Favorite Coaches

[Fried Okra]

I'm curious to know if any of you who have been diggin' the trenches a while and/or the greenies have a favorite coach that stands out in your mind over the course of your racing life. Any great mentors or who/what inspired you?

[Fried Okra]

What up?

Let's here it

[tilledog]

For me, it would be Phil Fell.

Bonus: He's got a cute ass too. When he does a heal side and that booty drags a little bit on the snow, mmmm mmm. Better than cookies and milk.

[dragonfly jones]

Some of my favorites:

Mike Mallon - SMS, good guy on top of his stuff and the kids respond to his advice. He built steamboat after he retired.

Mort Nyberg - Squaw Valley, can coach and win, plus a former downhiller, stupid fast when he wants to be.

Thedo Remmelink - Steamboat, great guy, Olympic competitor, good feel coach.

Heath VanAken - RETIRED US Team, Best laugh on the hill, great for body awareness, drive and focus - catch him at Camp Woodward.

Jordan Slough - Hunter/Whiteface, awesome lady, I want to give her a job, in Colorado, if she wants to come out, a little short on experience, but she will motivate you to be your best.

Phil Fell, Park City, former racer, so so skier, rancantour, knows more than he thinks and created a stong program in the shadow of the US Team.

Steve Persons - Whitefish, The famous Team Fish, travels the world spreading the good word. Fast rider, smooth coach, sets nasty courses. Strong coach for the ladies and twenty something men.
Can't nominate myself so these are my guys!

[philfell]

Aside from those mentioned by Dragonfly, I have to give my nod to Jeff Archibald, current U.S. mens world cup coach. He has deep roots in snowboarding, and has spent many years racing at a very high level (finished 2nd in the world cup G.S. standings in '99). He has helped my snowboarding more than he knows.

[dragonfly jones]

Gee thanks Phil for leaving me out????

[philfell]

I said aside from those mentioned by yourself, and you did mention yourself at the end. I'm sorry though you do have a great long lasting program which is hard to find these days, and you also have more style than almost all other coaches (except for myself of cours), the only thing that I can think of that brings you down in my book is sometimes when you set delays in your courses they don't flow as well as they could.

[dragonfly jones]

yeah that was a little goofy - there should not have been a delay, confusion between, setter (myself) Andrew, the high school helpers conspired against us.

Nah thanks man I love you too. What is your plan for the summer.

[philfell]

Back to building big houses for the summer. I'm thinking about putting together a camp at Hood if I can get enough people to commit I'm thinking end of June or early Aug. Other than that I have some rock climbing to get done this summer and I'll probably end up getting into some sort of adventure on my Mt. Bike.

[timinor]

Kevin Delaney - Seeing him board inspired me and he gave me that one coaching tip that made it all come together for me.

[Skully]

Anyone here every work with Jerry Masterpool (or however you spell his name) back in the Cross-M days?

[timinor]

Never did meet Masterpool but some of the very best riders back then thought he was the first and last word.

For me...I learned more from Kevin Delaney than I could ever hope. He is a class act too. I was a snowboard instructor and Kevin came to my area with the F2 rep in early December. He was giving a half day clinic with about 10 of the instructors. We all gathered at the base lodge to meet. He came in and went up to each one of us to learn our names.
He came to me and I said, "Hi, I'm Tim."
He made eye contact, smiled, and said with complete sincerity, "Tim, it's my pleasure. I'm Kevin Delaney."
From that moment, he remembered everyone's name and the clinic was fantastic.
The following March he came back to the ski area for another clinic. We passed each other as he was coming into the lodge. I called out, "Kevin!"
He stopped, looked at me and said, "Tim, how have you been?"
That was the year he won the world championship. How many people had he met in those 4 months? He remembered all of our names. The guy is a class act...and so is his brother by the way.

Tim

[philfell]

I've been around Jerry and have seen him work, it's all or nothing with that guy. People who have worked with him either say he is the best coach ever or that he is a jerk, there isn't much in between. Personally I think that what he gets his athletes to do is amazing he has the ability to bring out the best performances in people and won't let excuses get in the way. But for some people his hard nose approach is a little over the top. Just being near him make you want to step it up.

