Shane McConkey Dead at age 39

As a skier I’ve always had heroes. When I was a little kid I imagined myself as Steve Podborski, one of the original Crazy Canucks. Pod was a downhill god, I wanted to follow in his footsteps, blitzing the field on The Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel and taking world cup gold. It was not to be, I never was much of a racer, ice hockey practice, moguls and powder got in the way. Pod lead to a guy names Scot Schmidt – they broke the free-ski mold when Scot arrived on the scene. The father of Extreme Skiing and my ski hero for most of my youth. I longed to carve lines, drop cliffs and be as cool as Scot Schmidt. Eventually Scot slowed down a bit and let the next generation have a go. In the mid 90’s a Vancouver transplant by the name of Shane McConkey arrived on the scene. From the get-go he was a better skier then anybody around. His ability on steep technical lines was beyond what anybody thought possible. Where I wanted to be faster then Podborski and as good as Schmidt – there was something different about McConkey – I knew I’d never be as good as him.

After a while Shane got into Base jumping and raised that sport to a new level too. He did it all with joy, humor (lots of humor) and a commitment to excellence. He inspired a generation of action-sport folks and will be sadly missed by those that knew him in person or just by his amazing exploits on film. Shane died today in a base jumping accident in Italy – the details are not known yet, but you can imagine what happened. You could take solace in the fact that he died doing what he loved, or you could as I do, remember that he lived his life to the full and did it all with a smile planted on his face.



Seeya Saucerboy – we’ll miss ya!
S