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The long-anticipated Gemini Freestyle Centre on Blackcomb Mountain is set to officially open this winter, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
According to Freestyle Whistler program director Chris Muir, having access to the terrain will significantly benefit the club’s ability to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The club started training on the mountain over the weekend.
“The timing couldn’t be better in terms of offering us a space that’s ours that we can call our own to run this year and offer a great product for our athletes,” he said.
The advantages start immediately, Muir explained, as having the designated space will allow the club to ask athletes to meet there instead of at an indoor location.
“We’re going to open up training facilities to kids the moment they arrive, so we’ll have our moguls course going, our airbag. We’ll have a few jumps going,” he said. “They’re going to be engaged from the moment they arrive. ‘Let’s do our dynamic warmup and start training.’
“Kids are going to be able to session a feature while they wait for their friends to arrive. Once the group is there, then they head out skiing.”
With no wasted time, Muir reasoned, athletes will be able to jam more learning into a day, even if they’re not technically on the mountain for as many hours. Muir noted that the start times for each of Freestyle Whistler’s five programs will be staggered by 30 minutes to avoid overlap during arrivals, departures and lunchtimes.
“We’re not going to be able to run as long of a day. We were running six-hour days last year and we don’t know how long we can run, honestly, at this point because we don’t have as much access to lodges,” he said. “Whether that’s a four-and-a-half-hour or five-hour day, we don’t really know, but the kids will get more for what they’ve been paying in the past, even if it’s a slightly shorter day.”
Though Freestyle Whistler, like other clubs, saw a sudden halt in the spring, it slowly and safely resumed operations in the summer. Without camps like Momentum going, they became the only game in town and saw a spike in participation, with water-ramp training selling out and having a waitlist.
“Normally, we’re struggling to even get people to show up for those training events,” Muir said. “I didn’t even realize that that would even be a factor in the summer.”
Heading into this winter, Muir said that the roster of roughly 75 athletes is consistent with last year.
“We’re definitely excited and whatever we’re going to be doing, at least the kids are out on snow and distanced and having a good time,” he said. “Sport is just so important at this time.
“It’s super important and critical that they’re able to exercise, have fun, see some friends in a distanced and masked area.”
Muir said the club has been tapped to host the provincial championships in early April, should they run this year, noting that any competition has TBD status. Freestyle Whistler’s high-performance teams are slated for events in Quebec and Alberta this winter, but Muir only anticipates athletes attending “if things get better magically.”
The club will look to make the most of whatever situation it finds itself in.
“Coaches have been told that we could brand it as a development year. If we’re not competing, we’ll run our own closed competitions within our own club to simulate some competition,” he said.
As an independent club with a smaller number of registered participants Muir feels fortunate for the opportunity to operate. Other clubs with greater athlete numbers that operate under the Whistler Blackcomb purview are still making arrangements for how to serve athletes in 2020-21.