[Fried Okra]

Sounds like you guys are both coaches right now. How did you guys get your start in racing and who were your coaches back in the day or at least your coaches who were most influential?

[Fried Okra]

How long has Steve Persons been with Team Fish?

[philfell]

Steven has been with Team Fish since the start (it's his own private team) which is about four or five seasons, before that he was with the Sun Valley program. I started raceing in '93 my first coach was Si Axtel, a local ski coach that let me run his gates, then I've spent time with Doug Scanlan, Nick Colavito, Jeff Arcibald, and Steve Persons. Arch and Persons helped me have my biggest high level break throughs.

[dragonfly jones]

I also started with ski coaches and moved onto Karl Michelle, did a camp or two with Jerry M as a rider, Dave Lewis, Heath VanAken, learned from Mallon, Remmelink, Phil taught me something at USASA, Runes and Nyberg, Rob Worrell, Aldo Radamus (skicoaches that I have been priviledged to know) Nick Smith, Greg Salmon, Martin, Greg Ballard and Derek Nishan, from Canada.

[Fried Okra]

Thanks guys for responding. I like to know the names out there to look for and appreciate.

And it's always good to remember where we came from, I think...

My experience is just beginning, but I want to remember those who help and influenced me...

You both sound like dedicated passionate guys, wool beanie's and helmets off to you. I wouldn't be surprised if the athletes you coach, included you someday in their list of influential and memorable coaches. Right on!

Look forward to absorbing any wisdom you have to pass on in the future and on this messaging board.

[ncermak]

not growing up in a ski/board family and never competing, my most influential coaches come from the othersports i played. Cal Wynot, Curt Sawyer, most importantly, my dad.

on snow, Bill Enos (waterville) and Alan Smarse (Holderness) have helped a lot, Jim Cox (Proctor Academy) gave me my first tips on alpine gear, Ski coaches Jim MacMahon (sunapee), Bill Andrews (sunapee) Bob Underhill (sunapee) Frank Maconnel (Bob Skinners Ski and Sport + Newport High school) all taught me tons, Tim LaVallee (Gould - Sunday River) Gave me the foundations.

-Noah

[LeeW]

Coach Will Garrow.

[THEHEINEL]

Steve Persons of Team Fish is the best Snowboard Racing Coach in the World. Himself having been one of the best racers in the world he has insights and technical skills that you won't find in other coaches. Most importantly though is the way he presents this information to his riders. He always finds a way to get you to understand, which is a skill that has been lacking in other professional coaches over the years, plus he knows exactly what you are going through as an athlete physicaly, psychologicaly, and financialy. I have had 8 or 9 coaches in my snowboard racing career and have far and away made the biggest improvements with Steve.

[timinor]

What is the name of the race coach that was also the founder of High Cascade Snowboard Camps?

[Coldrider]

That would likely be John Calkins.

[vlad westervaeld]

I trained under Jerry Masterpool in the late 80s, early 90s.
I used to bum lifts with him and tara, in the back of their pickemup, to pratice at Donner and Boreal.
Jerry changed everything I ever thought I knew about riding, and made it impossible, to this day, for me to rediscover recreational carving.
he near-beat the eurocarving outta us all.
With what I gleaned from my cross-m days I was able to place nicely when I entered the euro circuits, as I rode diametrically opposite their style.
I didn't know Steve persons became a coach... me and my team manager found him up in Burlington Airport on cold spring night while picking up teammates of our won...he was wnadering around the airport with a big 181 bag and his brother-in-law's US team helmet (Tommy Moe) , and I invited him to come back with us to stay in thethe race room which the mountaineer hotel in peryu had set up for us for the Open. He placed well in that Open, I 'sat' on the 3rd gate of the DH on National.
smooth rider, sweet, modest and unassuming montanite.
He told us cool stories of the recent filming of "a river runs through it" in his hometown of whitefish. Nice guy.
I seriously miss jerry, he gave me and another ex-cross-M-er the nod to lay the groundwork for an East Coast Cross-M foundation at bromely, back in the mid 90s.
me ans shawn caused so much chaos from our Bondville digs that we had to flee Vermont..shawn back to Tahoe, me back to Europe:biggthump