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Shane McConkey remembered

Legend who changed the face of skiing killed in ski-base jumping mishap
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There will never be another Shane McConkey. He was daring, creative, instantly likeable and intensely sincere - the alpha skier that others sought to imitate, as well as the wily veteran who stayed on top of a rapidly changing game for almost two decades. If anything, you could almost say McConkey improved with age.

He is internationally famous for a lot of reasons, from signature moves like barrel rolls off of cliffs, to his recent innovations in combining the sport of big mountain freeskiing with his passion for base jumping. With the ability to fly, almost no big mountain line was impossible.

McConkey died on March 26 while filming a segment for Matchstick Productions in Italy. The scene involved skiing a steep line, then dropping off the 600-metre Sass Pardoi cliff in the Dolomite Mountains. Fellow freeskier J.T. Holmes did the same line moments before McConkey, who planned to follow up with a double backflip off the edge and a short flight in his wing suit before pulling his ripcord. It was an extreme stunt, but McConkey was a veteran of over 700 base jumps and almost certainly had more ski-base jumps to his credit than anyone in the world.

The stunt went wrong early when McConkey's skis failed to release when he tugged on his release straps, forcing him to release his bindings manually or risk having his chute tangled in his skis. According to a report on Matchstick Films website, he succeeded in removing his skis and opened his chute, but he had fallen too far and was killed instantly when he hit the ground.

McConkey, 39, is survived by his wife Sherry and his three and a half year old daughter Ayla, as well as his parents Jim and Glen. Jim was a legendary freeskier and head ski instructor in Whistler from 1968 to the early '80s. Shane's step brother, George McConkey, continues to live in Whistler and is co-owner of McCoo's.

While he lived full time in California, McConkey still came to Whistler regularly to film for various companies - mostly MSP - and to visit the slopes he grew up skiing. When the Peak 2 Peak Gondola opened in December, McConkey christened the lift by jumping from a gondola cabin at its highest point over the ground.

According to Whistler Blackcomb spokeswoman Christina Moore, McConkey himself approached Whistler Blackcomb about the stunt, and kick-started discussions with McConkey's sponsors at Red Bull.

Today, April 2, friends and fans of McConkey are invited to a tribute service at Dusty's at 7 p.m., organized by his longtime friend Shane Szocs. Admission is by donation and all proceeds will go to McConkey's family.

There will be prizes for the best Saucer Boy costume, a screening of There's Something About McConkey , a few speeches, and music by the Hairfarmers.

Szocs has known McConkey since the start of his own freeskiing career, and credits McConkey for helping him rise through the ranks as a professional skier. When Szocs started his High North glacier camps, he returned the favour by hiring McConkey as a guest coach for the first few seasons.

"It was awesome, because he was the one guy who didn't take skiing seriously whatsoever," said Szocs. "He brought that aura of fun and kept everything light. He found everything funny."

Like many friends and colleagues in the industry, they hold Matchstick blameless for the stunt. McConkey had a reputation for being calculated when planning his film segments, and called his own shots. Even if the cameras weren't rolling, it was the kind of think McConkey would have done anyway.

"This is just what drove him as a person," said Szocs. "He was unique. For someone who has done so much within the industry as far as the filming and stunts, and bringing about the whole fat ski revolution almost single-handedly, he was still the leader. Even when he had back problems and was sore, and when he dislocated his hip a couple of years ago... he still wanted to keep pushing it and to ski as hard as he could. When the snow melted he focused completely on base jumping. Whatever he was doing he was always charging."

Szocs has a lot of memories of McConkey over the years. One fond memory is the last time they got to hang out, when their sponsors at K2 skis rented Mt. Baker at the end of the season for their staffers and athletes.

"I was lucky to have a couple of runs with him on Baker, which was amazing - away from the cameras and just skiing for fun," said Szocs. "That's how I remember him."

