Part 3 The Athletes: Surfers of the Moguls, Pioneers of the Air
We began this three-part series on the birth of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley with a survey of the early years of Waterville including a nod to the tenure of the Abenaki or Wabanaki “people of the dawnland” and the evolution of the warm weather economy that came to the Whites with the Grand hotel era; when city dwellers escaped the heat, pollution and crowds of their urban life to the clean cool air of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
Following the Progressive era, and sometime around the early 1950s, American resort communities sought to expand their year-round economies by importing European ski experts where the sport had first developed. Like the later development of the sport of Freestyle skiing, New Hampshire played a significant role in the early years of traditional American skiing.
It began with rope tows, starting with the very first rope tow in Woodstock Vermont, but It didn’t take long for folks to realize that with some elbow grease, a few straight white pines or red oaks for towers, a thick rope, and an old VW - or two - they could create a community ski hill of their own. The VW engine could power the tow from the top and the hubs of the wheels could serve as the above ground rope return structure. By the 1930s more than 60 small - rope tow-serviced - ski hills dotted the landscape of New Hampshire.
But some folks dreamed bigger. Ralph Bean who had inherited most of the privately owned land in the town of Waterville teamed up with Raymond Brox and by the early 60s they had rehabbed a small rope tow already on the land, and purchased two used T-Bars from Utah, reconstructing them at Snow’s Mountain, giving skiers access to intermediate terrain from the first, and then if you were ready to brave the steeper terrain, you could hop on the second T to the top of “The Headwall” and the rarified air and moguls of expert terrain.
In the mid-1960s an Olympic champion named Tom Corcoran stood at the base of Snow’s Mountain with Ralph Bean and his wife Grace and in all likelihood spun around on his skis 360 degrees to take in a complete picture of what would come to be referred to as “The Valley” and saw an opportunity for something very special. By 1968 Waterville Valley had become a full-blown ski resort.
By 1970 Corcoran had formed a friendship, based on mutual respect and a love of the sport, with Doug Pfeiffer, editor of Skiing Magazine. Pfeiffer died just last year and eulogies from giants of the industry proclaimed him the Godfather of Freestyle Skiing in his obituary.
At a ski-show in Boston in 1970 Tom Corcoran and Doug Pfeiffer got into a good-humored discussion about who the best skiers on the mountain were. Tom Corcoran, ever the racer at heart, said it was the racers. According to Wayne Wong, Pfeiffer said Pfeiffer said it was the hot doggers and he challenged Tom to do an event at his new resort to answer the question.
Tom took the bet and a date was set for a World Championship of Exhibition Skiing. Since no name had officially been adopted yet for this new emerging sport, they crafted a well conceived name that gave them maximum latitude for the direction it would take after the event.
At twenty one, Wayne Wong’s friends and coworkers in Vancouver “passed the hat” to raise the funds to send their colleague to the exhibition where he would participate in his very first such competition. His college kicked in the last funds needed to fly him to Montreal and to get a bus to Concord NH. . .arriving at 3am.
At 3am Wayne Wong descended from his bus with nothing but a backpack, his skis, boots and poles, making his way to Waterville where he would face 48 competitors, judged by super olympian Jean Claude Killy. He finished third in that competition, taking home a purse of $1000 and a skiing world fully awakened to the Canadian boy who danced on skis.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Tom Corcoran and Paul Pfosi immediately hired him to coach the Waterville Valley Black and Blue Trail Smashers Ski Club Freestyle team - with plenty of latitude for participating in competitions anywhere.
The 1971 World Championship of Exhibition Skiing launched Wayne Wong’s career. While many freestylers of those early days have faded a bit, Wayne has built a life-long career around those early successes. He would continue to compete for the next 5 years and then turn his attention to using his skills to raise millions of dollars for children’s charities and to keep his flag flying among his many fans and admirers.
On the heels of the competition a number of “local boys” jumped aboard, quickly establishing their own followings.
George Askevold had come to Waterville from his native Rhode Island almost by chance. After spring skiing, he and a friend drove up from RI in search of snow. They found plenty of it in Waterville Valley. They also discovered Devereau “Dev” Jennings, who was facing a challenge. The snow had persisted so long that the VISAs of the ski instructors Paul Pfosi had recruited to come to the U.S. were about to expire. Dev persuaded Pfosi to take the two for a test run on the snow, and Paul hired them for the remainder of the winter. George never looked back and would return to Waterville the next season. However, as a Vietnam medic, he was soon captured by the ski patrol at Waterville and switched roles, mainly to give him the freedom to do some hot dogging between emergencies. Like Wayne Wong, his first competition was covered, and at the urging of his friends, when he finished third in the combined award and tied with Olympian Suzey Chaffee, he was all in.
Native son Floyd Wilkie, who had a ready-made fan base from family scattered all around the informal confederation of towns surrounding Waterville Valley, was the hometown hero. He was an extraordinary mogul skier, though from all accounts did not care for the aerials. Unlike Billy Fallon who loved flying and whose likeness is adorned on the “Birthplace of Freestyle Skiing” sign at the town line coming into the Valley.
These four, and many others, found themselves drawn to the free-wheeling and sometimes outrageous world of Freestyle. (Somewhere out there in the either there is said to be a photo of Floyd and George going airbound “bare-assed” off a jump at one of the western resorts!)
Freestyle would suffer all the growth pains of other emerging cultural and athletic innovations but the atmosphere that Tom Corcoran and many others created at Waterville Valley would help to carry them through, with a lot of help from Nick and Suzi Preston who would arrive in Waterville in 1980. Nick and Suzi were just in time to lead Freestyle skiing into a new era. Wile both competed themselves their lasting contribution was in the establishment of “Freestyle America”, a camp where young athletes would be trained to compete aggressively and safely. Nick and Suzi would take Waterville and the sport of Freestyle int an era where professionalism, safety and hell-bent competition would blend to make Waterville Valley the birthplace of Freestyle Skiing.
Thanks again for joining us on this special series of podcasts on the Birth of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley, we’ll see you again on the next episode of New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Number-of-known-downhill-ski-areas-operating-in-New-Hampshire-1930-2002-Small-areas_fig6_235264127
This podcast series was produced in three main parts with ancillary interviews also published. YouTube interviews are included where possible.
