time student, working guy, skier,
bartender was my scene.
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I wasn't really hanging out in the student
body, but,
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yeah, he and
I don't know what happened to Kevin.
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We again, we
I went my direction and he went his. And.
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Yeah, life does that to us.
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People come in and out.
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But I yeah I,
I fell in love with Flagstaff pretty quick
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but I also was I was I had no car,
I had no direction.
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I didn't sure if I wanted to be in school.
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And so I walked into the new admissions
building
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00:10:11,978 --> 00:10:15,748
and asked if I could go to school
and gave in my transcript, and,
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became a student
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overnight and decided, well,
I guess I'm staying here.
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That's cool, that's cool. Yeah.
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So it was very unplanned.
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Yeah. It was meant to be.
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I think the best things in life
are unplanned, but.
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Most definitely.
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You know, everybody over plans, I,
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would think that a bunch of people
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in this town came here in the same way.
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00:10:42,608 --> 00:10:48,247
You know, I know people that got
caught here in a snowstorm and never left.
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00:10:48,414 --> 00:10:50,883
Yeah. I mean, there's a bunch of people
that were.
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There's Worth's worst
charlottes webs to be caught trapping.
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It was really a magical place for me.
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And I, if anyone know.
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00:10:59,692 --> 00:11:04,964
I mean, I was I grew up in a certain
certain means and methods,
208
00:11:05,731 --> 00:11:10,503
and I think I'd been on an airplane
once in my life before my 21st birthday.
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00:11:10,503 --> 00:11:12,538
I'd never been west of the Mississippi.
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00:11:12,538 --> 00:11:13,973
Oh. That's amazing.
211
00:11:13,973 --> 00:11:17,977
And I drove out here
on the southern route, so.
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00:11:18,210 --> 00:11:19,845
And I loved being outside.
213
00:11:19,845 --> 00:11:24,216
So I spent about a week hiking and camping
in the Ozark Mountains on the way.
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00:11:24,717 --> 00:11:28,621
I never ran into Burt Reynolds
or any of those, pig squealing
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00:11:28,688 --> 00:11:29,922
guys from the movie.
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00:11:29,922 --> 00:11:32,925
But, If you were looking for him,
weren't you?
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00:11:33,092 --> 00:11:34,727
Was clearly.
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And we,
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00:11:37,463 --> 00:11:40,833
spent a
few we spent a bit of time, in New Mexico
220
00:11:41,033 --> 00:11:44,403
before we rolled into Flagstaff,
hiked Wheeler Point in Taos, and.
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00:11:44,403 --> 00:11:45,337
And this with Kevin?
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00:11:45,337 --> 00:11:48,541
Yeah,
this was my first experience west of that.
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00:11:48,541 --> 00:11:52,178
Like, I was like,
I can't really describe what it was like.
224
00:11:52,178 --> 00:11:55,748
If you grew up in New England and
never saw anything other than that, like.
225
00:11:56,015 --> 00:11:58,084
Yeah, no, it must have been high impact.
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00:11:58,084 --> 00:11:58,884
For a while.
227
00:11:58,884 --> 00:12:01,020
Yeah. I dreamed about open space
I didn't like.
228
00:12:01,020 --> 00:12:02,288
It was like a postcard to me.
229
00:12:02,288 --> 00:12:03,723
And I always thought, like,
230
00:12:03,723 --> 00:12:08,160
growing up back when it snowed and
it was really cold in New England, that.
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00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:08,761
What would it be
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00:12:08,761 --> 00:12:11,764
like if it was kind of warm and sunny
but still snow on the ground?
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00:12:12,665 --> 00:12:13,032
Yeah.
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00:12:13,032 --> 00:12:15,835
And then I came out west and I was like,
this is bullshit.
235
00:12:15,835 --> 00:12:18,704
How come no one told me this? Like,
I would have, like.
236
00:12:18,704 --> 00:12:20,706
I would have come out here
decades ago. So earlier.
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This is right.
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00:12:21,340 --> 00:12:27,012
It's like, okay, so when did you
what year did you work for me?
239
00:12:27,346 --> 00:12:31,083
So it was pretty rapid, like,
so that was I want to say,
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00:12:31,951 --> 00:12:34,120
an 82, 83 and then
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00:12:35,154 --> 00:12:38,190
that, that first winter if you go back,
I don't like again.
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It's all it's a long time ago.
243
00:12:39,692 --> 00:12:42,661
But, again, I didn't come here for skiing.
244
00:12:42,795 --> 00:12:44,563
I wasn't thinking about Flagstaff.
245
00:12:44,563 --> 00:12:49,034
I hadn't been skiing when I lived in the
city in New York, and I was working in,
246
00:12:50,336 --> 00:12:52,772
and as a bank teller and a bartender
247
00:12:52,772 --> 00:12:55,741
and a waiter and all the things
I was doing to put myself through school.
248
00:12:56,242 --> 00:12:59,245
I had gotten away from skiing,
so I had no skis.
249
00:12:59,545 --> 00:13:01,147
You know, everyone on campus started
250
00:13:01,147 --> 00:13:04,750
buzzing about the ski season,
and I was like, really?
251
00:13:05,217 --> 00:13:07,219
Okay. Like,
yeah, I'm starting to get the bug.
252
00:13:07,219 --> 00:13:08,287
Like, this is going to be great.
253
00:13:08,287 --> 00:13:12,391
And I think it snowed
a meter on opening day.
254
00:13:12,925 --> 00:13:14,093
Yeah, it was.
255
00:13:14,093 --> 00:13:19,465
And that winter,
that winter was like a big winter.
256
00:13:19,465 --> 00:13:20,332
I mean, it was like the
257
00:13:20,332 --> 00:13:25,070
some of the biggest snow base
of the western ski areas was in Flagstaff.
258
00:13:25,070 --> 00:13:26,806
And it snowed every week.
259
00:13:26,806 --> 00:13:28,741
It seemed like, yeah, deep Thursday.
260
00:13:28,741 --> 00:13:32,311
And anyway, I went,
I borrowed everything from long
261
00:13:32,311 --> 00:13:35,948
johns to ski poles for a hat,
like I had nothing.
262
00:13:36,182 --> 00:13:41,754
And I went skiing
and I, I skied with a bunch of guys
263
00:13:41,754 --> 00:13:46,759
of random students, and we were hooting
and hollering and skiing and snow up to.
264
00:13:46,759 --> 00:13:48,294
My belt buckle, which.
265
00:13:48,294 --> 00:13:49,962
I had never seen in my life.
266
00:13:49,962 --> 00:13:51,397
Yeah, it was like it was.
267
00:13:51,397 --> 00:13:57,403
Like the greatest day of my current
journey on the on the planet.
268
00:13:58,470 --> 00:14:01,440
And, it turns out afterwards were drinking
beers at the
269
00:14:01,974 --> 00:14:05,010
Agassi Lodge,
and we'll open it up and telling,
270
00:14:05,044 --> 00:14:08,881
you know, lies about the glory
of our powder skiing that day as you do.
271
00:14:08,881 --> 00:14:12,051
And I pray, and it turns out
one of the guys I was skiing with,
272
00:14:12,318 --> 00:14:15,554
worked at the ski school
and asked me if I wanted to teach skiing
273
00:14:15,821 --> 00:14:18,691
because I guess I could make some turns
from my
274
00:14:18,691 --> 00:14:21,660
youth to ski racing
and skiing in New England. And.
275
00:14:21,660 --> 00:14:24,563
And I just asked if I could get some gear.
276
00:14:24,563 --> 00:14:26,365
He said, oh, yeah,
that should comes with it.
277
00:14:26,365 --> 00:14:29,134
And, and the rest is that
278
00:14:29,134 --> 00:14:33,839
is how I waddled into ski school
that first year.
279
00:14:33,839 --> 00:14:37,009
And I picked up a, bartending job.
280
00:14:37,009 --> 00:14:41,213
And so it wasn't until the next winter
that I found myself finding,
281
00:14:41,213 --> 00:14:46,452
you know, over that first year in town
and through Sammy and other individuals,
282
00:14:46,452 --> 00:14:51,223
I crossed paths with you
and quickly got snared in that, there.
283
00:14:51,357 --> 00:14:53,192
Yeah. Fly paper.
284
00:14:54,159 --> 00:14:56,795
And. And,
285
00:14:56,795 --> 00:15:00,399
you know, I was always keen
for another job, so I was flipping pizzas.
286
00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:05,237
I was a bartender at fiddlers and,
fiddle sticks.
287
00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:10,910
And I was working the door at Granny's
closet, and I was working in the ski
288
00:15:10,910 --> 00:15:14,780
shop, fixing tacks and wrapping oars
289
00:15:14,780 --> 00:15:18,250
and doing Healy coiling as your job.
290
00:15:18,617 --> 00:15:21,620
Belts and and skis and whatever it took.
291
00:15:21,954 --> 00:15:23,289
Yeah. No. That's cool.
292
00:15:23,289 --> 00:15:27,026
And then as that went along and,
you know, just for the listener,
293
00:15:27,793 --> 00:15:30,396
that was really wild days back then. Yeah.
294
00:15:30,396 --> 00:15:32,097
I had you guys working for me.
295
00:15:32,097 --> 00:15:35,100
And, what got you into the ski coaching?
296
00:15:36,001 --> 00:15:38,304
That was just a transition between.
297
00:15:38,304 --> 00:15:41,006
Yeah, well,
I started teaching skiing because it was.
298
00:15:41,006 --> 00:15:44,343
Yes, it was, I mean, I was again,
I was a man on a mission.
299
00:15:44,343 --> 00:15:47,313
I was just like,
things just fell in front of me.
300
00:15:47,313 --> 00:15:48,847
Yeah. And then,
301
00:15:50,849 --> 00:15:55,187
Gary Stevenson was, had just gotten back
from his journey
302
00:15:55,187 --> 00:15:59,391
of pro racing and gland skiing
and all that jumping in that stuff.
303
00:15:59,391 --> 00:16:02,394
And he was just back with the ski club.
304
00:16:02,494 --> 00:16:04,563
This would have been again like 8480.
305
00:16:04,563 --> 00:16:06,332
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so.
306
00:16:06,332 --> 00:16:09,735
He was just back and his young son Park,
307
00:16:11,804 --> 00:16:14,340
Gary and he were having a way with each
other,
308
00:16:14,340 --> 00:16:17,343
and Gary was trying to teach him to ski,
and he wasn't having it.
309
00:16:17,943 --> 00:16:19,945
And Gary wouldn't let him go up that
310
00:16:19,945 --> 00:16:23,215
big lift to the top of the mountain
until he could ski whiskey poles.
311
00:16:23,349 --> 00:16:25,250
Park wouldn't have it.
312
00:16:25,250 --> 00:16:28,253
And so he came to me and said,
hey, would you.
313
00:16:28,253 --> 00:16:29,722
Just spend some time with this?
314
00:16:29,722 --> 00:16:32,925
Do a do a man
a solid and help me like I can't?
315
00:16:32,925 --> 00:16:35,160
I can't, I'm pulling my hair out.
316
00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:36,528
So Park and I hit it off.
317
00:16:36,528 --> 00:16:38,864
And within a day or two
318
00:16:38,864 --> 00:16:42,001
we were skiing all over the mountain
with ski poles and up the lift and having
319
00:16:42,001 --> 00:16:43,002
a great time and,
320
00:16:44,336 --> 00:16:46,071
And he's still a beautiful skier.
321
00:16:46,071 --> 00:16:46,472
Yeah.
322
00:16:46,472 --> 00:16:50,275
And I was, you know, and back
then we had, like, a pretty robust,
323
00:16:51,844 --> 00:16:53,979
group of skiers in the ski school. Yeah.
324
00:16:53,979 --> 00:16:56,148
And it was ski like everybody was a skier.
325
00:16:56,148 --> 00:16:57,683
Like everybody was a good skiing.
326
00:16:57,683 --> 00:16:59,685
All our buddies were the patrol. Yeah.
327
00:16:59,685 --> 00:17:00,853
And there was, ski.
328
00:17:00,853 --> 00:17:03,222
You know, we had town races all the time.
329
00:17:03,222 --> 00:17:07,226
And there was, you know, there was lots
of opportunities to hop in the gates.
330
00:17:07,226 --> 00:17:10,062
And I hadn't been,
you know, doing that since I was younger.
331
00:17:10,062 --> 00:17:15,701
And so, of course, I gravitated to that
like a moth to the flame and,
332
00:17:16,235 --> 00:17:19,505
and between meat and parking and whatnot.
333
00:17:19,605 --> 00:17:23,542
And Gary through that, again,
very serendipitous.
334
00:17:24,910 --> 00:17:25,744
Crossing.
335
00:17:25,744 --> 00:17:28,247
He said, hey,
would you think about coaching?
336
00:17:30,282 --> 00:17:31,350
And I was like, yeah.
337
00:17:31,350 --> 00:17:33,852
Like, again, I've never hardly said
no to anything.
338
00:17:33,852 --> 00:17:36,822
And and it's been the smartest thing
you ever.
339
00:17:36,822 --> 00:17:37,122
Yeah.
340
00:17:37,122 --> 00:17:40,926
So I, I transition
I mean, I was already starting to run
341
00:17:40,926 --> 00:17:44,630
a couple of the events through,
through the mountain and ski school.
342
00:17:44,630 --> 00:17:47,066
I mean, again,
it was a pretty small operation back then.
343
00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:47,499
Oh, yeah.
344
00:17:47,499 --> 00:17:52,704
And, and then I jumped ship and started
coaching with Gary and the ski club
345
00:17:53,105 --> 00:17:57,743
and, you know, we had a good little,
you know, a good little pack of skiers.
346
00:17:57,743 --> 00:18:00,746
And, you know,
it was Sammy and Brian Beamer and.
347
00:18:00,813 --> 00:18:03,682
Oh. Yeah, Gary
Stefansson and a few other folks
348
00:18:03,682 --> 00:18:06,685
on staff at that time. And,
349
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:07,386
yeah.
350
00:18:07,386 --> 00:18:09,254
And again, like, again, it wasn't a plan.
351
00:18:09,254 --> 00:18:13,225
I just but I loved it
and I wanted to be always working
352
00:18:13,225 --> 00:18:17,162
on my own skin and working on, you know,
I was always a student of the sport and
353
00:18:18,430 --> 00:18:21,333
now, you know, I was all in.
354
00:18:21,333 --> 00:18:23,402
And, and,
355
00:18:23,402 --> 00:18:25,771
you guys really checked into the coaching
356
00:18:25,771 --> 00:18:30,008
and the science of coaching
and the, the mechanics of coaching you.
357
00:18:30,008 --> 00:18:32,511
Sammy. Gary,
358
00:18:32,511 --> 00:18:34,713
were quite a group when it came to,
359
00:18:34,713 --> 00:18:37,516
improving what was going on up here.
360
00:18:37,516 --> 00:18:40,519
You really took the coaching
to a different level.
361
00:18:40,519 --> 00:18:41,720
Yeah. No, things really took.
362
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:44,223
It was cool.
Those things were cool. Years.
363
00:18:44,223 --> 00:18:47,326
And then I can't remember the gentleman
again as a long time ago.
364
00:18:47,326 --> 00:18:50,662
Well, one of the ski patrol men,
he was actually,
365
00:18:52,364 --> 00:18:56,902
eventually he was the captain of the fire,
the, fire department.
366
00:18:57,169 --> 00:18:58,837
He was a ski patrol. And Bill. Morris.
367
00:18:58,837 --> 00:18:59,972
Yeah. Bill.
368
00:18:59,972 --> 00:19:02,174
Yeah. So Bill is a friend, right?
Wait, again?
369
00:19:02,174 --> 00:19:04,843
This is like, you could make a pulling
me back, like, 40 years ago.
