Shane McConkey - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Shane McConkey was a professional skier. He was born in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, and was based in Squaw Valley

Squaw Valley Ski Resort

Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, California, is one of the largest ski areas in the United States, and was the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. It is the second-largest ski area at Lake Tahoe , with 33 chairlifts, and has the only funitel lift in the U.S...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. He won numerous awards and competitions. McConkey started as a competitive ski racer, but moved on to be featured in a long line of extreme skiing

Extreme skiing

Extreme skiing is skiing performed on long, steep slopes in dangerous terrain. The sport is performed off-piste.The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s...

movies. McConkey was known for combining BASE jumping

BASE jumping

BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...

with skiing, as seen in such feats as skiing into a BASE jump off the Eiger

Eiger

The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...

. McConkey went to Burke Mountain Academy. He was also known for his contributions to ski design, notably being the father of reverse sidecut

Sidecut

The sidecut is a general term for the inner curvature of a ski, snowboard, or skiboard. The sidecut depth is measured as the distance between the waist of the board and an imaginary straight line that strikes both of the contact points at the tip and tail. The sidecut radius is the radial...

and reverse camber skis (aka: skis with rocker); first mounting bindings onto water skis for use in Alaska, then with the Volant Spatula and, more recently, the K2

K2 Sports

K-2, Corporation. was founded in 1961 by brothers Bill and Don Kirschner on Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington. K2 is known for pioneering fiberglass ski technology, which made skis significantly lighter and more lively than their wood and metal contemporaries...

Pontoon ski design. McConkey's high-speed chairlift and ski area at Park City Mountain Resort

Park City Mountain Resort

Park City Mountain Resort is a ski resort in Park City, Utah, located east of Salt Lake City. The resort has been a major tourist attraction for skiers from all over the United States, as well as a main employer for many of Park City's citizens. Park City, as the resort is often called by locals,...

are named after his father, Jim McConkey, who is considered the father of extreme skiing. On April 2, 2011 Shane McConkey was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of fame along with other Truckee skiers, Darren Rahlves and Glen Plake.

Career accomplishments

2005: Nominated for Laureus World Sport Award - World Alternative Sportsperson Of The Year, ranked #1 in Powder Magazine

Powder Magazine

Powder Magazine, Powder House, or Powderworks may refer to:* Gunpowder magazine*Magazine , the general term-in the United States:* Powder Magazine , listed on the NRHP in Alabama...

's Reader Poll and won Powder Magazine’s Full Throttle Award

2004(salut): Ranked #2 again in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll, won Powder Magazine’s Full Throttle award, won Powder Magazine’s Best Helmet Cam award, went ski BASE jumping

BASE jumping

BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...

all over Europe, double front flip off the Eiger

Eiger

The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...

and got married in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

2003: Ranked #2 in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll, completed his first of over 700 BASE jumps

2002: Ranked #1 in Powder Magazine’s Reader Poll and invented a revolutionary powder ski; The Volant Spatula

Volant Spatula

The Spatula was a ski manufactured by Volant skis from 2001 to 2003. It was the first production ski to feature reverse camber as well as reverse side cut. The ski was initially envisioned by professional freeskier Shane McConkey as early as 1996, and he convinced the company to manufacture the...

with reverse camber and reverse sidecut

Sidecut

2001: ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

Action Sport Awards Skier of the Year, Red Bull Ultra Cross’s Big Air Comp - 1st and Ranked #1 in Skiing Magazine’s Top 25 skiers in North America.

Competition results

2000:

Nea Award Winner - Freeskiing Male
Bridge Day Championships - 5th.
3rd Exit Style Winner of Judges Choice Award
Gravity Games Big Mtn. Champion, Gravity Games Skiercross - 6th
Gravity Games Big Air - 7th
X-Games Skiercross - 5th
Japan Core Games Skiercross Champion- 3rd.
Johnny Moseley Invitational - 3rd.

1999:

ESPN X-Games Skier Cross - 2nd.
IFSA World Tour of Freeskiing - 5th.
US Freeskiing Nationals - 5th
World Tour event at Andermatt - 3rd.

1998:

IFSA World Tour of Freeskiing Champion- 2nd.
European Freeskiing Champion- 2nd.
U.S. Freeskiing Nationals - 2nd.
Canadian Freeskiing Championships-4th.

1996:

IFSA Overall World Tour Champion - Unofficial tour- 4th.
European Freeskiing Champion
U.S. Freeskiing Championships-4th.
World Extreme Skiing Championships-6th.

1995:

U.S. National Freeskiing Champion
South American Freeskiing Champion
Pro Mogul Tour Overall - 16th.
1st seed and Japan Super Mogul - 7th.

1994:

South American Freeskiing Champion
World Extreme Skiing Championships-2nd
Pro Mogul Tour Overall-8th
1st seed and Pro Mogul Tour Event at Copper Mtn. - 1st.

Filmography

G.N.A.R. (2010)
In Deep: The Skiing Experience (2009)
Claim (2008)
Seven Sunny Days (2007)
Steep (2007)
Steep (2007 film)
Steep is a 2007 documentary about extreme skiing written and directed by Mark Obenhaus . Steep explores the history of extreme and Big Mountain Skiing, starting with its roots in 1960s and 1970s North America and Europe, with Bill Briggs' now famous first descent of the Grand Teton, and progressing...
Push (2006)
Yearbook (2005)
The Hit List (2005)
Warren Miller's Higher Ground (2005)
Focused (2004)
Ski Movie III: The Front Line (2002)
Ski Movie 2: High Society (2001)
Ski Movie (2000)
There's Something About McConkey (2000)
1999
Global Storming (1999)
Sick Sense (1998)
Pura Vida (1997)
Walls of Freedom (1995)
TGR's The Realm (1994)
Immersion (2002)
Nick Nixon's Alpine Rapture (1993)
Nick Nixon's Ski Theater (1992)

Death

On March 26, 2009, Shane McConkey died while skiing in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. After performing a double back flip, McConkey intended to glide away in his wingsuit, "a stunt he's executed a number of times," according to a statement from Matchstick Productions, the company whose films McConkey often starred in. But McConkey struggled to release his skis. By the time he got them off, he'd been free-falling for 12 seconds and was too close to the ground for his wingsuit or parachute to do him any good. His parachute did not malfunction; it was never deployed. He died on the scene.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.