Former freestyle pros reunite on Idaho snows

The sunny skies above Schweitzer Mountain Resort on Saturday made for the best kind of reunion, one in which 20-year-old friendships were rekindled as skis swooped through sugary snow with cameras rolling.

In the mid-1980s, a group of guys made a name for themselves as professional freestyle skiers, flying off jumps and twisting their bodies through the air as part of aerial shows sponsored by companies like Volvo. They won championships and traveled the world, eventually going off in separate directions to begin new phases of their lives.

On Saturday, five of those former freestyle pros got together to go skiing in North Idaho, which is home to two of them — Bob Legasa and Dan Herby. Both left town to launch professional ski careers after graduating from Coeur d’Alene High School, but they eventually returned.

“We all ran away from home when we were 18,” said Bob Howard, of Reno, while waiting his turn to descend a slope on Schweitzer’s backside.

The reunion had a dual purpose. Legasa runs Freeride Promotions, a television and event production company that films ski shows for distribution on cable and network broadcast stations nationwide. The shows, called Freeride Adventures, are created in partnership with Peak Video Productions, run by Jim Bolser and Robin Briley.

The team began filming a new show on Saturday. This one will focus on Bob Vogel, one of the former freestyle champions, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a ski accident 21 years ago. Since his accident, Vogel has become a leader in promoting “adaptive” ski programs and teaches people with a range of disabilities to ski at Alpine Meadows near Lake Tahoe.

“There’s literally nobody we can’t get skiing,” Vogel said, sitting in his mono-ski, holding short metal poles with skis attached to the bottoms.

Peak Video Productions and Freeride Promotions do two half-hour-long programs annually, which each take about three weeks to put together, Bolser said. The show will take them to Park City in Utah next week and to Tamarack ski resort in Idaho after that. The shows run throughout North America on 350 channels and are included on the in-flight entertainment program of two airlines, Bolser said.

“I call it the ultimate scam,” Bolser said. “We get to do what we love to do.”

Bolser also works as a television cameraman on an independent contractor basis. Legasa’s full-time job is with Discovery Builders Idaho, a company constructing an exclusive golf community on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

With Freeride Promotions, Legasa also puts on Yoke’s Outrageous Air Show and the Freeride Institute, both at Schweitzer.

The institute brings in big names in freestyle skiing to teach others.

Legasa and Peak Video Productions also film Hidden Runs and Ski Tips, which appear on KXLY, Spokane’s ABC affiliate.

“We make some money doing it, but mostly we have fun,” Legasa said. “It keeps us somewhat young.”

Selkirk Powder Co. took the group snowcat-skiing on the backside of Schweitzer on Saturday morning. Rounding out the group were Yale Spina, of Memphis, and locals Bill Savitz, John Hutchins and Shawn Taylor.

The trip was especially cathartic for Spina, who witnessed the death of a friend in an avalanche two years ago. The outing Saturday was his first in the backcountry since that accident, he said.

His smile grew as the group swooped down through trees and open meadows.

“For me, this is significant,” Spina said. “I’ve had some of the funnest days of my life with these guys. We’ve skied all over the world together, but this is the first time we’ve skied together in their hometown.”