370
00:19:05,844 --> 00:19:08,046
He had worked,
371
00:19:08,046 --> 00:19:10,215
a summer in New Zealand,
372
00:19:10,215 --> 00:19:12,151
and I was fascinated by it. Right.
373
00:19:12,151 --> 00:19:15,988
And I was just finishing up, you know, my,
at this point, I'm just hacking away
374
00:19:15,988 --> 00:19:19,191
a few classes here
and there to finish school,
375
00:19:19,191 --> 00:19:22,494
and I finished up university in,
376
00:19:23,862 --> 00:19:26,865
Christmas of of of 86.
377
00:19:27,332 --> 00:19:29,368
And that's when I finished.
378
00:19:29,368 --> 00:19:32,871
And, I had just started
sending resumes out
379
00:19:32,871 --> 00:19:35,874
and I got a job offer in New Zealand.
380
00:19:36,175 --> 00:19:41,480
So the summer of 87,
I went to New Zealand to, teach and coach,
381
00:19:42,548 --> 00:19:45,284
at a really tiny little ski hill in Porter
Heights,
382
00:19:45,284 --> 00:19:48,287
outside of Christchurch,
around the corner from Mount Hutt.
383
00:19:49,121 --> 00:19:49,922
And I went.
384
00:19:49,922 --> 00:19:54,993
It was the first time I'd been like
on a real international journey by myself.
385
00:19:54,993 --> 00:19:56,895
And oh wow, a look.
386
00:19:56,895 --> 00:19:58,497
Now there's a big adventure.
387
00:19:58,497 --> 00:20:01,500
Yeah. So I, And it was getting cool.
388
00:20:01,633 --> 00:20:02,000
Yeah.
389
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,437
And I, you know, I work working
all these jobs and I got, I got audited
390
00:20:05,437 --> 00:20:09,474
by our friends at the IRS that year,
and I paid my fine.
391
00:20:10,108 --> 00:20:11,543
So I flew to these.
392
00:20:11,543 --> 00:20:14,746
I packed up at the time,
I had a sponsorship.
393
00:20:14,746 --> 00:20:16,281
I got free gear from Olan.
394
00:20:16,281 --> 00:20:19,985
And remember those old, Hansen boots,
395
00:20:22,221 --> 00:20:25,224
the second iteration of the Hansen
Boot and.
396
00:20:25,290 --> 00:20:26,258
Oh, yeah.
397
00:20:26,258 --> 00:20:31,063
And the old and I had piles
of ski equipment, and I packed the extra
398
00:20:31,063 --> 00:20:35,467
clothes, ski gear, everything I could find
because I knew I didn't have any money.
399
00:20:35,467 --> 00:20:39,304
I had, like 300 bucks in my pocket,
flew to Auckland, checked
400
00:20:39,304 --> 00:20:43,742
into the youth hostel,
and then had a had a street sale
401
00:20:44,042 --> 00:20:47,045
on the on the sidewalk,
402
00:20:47,646 --> 00:20:50,649
with all my ski stuff.
403
00:20:50,682 --> 00:20:51,850
In Auckland.
404
00:20:51,850 --> 00:20:55,988
And, I sold skis because we got
we the at the ski area.
405
00:20:55,988 --> 00:20:59,024
We were sponsored by Spalding,
so we had to ski on their stuff.
406
00:20:59,391 --> 00:21:04,296
So I was like, well, I can just keep
one pair of boots and I can sell these.
407
00:21:04,296 --> 00:21:06,465
I think I drug three pairs of skis down.
408
00:21:06,465 --> 00:21:09,601
So I sold all my skis, bindings,
I had extra bindings
409
00:21:09,601 --> 00:21:14,206
I sold, I had cereals,
I sold all my ski clothes except one pair.
410
00:21:14,373 --> 00:21:15,374
They gave us a uniform.
411
00:21:15,374 --> 00:21:16,975
So I just kept like a,
412
00:21:16,975 --> 00:21:21,113
like a one light jacket and a sweat,
couple sweatshirts or whatever.
413
00:21:21,113 --> 00:21:22,214
It sold it all.
414
00:21:22,214 --> 00:21:24,750
And then I was like, had enough money
to start backpacking around
415
00:21:24,750 --> 00:21:26,551
and seeing the country before work
started.
416
00:21:26,551 --> 00:21:28,287
Totally cool. Yeah.
417
00:21:28,287 --> 00:21:29,521
And I covered the whole place.
418
00:21:29,521 --> 00:21:31,823
Totally survivor man. Yeah.
419
00:21:31,823 --> 00:21:34,893
And how long were you in
New Zealand doing that?
420
00:21:35,060 --> 00:21:38,063
So I got there early
because I wanted to see the country,
421
00:21:38,063 --> 00:21:41,300
so I want to say I was there
about nine months, worked for the winter.
422
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:43,535
So I got there a couple I got,
I want to say I got there and
423
00:21:45,671 --> 00:21:48,440
July, June I think.
424
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:48,940
Right.
425
00:21:48,940 --> 00:21:53,445
Ski season was a little late start, kind
of the second week of August that year.
426
00:21:53,445 --> 00:21:57,316
Usually they got going late, July,
but they were kind of two, three weeks
427
00:21:57,316 --> 00:21:59,551
behind schedule that year.
428
00:21:59,551 --> 00:22:03,755
And I worked through
till our ski area closed in
429
00:22:03,755 --> 00:22:07,859
and is like in what was that, September?
430
00:22:08,460 --> 00:22:10,195
Yeah. And I cruised around.
431
00:22:10,195 --> 00:22:15,200
There's a couple ski areas
still open in in the down in Queenstown.
432
00:22:15,567 --> 00:22:17,969
So I went down
and checked out a few things.
433
00:22:17,969 --> 00:22:21,573
A bunch of it was, it was funny,
we lived in a farmhouse at the ski hill,
434
00:22:21,573 --> 00:22:24,843
and it was only one Kiwi
that worked on the staff
435
00:22:24,843 --> 00:22:28,080
of the ski school
and then myself and this one Swedish guy.
436
00:22:28,413 --> 00:22:32,918
We coached the ski team on the weekends,
and I want to say it was ten of us
437
00:22:33,885 --> 00:22:34,553
and and we
438
00:22:34,553 --> 00:22:38,390
all lived in this farmhouse together
and shared making dinners and stuff.
439
00:22:38,390 --> 00:22:42,027
And it was like there was a cool
an Austrian Brit,
440
00:22:44,096 --> 00:22:46,698
somebody from from a Welsh
441
00:22:46,698 --> 00:22:49,701
individual, couple Germans,
442
00:22:50,469 --> 00:22:53,438
couple Swedes, one Canadian myself.
443
00:22:53,438 --> 00:22:54,306
It was pretty cool.
444
00:22:54,306 --> 00:22:56,742
And then like,
four of us kind of became good friends.
445
00:22:56,742 --> 00:22:59,611
Two Swedes and,
Austrian in this German girl.
446
00:22:59,611 --> 00:23:02,714
And we bought an old Holden station wagon
447
00:23:02,714 --> 00:23:06,618
and, traveled all around the South Island
from like,
448
00:23:07,052 --> 00:23:09,921
Sept, middle of September until,
449
00:23:09,921 --> 00:23:12,491
I don't know, middle of November.
450
00:23:12,491 --> 00:23:16,128
And yeah, I was super broke
and I came crawling back
451
00:23:16,128 --> 00:23:20,332
to Flagstaff with a big credit card bill
and no money in my pocket.
452
00:23:20,332 --> 00:23:26,171
And spent that winter sleeping
in, one of those truck campers
453
00:23:26,171 --> 00:23:29,641
and that sit on the back of a pickup truck
that sat and Gary
454
00:23:29,641 --> 00:23:33,779
Stevenson's driveway with an extension
cord to give me some lights.
455
00:23:33,812 --> 00:23:38,817
And I was doing bird baths in the sink
in the downstairs bathroom.
456
00:23:38,817 --> 00:23:41,720
And Agassi Lodge was my winter to. Bird.
457
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,357
Get myself back on my feet
financially and as.
458
00:23:45,390 --> 00:23:46,024
So that was my.
459
00:23:46,024 --> 00:23:47,359
And that was my last winter.
460
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:49,461
So that would have been the winter of
461
00:23:50,762 --> 00:23:54,132
87 going into the 88 season.
462
00:23:54,132 --> 00:23:58,603
Because then when I, when you and I,
we were reminiscing the other day
463
00:23:58,603 --> 00:24:01,606
about our resume riding on your
464
00:24:01,673 --> 00:24:05,610
on that old Mac, Macintosh
first generation that.
465
00:24:06,011 --> 00:24:09,247
You know, and, and,
I knew enough to help you
466
00:24:09,247 --> 00:24:12,250
because, there's a certain way you can,
467
00:24:12,517 --> 00:24:17,222
you wouldn't call it deception, but,
we call it fluffing.
468
00:24:17,422 --> 00:24:20,492
Yeah. And editorial liberty.
469
00:24:20,659 --> 00:24:21,960
You took on my resume.
470
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:23,395
Creative liberties.
471
00:24:23,395 --> 00:24:25,530
I thought of that. Yeah. So that's that.
472
00:24:25,530 --> 00:24:27,199
And that was to Vail, right?
473
00:24:27,199 --> 00:24:28,400
To get a job in Vail.
474
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:29,935
Yeah. And I which is a big program.
475
00:24:29,935 --> 00:24:30,202
Yeah.
476
00:24:30,202 --> 00:24:34,773
I got a job at Ski Club Vail,
and I became like, head coach for the,
477
00:24:35,073 --> 00:24:38,910
like, the 14 year old and younger kids,
which is a big program.
478
00:24:38,910 --> 00:24:41,046
And it was a big deal.
479
00:24:41,046 --> 00:24:44,249
And it was a like the launching part of
480
00:24:44,249 --> 00:24:48,053
like my next evolution
and in ski coaching and.
481
00:24:48,887 --> 00:24:53,525
And, you know, for the listener,
there's big programs that like small towns
482
00:24:53,525 --> 00:24:58,964
like Flagstaff can develop a couple kids
that are kind of outgrowing the program.
483
00:24:59,631 --> 00:25:01,967
And so a lot of times kids
484
00:25:01,967 --> 00:25:06,037
will go to these academies
or go to these big programs like Vail.
485
00:25:06,271 --> 00:25:06,671
Yeah.
486
00:25:06,671 --> 00:25:11,743
And so it's a no nonsense job
to have those coaching positions.
487
00:25:11,743 --> 00:25:14,913
And then it kind of creates a system,
488
00:25:15,881 --> 00:25:17,716
for alpine ski racing.
489
00:25:17,716 --> 00:25:20,252
And you make your way up.
490
00:25:20,252 --> 00:25:21,186
That ski club.
491
00:25:21,186 --> 00:25:24,189
Vail was one of the premier
492
00:25:24,456 --> 00:25:27,492
junior development programs,
at least in the western U.S.
493
00:25:27,492 --> 00:25:32,230
there was a lot of eastern academies,
which were at that time in the late
494
00:25:32,230 --> 00:25:36,668
80s, early 90s, were, you know, there's
still powerful programs in the East.
495
00:25:37,702 --> 00:25:41,873
But yeah, I was fortunate enough
to get a job in Vail.
496
00:25:41,873 --> 00:25:43,775
And that opened my eye. That was next.
497
00:25:43,775 --> 00:25:47,045
You know, I had you know, I had that year
in New Zealand under my belt.
498
00:25:47,045 --> 00:25:51,383
I cut my teeth here growing up,
you know, my at least my 20s
499
00:25:52,117 --> 00:25:55,320
in, in Flagstaff, which was amazing.
500
00:25:55,587 --> 00:26:02,093
I still hold this place
as one of the fondest points of my path.
501
00:26:03,395 --> 00:26:06,731
But yeah, and things really took off
in, in, in Vail.
502
00:26:06,731 --> 00:26:12,771
And within two seasons, I was the head
coach of the whole program there.
503
00:26:13,505 --> 00:26:18,510
And starting to make a name
for a young kid as a ski coach.
504
00:26:18,577 --> 00:26:20,211
Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it.
505
00:26:20,211 --> 00:26:22,080
You had a fairly quick ascension.
506
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:22,847
I did.
507
00:26:22,847 --> 00:26:24,082
I was, I was lucky.
508
00:26:24,082 --> 00:26:26,451
I was real proud of that resume and.
509
00:26:26,451 --> 00:26:29,220
Right place. Right time means a lot.
510
00:26:29,220 --> 00:26:30,221
And if you.
511
00:26:30,221 --> 00:26:34,526
For me, I never got caught up, and I was
I never thought
512
00:26:34,526 --> 00:26:38,763
much of myself as that because I was never
a great ski racer myself and I.
513
00:26:38,763 --> 00:26:40,665
So I always was working at being
514
00:26:41,633 --> 00:26:42,000
thinking
515
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,103
I was working
hard to be something that I wasn't when.
516
00:26:45,103 --> 00:26:48,640
And so I never noticed when I was actually
the thing I was trying to be.
517
00:26:49,207 --> 00:26:52,210
And but when I came to coaching you,
518
00:26:52,644 --> 00:26:56,681
you really did make a science project
out of it.
519
00:26:56,681 --> 00:27:00,552
I had to make up for, you know,
I couldn't really rely on.
520
00:27:01,019 --> 00:27:03,722
Well, I did it this way.
Yeah. Past laurels.
521
00:27:03,722 --> 00:27:05,457
Yeah. I mean, you need some of that.
522
00:27:05,457 --> 00:27:09,427
And I was a I think I was a I'm, you know,
I'm, I can make, I can get up and down
523
00:27:09,427 --> 00:27:12,931
the hill is pretty, pretty well
and I dabbled
524
00:27:12,931 --> 00:27:15,934
in the racing and,
525
00:27:16,167 --> 00:27:21,339
but I leaned more into this science
and what other people needed
526
00:27:21,339 --> 00:27:26,077
and I was I have,
I guess I have a teachers disposition.
527
00:27:26,077 --> 00:27:29,948
I wanna see other people
achieve things that
528
00:27:30,248 --> 00:27:34,853
maybe were outside of my grasp,
or they think is outside of their grasp.
529
00:27:34,886 --> 00:27:37,889
I find that quite rewarding to
530
00:27:37,889 --> 00:27:40,659
to help someone you know.
531
00:27:41,626 --> 00:27:42,827
Go to those self, go.
532
00:27:42,827 --> 00:27:43,962
To those places.
533
00:27:43,962 --> 00:27:46,331
Yeah. And, and
534
00:27:46,331 --> 00:27:49,334
ascend to those kind of
535
00:27:50,168 --> 00:27:53,905
potential that they're not sure
is really within them.
536
00:27:54,239 --> 00:27:58,076
Well, and I think a lot of the things
that coaches do good coaches, they
537
00:27:58,476 --> 00:28:04,082
you don't really the
the athlete might have their, aspirations,
538
00:28:04,082 --> 00:28:08,653
but they don't see in themselves
what a good coach sees in them.
539
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,190
And, that's good coaching
when you can pick out
540
00:28:13,224 --> 00:28:15,060
things
that are going to work for that guy.
541
00:28:15,060 --> 00:28:18,063
Right?
I mean, that's really a neat part of.
542
00:28:18,730 --> 00:28:21,766
Yeah, I and I find it, you know, for me,
I always
543
00:28:21,766 --> 00:28:24,803
I was always fascinated by
544
00:28:26,171 --> 00:28:29,174
by I grew up in team sports and I always,
545
00:28:29,774 --> 00:28:32,911
I thrive in a, in a in a tribe myself.
546
00:28:32,911 --> 00:28:33,244
Yeah.
