Two ski instructors from Rockwood want people to know hockey isn’t the only winter sport.
Brothers Cam and Greg Munro started skiing on their annual family vacations when they were just three years old, with their parents, Scott and Janie, pulling them down the hill with hula-hoops.
Now 16 and 19 respectively, the guys work at the Glen Eden Ski and Snowboard park in Milton teaching downhill and freestyle skiing.
They say part of the reason the sport isn’t as popular as hockey stems from increased accessibility to arenas and leagues, coupled with certain misconceptions people have about the skiing – namely that it’s slow-paced and laid back.
“The way I separate myself from a kid who plays hockey is I’m not in a league – I’m not forced to go out and play that game. I can go wherever I want, I can do whatever I want, I can be with whoever I want,” Cam says.
“It’s more of a free environment. You can progress as much or as little as you want.”
Janie said as parents they simply wanted to be able to participate too.
“There’s nothing wrong with hockey, we’ve just always did things as a family, we didn’t want to sit on the bench watching,” she said.
However, in rural Canadian communities, explaining that you prefer skiing over hockey isn’t always easy, says Scott.
“You get parents who say, ‘well if your kids aren’t playing hockey, then they’re not playing any sport,’ but there are a lot more winter Sports – this is Canada.”
Cam and Greg specialize in freestyle skiing – and one only has to chat with them for a few minutes to realize it is far from boring.
As opposed to the traditional downhill slalom, freestyle skiing is made up of a series of maneuvers, including aerials, moguls, crosses and half-pipes.
Unlike other Sports, Cam says it can take years to become skilled at freestyle. He says he only got “really good” in the last couple of years and there’s still so much to learn.
“It took me probably 10 years before I actually got to the terrain park and started to get good because you have to have really good balance and confidence in your skiing,” he says.
“And it’s not easy to learn,” Greg interjects. “You can learn soccer in a couple of days. With skiing you have to learn so much. It takes a while to learn to ski properly to get to this point.”
Both agree any move performed in the park can go horribly awry if timing is not executed properly, but the hardest tricks involve changing direction – which typically means approaching a jump or obstacle backwards.
This is called a “switch”.
“Backflips or front flips are a little easier, but then there’s things called ‘rodeos’ or ‘misties,’” says Greg.
A rodeo involves rolling forward over the shoulder while doing a spin – inverted, but not completely upside down. A misty is the opposite: rolling backwards off the shoulder. These types of moves typically involved a 540-degree rotation.
“Anything where you have to switch, so anything backwards – anything where you’re jumping onto a rail backwards is a bit harder. It’s a little bit challenging,” Greg adds.
Because of the intensity and high impact of the manoeuvres involved in freestyle skiing, Cam says he can go through up to five pairs of skis in a season.
“Mine aren’t nearly as bad as his,” says Greg. “I get little cracks here and there, but his full-on snap in half.”
Cam says he also enjoys the fact that he can move upwards in skiing without the intense competition associated with Sports like hockey.
“I don’t like competing because it’s not really fun,” he explains. “Sure you’re skiing and enjoying yourself but I’d rather go out and be with my friends skiing and have a fun time with them … I don’t really take my skiing super seriously.”
Despite claiming he is just out to have fun, marketing staff at Glen Eden approached Cam last year, hoping he would agree to be in a promotional video for the park – and the film was then shown at the Toronto Snow Show.
“My boss [had] seen me running through the park all the time and asked if I wanted to film my runs, so I was like ‘yeah sure’,” he said with a laugh.
“They did a couple other videos of some snowboarders, but I was the only skier – they wanted to promote lessons for the terrain park so people would watch and be like, ‘Oh he looks good, I wanna get a lesson from him.’”
Greg is one of the few instructors authorized to teach freestyle skiing at Glen Eden, and Cam is hoping to get certified later this winter.
They have also attended ski camp in Oregon where they received instruction from industry professionals. Ultimately they say they are happy to see kids trying their hand at it – and that there is a growing demand for instruction in this type of skiing.
“It’s a progressing sport right now,” says Cam. “It’s not like hockey where it’s well-known and everybody knows about it. As soon as you say skiing, they think downhill racing.”
With freestyle skiing added to the Olympic Games for the first time in Sochi, the guys hope the sport will continue to grow – if only so they can stop explaining what it is to hockey and snowboard aficionados.
“For the past 10 years, [kids] just wanted to go snowboarding because that’s the ‘cool’ thing to do,” said Cam.
“Skiing wasn’t really recognized as ‘cool’. But since park skiing has gotten a little bigger, kids are looking at it and saying, ‘I can ski, I want to try that’ and they’re not switching over to snowboarding.”
The family has made a point of travelling to a ski resort every winter visiting hills in Vermont, Quebec, Maine and Western Canada. So far, the guys say their favourite place has been Lake Louise, Alberta.
“The hills are so fun and their terrain park there was unreal,” says Greg. “By far the best one we’ve been to.”
“It’s like a half an hour run,” Cam adds. “Whereas in Ontario you can be down [the hill] in 30 seconds.”
Terrain parks are the big draw, they say. That’s why, for them, exploring Europe’s slopes and downhill focus can wait. Right now they have their sights set on Whistler, British Columbia.
“You don’t want to go to a park and spend your money on a lift ticket and not enjoy yourself and have two jumps and a rail or something,” Cam explains. “You want a lot of variety and some cool features.”
Although they are hoping for lots of precipitation this season, they say the frigid temperatures of last winter can hold off.
“That wasn’t fun. The coldest day I worked was like minus-45 with the wind chill,” says Cam. “It was nuts.”
“We thought it was amazing that you guys always went out the door and never complained once about the cold,” Scott interjects.
Cam laughs. “Until you get up on the chair lift, then you’re like, ‘I want to go home.’”
For more information about lessons, snow school or skiing at Glen Eden, visit www.gleneden.on.ca.
