NH Secrets Legends and Lore

117 Bernie Weischel: 75 Years on the Boards and an Exhibition Guy at Heart

Last year Bernie logged more than 50 days skiing at 75 years of age. He is still an active and eager part of the skiing community and a key member of the team that made Freestyle possible, even when it was back on its heels.

Running events and shows is never easy but Bernie seemed to make it look so. 

Jack Sanders a brilliant legal mind and protector of Freestyle

While most folks in his native state of New Hampshire knew Jack Sanders as one of the finest attorneys in NH, Jack's love of skiing and freestyle was compelling him into the national freestyle legal space. He got into it somewhat reluctantly at the urging of Floyd Wilkie who was concerned about the future of freestyle and felt it needed the steady hand of Jack Sanders and his legal expertise to assure a brighter future. Ultimately Jack would serve in a national role helping to provide guidance to the young sport in its time of need.

Bill Brox, Raymond Brox as recalled by his son Bill Brox

Part 2 The Birth of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley

The Mentors & Protectors

The excitement and joy of freestyle also had it’s downside. It was not all rainbows and unicorns. 

For those who remember those early days of Freestyle, you may recall that a less-than-healthy competition developed between skiers, racers,  hot doggers, and only a few years later snowboarders as well. 

A well-known cartoon showing each of the groups disdainfully pointing at the next and uttering “they suck” 

In fact, many ski resorts were slow to welcome Freestyle skiing to the mountain. At some ski areas, skiers were having their tickets “pulled” if they were caught doing stunts, even the tamer ballet moves. Today, nearly every mountain has a ski park, especially for Freestyle skiers and boarders.

The early aversion to Freestyle may have been an overreaction but that never happened at Waterville Valley.

Looking back, What few people know about the phenomenon that began as “Hotdog skiing” or just plain “hotdogging”; and in less than a year morphed into the more sexy and urbane “Freestyle Skiing”, is that its rise was a joyful, generous and welcoming celebration of America’s diversity in a sport that had only recently been the “lily-white” domain of a small elite group of Americans.

Until the 1970s skiing had evolved gradually, beginning with its European roots followed by a migration of famed European skiers imported into the US specifically to bring their expertise. With the exception of the legendary Stein Erickson, most of the others were still skiing and instructing in the traditional, albeit evolving, manner and method. 

So what was so revolutionary about Waterville Valley? 

It was the people; their common humanity and openness to one another. In short it was their generosity of heart, spirit, and their love of skiing and the land.

Tom Corcoran was the commander of the works but he was also the public face of Waterville, traveling the country to evangelize on behalf of the new resort. As Tom Corcoran traversed the country on behalf of the Waterville Company its reputation grew.

Meanwhile, back in the “Valley” a group of exciting, and sometimes outrageous, skiers were birthing the most exciting new development in Alpine skiing. 

In this historic interview New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore podcast host Wayne King chats with Frank Deboise the very first African American certified ski instructor in the US. Certified at Mount Snow in Vermont, Frank was hired away by Tom Corcoran at Waterville Valley as an instructor in the Waterville Valley Black & Blue Trail Smashers racing program. 

This interview was particularly meaningful to Wayne because Frank was his coach when Wayne was a 10-year-old aspiring racer (before he fell in love with freestyle, of course). Frank also bought his first ski home from Roger and Roberta King, Wayne's mom and dad, in the town of Campton. 

Frank's son Tony was a great racer who actually led the family to Waterville when he entered a competition for a scholarship in the Waterville Racing program. For the next two years, Tony would live with Tom Corcoran and his wife Birdie so that he could go to the Waterville Academy Tutorial School (lovingly referred to as the "Tute School") and ski in the afternoons. Frank would live in Worchester during

Nick and Suzi Preston are a picture of the evolution of modern skiing, especially Freestyle Skiing. From the day that six-year-old Nick strapped on his mother's skis and beartrap bindings to join his best friend after a winter storm in Connecticut; to the Ski Instructor Clinic following their graduation from college to their self-described student-taught move into Freestyle Competition. Their journey in life has taken them from falling in love with skiing (and each other) to serious Freestyle competition to coaching and Inn-keeping. Together they have mentored more than 12 Olympic Freestyle skiers, leading to three gold medals through their Freestyle America corporation and Freestyle Camps. Nick has coached the US Team and been a private coach to Gold Medalist Hannah Kearney. He was a coach to the very first US team to go into the Soviet Union under Perestroika.

But ask them about their life in Freestyle and they will be the first to tell you that the medals and awards are great but it is the life-journey that has been the path to finding their joy.

They live in Campton where they continue to coach and mentor skiers young and old at their Mountainfare Inn and Freestyle America Camps.

Hali Beckman grew up in NH, moving to Rhode Island shortly after graduating from Plymouth High in 1969 a few years, after graduating from college, she returned to NH - just in time for the Freestyle Skiing revolution. She met JD Nelson shortly after her return and they became best friends, eventually life-partners. This podcast remembers JD on the tenth anniversary of his passing.

In the process of preparing to do a podcast series on the birth of freestyle skiing at Waterville Valley I had the opportunity to interview many of my skiing heroes. First on that list was a fellow who was a coach of the Waterville Valley Black and Blue Trail Smashers ski team, of which I was a young member.

The conversation begins with a tribute to JD Nelson, a bright, genuine, and gregarious African American who was first and foremost an avid skier who fell in love with Freestyle. He came to Waterville Valley as a result of his friendship with the Dunfey family. JD - in a turbulent time for an African American man - endured the difficulties of other black Americans but never let it rule his life. He easily developed friendships with both the heirarchy of the Waterville Company as well as the athletes. So it was a natural thing that when the Athletes felt taken advantage of as the sport evolved, they would turn to him and his business savvy to help them protect themselves and develop sponsorships. Later, he would play a critical role in saving Freestyle when it fell into a crisis over injuries - particularly to aerial skiers.

In this podcast, we take a whirlwind trip through Wayne Wong's amazing career.

The Wind Beneath the Wings of Freestyle

A Conversation with John and Donni 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 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. 

But 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.