547
00:28:33,244 --> 00:28:36,581
And I think there's
something to be said about,
548
00:28:38,083 --> 00:28:39,551
you know,
549
00:28:39,551 --> 00:28:43,321
the collaboration and the camaraderie
and the environment and the,
550
00:28:43,988 --> 00:28:48,493
the esprit de
corps is as much of the magic
551
00:28:48,493 --> 00:28:51,629
as the content
and the science behind what we do.
552
00:28:52,864 --> 00:28:55,867
And really believing in, in, in folks,
553
00:28:57,001 --> 00:28:59,003
and supporting each other
and all those things.
554
00:28:59,003 --> 00:29:01,139
That was what what really got me out.
555
00:29:01,139 --> 00:29:05,143
I fell in love with the sport in general
because back especially back
556
00:29:05,143 --> 00:29:08,613
when in the 80s, it was
everything was a family.
557
00:29:09,147 --> 00:29:10,949
The ski resorts were family. Yeah.
558
00:29:10,949 --> 00:29:13,952
And then the ski school was a family,
and the race team was a family.
559
00:29:13,952 --> 00:29:15,420
And the,
560
00:29:15,420 --> 00:29:17,555
the, the, I mean, the whole let me call it
561
00:29:17,555 --> 00:29:21,025
we still call it
a, a global village, right?
562
00:29:21,025 --> 00:29:22,494
Like, I mean, before you knew it,
563
00:29:22,494 --> 00:29:26,164
if you were in the industry,
you knew folks all over the world.
564
00:29:26,331 --> 00:29:31,836
Yeah, that worked in the business
in any from whatever fix and snow
565
00:29:31,836 --> 00:29:36,608
cats to teaching kids how to ski raced,
blowing snow to spin spinning lifts.
566
00:29:36,608 --> 00:29:38,676
So it was just a a real
567
00:29:40,145 --> 00:29:41,312
intricate
568
00:29:41,312 --> 00:29:44,783
community and culture that's gotten,
you know, quite corporate now.
569
00:29:44,783 --> 00:29:48,386
But it's still like, that's what to me,
I grew up in a family business,
570
00:29:48,386 --> 00:29:51,856
and I was always attracted
to that kind of closeness.
571
00:29:51,856 --> 00:29:54,459
Yeah. And supportive.
572
00:29:54,459 --> 00:29:57,295
Inclusionary,
573
00:29:57,295 --> 00:29:57,862
journey.
574
00:29:57,862 --> 00:30:02,867
And and anyways, in ski racing is a unique
because it's, it's an individual sport,
575
00:30:03,134 --> 00:30:07,972
but it's far better to manage it as a team
because you're, you know, I mean,
576
00:30:07,972 --> 00:30:12,210
when I was with the national team,
we were on the road 285,
577
00:30:12,210 --> 00:30:15,213
295 days a year.
578
00:30:15,580 --> 00:30:18,850
So you're really, you know, need that
579
00:30:19,284 --> 00:30:22,153
collective to make life bearable.
580
00:30:22,153 --> 00:30:26,057
But you're ruthlessly competing
as a one person team
581
00:30:26,057 --> 00:30:29,360
at the end of the day, no matter what
flags on your shoulder what you're doing.
582
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:29,727
Right.
583
00:30:29,727 --> 00:30:32,964
But it seems to me to that team element,
584
00:30:33,898 --> 00:30:38,336
the athletes in that environment
help push each other to.
585
00:30:38,837 --> 00:30:41,973
Yeah. As it's very rare that you have a
586
00:30:43,141 --> 00:30:44,976
single guy that just has
587
00:30:44,976 --> 00:30:49,714
enough of it all to, you know, get there.
588
00:30:49,747 --> 00:30:50,215
Yeah.
589
00:30:50,215 --> 00:30:53,318
And again, and I think it's really,
I like that team stuff.
590
00:30:53,518 --> 00:30:56,855
100% like the push me, pull me fact.
591
00:30:56,855 --> 00:31:01,292
And if you coach or have been on a again
592
00:31:01,659 --> 00:31:04,662
track and field swimming
593
00:31:05,430 --> 00:31:07,131
these are very similar. Right.
594
00:31:07,131 --> 00:31:10,869
Like if you're on a, if you're like
if you swim for UCLA, right.
595
00:31:10,869 --> 00:31:14,372
Like if you have 2 or 3 teammates
that are breaking, you know, NCAA
596
00:31:14,906 --> 00:31:17,408
and national international records,
597
00:31:17,408 --> 00:31:20,311
you're probably swimming faster
than if you swam. At.
598
00:31:20,311 --> 00:31:21,646
Any you. Yeah.
599
00:31:21,646 --> 00:31:22,080
Right.
600
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,216
You know so it's that
but do you need to be on a team
601
00:31:25,216 --> 00:31:29,020
because when, when the,
when the gun goes off it's you.
602
00:31:29,220 --> 00:31:29,554
Yeah.
603
00:31:29,554 --> 00:31:31,689
Unless you're on a relay team
or you're on a
604
00:31:31,689 --> 00:31:34,425
you know, relay swim team or running
team, right. That's the only thing that's.
605
00:31:34,425 --> 00:31:37,428
Yeah, there's some exceptions to it,
but which is different.
606
00:31:37,562 --> 00:31:40,164
And again, as a coach
I always found it interesting.
607
00:31:40,164 --> 00:31:42,033
Like I don't care if you coach in football
608
00:31:43,067 --> 00:31:45,536
or ski racing.
609
00:31:45,536 --> 00:31:46,771
Everybody is in.
610
00:31:46,771 --> 00:31:49,107
No one's the same.
611
00:31:49,107 --> 00:31:52,143
And you have to have the mentality
that the
612
00:31:52,143 --> 00:31:55,580
the needs of the many outweigh
the needs of the few.
613
00:31:55,580 --> 00:31:56,514
And a team, right?
614
00:31:56,514 --> 00:32:00,919
Like do your job because we need to win
if we're all pulling on the same rope.
615
00:32:01,252 --> 00:32:04,923
But still, as a coach, you need to know
what makes this person tick.
616
00:32:04,923 --> 00:32:08,559
Yeah, makes that person tick,
how this person gets fit
617
00:32:08,559 --> 00:32:11,930
and how that person gets fit
might not necessarily be the same
618
00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:14,832
or what they need to do their job
the best, right?
619
00:32:14,832 --> 00:32:18,002
Whether it's a collective mechanism
or they're running
620
00:32:18,002 --> 00:32:21,072
a 100 meter or their ski in the lab
or horn downhill.
621
00:32:21,072 --> 00:32:21,272
Yeah.
622
00:32:21,272 --> 00:32:24,175
And everybody's got different motivations
too. Yeah.
623
00:32:24,175 --> 00:32:28,112
So I found I thrived in that journey
624
00:32:28,112 --> 00:32:31,082
to understand
625
00:32:31,249 --> 00:32:34,719
the uniqueness of everybody that came
626
00:32:34,919 --> 00:32:38,523
either on the staff or as an athlete,
627
00:32:39,991 --> 00:32:43,194
but never violating the unit.
628
00:32:43,895 --> 00:32:45,163
Yeah, no, that which.
629
00:32:45,163 --> 00:32:48,166
Was really important
because when that really
630
00:32:48,633 --> 00:32:52,203
those are the folks that had your back
and made it worthwhile then, you know,
631
00:32:52,837 --> 00:32:56,040
made caring, you know, like,
you know, made the celebrations
632
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:57,375
like, again, you can win a race,
633
00:32:57,375 --> 00:33:00,378
but if you got no one to celebrate
with, it's kind of a lonely win.
634
00:33:00,578 --> 00:33:02,113
Yeah. That's, you know.
635
00:33:02,113 --> 00:33:05,049
And if you lose,
636
00:33:05,049 --> 00:33:06,384
it's it's nice.
637
00:33:06,384 --> 00:33:08,953
It's nice to be around some folks
that are like shed.
638
00:33:08,953 --> 00:33:10,488
It's just another day.
639
00:33:10,488 --> 00:33:11,622
Yeah. My friend.
640
00:33:11,622 --> 00:33:14,993
And, let's go back to work
because we can do this.
641
00:33:16,394 --> 00:33:19,597
And, you know,
so you really need this, in my opinion,
642
00:33:19,597 --> 00:33:26,237
and I, I at least I think I've been told
that my time running teams,
643
00:33:26,237 --> 00:33:30,942
we really had the ability
to find that balance of,
644
00:33:32,043 --> 00:33:34,612
you know,
win at all costs and do the right thing
645
00:33:34,612 --> 00:33:37,382
and do the right work,
but have fun and care for each other.
646
00:33:37,382 --> 00:33:40,518
You make it a real special experience.
647
00:33:40,818 --> 00:33:46,024
Well, and that continues the story
because, with your success at Vail,
648
00:33:46,324 --> 00:33:51,062
the next step up
and you tell us about that ride.
649
00:33:51,062 --> 00:33:51,396
Yeah.
650
00:33:51,396 --> 00:33:55,199
Well, I, you know, things as it as
it works in my business, right.
651
00:33:55,199 --> 00:33:59,070
Like there was some change
in, in personnel and leadership
652
00:33:59,070 --> 00:34:02,840
at, at Ski Club Vail and I thought
I was going to be there forever.
653
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,577
And next thing you know, I was
I laughed and I took a job as a head
654
00:34:06,577 --> 00:34:11,215
coach in Park City, Utah for the Park City
ski team, junior team.
655
00:34:12,450 --> 00:34:14,519
And that that that was a really
656
00:34:14,519 --> 00:34:17,522
I was because that Vail was so like
top of the heap.
657
00:34:17,822 --> 00:34:18,156
Right.
658
00:34:18,156 --> 00:34:22,994
So you never want to leave
like the premier, you know, be like the
659
00:34:22,994 --> 00:34:28,099
the Michigan football program to go to,
you know, Saddleback Community College.
660
00:34:28,299 --> 00:34:29,700
Right.
661
00:34:29,700 --> 00:34:33,538
But I went to a I mean, Park City
was a good program, but it wasn't Vail.
662
00:34:33,538 --> 00:34:35,239
And they were also in a slump.
663
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:39,177
And they needed, you know,
it was the first time I was presented with
664
00:34:39,844 --> 00:34:41,813
kind of rebuilding a program. Right.
665
00:34:41,813 --> 00:34:45,616
And I was at the time still,
you know, I advanced up the system
666
00:34:45,616 --> 00:34:48,619
very rapidly,
but I hadn't taken on that challenge.
667
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:53,558
So I put my head down and and worked on
building a program, rebuilding a program,
668
00:34:53,558 --> 00:34:58,029
and transforming a program
that was in, in decay and struggling.
669
00:34:58,729 --> 00:35:00,398
And in a few years,
670
00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:04,502
had some great
success there and rebuilding that program.
671
00:35:04,502 --> 00:35:06,838
And I started to get phone calls
from the U.S.
672
00:35:06,838 --> 00:35:10,741
team and, you know, got this didn't work.
673
00:35:10,741 --> 00:35:13,744
And that's a good
that's a good team to be building.
674
00:35:13,811 --> 00:35:16,280
Yeah. And and proximities. Yeah.
675
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:17,515
The ski. Team is.
676
00:35:17,515 --> 00:35:17,648
Yeah.
677
00:35:17,648 --> 00:35:19,650
The US ski team had moved from Colorado
678
00:35:19,650 --> 00:35:23,654
Springs to, to their home
office was in Park City again.
679
00:35:23,654 --> 00:35:26,991
The US ski team
has no home other than their office.
680
00:35:27,158 --> 00:35:27,925
Right. Because. Right.
681
00:35:27,925 --> 00:35:30,928
Because they're skiing
is like it's a European sport.
682
00:35:31,496 --> 00:35:35,066
We do some races in the US,
we do some training, but it's like
683
00:35:35,633 --> 00:35:38,069
less than 20% of the year
684
00:35:38,069 --> 00:35:41,072
of the whole kit for a 12 month rotation.
685
00:35:41,105 --> 00:35:44,175
So it's like even though the best skiing,
the best training,
686
00:35:44,208 --> 00:35:48,746
the best places to race are really
can be North America, you're at best
687
00:35:49,380 --> 00:35:53,851
some years as little as 10%, maybe
on a big year where a couple extra races
688
00:35:53,851 --> 00:35:59,790
hit and you might get close to 20%
if you're 12 month period in in country,
689
00:36:00,725 --> 00:36:02,727
a lot
of conditioning goes on the summer bit.
690
00:36:02,727 --> 00:36:04,862
But anyhow,
691
00:36:04,862 --> 00:36:08,633
so I started to get the call and one thing
led to another and blah blah blah.
692
00:36:08,633 --> 00:36:11,636
And eventually in 96,
693
00:36:12,270 --> 00:36:16,107
I took a job with the, with the,
with the US team, first
694
00:36:16,107 --> 00:36:19,410
as the head men's junior team development
695
00:36:19,410 --> 00:36:22,413
junior team coach, and,
696
00:36:23,247 --> 00:36:24,115
yeah, started.
697
00:36:24,115 --> 00:36:26,784
And you started that results with that?
698
00:36:26,784 --> 00:36:31,055
Yeah, I was again,
I came in at a time that the program
699
00:36:31,055 --> 00:36:35,526
was trying to rebuild itself,
at least like it rebuilt in phases.
700
00:36:35,526 --> 00:36:40,064
So the junior programing,
which had been scrapped because of budget,
701
00:36:40,831 --> 00:36:41,799
deficiencies.
702
00:36:41,799 --> 00:36:45,102
So there was no junior programing,
no junior development
703
00:36:45,536 --> 00:36:48,539
for about three, four years. In,
704
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,176
like from 93 to 96.
705
00:36:52,176 --> 00:36:53,010
Right.
706
00:36:53,010 --> 00:36:58,249
92 and yeah,
from like the 92 Olympics to 96,
707
00:36:58,249 --> 00:37:01,652
there was nothing, just A and B team.
708
00:37:03,221 --> 00:37:05,523
And, so I was, I
709
00:37:05,523 --> 00:37:10,828
came in when Aldo Rad amiss
and was tasked with rebuilding that.
710
00:37:10,828 --> 00:37:14,198
So I was tasked with helping rebuild
the men's side and a guy
711
00:37:14,198 --> 00:37:17,301
named Todd Brix
and came in to help with the women's side.
712
00:37:17,301 --> 00:37:21,472
And so we spent the next three, four years
rebuilding the junior team.
713
00:37:21,472 --> 00:37:26,777
And all the future, you know,
this is where, you know, Ted Legree
714
00:37:26,777 --> 00:37:33,050
and Lindsey Vonn and Julia
mancuso and Marco Sullivan and,
715
00:37:34,252 --> 00:37:35,620
A real strong.
716
00:37:35,620 --> 00:37:38,422
Group.
Yeah. Steve nine and all these came out.
717
00:37:38,422 --> 00:37:39,290
It came out of that.
718
00:37:39,290 --> 00:37:43,894
I mean, the Bodie Millers and, Darren
Rawles, they were Bodie was just nowhere.
719
00:37:43,894 --> 00:37:45,363
He just a totally outsider.
720
00:37:45,363 --> 00:37:48,799
Darren was already on the,
you know, you know, team
721
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,570
upper level of the team
when that junior that was getting rebuilt.
722
00:37:52,570 --> 00:37:54,872
So I was a part of that.
723
00:37:54,872 --> 00:37:57,241
And then I just slowly kept,
724
00:37:57,241 --> 00:38:01,579
you know, getting banged around
like I went from, from running
725
00:38:01,579 --> 00:38:05,416
the junior program
to the European Cup speed program
726
00:38:05,416 --> 00:38:10,121
to running the entire Europa Cup team,
which is basically like your B tour.
727
00:38:10,421 --> 00:38:12,790
Right? It's kind of like the minor
leagues if for baseball.
