In the late-1980s and 1990s Prince George was a hotbed for freestyle skiing.
Based on the slopes of Tabor Mountain, Purden Mountain and the Hart Highlands ski hill, the Central Interior Freestyle Ski Club one of the best in the province. At about the same time freestyle skiing gained a foothold as an international sport, the talent train from Prince George began to pick up steam.
Brad Suey, Lance Rouleau, Tron Rouleau and Jay Nachbaur were representing Canada in World Cup aerials competitions. Scott Bellavance, Chris Wong, Jennifer Simm and Garrett Simm were flying the flag on the mogul runs in Europe , Asia and North America. All of sudden, Prince George athletes were competing in the big leagues.
Bellavance, in 2002, and Wong, in 2006, took their hot-dogging antics all the way to the Olympic stage, but back home, the little club that could was in its death throes. It struggled to retain volunteer coaches to teach the kids and membership in the club dwindled to the point where it had no choice but to fold in 2005.
Since then, freestyle activity in Prince George has come to a standstill. But it's not a lost cause.
In a bid to help revive the sport, the B.C. Freestyle Ski Association is sponsoring a Try Freestyle clinic this Saturday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Tabor Mountain.
With freestyle skiing one of the events at the Canada Winter Games, kids aged eight and older who sign up for the clinic to learn about moguls, aerials, big air, half-pipe, and slopestyle skiing might end up qualifying for Team B.C. when the Games come to town in February 2015.
Senior national team moguls skier Kristi Richards of Summerland, a former world champion and bronze medalist at the 2011 world championships, is behind the push to get more kids involved in freestyle and is working with ski hills around the province to promote the sport.
Brent Biederstadt and Ryan Milne, both former coaches of the Central Interior club, will be on hand to instruct the Try Freestyle kids, who need basic ski skills to apply for the clinic.
To register, go to www.bcfreesyle.com and click on the 'Programs' tab to find the Try Freestyle webpage. The program is free to the first 150 skiers who apply. After that, the cost is $15, which includes a T-shirt.
