Monday, January 27, 2025

Episode 108: The Wind Beneath the Wings of Freestyle: A Conversation with John and Donni Hughes

New Hampshire

Secrets, Legends & Lore

Featured on the NH Center for Public Interest Journalism - InDepthNH.org

John & Donni Hughes: Wind Beneath the Wings of Freestyle

The Birth of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley Series

From Anamaki Chronicles and InDepthNH.org

The Wind Beneath the Wings of Freestyle

Listen Here

A Conversation with John and Donni Hughes

Donni and John Hughes

Whenever we try to tell a big story like the birth of freestyle skiing we tend to start out with the superstars that inhabit the rarified air of the legend. However, much of the story is hidden within the layers of what might be considered “average folks” who stepped up in a multitude of ways, to provide the wind beneath the wings of the athletes, the dreamers, and the mentors who would catapult “Hotdogging” to the more urbane “Freestyle” in only a few years. Often it was these folks who drove the public enthusiasm that would make Freestyle skiing the hottest new trend in skiing.

Beginning in their days at Plymouth State College when Donni was a student at PSC and a cocktail waitress at “Fourways Restaurant” and John was stapling tickets at the mountain as he put himself through college this story tells about their journey and just some of the parts they played in the Birth of Freestyle.

This podcast, ahead of our three-part series on “The Birth of Freestyle at Waterville Valley: The Dreamers & Doers; The Mentors and Protectors; and The Athletes” celebrates the folks who worked tirelessly, day after day, to support the work of the names that the history books will recall.

However, in a larger sense, their work was the real foundation of the revolution that became Freestyle Skiing and propelled Waterville Valley into the hierarchy of ski resorts in the US.

I may be wrong, but I’m betting that many of those who benefitted the most from the Freestyle Revolution would agree that people like John and Donni Hughes were the wind beneath their wings.

Here’s my conversation with Donnella Hughes and John Hughes, iconoclasts and worker bees, at the cutting edge of a skiing revolution.

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This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.

Images by Wayne D. King

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Monday, January 27, 2025

Episode 108: The Wind Beneath the Wings of Freestyle: A Conversation with John and Donni Hughes

New Hampshire

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