Another of his fondest memories doesn't even have Shane in it:

"We were filming for MSP this one time, and Shane and I went to Scott Gaffney's house to film some of the promo stuff. I went out onto the deck at one point with Scott, and there were skis out there and a wetsuit drying. I asked Scott what the wetsuit was for, did he have a water ramp or something, and he said 'oh no, that's just there from Shane skiing behind the plane the other day.'

"I was like 'yeah of course, skiing behind a plane.' Something that would seem so outrageous for anybody else was completely normal for that guy."

Whistler's Leslie Anthony first met Shane McConkey about 15 years ago when he was just getting into the freeski world. At the time Anthony was the editor of Powder magazine, and the name Shane McConkey was coming up more and more often.

"We had him in as the guest editor once and it was just hilarious," Anthony recalled. "Having him in the office going through the photo files was something else. He had two piles: suck and didn't suck."

Anthony also wrote an in-depth profile of McConkey more than a decade ago, and flew out from Toronto to hang out with McConkey in Whistler for a week coaching kids.

"He was really getting into base jumping at the time," said Anthony. "I remember driving him to the airport when we were leaving town, and he made me stop to look at the Chief. I don't know if he'd done any jumps then, I think he was mostly the getaway driver for buddies that were schooling him on the whole scene, but I know he came back a couple of years ago and did it.

"He was really an ideas guys, if you look at him in the overall context of skiing. He was constantly coming up with ideas and thinking up new ways of doing things."

According to Anthony, he was even working on a double base jump concept where he would ski off a cliff, pull his chute, land on his skis, cut his parachute loose and jump off another cliff where he would open a second chute.

"That's the kind of thing he did, he was always moving the bar for himself and for everybody coming up behind him. He was always looking for something new, something more fun, more funny, more interesting. Wherever the limit was, he was looking behind it."

Anthony has been touched by the death of several top skiers and snowboarders over the years, but he said the loss of McConkey represents the loss of the biggest, most influential skier in the industry.

"I've got a guy who rooms with me who is like a kid when it comes to McConkey," said Anthony. "He is a movie reviewer for Skier Magazine, and I remember that when he was reviewing movies he would be commenting on the amount of McConkey in the film. It was either a good film or there was not enough McConkey.

"You never got bored watching him."

Matchstick Productions released a statement on its website this week that explains the circumstances that led to McConkey's death. They also mourned "the loss of one of the most innovative, gifted, entertaining and inspirational figures in the history of skiing."

Over the years McConkey had segments in 15 MSP films, included There's Something About McConkey , and recent films like Claim.

He was voted people's choice for Male Skier of the Year for three years in a row, and in his years as a competitive skier he won every big mountain title and event. He also helped establish the international freeski world tour.

He was also a backcountry innovator, and helped design reverse camber skis that are fatter in the middle for deep powder performance.

Following his death, expressions of remorse have been coming in from around the world.

"Shane, his father Jim, and brother George are a huge part of the Whistler family," according to a statement from Whistler Blackcomb. "Shane's incredible skiing, thrill seeking adventures and daring stunts have amazed and inspired legions of mountain enthusiasts. We know his passion, joie de vivre and spirit will live on through the McConkey family, Shane's friends and all of his fans."

At MSP, Scott Gaffney - who produced There's Something About McConkey, wrote that McConkey was an entertainer as well as a visionary. The Saucer Boy character - a Jack Daniels swilling, flying saucer and snowblade riding, retro ski gear wearing, hot dog - was all McConkey's idea. There was a role for Saucer boy in Claim, six years after being killed off in Ski Movie 3: The Front Line.

"It's not easy being Saucer Boy," said McConkey in an interview with Gaffney. "I have to walk around chugging booze dressed like an asshole. People see me on the streets and shout, 'Saucer Boy!'"

In his tribute to McConkey, Gaffney wrote "Shane McConkey was an incredible influential figure in two distinct sports, and he was a brother for the MSP Films crew and thousands of people whose lives he touched. His loss will be felt the world over as he leaves a void that simply can never be filled. As one fan put it, 'It feels like Superman died.' He basically did."

A website has been set up for fans to get more information or make a donation to his family at www.shanemcconkey.org.