728
00:38:14,392 --> 00:38:15,626
And then I became
729
00:38:15,626 --> 00:38:18,629
the head coach of the men's program,
730
00:38:19,463 --> 00:38:22,500
at the conclusion of the 2002 Olympics.
731
00:38:22,500 --> 00:38:26,070
Yeah. And the team had been doing good.
732
00:38:26,070 --> 00:38:29,073
They won their first medals, in, in Salt
733
00:38:29,073 --> 00:38:32,076
Lake for the first time since,
734
00:38:32,410 --> 00:38:35,413
since Tommy Moe in 94.
735
00:38:36,547 --> 00:38:37,848
And because Bodie Miller
736
00:38:37,848 --> 00:38:40,851
had had won a couple silver medals
737
00:38:40,851 --> 00:38:43,988
and you know, but we still,
you know, there was,
738
00:38:43,988 --> 00:38:47,291
I think, only won
739
00:38:47,725 --> 00:38:51,829
1 or 2 World
Cups had been won in, in kind of recent.
740
00:38:51,929 --> 00:38:52,096
Yeah.
741
00:38:52,096 --> 00:38:53,464
They, they, they were, they.
742
00:38:53,464 --> 00:38:55,900
Had disappeared from the scene for. Yeah.
743
00:38:55,900 --> 00:38:59,036
So I mean I, I didn't it again
it wasn't all about me.
744
00:38:59,036 --> 00:39:03,474
I just happened to be luckily you know
I did that work with the junior program.
745
00:39:03,474 --> 00:39:07,078
Then I took over the men's team with
and I was I was able to,
746
00:39:07,978 --> 00:39:12,717
you know, form a really great group
of coaches and people around.
747
00:39:12,717 --> 00:39:14,985
And like Jesse Hunt,
who was already on the team,
748
00:39:14,985 --> 00:39:17,655
who brought me, gave me the opportunity
to be the head coach.
749
00:39:17,655 --> 00:39:22,893
He was it was just good people,
and I was a part of the onset
750
00:39:22,893 --> 00:39:26,364
of, again, another transformation
that I was able to be a part of.
751
00:39:26,364 --> 00:39:30,067
And then we built the men's program
into the powerhouse that it was.
752
00:39:30,434 --> 00:39:34,238
Oh yeah, one, 1 or 2 to the glory years.
753
00:39:34,638 --> 00:39:36,240
Yeah. We did some.
754
00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:39,243
Really great stuff
with a lot of athletes, and
755
00:39:39,243 --> 00:39:43,080
it was extremely rewarding and fortunate.
756
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:44,215
You know, again, it's about,
757
00:39:45,583 --> 00:39:48,452
you know, bringing
the all the right people together.
758
00:39:48,452 --> 00:39:49,286
Yeah.
759
00:39:49,286 --> 00:39:49,854
And it's.
760
00:39:49,854 --> 00:39:51,655
Never just one. Build.
761
00:39:51,655 --> 00:39:53,591
Building the group supporting the group.
762
00:39:53,591 --> 00:39:54,225
Yeah.
763
00:39:54,225 --> 00:39:57,228
Now, now you mentioned
764
00:39:57,862 --> 00:40:02,800
some big names in alpine ski
racing and stuff and, of course, Bodie was
765
00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:06,237
a real banner name for some years,
766
00:40:06,237 --> 00:40:09,240
and Ted and and all of those guys,
767
00:40:10,174 --> 00:40:12,777
it must have been interesting
768
00:40:12,777 --> 00:40:15,780
when somebody gets,
769
00:40:15,813 --> 00:40:17,848
to a certain level of success,
770
00:40:17,848 --> 00:40:20,851
like those guys were achieving.
771
00:40:20,851 --> 00:40:23,888
It must be a, much different type
772
00:40:23,888 --> 00:40:26,891
of coaching for you,
773
00:40:27,057 --> 00:40:29,160
than it is a junior program.
774
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:33,397
And so I would imagine
there's a lot of complexity
775
00:40:33,397 --> 00:40:37,868
to a very complex person
that's having success.
776
00:40:38,536 --> 00:40:40,404
What what was that like?
777
00:40:40,404 --> 00:40:42,339
Yeah. Yes.
778
00:40:42,339 --> 00:40:44,608
You bring up
I mean, it's it's interesting. Right?
779
00:40:44,608 --> 00:40:48,579
There's different levels
of coaching and, and sport
780
00:40:48,579 --> 00:40:52,016
and different approaches
you need to take and you know,
781
00:40:52,783 --> 00:40:57,321
whether it's in the progression,
so to speak, of like,
782
00:40:58,923 --> 00:41:00,024
great high school
783
00:41:00,024 --> 00:41:03,928
sports to great collegiate sports
to professional sports.
784
00:41:03,928 --> 00:41:05,963
Right.
785
00:41:05,963 --> 00:41:09,767
Or it's individuals like you're,
you know, rebuilding a program.
786
00:41:09,767 --> 00:41:13,771
It's a strong either pro or NCAA program
or you're dealing with
787
00:41:14,171 --> 00:41:16,974
different levels of,
788
00:41:16,974 --> 00:41:20,044
personal achievement
from a really good World
789
00:41:20,044 --> 00:41:23,047
Cup skier or a world champion.
790
00:41:23,914 --> 00:41:26,650
All of those are different,
completely different animals.
791
00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:27,218
Oh, yeah.
792
00:41:27,218 --> 00:41:28,385
You know, so.
793
00:41:28,385 --> 00:41:29,253
Curiosity.
794
00:41:29,253 --> 00:41:32,523
And, you know, one of the things
795
00:41:32,523 --> 00:41:35,860
I would say often to people,
it's like it's one thing to get good.
796
00:41:36,861 --> 00:41:39,730
It's another thing to be good.
797
00:41:39,730 --> 00:41:44,535
And, to manage that is like all of a
sudden you're in a whole different space.
798
00:41:44,535 --> 00:41:48,172
And you could probably have that
same discussion with whether it's a bill
799
00:41:48,172 --> 00:41:53,611
Belichick or some, like if you're trying
to develop a team, strive towards a goal,
800
00:41:53,611 --> 00:41:58,649
but then like when back to back
Super Bowls and be the number one program.
801
00:41:59,683 --> 00:42:00,284
That's a.
802
00:42:00,284 --> 00:42:01,352
Whole different.
803
00:42:01,352 --> 00:42:05,189
But now you're managing different stuff
because everybody wants to be in your shop
804
00:42:05,623 --> 00:42:07,458
every you're getting asked
different questions.
805
00:42:07,458 --> 00:42:10,294
There's different media
needs, there's different marketing needs.
806
00:42:10,294 --> 00:42:12,363
There's different distractions.
807
00:42:12,363 --> 00:42:14,632
There's more money on the line.
808
00:42:14,632 --> 00:42:18,002
There's just it quickly gets
you get pulled off
809
00:42:18,002 --> 00:42:20,771
the playing field pretty rapidly.
810
00:42:20,771 --> 00:42:21,972
And your manager.
811
00:42:21,972 --> 00:42:22,640
Saying, you know, that.
812
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,643
Makes a lot of shit in the orbit.
813
00:42:25,709 --> 00:42:28,712
And you have to work really hard
to stay on mission.
814
00:42:29,313 --> 00:42:31,582
And, and still, that stuff is real, right?
815
00:42:31,582 --> 00:42:34,585
That shit needs to be managed. And, and,
816
00:42:35,085 --> 00:42:36,153
you know, we struggled.
817
00:42:36,153 --> 00:42:40,424
I, I chuckle now like when we,
I look at, around the, the national team
818
00:42:40,424 --> 00:42:44,528
now and I look
at all the things they with traveling cook
819
00:42:44,528 --> 00:42:49,533
and they got marketing people and people
in the finish managing the stuff.
820
00:42:49,533 --> 00:42:52,202
I remember like when I was head coach,
821
00:42:53,237 --> 00:42:54,271
the first time
822
00:42:54,271 --> 00:42:58,242
we put an athlete on the podium
at the Lab Vanguard,
823
00:42:58,275 --> 00:43:01,278
which is again, it's not the hunting com,
but it's one of the more.
824
00:43:01,478 --> 00:43:03,247
Legendary. Legendary race. Right.
825
00:43:03,247 --> 00:43:05,115
So and, you know, the U.S.
826
00:43:05,115 --> 00:43:06,050
had had some success there.
827
00:43:06,050 --> 00:43:09,053
Kyle Rasmussen had one, there.
828
00:43:09,653 --> 00:43:13,290
Billy Johnson, one vegan
before that 84 Olympics.
829
00:43:13,290 --> 00:43:15,793
There was some rant, but like,
830
00:43:15,793 --> 00:43:18,429
we were, you know, we had like,
831
00:43:18,429 --> 00:43:20,731
let's say compared to the Austrian
or the Swiss, right.
832
00:43:20,731 --> 00:43:21,966
It's a long course too, right?
833
00:43:21,966 --> 00:43:25,302
It's a two minute 42nd downhill. Right.
834
00:43:25,302 --> 00:43:27,004
So they have,
835
00:43:27,004 --> 00:43:31,842
12, probably 12 positions
to 14 positions on the downhill.
836
00:43:31,842 --> 00:43:33,177
These teams were different.
837
00:43:33,177 --> 00:43:35,412
Coach stands to be able to talk about in.
838
00:43:35,412 --> 00:43:37,448
Oh interesting. Yeah yeah yeah.
839
00:43:37,448 --> 00:43:41,952
And then they have secondary staff
like working the start physios
840
00:43:41,952 --> 00:43:45,422
someone in the Finnish calling up times
and then managing the athletes
841
00:43:45,422 --> 00:43:49,093
getting them recovery drinks
and dealing with the media and the finish.
842
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:53,030
And then they have other coaches that are
standing next to those other coaches
843
00:43:53,030 --> 00:43:56,200
so that they can shoot video,
so that coach doesn't need to be bothered.
844
00:43:56,900 --> 00:43:58,836
And then you take a team like the U.S.
845
00:43:58,836 --> 00:43:59,970
or Canada or somewhere, right.
846
00:43:59,970 --> 00:44:05,676
And we had four coaches, so we had
four coaches covering the entire hill.
847
00:44:06,377 --> 00:44:08,312
Also shooting the video.
848
00:44:08,312 --> 00:44:11,181
We had one physio
849
00:44:11,181 --> 00:44:15,219
that was acting as the starting manager
as well as the physical therapist.
850
00:44:15,586 --> 00:44:18,055
Some ski technicians and a radio.
851
00:44:18,055 --> 00:44:21,992
Hang it on a on a
on a on a pole in the finish area.
852
00:44:23,027 --> 00:44:25,062
Yeah, totally different deal.
853
00:44:25,062 --> 00:44:28,065
And and you know, we got second
854
00:44:28,232 --> 00:44:31,068
and I remember it was hilarious, right.
855
00:44:31,068 --> 00:44:32,036
Because we were just.
856
00:44:32,036 --> 00:44:32,970
And we're just
857
00:44:32,970 --> 00:44:36,674
we were real cowboys, you know, we were
just shaking up the world at that time.
858
00:44:36,674 --> 00:44:38,142
This was just on the on set.
859
00:44:38,142 --> 00:44:41,045
This was right after I took over
in my first season as head coach.
860
00:44:41,045 --> 00:44:45,182
It was, January 1st
big race in the January
861
00:44:45,182 --> 00:44:50,220
run of the classics,
you know, or horn, the hunting com,
862
00:44:50,621 --> 00:44:55,025
the slot night race, at Bowden,
like the big races of January.
863
00:44:55,025 --> 00:44:58,295
Anyways, so we're in the finish, right?
864
00:44:58,295 --> 00:44:59,463
And we're all like, finally,
865
00:44:59,463 --> 00:45:03,233
when you can actually, the race is over,
we can go down, we run into Darren.
866
00:45:03,233 --> 00:45:05,202
He's like,
867
00:45:05,202 --> 00:45:07,771
you know, they do the medal ceremony
like first and the finish.
868
00:45:07,771 --> 00:45:10,641
Then they go down and do something
at the press conferences and,
869
00:45:12,342 --> 00:45:13,811
like, we're just like, never.
870
00:45:13,811 --> 00:45:15,779
We never had that, but we know what to do.
871
00:45:15,779 --> 00:45:17,381
I was like, yeah, whatever.
But here we are, right?
872
00:45:17,381 --> 00:45:19,450
Maybe not
have any way of managing this. Right.
873
00:45:19,450 --> 00:45:21,985
So we're just high fiving each other.
874
00:45:21,985 --> 00:45:25,189
We're all in, you know, cloud nine
and you know, Darren's,
875
00:45:25,289 --> 00:45:27,124
you know, super stoked in the media.
876
00:45:27,124 --> 00:45:30,461
Lady from the event comes running up
and she's like, we gotta get
877
00:45:30,461 --> 00:45:34,031
get you guys up to the helicopter pad
and get Darren down to the
878
00:45:34,531 --> 00:45:36,834
to the school house
where the team meetings are in the
879
00:45:36,834 --> 00:45:40,370
media center for this press conference,
you know, which is live on television.
880
00:45:40,771 --> 00:45:44,141
And, because you know, Vanguard
is like you're taking mountain trains
881
00:45:44,141 --> 00:45:47,144
and shit right from,
like, the hotels and stuff, and,
882
00:45:47,511 --> 00:45:50,481
and that's like, who's your media person
who's come in with them?
883
00:45:50,481 --> 00:45:52,516
And like with media person.
884
00:45:53,617 --> 00:45:54,151
And so all the.
885
00:45:54,151 --> 00:45:54,785
Coaches look at.
886
00:45:54,785 --> 00:45:55,886
Each other and they're like,
887
00:45:55,886 --> 00:45:59,790
you know, everyone's like,
you know, basically rock, paper, scissors.
888
00:45:59,790 --> 00:46:01,725
And they're like, Phil,
you're the guy, you're the head coach.
889
00:46:01,725 --> 00:46:03,060
You should go with him.
890
00:46:03,060 --> 00:46:03,861
So make up bow.
891
00:46:03,861 --> 00:46:06,663
Okay, I've never been on a helicopter.
892
00:46:06,663 --> 00:46:08,999
So I'm like, okay, this is cool.
893
00:46:08,999 --> 00:46:13,337
So I, I start walking over
and you walk up this little hill
894
00:46:13,337 --> 00:46:14,438
above the finish, right?
895
00:46:14,438 --> 00:46:17,708
And and Darren's just in front of me,
and we get up there and,
896
00:46:19,109 --> 00:46:20,844
the guy comes over and grabs Darren.
897
00:46:20,844 --> 00:46:22,780
They,
you know, the ducking under the rotor
898
00:46:22,780 --> 00:46:25,783
blades to get in this helicopter
and then this other media lady
899
00:46:25,783 --> 00:46:29,553
comes running up to me and she goes,
I'm sorry, I have to be there for this.
900
00:46:29,553 --> 00:46:32,022
I have to be on this helicopter.
901
00:46:33,824 --> 00:46:34,858
Sorry.
902
00:46:34,858 --> 00:46:37,494
So there's no seats for me left.
903
00:46:37,494 --> 00:46:39,062
So they take off, right?
904
00:46:39,062 --> 00:46:41,465
And I'm like, oh, well,
that was kind of be kind of cool.
905
00:46:41,465 --> 00:46:44,768
And so I'm just kind of,
you know, marching my shit down back to,
906
00:46:44,902 --> 00:46:47,905
you know, back down to the finish
to regain my,
907
00:46:47,905 --> 00:46:51,308
my compadres
and our little, you know, celebration.
908
00:46:52,142 --> 00:46:56,146
And, up walking up
the hill comes Stefan Edberg harder.
