On paper, Shane McConkey sounds like the distinguished statesman of extreme skiing: winner of the ESPN Action Sports Award and the World Tour, U.S. National Champion, European Champion, South American Champion. Founder and former president of the International Free Skiers Association. Heck, there’s even a Shane McConkey action figure. In person, you realize that Shane McConkey is that funny, daredevil kid who always got you in trouble by making you laugh in math class. His ski videos include hilarious clips of McConkey pathetically “rapping” and enduring the amorous advances of his own dog. And his action figure? Well, let’s just say that with a label like “Shane McConkey Skier Huck Doll,” it doesn’t exactly depict a classic Nordic studmuffin. (Though it does have a pretty cool parachute.) McConkey takes his sport seriously without ever taking himself seriously – which is no doubt why Powder Magazine’s readers have twice voted him Skier of the Year and why fans make a point of catching his appearances as part of the Red Bull Air Force demonstration team. Having recently been named one of the “twenty greatest athletes now” by Faces magazine, McConkey is hotter than ever.
“Definitely in my blood”
McConkey’s mom was (and still is) a competitive ski racer, and his dad ran the ski school at Whistler and appeared in ski movies (sans rapping). "It’s definitely in my blood," McConkey says. "I skied at Squaw [Tahoe] until I was 14, then I went to high school in Vermont and college in Colorado." But McConkey wanted something more creative than traditional slalom and downhill skiing. He returned to Tahoe in 1994 to focus on freeskiing – a "renegade" move at the time.
"If a sport doesn’t change and grow, it gets stale," McConkey notes. "Luckily, skiing has gotten more creative and has evolved in recent years." What he’s too modest to mention is that he himself was a primary catalyst in that evolution. McConkey’s move to freeskiing – which combines acrobatic aerial moves with downhill – was clearly right for him: between 1994 and 1996 he won two South American Extreme Championships, as well as U.S. Nationals, Europeans, and the World Tour. He realized that freeskiing had the potential for huge global popularity, and in 1996 he used his championship prestige to found the International Free Skiers Association, which brought together mogul skiers, racers, aerialists, and other specialized disciplines under one umbrella. As a result, freeskiing gained the exposure that’s made it one of the most popular events in winter sports
“The ultimate freedom”
Now hitting his mid-thirties, McConkey continues to thrive on innovation. A few years ago, he invented a new ski for powder, The Spatula. "The Spatula pretty much laughed in the face of traditional ski design," he explains. "It had a reverse sidecut and reverse camber – or rocker – like a surfboard." With typical humor, he has christened an enhanced 2006 design "The Pontoon."
Today McConkey’s overwhelming passion is skiBASEing: a combination of big-mountain skiing with BASE jumping. He relates, "With BASE jumping, the intense feelings you get from any sport are quadrupled: the joy of doing it, the satisfaction of sticking it, the wonder of working out a new idea, the need to go out and do it again. It’s the ultimate freedom."
McConkey is convinced that skiBASEing – or, as he laughingly calls it, "big mountain freebasing" – can take both skiing and BASE jumping to incredible new levels. And he’s proving it. Throughout the year, McConkey shows off his technique as a member of the Red Bull Air Force; shoots videos (including 2004’s Yearbook, which features an epic double-flip off the 13,025-foot Eiger); and competes in events like Red Bull Hike&Ride (which he won in 2005 with partner Chris Davenport). At home in California, he hangs out with his wife Sherry, their new daughter Ayla, and their dogs Gage and Pedro. "We found Pedro in Costa Rica," says McConkey, inadvertently revealing his softer side. "He was starving and diseased, but the way he stole a melon off our table right in front of us made us fly him home. Now he’s a spoiled punk."
Starving dogs of the world take note: McConkey may be coming your way. His wish-list includes skiing and/or jumping in Russia, Norway, Greenland, Antarctica, Madagascar, and Malaysia – not to mention from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. He also envisions trailblazing new techniques like skiBASEing with a wingsuit, or maybe double-staging a run: "I’d ski a line off a cliff, deploy my parachute, land on the slope below and cut away the parachute, then keep skiing down to a second big cliff, huck it, and deploy the second parachute," he says, tossing in additional ideas involving "terminal skiBASEing" and "scaring the crap out of spectators."
In short, the distinguished statesman of extreme skiing is still a renegade. And all is right with the world
Shane McConkey
