"I have always said to myself that we need more hockey players riding..."
Steve Bauer, Canadian cycling demi-god
Somewhere, somehow ol' Franz Wilhelmsen must be chuckling at our fate. Whistler's original "build it and they will come" entrepreneur, Franz was not the kind of guy to be intimidated by critics.
And there were many. A ski resort in the Coast Range? With all that wild and wet weather? And in such an isolated location? No way. But the old RNAF pilot stood by his vision. "Why shouldn't Vancouverites get to experience the thrill and beauty that skiers regularly enjoy in the Alps?" he'd ask rhetorically. "Our mountains are just as beautiful as theirs..."
The man was certainly ahead of his time. But even he became concerned as the thirst for profit proliferated at Whistler. By the mid 1980's, Whistlerites were fixated on a point far beyond ol' Franz's regional vision. I still remember speaking with Wilhelmsen about it. He just couldn't get his head around the "international destination" thing. "We aren't the Alps," he said. "We don't have nice weather here. And rich people like nice weather. And we're on the edge of the world - that's never going to change." He refused to believe people would travel long distances to come here... and was generally dismissed by the era's young bucks for this lack of faith.
Talk about irony. If not for our regional market this winter, we'd be dead! A year after our Olympic extravaganza - 12 months after betting it all on one throw of the marketing dice - we're finally realizing how the future invariably refuses to conform with what the forecasters predict. That big post-Games surge of international visitors? Didn't happen. That huge wave of new business? Never materialized. Turns out Olympic TV viewers aren't necessarily mountain-sport enthusiasts. Go figure...
Of course, the current economic roller-coaster hasn't helped. And the great minds behind Whistler's current peccadillo have been quick to strap themselves in for the ride. It's all about the high buck, they complain. We just can't be competitive on world markets when the Canadian dollar is really worth a dollar....
Funny that. Five years go, it was all about the infallibility of Whistler's strategic marketing. The 60-cent dollar had nothing to do with the surge of visitors back then. It was all about our "smart" people and their "hot" marketing campaigns. ...
More irony? Consider just how marvellously blessed we've been by Maman Nature this winter. And yet just how empty the place has been for the last few weeks. I mean, there ain't nobody here and the skiing still sizzles. Talk about a flashback to our old "regional" past. Which leads me to offer this little ditty.
A Voice from the Peaks
He was old and a bit crooked,
His voice creaky and lame
"This was once a great valley,
"Now it's not," said he -- such a shame!"
His cry gathered the people.
And what they saw made all smile
'Twas an old gnome in a parka...
Still, the ol' boy looked riled.
"You may not want a sermon, "
he said to the crowd.
"But you're still gonna listen
Cuz I can talk mighty loud.
"No matter how smart
Or how bright you may be
How fast you make money
Or flip homes yet to be
"Your future is tied
To that mountain so white."
He said : "You need converts
Both outgoing and bright"
"They need to love mountains.
Love sliding and play
Long hikes to the alpine
Being outside all day.
"Whistler's fate's in your hands
It's not up to another.
Wake up and take stock
Grab your sis, call your brother.
"Go out and tell people
Why you play on the hillside
Why you jump, hop, slide, dance
Why, my friends, it's your life's ride.
"It's this Whistler that matters
This one we all know well
Beat your drum, hoot your horn
Tell the world, give a big yell.
And with that, the old guy
Took his watch out o' his pocket
Took a glance, shook his head
Left the hall like a rocket.
But his words stayed behind
Filtered through all the sceptics
"It's the mountain, you dummies!
And don't you forget it!"
Get it? In our march to global hegemony, we forgot to promote those very activities that need to be popular if Whistler is to fill its rooms with happy guests. Maybe we assumed people already knew about mountain play. Maybe we didn't think it mattered.
But it does. We forgot that for many people on this planet, mountain- and snow-play is counter-intuitive. They don't know it's fun. They have to be convinced.
That's why we need new champions to go out into the world and grab people by the heart. We need to spend more effort promoting the ineffable joy of mountain play. More importantly, we need to do a better job of touching people with our emotions -- so that they too can see, taste, feel, hear, smell, sense - what we're promoting.
I was reminded of that last week while perusing Pedal Magazine . There it was: the very same message right on the back page. And it came from former pro cyclist Steve Bauer.
Now I don't need to tell most of you about road-riding's crazy growth in popularity in recent years. Anyway - Bauer put together a Canadian-based pro team with the stated goal of imposing itself on the international scene. It's an ambitious plan. But Bauer is nothing if not committed. This is his strategy for boosting talent in his cycling pool:
"The metrics are quite simple," he writes. "There are 5,000 young hockey players aged 13 to 20 at the elite level - A, Double A, Triple A. These 5,000-strong athletes do not even take into consideration the small population centres that host B-, C-, or D-level teams." His goal, he says, is to infiltrate these very hockey circles in order to identify individuals of 'superb athletic ability' who might help his cycling team achieve their ends. "I'm convinced," he adds, "that future Canadian [cycling] stars are playing hockey in Canadian arenas right now."
I believe him. In fact, I believe there are thousands of potential skiers and snowboarders in those arenas too. So what do we do about it? Like Bauer, we have to become pro-active on our own behalf. We have to step outside our comfy little mountain world and sell snow-and-mountain sports to city-folk all over again.
That's what Bauer is doing. He's actually challenging hockey players to take him up on his dare. "[We've] developed a twenty-minute test to determine real gems through focused testing," he continues, "[B.C. star rider] Svein Tufts set the benchmark. Our logic is simple. If anyone can push what Tuft does, we'll sign him."
I know. I know. Bauer is talking about elite sports here. He's just looking for a small number of guys with all the right stuff. Still, I think his logic works in a big-picture sense as well. Why shouldn't the ski business target hockey players more aggressively? Heck, with the way ski-design's going these days, we'll soon be riding on blades anyway.
I leave the last word to Mr. Bauer (replace 'cycling clubs' with 'ski areas' and the quote really resonates): "If we want to be successful in this country, we need the cycling clubs to be jazzed about getting new, young riders involved... if we can do this collectively across Canada I'm convinced that we can be a consistent force on the world stage."
( For more on this subject, see Pedal magazine, Annual 2011 )