909
00:46:56,146 --> 00:46:57,815
And the Austrian team, he was first.
910
00:46:57,815 --> 00:46:59,516
Darren was second. Right.
911
00:46:59,516 --> 00:47:02,186
And this guy Robbie,
912
00:47:02,186 --> 00:47:04,688
Brennan Brenner was the,
913
00:47:04,688 --> 00:47:09,026
this South Tyrolean
who's that big, heavyset, gray mustache?
914
00:47:09,193 --> 00:47:09,960
He was.
915
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:13,430
He was,
Alberta Tomba, meaty guy back in the day.
916
00:47:13,430 --> 00:47:14,031
Oh, there. Yeah.
917
00:47:14,031 --> 00:47:17,234
And so he's now the media coordinator
for the Austrian men's team.
918
00:47:17,334 --> 00:47:19,436
It's a legend in that. So.
919
00:47:19,436 --> 00:47:21,905
Yeah. So he's, ushering up,
920
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:27,144
Stefan and, one other Austrian.
921
00:47:27,144 --> 00:47:27,644
Right.
922
00:47:27,644 --> 00:47:31,682
And, and I'm walking down the hill and
they're like, hey, congratulations, Phil.
923
00:47:31,682 --> 00:47:33,283
This is great. Like, where are you going?
924
00:47:33,283 --> 00:47:35,252
I'm like, well,
I was supposed to be on that helicopter
925
00:47:35,252 --> 00:47:37,254
with Darren,
but I'm like, there wasn't enough room.
926
00:47:37,254 --> 00:47:39,690
That bullshit you get in with us.
927
00:47:39,690 --> 00:47:42,492
So I turn around and I go up
and we get in this
928
00:47:42,492 --> 00:47:45,495
little helicopter,
one of those kind of like,
929
00:47:46,396 --> 00:47:50,100
bell star, you know, like, smaller
helicopters, like bulbous.
930
00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:51,735
Oh, yeah. Huge 500. Yeah.
931
00:47:51,735 --> 00:47:57,541
So we climb in there and I'm wedged
in the back with Stephan and, And Robbie.
932
00:47:57,808 --> 00:47:59,743
Right. This he he's a heavyset guy. Right.
933
00:47:59,743 --> 00:48:03,480
So the three of us are stacked in there,
and now the Austrian
934
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:07,284
is in that copilot seat, and we take off.
935
00:48:07,718 --> 00:48:12,456
And as we're starting to fly,
Robbie reaches over inside to relax.
936
00:48:13,090 --> 00:48:14,157
We got a special.
937
00:48:14,157 --> 00:48:16,193
We got a little special flight.
938
00:48:16,193 --> 00:48:18,562
Like, I don't know, I'm like,
I'm gonna be a helicopter.
939
00:48:18,562 --> 00:48:19,096
This is cool.
940
00:48:19,096 --> 00:48:21,798
It's a beautiful bluebird day,
you know, under the Eiger.
941
00:48:21,798 --> 00:48:24,268
You know, you know,
just to give him a better than I said.
942
00:48:24,268 --> 00:48:25,869
You just got a silver medal.
943
00:48:25,869 --> 00:48:28,805
Yeah. So, you know, so they say that.
944
00:48:28,805 --> 00:48:32,409
So the helicopter banks back
and swings up and we start,
945
00:48:33,644 --> 00:48:36,680
Revolve around the face of the Eiger
946
00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:40,584
and climb up the the face of the Eiger,
which is a sheer cliff.
947
00:48:40,617 --> 00:48:41,218
Oh, yeah.
948
00:48:41,218 --> 00:48:45,122
That that you stare at across the valley
from the race hill.
949
00:48:45,122 --> 00:48:48,392
Right.
So we fly up to the top of the Eiger.
950
00:48:48,759 --> 00:48:50,260
There's some people hanging in baby
951
00:48:50,260 --> 00:48:52,562
sacks, and people climb
even though it's January.
952
00:48:52,562 --> 00:48:53,230
Right.
953
00:48:53,230 --> 00:48:57,000
And, you know,
we start, orbiting above the,
954
00:48:57,834 --> 00:49:00,404
just looking back at this whole scene,
right?
955
00:49:00,404 --> 00:49:01,838
You know. Unbelievable.
956
00:49:01,838 --> 00:49:04,007
And then that the,
957
00:49:04,007 --> 00:49:07,611
pilot nose is down
and we fly down from the Eiger,
958
00:49:07,611 --> 00:49:13,216
but direction up towards the the sub peak,
where the top of the downhill is,
959
00:49:13,684 --> 00:49:16,887
and he banks the helicopter
and comes over the start
960
00:49:16,887 --> 00:49:19,890
house, like ten feet
over the top of the start house.
961
00:49:20,023 --> 00:49:23,593
And he flies follow the whole course
962
00:49:23,593 --> 00:49:28,231
like ten, 15ft off the snow,
full barrel like.
963
00:49:28,699 --> 00:49:29,933
Oh my goodness.
964
00:49:29,933 --> 00:49:32,269
And I'm. Just like.
I'm like, I'm in heaven.
965
00:49:32,269 --> 00:49:36,907
Yeah, I mean I my, my pants are wet
and soiling and it's just like it's.
966
00:49:37,741 --> 00:49:39,843
The coolest thing in the world.
967
00:49:39,843 --> 00:49:43,280
And we come flying over the finish banner.
968
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:45,282
And then when you go to,
969
00:49:45,282 --> 00:49:49,419
you come out over this plateau,
which just past the finish,
970
00:49:49,419 --> 00:49:53,256
right at this plateau kind of ends
and it drops down to the village
971
00:49:53,523 --> 00:49:59,296
and, and the pilot just dumps
the helicopter in this really steep dive
972
00:49:59,930 --> 00:50:03,133
and comes like, like an arrow
973
00:50:03,166 --> 00:50:06,169
towards the ground at this schoolhouse.
974
00:50:06,169 --> 00:50:06,870
And then just,
975
00:50:08,271 --> 00:50:09,473
just pulls it up and
976
00:50:09,473 --> 00:50:13,510
hovers, you know, 20ft off the ground
and then sets it down.
977
00:50:13,510 --> 00:50:13,744
And I'm.
978
00:50:13,744 --> 00:50:17,581
Just like, my heart's in my in my throat.
979
00:50:17,581 --> 00:50:21,151
And it was just like,
the coolest thing from rags to riches.
980
00:50:21,618 --> 00:50:25,055
And I was just like, everybody, knees
are buckling as I crawl out of this thing,
981
00:50:25,055 --> 00:50:27,724
and I go to this press conference
and I'm still so stunned.
982
00:50:27,724 --> 00:50:29,192
I like they're asking me questions,
983
00:50:29,192 --> 00:50:32,863
and I just look like a school kid
who just saw his first striptease.
984
00:50:32,863 --> 00:50:35,298
I'm like, I didn't know what to say.
985
00:50:35,298 --> 00:50:37,167
I was stunned, it was amazing.
986
00:50:37,167 --> 00:50:38,402
Just fantastic.
987
00:50:38,402 --> 00:50:41,204
So yeah. So stuff like that was going on.
988
00:50:41,204 --> 00:50:44,641
But we were just
we weren't hillbillies, but we were,
989
00:50:45,442 --> 00:50:50,313
you know, we didn't know what it meant to
when and you know, the media.
990
00:50:50,313 --> 00:50:50,981
And all.
991
00:50:50,981 --> 00:50:53,517
Events and all. The trimmings that go
yeah.
992
00:50:53,517 --> 00:50:56,987
Like before
you know it now we had, you know, we had
993
00:50:58,155 --> 00:50:58,955
we couldn't hold
994
00:50:58,955 --> 00:51:02,025
we didn't hold pre-event
press conferences.
995
00:51:02,025 --> 00:51:03,660
Who wants to talk to us.
996
00:51:03,660 --> 00:51:05,095
Yeah. When we. Went in.
997
00:51:05,095 --> 00:51:10,100
But now it's like everywhere we went,
the organizers or the host nation.
998
00:51:10,567 --> 00:51:13,737
What like is like when, when are you guys
going to have your press conference?
999
00:51:13,737 --> 00:51:18,942
We want to talk to Bodi and Darren
and Steve and Marko,
Speaker:
00:51:18,942 --> 00:51:21,311
and we want these athletes
to come and like,
Speaker:
00:51:21,311 --> 00:51:24,481
talk about their expectations
and we want to interview them.
Speaker:
00:51:24,481 --> 00:51:26,683
And I'm like, what are you like?
Speaker:
00:51:26,683 --> 00:51:29,019
We're most teams are like,
just go to our press department.
Speaker:
00:51:29,019 --> 00:51:31,855
We got shit to do. We're like,
you're like, this is not my problem.
Speaker:
00:51:31,855 --> 00:51:34,858
I got kids, I'm training.
We got shit to do.
Speaker:
00:51:34,858 --> 00:51:38,695
Well, like where I'm like,
I got me in and me,
Speaker:
00:51:39,029 --> 00:51:42,933
you know, running this,
you know, my merry band of,
Speaker:
00:51:42,933 --> 00:51:47,571
you know, five, 5 or 6 coaches
and a you know, a team doctor
Speaker:
00:51:47,571 --> 00:51:51,875
that would come and go and volunteer
doctor and, you know, physio and
Speaker:
00:51:53,577 --> 00:51:54,177
anyways.
Speaker:
00:51:54,177 --> 00:51:56,346
It was so now. And now and you mean by.
Speaker:
00:51:56,346 --> 00:51:57,280
And different now.
Speaker:
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:02,152
Already by the time I left you know by, by
oh eight you know we were
Speaker:
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:06,056
you know we were established
we had some more we had media presence.
Speaker:
00:52:06,056 --> 00:52:09,559
It was slow, but I mean, it just kept
it was like kept build, you know,
Speaker:
00:52:09,593 --> 00:52:14,264
then you had, you know, this
this team kept being successful.
Speaker:
00:52:14,264 --> 00:52:15,132
And then the women's team,
Speaker:
00:52:15,132 --> 00:52:18,135
just as I was leaving the women's team,
you know, was coming on.
Speaker:
00:52:18,135 --> 00:52:19,469
Oh, yeah, in a big way.
Speaker:
00:52:19,469 --> 00:52:22,472
So then the women's team started to really
Speaker:
00:52:23,473 --> 00:52:27,944
and yeah, it was just a really great time
to be around and be like, good.
Speaker:
00:52:27,944 --> 00:52:28,512
So, you know, like,
Speaker:
00:52:28,512 --> 00:52:32,182
you know, it was it was fun to be a part
of that transformation.
Speaker:
00:52:32,482 --> 00:52:36,319
And at that time, I mean, anybody
that loves ski racing, that was like,
Speaker:
00:52:38,054 --> 00:52:38,788
the golden
Speaker:
00:52:38,788 --> 00:52:41,791
years of American ski racing right there.
Speaker:
00:52:41,791 --> 00:52:43,760
Yeah, that was really awesome.
Speaker:
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:46,129
Yeah, we we broke some trail.
Speaker:
00:52:46,129 --> 00:52:49,966
And what was nice for me, like,
I mean, I can I know all the statistics
Speaker:
00:52:49,966 --> 00:52:50,800
of how many wins
Speaker:
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:55,472
and how many podiums and all that stuff,
but what was the things that that really
Speaker:
00:52:56,039 --> 00:52:59,676
that tickle my heart
when I talked to people and that inside
Speaker:
00:52:59,676 --> 00:53:03,613
like one is it was an entire North
American staff that I built.
Speaker:
00:53:04,047 --> 00:53:07,784
Like typically there was always
you always had a European come in
Speaker:
00:53:07,784 --> 00:53:09,352
and tell you how to do how they how
Speaker:
00:53:09,352 --> 00:53:12,355
you know that you needed them
to show you how to do it.
Speaker:
00:53:12,422 --> 00:53:15,926
And I was very much
under the mentality that
Speaker:
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:19,763
if we want athletes to believe in that,
they can do it.
Speaker:
00:53:20,163 --> 00:53:23,200
They should be looking at us
knowing that we can do it.
Speaker:
00:53:23,667 --> 00:53:26,503
So we're going to do this
even if we haven't.
Speaker:
00:53:26,503 --> 00:53:31,041
We don't need to hire someone that has
done it in Austria because they're not.
Speaker:
00:53:31,041 --> 00:53:32,776
They're not us anyways.
Speaker:
00:53:32,776 --> 00:53:33,043
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:53:33,043 --> 00:53:35,545
So we had
we had an all I had one Canadian,
Speaker:
00:53:37,714 --> 00:53:39,082
who's awesome guy and but it
Speaker:
00:53:39,082 --> 00:53:42,252
was all North
American American coaches. And
Speaker:
00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:47,624
at the time I want to say the 15th.
Speaker:
00:53:47,624 --> 00:53:50,627
Steve, when when Marco Sullivan won.
Speaker:
00:53:51,127 --> 00:53:54,497
Sharma ni my last season in oh eight,
Speaker:
00:53:55,832 --> 00:53:59,603
he was the 15th male to win a World Cup
Speaker:
00:54:00,437 --> 00:54:03,373
since the World Cup started in 67.
Speaker:
00:54:03,373 --> 00:54:06,376
So there's only 15 men, right?
Speaker:
00:54:07,744 --> 00:54:08,545
And then.
Speaker:
00:54:08,545 --> 00:54:09,813
He is an amazing in the.
Speaker:
00:54:09,813 --> 00:54:11,548
History of the World. Cup.
Speaker:
00:54:11,548 --> 00:54:14,851
And in my on my team, the
Speaker:
00:54:14,884 --> 00:54:19,756
I managed from oh 2 to 0 eight
five of those 15 skier skiing.
Speaker:
00:54:20,257 --> 00:54:22,492
So, yeah, you're proud of that.
Speaker:
00:54:22,492 --> 00:54:25,428
So it wasn't just
Speaker:
00:54:25,428 --> 00:54:26,930
the mare Brothers or Chaz.
Speaker:
00:54:26,930 --> 00:54:30,267
It wasn't just Tommy Mo or it wasn't
just Bodie Miller.
Speaker:
00:54:30,267 --> 00:54:34,771
We had five different guys
winning World Cups and we had another
Speaker:
00:54:34,771 --> 00:54:38,308
three guys that were on the
podium, and we had another,
Speaker:
00:54:39,342 --> 00:54:40,577
five guys that were
Speaker:
00:54:40,577 --> 00:54:44,648
finishing top 15 with know
adding to those numbers.
Speaker:
00:54:44,648 --> 00:54:44,881
Right.
Speaker:
00:54:44,881 --> 00:54:48,151
So we and we were second in the Nations
Cup twice.
Speaker:
00:54:48,585 --> 00:54:50,220
Which that's big.
Speaker:
00:54:50,220 --> 00:54:52,489
Which was never done up until that point.
Speaker:
00:54:52,489 --> 00:54:55,492
On the men's side
and has never been done since.
Speaker:
00:54:55,859 --> 00:54:58,962
And the women's team has been second,
Speaker:
00:54:59,763 --> 00:55:02,766
after, you know, they after I left,
Speaker:
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:05,969
they've been second once or twice and.
Speaker:
00:55:05,969 --> 00:55:08,838
They've been fun to. Watch. Yeah, yeah.
The women have been amazing.
Speaker:
00:55:08,838 --> 00:55:11,041
Like Lindsey Vonn is I'm a huge fan.
Speaker:
00:55:11,041 --> 00:55:14,044
And Mikaela and they're just amazing.
Speaker:
00:55:14,044 --> 00:55:16,713
Especially Lindsay's come back
I find quite inspiring.
Speaker:
00:55:16,713 --> 00:55:20,317
Anyhow,
but Michelle Rudi goes, the French guy
Speaker:
00:55:20,917 --> 00:55:24,220
who immigrated to Sun Valley runs
that little French restaurant up there.
Speaker:
00:55:24,220 --> 00:55:26,189
He's he's not a young man.
Speaker:
00:55:26,189 --> 00:55:29,292
He was the head women's
coach in the early 80s.
Speaker:
00:55:29,592 --> 00:55:33,463
And I want to say 84 or 85.
Speaker:
00:55:34,664 --> 00:55:37,667
He won the Women's Nations Cup,
the only discipline
Speaker:
00:55:37,734 --> 00:55:41,805
by gender discipline that's ever won
a Nations Cup in the U.S history.
Speaker:
00:55:42,238 --> 00:55:43,740
And that was that was the women's team.
Speaker:
00:55:43,740 --> 00:55:45,008
But again, he had a lot of players.
Speaker:
00:55:45,008 --> 00:55:50,046
So you had Cindy Nelson, Cooper McKinney.
Speaker:
00:55:52,349 --> 00:55:55,652
Was. Armstrong Tamara.
Speaker:
00:55:56,386 --> 00:55:57,220
Street?
Speaker:
00:55:57,220 --> 00:56:00,223
No, she was after that.
She was after that.
Speaker:
00:56:00,457 --> 00:56:03,326
But you had six, six skiers,
Speaker:
00:56:03,326 --> 00:56:07,497
you know, on the podium winning medals
in World Championship Olympics.
Speaker:
00:56:08,131 --> 00:56:11,968
And so, again,
not dissimilar to my time, right?
Speaker:
00:56:11,968 --> 00:56:13,136
You can't do it.
Speaker:
00:56:13,136 --> 00:56:16,039
You can't do the nations Cup with 1 or 2.
Speaker:
00:56:16,039 --> 00:56:16,306
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:56:16,306 --> 00:56:19,576
You gotta have you need a minimum
half dozen.
Speaker:
00:56:20,443 --> 00:56:22,345
That can play.
Speaker:
00:56:22,345 --> 00:56:26,116
And you need a, some other,
you know, point point producers.
Speaker:
00:56:26,116 --> 00:56:29,119
But, because it's interesting,
like Austria,
Speaker:
00:56:29,219 --> 00:56:32,455
even if they don't win the race, you know,
they have, you know,
Speaker:
00:56:32,689 --> 00:56:36,025
they're fielding max quota every race,
which is ten,
Speaker:
00:56:36,359 --> 00:56:40,196
you know, and, you know, nine of those,
if not all ten are in the points.
Speaker:
00:56:40,296 --> 00:56:40,864
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:56:40,864 --> 00:56:41,765
Yeah. It's amazing.
Speaker:
00:56:41,765 --> 00:56:44,467
So you might if you like on a big year.
Speaker:
00:56:44,467 --> 00:56:46,970
You might
you might like my in my time we had
Speaker:
00:56:46,970 --> 00:56:50,640
we had times where we a couple times
we had max quota ten. But
Speaker:
00:56:51,074 --> 00:56:56,413
and we have 7 or 8 athletes in the race
and rarely do you have all 7 or 8 score
Speaker:
00:56:57,447 --> 00:56:59,282
that meaning in the top 30.
Speaker:
00:56:59,282 --> 00:57:00,917
So it's just a point game, right?
Speaker:
00:57:00,917 --> 00:57:03,319
Like they just have
more bullets in the gun.
Speaker:
00:57:03,319 --> 00:57:06,956
So even if they're not,
even if you're the coolest team that day,
Speaker:
00:57:07,590 --> 00:57:08,792
they might be third.
Speaker:
00:57:08,792 --> 00:57:11,327
But you have to look deeper and go, wow,
you had another
Speaker:
00:57:11,327 --> 00:57:13,329
eight guys right in the top 20.
Speaker:
00:57:13,329 --> 00:57:14,330
You're deep. Yeah.
Speaker:
00:57:14,330 --> 00:57:17,901
So they're just throwing
bullet points on the board all the time
Speaker:
00:57:17,901 --> 00:57:21,104
because their program like you know,
they'll jacket and fund
Speaker:
00:57:21,671 --> 00:57:26,810
140 athletes a year where the US met
you know, men and women is like,
Speaker:
00:57:27,043 --> 00:57:30,780
mate, you know my time was less
than, less than 60.
Speaker:
00:57:31,014 --> 00:57:31,681
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:57:31,681 --> 00:57:34,417
No, that's an. Interesting.
Fact there too.
Speaker:
00:57:34,417 --> 00:57:34,951
Okay.
Speaker:
00:57:34,951 --> 00:57:39,622
So time to move on then you lead the team.
Speaker:
00:57:39,956 --> 00:57:40,323
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:57:41,424 --> 00:57:41,825
Probably
Speaker:
00:57:41,825 --> 00:57:45,061
still have some tentacles on the program
and stuff.
Speaker:
00:57:45,061 --> 00:57:46,362
You left in good order.
Speaker:
00:57:46,362 --> 00:57:49,098
And, and then, what?
Speaker:
00:57:49,098 --> 00:57:50,433
What's after that?
Speaker:
00:57:50,433 --> 00:57:51,534
Well, yeah.
Speaker:
00:57:51,534 --> 00:57:54,537
I mean,
this is an interesting time for me.
Speaker:
00:57:54,671 --> 00:57:57,674
I was contracted to the Vancouver games,
Speaker:
00:57:58,508 --> 00:58:01,744
and I kind of ran my show a little bit.
Speaker:
00:58:01,744 --> 00:58:04,747
I guess it better to burn out than fade
away.
Speaker:
00:58:06,416 --> 00:58:08,852
I was running pretty hot, you know?
Speaker:
00:58:08,852 --> 00:58:10,954
Like, again, it was great success.
Speaker:
00:58:10,954 --> 00:58:14,791
It was a great time,
but it was very demanding.
Speaker:
00:58:14,791 --> 00:58:15,925
Yeah. Oh, yeah, I get it.
Speaker:
00:58:15,925 --> 00:58:21,264
And I also was burning the candle many
in many regards.
Speaker:
00:58:21,264 --> 00:58:24,267
And I had, you know, I my first
Speaker:
00:58:24,267 --> 00:58:27,270
my first child was born
Speaker:
00:58:27,337 --> 00:58:29,672
the year before I started with the team.
Speaker:
00:58:29,672 --> 00:58:34,310
So I was pretty much an absent
father to, to a great extent for,
Speaker:
00:58:35,345 --> 00:58:36,880
you know,
Speaker:
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:39,015
seven years.
Speaker:
00:58:39,015 --> 00:58:41,918
And it was just it, it was,
it was starting to
Speaker:
00:58:41,918 --> 00:58:46,122
I was starting to pay the price
and I wasn't really managing myself
Speaker:
00:58:46,122 --> 00:58:49,125
outside of the managing the team.
Speaker:
00:58:49,225 --> 00:58:52,495
And I just, I just needed to step away.
Speaker:
00:58:52,896 --> 00:58:54,264
So I did.
Speaker:
00:58:54,264 --> 00:58:56,432
And in hindsight,
I mean, I always miss that.
Speaker:
00:58:56,432 --> 00:58:59,002
I would have liked to,
Speaker:
00:58:59,002 --> 00:59:01,671
you know, you don't want to ever leave
something like that when it's.
Speaker:
00:59:01,671 --> 00:59:03,573
You know, yeah, we. Want it. It's good.
Speaker:
00:59:03,573 --> 00:59:03,973
Yeah.
Speaker:
00:59:03,973 --> 00:59:04,841
But I mean,
Speaker:
00:59:04,841 --> 00:59:07,877
you know, I've seen a lot of coaches
just keep keep going
Speaker:
00:59:07,877 --> 00:59:11,881
and going and going and going,
but I, I really hit the
Speaker:
00:59:11,881 --> 00:59:15,752
I blew up and, and I was fortunate enough
to be able to step away
Speaker:
00:59:15,752 --> 00:59:18,821
and take the time to reflect and
Speaker:
00:59:18,821 --> 00:59:22,892
and grow and heal
and think about what it took and what I
Speaker:
00:59:22,926 --> 00:59:27,163
what I accomplished and grow in a way
that if you're
Speaker:
00:59:27,163 --> 00:59:30,833
just head down in the ditch hammering,
you don't do it.
Speaker:
00:59:30,967 --> 00:59:31,968
Yeah. Now, you know.
Speaker:
00:59:31,968 --> 00:59:37,774
Basically forgetting more than you learn
every year when you're just going hard.
Speaker:
00:59:37,807 --> 00:59:38,741
Grind in the wheel.
Speaker:
00:59:38,741 --> 00:59:40,977
Yeah. So yeah. So I stepped away.
Speaker:
00:59:40,977 --> 00:59:42,645
I started my own business.
Speaker:
00:59:42,645 --> 00:59:45,982
I started a really cool made
for TV promotional
Speaker:
00:59:45,982 --> 00:59:49,252
raise kind of X-Games
meet, ski racing in northern Italy.
Speaker:
00:59:49,953 --> 00:59:52,188
I was yeah,
that. Was a really cool concept.
Speaker:
00:59:52,188 --> 00:59:53,590
Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker:
00:59:53,590 --> 00:59:57,627
And I got into doing different things,
selling media
Speaker:
00:59:57,727 --> 01:00:00,530
rights and marketing
and contracting athletes
Speaker:
01:00:00,530 --> 01:00:02,665
because it was kind of a pro,
like pro style.
Speaker:
01:00:02,665 --> 01:00:05,702
I was contracting the
top skiers Bodie, Darren and
Speaker:
01:00:07,437 --> 01:00:11,374
Axel Swindle and Marcel Hirscher
and all those guys off the World
Speaker:
01:00:11,374 --> 01:00:14,911
Cup to ski in this one night
dash for cash.
Speaker:
01:00:16,613 --> 01:00:17,614
Live television.
Speaker:
01:00:17,614 --> 01:00:19,549
Yeah. You
you had the big boys come in for.
Speaker:
01:00:19,549 --> 01:00:22,085
It was fine.
Was the most ski money in ski racing.
Speaker:
01:00:22,085 --> 01:00:23,286
It was when we started.
Speaker:
01:00:23,286 --> 01:00:26,089
It was more money
than winning the hunting com.
Speaker:
01:00:26,089 --> 01:00:28,625
So I was had a mission
to do something cool
Speaker:
01:00:28,625 --> 01:00:33,696
because I was a little disenfranchized
with the system.
Speaker:
01:00:34,530 --> 01:00:39,936
And, you know, it's very,
very much system oriented, like, right.
Speaker:
01:00:39,936 --> 01:00:44,073
Not athlete oriented and, and like,
let's make the sport better.
Speaker:
01:00:44,641 --> 01:00:47,910
It was like,
what did we do, you know, 20 years ago?
Speaker:
01:00:48,244 --> 01:00:51,247
And how do we service the image and,
Speaker:
01:00:51,447 --> 01:00:56,386
the mechanism,
the FIS and the IOC and the Olympic rings
Speaker:
01:00:56,386 --> 01:01:00,289
and all of that,
which has a shelf life, in my opinion.
Speaker:
01:01:00,289 --> 01:01:02,592
You got to stay relevant, right?
Speaker:
01:01:02,592 --> 01:01:05,928
That's why we see, like,
you know, slopestyle and big mountain
Speaker:
01:01:05,928 --> 01:01:08,931
and these other sports really,
you know, starting to,
Speaker:
01:01:09,565 --> 01:01:12,335
you know, take, take over,
Speaker:
01:01:12,335 --> 01:01:16,039
you know, men in tights and women
in tights going fast, right?
Speaker:
01:01:16,039 --> 01:01:19,042
Which in my opinion
is still the most extreme snow sport.
Speaker:
01:01:19,242 --> 01:01:21,177
Oh, but it's just
Speaker:
01:01:22,612 --> 01:01:25,615
it's it's
kind of it hasn't stayed as relevant.
Speaker:
01:01:25,648 --> 01:01:27,083
Anyhow, we had a fun time with that.
Speaker:
01:01:27,083 --> 01:01:29,986
I did I did a lot of consulting with clubs
Academy.
Speaker:
01:01:29,986 --> 01:01:33,890
The listener, the whole format
of what you were doing with that was,
Speaker:
01:01:34,924 --> 01:01:36,159
rock concert.
Speaker:
01:01:36,159 --> 01:01:37,293
Yeah, it was a.
Speaker:
01:01:37,293 --> 01:01:39,495
Really cool race. Course.
Speaker:
01:01:39,495 --> 01:01:42,331
You had the best skiers in the world.
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:01:42,331 --> 01:01:46,502
And, it was bringing fun to those guys
Speaker:
01:01:46,502 --> 01:01:50,540
that were there under the hood
of a lot of more high pressures.
Speaker:
01:01:50,540 --> 01:01:52,408
Stringent. Yeah. Format.
Speaker:
01:01:52,408 --> 01:01:54,644
So I'm sure it was very appealing
to the athletes.
Speaker:
01:01:54,644 --> 01:01:56,312
Yeah, the athletes loved it. Right.
Speaker:
01:01:56,312 --> 01:01:58,715
Because we paid them to appear.
Speaker:
01:01:58,715 --> 01:02:01,350
That's why we didn't pay
like the top ten or whatever.
Speaker:
01:02:01,350 --> 01:02:03,352
It was like winner takes all.
Speaker:
01:02:03,352 --> 01:02:05,021
But no one knew how much money
Speaker:
01:02:05,021 --> 01:02:08,024
these guys would get paid
different amounts to appear.
Speaker:
01:02:08,424 --> 01:02:09,892
And it was a lot of money.
Speaker:
01:02:09,892 --> 01:02:12,929
If you won and it was multiple
runs on the same course.
Speaker:
01:02:12,929 --> 01:02:16,132
It wasn't a duel,
which I would have liked to do, but
Speaker:
01:02:16,466 --> 01:02:19,736
you know, there's
some injury, were concerns of collisions,
Speaker:
01:02:20,136 --> 01:02:23,940
and it was a really steep, narrow trail
that we did it on because we were kind of
Speaker:
01:02:23,940 --> 01:02:27,977
had our biggest sponsor was where we held
this, and our biggest sponsor
Speaker:
01:02:27,977 --> 01:02:32,281
was the Trentino Tourism Board
and the resort of pag in L.A.
Speaker:
01:02:32,882 --> 01:02:36,185
On the low and just outside of Trento city
in northern Italy.
Speaker:
01:02:36,753 --> 01:02:37,286
Anyhow,
Speaker:
01:02:38,654 --> 01:02:41,357
so, you
know, we injected the snow was ice.
Speaker:
01:02:41,357 --> 01:02:45,661
It was a mini GTS with a jump, though,
you're jumping over a car.
Speaker:
01:02:45,962 --> 01:02:47,697
And, Yeah.
Speaker:
01:02:47,697 --> 01:02:50,133
But you had that, like,
so like, say 20 guys went.
Speaker:
01:02:50,133 --> 01:02:53,302
Then the fastest 15 would go back up
and then the fastest ten
Speaker:
01:02:53,302 --> 01:02:56,739
would go back up, and then the fastest
five would do the last run.
Speaker:
01:02:56,739 --> 01:02:59,742
And the guy who won that would win it all.
Speaker:
01:02:59,942 --> 01:03:05,848
And so it was a fast paced and exciting
and it was a, it was a sprint.
Speaker:
01:03:05,848 --> 01:03:07,517
Yeah. It was really cool for that.
Speaker:
01:03:07,517 --> 01:03:08,584
And then and then we had,
Speaker:
01:03:08,584 --> 01:03:11,788
then we had a music show right after that,
like right in the finish.
Speaker:
01:03:11,788 --> 01:03:14,624
And so the fans could get right
up in the grill.
Speaker:
01:03:14,624 --> 01:03:18,995
And there was no federations or
handlers of the athletes were independent
Speaker:
01:03:19,595 --> 01:03:22,465
for themselves,
even though they would wear their,
Speaker:
01:03:22,465 --> 01:03:25,868
you know, country uniform
because they don't have anything else,
Speaker:
01:03:25,868 --> 01:03:29,972
because they don't know how to manage
themselves as a free agent, so to speak.
Speaker:
01:03:29,972 --> 01:03:34,277
Some guys, some guys were cool, like Ted
Ligeti wore a shred suit one day.
Speaker:
01:03:34,277 --> 01:03:36,445
And like you, Olson wore like,
Speaker:
01:03:37,413 --> 01:03:39,782
a park suit one year, one of the sponsors.
Speaker:
01:03:39,782 --> 01:03:40,950
But I couldn't really get the guy.
Speaker:
01:03:40,950 --> 01:03:42,251
So I was like,
Speaker:
01:03:42,251 --> 01:03:46,422
I was waiting for someone to show up
and not like an old girardelli Marlboro
Speaker:
01:03:46,422 --> 01:03:49,325
suit, you know, would have been like,
guys, make some money.
Speaker:
01:03:49,325 --> 01:03:52,395
You're like, this is like,
you're not like our our tagline,
Speaker:
01:03:52,728 --> 01:03:55,731
which I wish I had
had some of the old t shirts or hats was,
Speaker:
01:03:56,566 --> 01:03:59,001
racing without rules
Speaker:
01:03:59,001 --> 01:04:01,437
was our tagline
for the alpine Rock Festival.
Speaker:
01:04:01,437 --> 01:04:01,671
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:04:01,671 --> 01:04:04,907
Because, like,
I remember when they changed the radius.
Speaker:
01:04:04,907 --> 01:04:05,875
I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker:
01:04:05,875 --> 01:04:09,312
They changed the radius. Parameters
for gas.
Speaker:
01:04:09,312 --> 01:04:10,046
For gas?
Speaker:
01:04:10,046 --> 01:04:10,913
Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker:
01:04:10,913 --> 01:04:13,382
And so that year was a big deal, right?
Speaker:
01:04:13,382 --> 01:04:16,385
Like everyone was getting forced
into this longer radius,
Speaker:
01:04:16,953 --> 01:04:20,690
and we had this, like, we still set
relatively, but it was a short sprint.
Speaker:
01:04:20,690 --> 01:04:21,624
So it's a little tighter.
Speaker:
01:04:21,624 --> 01:04:24,727
So obviously the shorter radius
would might you know.
Speaker:
01:04:24,727 --> 01:04:28,698
So anyways we're rolling into the race
and it's still early in the season.
Speaker:
01:04:28,698 --> 01:04:29,565
It's Christmas right.
Speaker:
01:04:29,565 --> 01:04:32,134
So a lot of the skiers came to me
say like so what's the rules.
Speaker:
01:04:32,134 --> 01:04:33,102
Like what can we ski on.
Speaker:
01:04:33,102 --> 01:04:36,172
So like I could give a shit
ski on snow blades, I don't care.
Speaker:
01:04:36,172 --> 01:04:39,675
Like, like I'm not checking your shit.
Speaker:
01:04:39,775 --> 01:04:42,078
I'm not measuring your skis
and your height.
Speaker:
01:04:42,078 --> 01:04:42,578
Like. Well.
Speaker:
01:04:42,578 --> 01:04:46,015
And for the listener
when he's talking about radius, it's the,
Speaker:
01:04:47,149 --> 01:04:49,785
it's the configuration of the ski
Speaker:
01:04:49,785 --> 01:04:53,923
at a certain angle
in a certain controlled turn.
Speaker:
01:04:54,190 --> 01:04:54,523
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:04:54,523 --> 01:04:57,760
Each ski is built for a certain radius.
Speaker:
01:04:57,760 --> 01:04:57,960
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:04:57,960 --> 01:05:01,797
It's it's basically the side
cut the outside shape of the ski.
Speaker:
01:05:01,797 --> 01:05:03,866
Right. When you think about it,
you put it on the edge and bend it.
Speaker:
01:05:03,866 --> 01:05:05,134
It creates the arc.
Speaker:
01:05:05,134 --> 01:05:05,534
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:05:05,534 --> 01:05:07,270
And that's, that's what they like.
Speaker:
01:05:07,270 --> 01:05:10,072
A slalom ski has a smaller radius. The.
Speaker:
01:05:10,072 --> 01:05:11,941
Yeah. Downhill
skis have the biggest radius.
Speaker:
01:05:11,941 --> 01:05:14,443
And so in our sport for the listeners.
Right.
Speaker:
01:05:14,443 --> 01:05:17,480
Like they felt they being the, the,
Speaker:
01:05:17,513 --> 01:05:20,883
the governance of the sport,
the International Ski Federation thought
Speaker:
01:05:21,717 --> 01:05:25,154
the skiers were had too much torque
and force.
Speaker:
01:05:25,154 --> 01:05:27,990
That's why we're blowing up knees and bass
and all that stuff. Right.
Speaker:
01:05:27,990 --> 01:05:30,993
So they wanted to open up the radius
Speaker:
01:05:31,427 --> 01:05:34,263
to alleviate the twisting torque.
Speaker:
01:05:34,263 --> 01:05:37,366
And it was a pretty fast and rapid
Speaker:
01:05:37,366 --> 01:05:40,937
technological change going on in skis.
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:05:40,937 --> 01:05:44,073
And again,
like we could get into the whole debate
Speaker:
01:05:44,073 --> 01:05:48,077
like how you can, you know, again
how much you can control shit by rules.
Speaker:
01:05:48,077 --> 01:05:49,545
But in any regard
there was a lot of rules.
Speaker:
01:05:49,545 --> 01:05:53,482
There's height rules, there's boot
height rules, there's lots of rules.
Speaker:
01:05:53,482 --> 01:05:57,353
There's air porosity on the suit
you're wearing, like there's yeah, yeah.
Speaker:
01:05:57,553 --> 01:06:00,189
It's like the rulebook is mental
in ski racing.
Speaker:
01:06:00,189 --> 01:06:01,691
Right. So I was like over that.
Speaker:
01:06:01,691 --> 01:06:04,226
And I was like,
this is about the fastest guy down.
Speaker:
01:06:04,226 --> 01:06:07,129
I don't give a shit what you wear.
What what skis. You're on.
Speaker:
01:06:08,164 --> 01:06:09,332
Go for it.
Speaker:
01:06:09,332 --> 01:06:11,734
And so that, that really appealed to them.
Speaker:
01:06:11,734 --> 01:06:13,936
Yeah. So the skiers were like really.
Speaker:
01:06:13,936 --> 01:06:14,870
Well I like.
Speaker:
01:06:14,870 --> 01:06:18,474
And then and then some of them
got kind of like bent because like,
Speaker:
01:06:20,242 --> 01:06:23,145
funny enough, like when you think about it
like you're a skier and you have, like,
Speaker:
01:06:23,145 --> 01:06:26,716
whatever you're sponsored
by head or vocal.
Speaker:
01:06:27,350 --> 01:06:30,553
And at the beginning of the year,
some companies were like, okay,
Speaker:
01:06:30,586 --> 01:06:32,021
give me all your stuff.
Speaker:
01:06:32,021 --> 01:06:34,190
We're giving you all the new stuff.
Speaker:
01:06:34,190 --> 01:06:37,626
And they gave like they took away
all the little, like the X radius,
Speaker:
01:06:37,927 --> 01:06:40,429
and they gave em all the new stuff. Here's
the new stuff. Start testing.
Speaker:
01:06:40,429 --> 01:06:41,163
Get used to it.
Speaker:
01:06:41,163 --> 01:06:41,597
Good luck.
Speaker:
01:06:41,597 --> 01:06:44,533
You need some more, will work with you,
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker:
01:06:44,533 --> 01:06:47,003
Other companies were like
they just gave the new stuff
Speaker:
01:06:47,003 --> 01:06:49,305
and they were like, yeah, well,
I still got my old stuff.
Speaker:
01:06:49,305 --> 01:06:49,972
And so like some.
Speaker:
01:06:49,972 --> 01:06:52,808
Of those guys go back to this stuff.
Speaker:
01:06:52,808 --> 01:06:57,079
So some of the guys were like, well,
I'm just going to pull my lucky stars
Speaker:
01:06:57,079 --> 01:07:02,251
out of the closet from last year because
why can I like them better anyways?
Speaker:
01:07:02,251 --> 01:07:05,788
And a little tighter turn
and then this format and blah blah blah.
Speaker:
01:07:05,788 --> 01:07:08,991
And so this the racers are like,
come on, help me out here.
Speaker:
01:07:08,991 --> 01:07:09,892
Like, shut it down.
Speaker:
01:07:09,892 --> 01:07:12,161
Like, well, let's have it the same. Like,
hey guys.
Speaker:
01:07:12,161 --> 01:07:14,096
I mean, I just can't get in that game.
Speaker:
01:07:14,096 --> 01:07:15,865
I'm not playing that game.
Speaker:
01:07:15,865 --> 01:07:18,701
Like, were any of them
borrowing skis from each other?
Speaker:
01:07:18,701 --> 01:07:20,036
Yeah. Who knows?
Speaker:
01:07:20,036 --> 01:07:23,572
I'm sure like some of them
were scrambling around and doing whatever.
Speaker:
01:07:23,572 --> 01:07:24,740
And I was like, you know what, guys?
Speaker:
01:07:24,740 --> 01:07:25,908
I know what I'm getting.
Speaker:
01:07:25,908 --> 01:07:28,477
I could care less because I.
Speaker:
01:07:28,477 --> 01:07:30,146
Believe,
yeah, that would be a slippery slope.
Speaker:
01:07:30,146 --> 01:07:32,014
At the end of the day,
Speaker:
01:07:32,014 --> 01:07:35,017
I'm a big believer in like, hey,
the fastest person is going to win.
Speaker:
01:07:35,451 --> 01:07:38,454
You know, it's still I mean, you got
you got five runs
Speaker:
01:07:39,088 --> 01:07:42,224
to, to, to and each one is
Speaker:
01:07:42,224 --> 01:07:45,294
by hundredths of a second, right. Like
Speaker:
01:07:46,595 --> 01:07:46,862
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:07:46,862 --> 01:07:48,230
It's such close.
Speaker:
01:07:48,230 --> 01:07:51,267
You know, I'm like, you guys are
you guys are focused on the wrong shit.
Speaker:
01:07:51,534 --> 01:07:53,302
So anyways, that was fun.
Speaker:
01:07:53,302 --> 01:07:56,672
And like, I mean, this this young kid,
I remember that young kid.
Speaker:
01:07:56,672 --> 01:08:00,276
Now he's coach
and actually Cyprian Rashad from France.
Speaker:
01:08:00,276 --> 01:08:03,245
My the first year we did this in oh nine,
Speaker:
01:08:03,245 --> 01:08:03,479
right.
Speaker:
01:08:03,479 --> 01:08:06,482
The December
before the Olympics in Vancouver,
Speaker:
01:08:07,817 --> 01:08:09,618
Cyprian had not yet been on the podium.
Speaker:
01:08:09,618 --> 01:08:11,420
He was like kind of like unheard of.
Speaker:
01:08:11,420 --> 01:08:15,825
He was a, you know, top 20, top five,
top 15 results occasionally in gas, right?
Speaker:
01:08:15,825 --> 01:08:16,859
French gear.
Speaker:
01:08:16,859 --> 01:08:19,595
And that year I invited guys
Speaker:
01:08:19,595 --> 01:08:22,598
that I paid and they could invite friends.
Speaker:
01:08:23,032 --> 01:08:25,401
And we had a little qualifying run before
Speaker:
01:08:25,401 --> 01:08:28,404
to fill out the field of 30.
Speaker:
01:08:28,737 --> 01:08:30,372
And so I invited
Speaker:
01:08:30,372 --> 01:08:33,509
even though he was Aslam skier
he good skier as well.
Speaker:
01:08:33,509 --> 01:08:35,311
But Julian Lizza
Speaker:
01:08:35,311 --> 01:08:39,248
who was I was a big fan of his and he
I just leaves a fun fact for a French guy.
Speaker:
01:08:39,248 --> 01:08:40,216
I thought he was awesome.
Speaker:
01:08:40,216 --> 01:08:44,286
And he invited Cyprian, and Cyprian
wasn't really anybody at the time.
Speaker:
01:08:44,520 --> 01:08:45,921
Right. And,
Speaker:
01:08:47,089 --> 01:08:48,224
so Cyprian came.
Speaker:
01:08:48,224 --> 01:08:53,095
He won the qualifying right
to get in the race, which was €10,000,
Speaker:
01:08:53,195 --> 01:08:56,599
which at the time was like being fifth
in a World Cup.
Speaker:
01:08:56,599 --> 01:08:58,601
Guys. Right.
Speaker:
01:08:58,601 --> 01:09:03,372
So he won that, got in the race,
went through the whole thing.
Speaker:
01:09:03,372 --> 01:09:07,143
And Carlo
Janka from Switzerland had won the overall
Speaker:
01:09:07,543 --> 01:09:11,347
the season before, has his big claim
to fame and the GTS title.
Speaker:
01:09:12,681 --> 01:09:16,619
The month after the rock fest,
he won the GTS at the Olympics
Speaker:
01:09:17,019 --> 01:09:20,589
in Vancouver,
and that night, under the lights,
Speaker:
01:09:21,624 --> 01:09:24,627
which was the first high definition first
Speaker:
01:09:25,861 --> 01:09:27,530
ski race shot in high definition.
Speaker:
01:09:27,530 --> 01:09:30,533
First night
race ever shot in high definition.
Speaker:
01:09:31,934 --> 01:09:34,937
And He lost
Speaker:
01:09:35,437 --> 01:09:38,040
by 1/100
Speaker:
01:09:38,040 --> 01:09:43,979
and Cyprian won a €100,000,
so he took home €110,000.
Speaker:
01:09:44,013 --> 01:09:46,649
Unbelievable. And,
Speaker:
01:09:46,649 --> 01:09:49,618
he basically it was down payment
to build his house.
Speaker:
01:09:49,618 --> 01:09:51,153
And so he. Changed his life.
Speaker:
01:09:51,153 --> 01:09:51,887
Every year.
Speaker:
01:09:51,887 --> 01:09:54,857
And then then he went on
and he won a World Cup. And then.
Speaker:
01:09:54,857 --> 01:09:57,459
Not that Olympics,
the next World Championships.
Speaker:
01:09:57,459 --> 01:10:00,196
And in, 211, he medaled.
Speaker:
01:10:00,196 --> 01:10:01,363
And it was kind of like
Speaker:
01:10:01,363 --> 01:10:04,500
I can't say it really kickstarted,
but he definitely it's funny
Speaker:
01:10:04,500 --> 01:10:08,270
when you get into that kind of format
and you beat the best guy in the world.
Speaker:
01:10:09,138 --> 01:10:11,473
It's like having that teammate
where you're like, you know what, I'm
Speaker:
01:10:11,473 --> 01:10:14,476
probably faster than I think
my results say I am.
Speaker:
01:10:15,110 --> 01:10:18,280
Yeah, no, it and it's the being honest.
Speaker:
01:10:18,380 --> 01:10:20,583
All of a sudden he was like,
you know what?
Speaker:
01:10:20,583 --> 01:10:22,985
You guys watch out.
Speaker:
01:10:22,985 --> 01:10:24,520
And he blasts.
Speaker:
01:10:24,520 --> 01:10:26,956
And anyways
I would call these guys every year. Right.
Speaker:
01:10:26,956 --> 01:10:29,225
Hey, you coming back this year?
I'd love to have you back this year.
Speaker:
01:10:29,225 --> 01:10:33,095
And I'd call Cyprian every year and
he'd be like, Phil, you never have to ask.
Speaker:
01:10:33,829 --> 01:10:34,563
I'm getting beat. Up.
Speaker:
01:10:34,563 --> 01:10:37,066
You're the reason I have
a house is because of you.
Speaker:
01:10:37,066 --> 01:10:38,000
I'll come every year.
Speaker:
01:10:39,134 --> 01:10:39,768
That's great.
Speaker:
01:10:39,768 --> 01:10:40,869
But he did come every year.
Speaker:
01:10:40,869 --> 01:10:42,938
And he was, He's a good guy.
Speaker:
01:10:42,938 --> 01:10:44,373
Well, that's what it's all about.
Speaker:
01:10:44,373 --> 01:10:47,509
Having fun and unexpected and given.
Speaker:
01:10:47,643 --> 01:10:51,614
Given, like a guy that, under the team
Speaker:
01:10:52,681 --> 01:10:57,920
element or the program element
has that one little chance.
Speaker:
01:10:57,920 --> 01:11:00,356
Yeah. So we tried to make surface.
Speaker:
01:11:00,356 --> 01:11:01,357
That's a great thing.
Speaker:
01:11:01,357 --> 01:11:02,691
Yeah, we tried to mix it up.
Speaker:
01:11:02,691 --> 01:11:06,428
So anyways, I did that for a while
and then and then I and then
Speaker:
01:11:06,428 --> 01:11:10,566
one of my contracts was with Sun Valley
Ski Team, Sun Valley Ski Education,
Speaker:
01:11:10,566 --> 01:11:14,436
which is a multi winter
sport program in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Speaker:
01:11:15,271 --> 01:11:17,673
And I started as like a contracting thing.
Speaker:
01:11:17,673 --> 01:11:20,876
And when I was in between the rock fast
and this and in ice,
Speaker:
01:11:21,210 --> 01:11:24,480
they wanted me to help
rebuild their alpine program.
Speaker:
01:11:24,480 --> 01:11:29,718
So I became like a technical director,
but I could still do my event in Italy
Speaker:
01:11:29,718 --> 01:11:33,055
and still do other contracts
and started off
Speaker:
01:11:33,055 --> 01:11:36,425
as a six month gig,
you know, with a place to live.
Speaker:
01:11:36,425 --> 01:11:37,293
And then the next year
Speaker:
01:11:37,293 --> 01:11:39,662
they wanted eight months
and then they wanted ten months,
Speaker:
01:11:39,662 --> 01:11:42,097
and I stopped doing other things
other than my event.
Speaker:
01:11:42,097 --> 01:11:45,234
And then when when my event died
because of we just kind of ran
Speaker:
01:11:45,234 --> 01:11:48,437
out of funding and sponsors
and those things have a certain
Speaker:
01:11:48,904 --> 01:11:53,175
we always got close to really
taking the jump to other resorts.
Speaker:
01:11:53,175 --> 01:11:57,313
And we were one
big like Red bull sponsorship or.
Speaker:
01:11:57,513 --> 01:11:59,715
Yeah, you were just that close.
Speaker:
01:11:59,715 --> 01:12:01,450
Anyways, so that went away.
Speaker:
01:12:01,450 --> 01:12:02,851
That went the way of the dodo.
Speaker:
01:12:02,851 --> 01:12:07,089
And and then I started where I was a
full time athletic director in Sun Valley
Speaker:
01:12:07,089 --> 01:12:08,023
for a number of years.
Speaker:
01:12:08,023 --> 01:12:11,794
And, and then I, and then I immigrated
to Canada with my wife,
Speaker:
01:12:11,794 --> 01:12:15,297
became a Canadian citizen and started
managing the Canadian National.
Speaker:
01:12:15,297 --> 01:12:16,131
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:12:16,131 --> 01:12:18,734
And, I did that until,
Speaker:
01:12:18,734 --> 01:12:23,238
two, 20, 23 after that, course
rival world Championships,
Speaker:
01:12:23,238 --> 01:12:27,476
where the Canadian team won four medals
for the first time in Canadian history.
Speaker:
01:12:27,543 --> 01:12:30,245
Yeah. You were doing you were
you were getting results.
Speaker:
01:12:30,245 --> 01:12:31,113
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker:
01:12:31,113 --> 01:12:33,849
And I love the Canadian team,
I love Canada, I love my.
Speaker:
01:12:33,849 --> 01:12:35,551
Yeah, the Canadians are northern.
Speaker:
01:12:35,551 --> 01:12:39,722
Our northern neighbors
shouldn't be tariffs quite so much.
Speaker:
01:12:39,788 --> 01:12:44,426
Yeah different different different strokes
for different folks I I'm with you but.
Speaker:
01:12:44,493 --> 01:12:48,964
Well yeah I love that Canadian to pass
over those years with the Canadians.
Speaker:
01:12:50,165 --> 01:12:53,035
You go from Canada
Speaker:
01:12:53,035 --> 01:12:56,405
and let's get to present
you go from Canada.
Speaker:
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:02,044
And now you're in Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker:
01:13:02,044 --> 01:13:03,078
Full circle.
Speaker:
01:13:03,078 --> 01:13:04,980
Full circle.
Speaker:
01:13:04,980 --> 01:13:08,417
Yeah. And your gal is, scratch golfer.
Speaker:
01:13:08,417 --> 01:13:09,618
We're good for pitching.
Speaker:
01:13:09,618 --> 01:13:09,785
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:13:09,785 --> 01:13:12,788
That's,
that's for having a good role there.
Speaker:
01:13:13,021 --> 01:13:15,391
Yeah. And, yeah.
Speaker:
01:13:15,391 --> 01:13:18,394
Now you're sitting here in the
Speaker:
01:13:18,594 --> 01:13:21,063
hallowed studio of big adventures.
Speaker:
01:13:21,063 --> 01:13:21,730
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:13:21,730 --> 01:13:24,566
I mean, I've been down a couple rivers,
Speaker:
01:13:24,566 --> 01:13:27,569
in my early years, and I'm,
Speaker:
01:13:28,070 --> 01:13:32,808
doing this work
your way trip with you, tomorrow.
Speaker:
01:13:32,808 --> 01:13:36,078
And the first one
I did was in 86 with you.
Speaker:
01:13:36,245 --> 01:13:38,781
Oh, my gosh, it's.
Been another full circle.
Speaker:
01:13:38,781 --> 01:13:43,285
It's been decades upon decades since
I've been down in the beautiful land.
Speaker:
01:13:43,318 --> 01:13:44,620
So that's exciting.
Speaker:
01:13:44,620 --> 01:13:49,358
We're gonna be on the river, and I'm
gonna work you like a redheaded stepchild.
Speaker:
01:13:49,391 --> 01:13:51,427
And show pony. I like show, but.
Speaker:
01:13:52,561 --> 01:13:54,029
But, yeah, like, we're, like,
Speaker:
01:13:54,029 --> 01:13:59,001
now I do some projects and skiing, mostly
coaches education and back to consulting.
Speaker:
01:13:59,001 --> 01:14:02,871
I'm trying to reinvent myself, but,
you know, ski racing
Speaker:
01:14:02,871 --> 01:14:06,575
is, And ski
sport is a really small cottage industry,
Speaker:
01:14:07,142 --> 01:14:11,246
and there's only a few jobs, just like
there's only one national team, right?
Speaker:
01:14:11,246 --> 01:14:12,314
There's only. There's.
Speaker:
01:14:12,314 --> 01:14:15,617
Yeah. A dozen big pro junior programs.
Speaker:
01:14:15,617 --> 01:14:20,189
And, you know, hard pressed for a ski area
to think that I'm the guy
Speaker:
01:14:20,222 --> 01:14:21,824
that should be managing their ski area.
Speaker:
01:14:21,824 --> 01:14:24,092
Right out of the box,
like in that transition.
Speaker:
01:14:24,092 --> 01:14:28,597
So I'm trying to, you know,
I try to make, make a run at things.
Speaker:
01:14:28,597 --> 01:14:32,000
I still have something to contribute,
to contribute to the sport.
Speaker:
01:14:32,100 --> 01:14:32,434
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:14:32,434 --> 01:14:35,204
You know, and,
you want some free advice for me?
Speaker:
01:14:35,204 --> 01:14:35,971
Oh, by all means.
Speaker:
01:14:36,905 --> 01:14:38,173
Don't be in a hurry.
Speaker:
01:14:38,173 --> 01:14:40,075
So I'm doing the next job now.
Speaker:
01:14:40,075 --> 01:14:41,944
Let the mountain come to Muhammad.
Speaker:
01:14:41,944 --> 01:14:42,978
Yes. Okay.
Speaker:
01:14:42,978 --> 01:14:43,579
I like it.
Speaker:
01:14:43,579 --> 01:14:46,048
Well, I'm gonna take your advice on that.
Speaker:
01:14:46,048 --> 01:14:46,482
I've never.
Speaker:
01:14:46,482 --> 01:14:48,817
I've always let the universe kind of,
Speaker:
01:14:48,817 --> 01:14:51,320
Well, you've been like sports
come from what I can tell.
Speaker:
01:14:51,320 --> 01:14:53,388
Yeah. No, it's nice to be Irish.
Speaker:
01:14:53,388 --> 01:14:56,391
All right. Oh, w
Speaker:
01:14:56,391 --> 01:14:59,394
with that in closing,
Speaker:
01:15:00,295 --> 01:15:03,298
hail the sport of skiing. And,
Speaker:
01:15:03,432 --> 01:15:06,168
it's been great to catch up on this story.
Speaker:
01:15:06,168 --> 01:15:10,772
It's a fascinating, story that I've really
been looking forward to sitting down.
Speaker:
01:15:10,772 --> 01:15:15,210
And, you know, the neat thing
about a podcast from
Speaker:
01:15:15,210 --> 01:15:20,649
my eyes, is just the privacy
of a one on one conversation.
Speaker:
01:15:21,350 --> 01:15:22,951
Yeah. You don't get that.
Speaker:
01:15:22,951 --> 01:15:25,921
No, no. You like if we were sitting.
Speaker:
01:15:26,188 --> 01:15:31,159
Yeah, at a party or sitting anywhere else,
you'd get interrupted or,
Speaker:
01:15:31,193 --> 01:15:34,796
you know, so there's kind of a sanctuary
that it provides us
Speaker:
01:15:34,796 --> 01:15:36,365
to have a good conversation.
Speaker:
01:15:36,365 --> 01:15:38,500
Yeah. And I appreciate it.
It's always nice.
Speaker:
01:15:38,500 --> 01:15:44,206
I mean, you know, to talk about your life
and to talk with somebody as intriguing.
Speaker:
01:15:44,206 --> 01:15:48,076
I mean, I'd love to hear your story,
although you're on that side
Speaker:
01:15:48,076 --> 01:15:50,879
of the podcast. Right. Let's keep
let's keep it there.
Speaker:
01:15:50,879 --> 01:15:51,613
Yeah. But.
Speaker:
01:15:53,815 --> 01:15:57,119
You're someone I've always looked up to
and has been a part of my journey,
Speaker:
01:15:57,119 --> 01:16:00,389
and it's nice to just shoot the shit
and have a conversation.
Speaker:
01:16:00,389 --> 01:16:01,823
People don't have enough.
Speaker:
01:16:01,823 --> 01:16:02,090
Yeah.
Speaker:
01:16:02,090 --> 01:16:06,828
So it's nice that you seek
interesting stories to share.
Speaker:
01:16:06,828 --> 01:16:07,195
With the world.
Speaker:
01:16:07,195 --> 01:16:09,431
It's a real mutual thing.
Speaker:
01:16:09,431 --> 01:16:10,799
Thank you. And read in.
Speaker:
01:16:10,799 --> 01:16:13,602
Just because it's the Olympics
and whatnot. People need to.
Speaker:
01:16:13,602 --> 01:16:17,773
For you listeners out there,
the mountains start with fun.
Speaker:
01:16:18,106 --> 01:16:19,174
They end with fun.
Speaker:
01:16:19,174 --> 01:16:22,010
It's not about how you ski,
it's that you ski.
Speaker:
01:16:22,010 --> 01:16:25,447
It's the same thing
walking a trail or riding a boat.
Speaker:
01:16:25,747 --> 01:16:26,949
You know?
Speaker:
01:16:26,949 --> 01:16:28,584
And I agree, life isn't.
Speaker:
01:16:28,584 --> 01:16:31,553
Life doesn't take score route. It's not.
Speaker:
01:16:31,553 --> 01:16:32,888
It's just about doing it.
Speaker:
01:16:32,888 --> 01:16:35,891
Yeah. And and having. Fun. Totally.
Speaker:
01:16:35,958 --> 01:16:42,097
And I really, honestly believe one of
the most courageous things in sport is,
Speaker:
01:16:44,333 --> 01:16:46,268
alpine downhill.
Speaker:
01:16:46,268 --> 01:16:50,072
I mean, you look at some of these courses
and the speeds these guys are going
Speaker:
01:16:50,072 --> 01:16:53,842
and the way the courses are prepared
and the isolation
Speaker:
01:16:54,943 --> 01:16:57,946
that those athletes are in,
Speaker:
01:16:58,380 --> 01:17:01,383
in that sport,
I mean, it is worth watching.
Speaker:
01:17:01,383 --> 01:17:04,386
So the next downhill, I want
all of you guys that are listening to
Speaker:
01:17:04,653 --> 01:17:06,888
you should get it downhill
because they are.
Speaker:
01:17:06,888 --> 01:17:09,358
It's an amazing sport.
Speaker:
01:17:09,358 --> 01:17:12,394
You should for some reason it doesn't come
across right on television.
Speaker:
01:17:12,394 --> 01:17:13,528
But if there's this many people
Speaker:
01:17:13,528 --> 01:17:16,798
watching Formula
One who've never sat in a race car,
Speaker:
01:17:17,299 --> 01:17:20,702
there should be more people doing it
on the television and watching people
Speaker:
01:17:21,069 --> 01:17:25,674
throw themselves down a mountain at 150km
an hour.
Speaker:
01:17:25,674 --> 01:17:26,041
Oh, yeah.
Speaker:
01:17:26,041 --> 01:17:27,509
It's it's an amazing sport.
Speaker:
01:17:27,509 --> 01:17:30,512
You know, in a in a Lycra pajamas.
Speaker:
01:17:31,113 --> 01:17:33,482
It's, It's it's wild.
Speaker:
01:17:33,482 --> 01:17:38,720
Well, I didn't know if any of you out
there are in Lycra pajamas right now, but.
Speaker:
01:17:40,188 --> 01:17:41,657
Stay right tied up.
Speaker:
01:17:41,657 --> 01:17:43,392
Stay off the snow.
Speaker:
01:17:43,392 --> 01:17:46,395
Yeah. Don't wreck your F1 car.
Speaker:
01:17:46,428 --> 01:17:49,431
Try and stay alive and
Speaker:
01:17:49,865 --> 01:17:50,999
kill it all with love.
Speaker:
01:17:50,999 --> 01:17:54,169
Thanks for sitting in big adventures,
Phil.
Speaker:
01:17:54,169 --> 01:17:54,770
Thank you.
Speaker:
01:17:54,770 --> 01:17:55,303
You're welcome.
Speaker:
01:17:55,303 --> 01:17:59,741
Would Phil, Ryan and,
come back for the next one?
Speaker:
01:17:59,741 --> 01:18:02,744
You guys?
Speaker:
01:18:06,481 --> 01:18:08,417
Big adventures is produced by Brian.
Speaker:
01:18:08,417 --> 01:18:11,420
Darker Haley. Darker in me, Gavin Buckner.
Speaker:
01:18:11,653 --> 01:18:15,123
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