Whistler Museum and Archives Society

Off the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in WhistlerOff the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in Whistler

January 30, 2024 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

What’s your favourite mountain, Blackcomb or Whistler? As many know, this has been a hot debate since Blackcomb’s opening in 1980. It amped up even further when snowboarding was welcomed with open arms on Blackcomb Mountain in the winter of 1987/88. Whistler Mountain proceeded with caution before they allowed boarders to shred the slopes a season later.

According to Dave Murray in 1988 interview, “The mountain doesn’t have any problems with snowboards on the mountain in the long term, but in the short term Whistler is very concerned with looking ahead and planning relatively slowly when new innovations come into play.”

Unidentified rider shredding Blackcomb Mountain. Do you know the rider or photographer? Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Unknown Photographer

Whistler Mountain waited to see how the sport did on Blackcomb before snowboarders were invited to Whistler, largely due to the popular perceptions of snowboarders at the time. Snowboarding was already booming in the United States by the time it reached Canada in the early 1980s. The sport attracted a younger crowd and a few black sheep would come off as reckless and rude. Many skiers believed it was dangerous for them to be allowed on the mountain, that it would result in injuries and constant issues. And some skiers didn’t act too kindly toward them, as Ken Achenbach, Dano Pendygrasse and Doug Lundgren recall they were spat on and sworn at, and one skier even threw a shovel at them. There were even fist fights between boarders and skiers in the Blackcomb terrain park, which was run by snowboarders at the time.

But, snowboarding was in its early days – it needed time and space to innovate, integrate, and evolve.

On Blackcomb, Dave Perry, VP of Marketing, recalled that they did extensive research of how it was going in the States before allowing snowboarders on the mountain. Their research showed there was not actually a problem. He said:

We’ve got a considerable number of snowboarders on the mountain, they tend to congregate in certain areas, they’ll find a spot with a tube shape with a big winddrift or something and play there. They don’t mix on the main runs as some people think.

Blackcomb’s support, and later Whistler’s, was crucial to the boom snowboarding had in Canada, with many crediting the resort as the centre of Canadian snowboarding.

A snowboarder cruises across the slushy and chilly water at the 1994 Slush Cup. Whistler Question Collection, Dianne Whelan

For anyone that thought this was a fad, well, they were wrong.

A lot has happened in the last 30+ years, but snowboarding is still a relatively young sport, meaning the museum does not have as much information or as many records of it as we do for sports like skiing. In the last decade, however, the museum has received some great content about snowboarding, along with cool artifacts, and will be using these to recognize the sport and a few of the riders involved.

On January 31 (from 6:30 – 9pm), the Whistler Museum will open our latest exhibit, Off the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in Whistler, where we go through the beginnings of snowboarding in Whistler and the impact it has had on the resort and the sport. Off the Lip will be on exhibit until April 30, 2024.

This is also a chance to showcase some of the amazing photographs we have from collections, including Greg Griffith, Blackcomb Mountain, and the Whistler Question. Over the course of the exhibit, we’ll be sharing several images of snowboarders that we were not able to display physically. For many of these photographs, we have little information on the riders and are hoping you might be able to fill in the gaps with names and other details.

Promotional card for Stephanie Sloan’s Women Only Oxygen Snowboard Clinic (1994). Stephanie Sloan Collection

As professional hoarders, we are always looking to expand our knowledge of subjects, so let us know if there is anything you are inspired to share or show us.

We hope to ignite memories through our exhibits. Two subjects around snowboarding that I’m particularly curious about are: did you take a snowboard lesson with world champion freestyle skier Stephanie Sloan? Were you part of the Rad Mad Mom’s Club, a group of women who hit the slops with Whistler Mountain’s first snowboard instructor, Greg Daniells?

Whistler's Answers

Whistler’s Answers: January 24, 1985Whistler’s Answers: January 24, 1985

January 25, 2024 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Another year, another year of questions and answers!

In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1985. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.

Some context for this week’s question: In 1985, developers proposed to build a convenience store and laundromat on the corner of Alpine Way and Highway 99. While some people were opposed to the idea, many in the community supported the idea. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site in July 1986 and by the end of the year residents could stop by McKeever’s General Store and Dirty Harry’s Laundromat. You can learn more about the businesses and Harry McKeever here.

Question: Do you think there should be a convenience store in Alpine Meadows?

Chris Sloan – Logger – Nesters

Definitely. It’s just too inconvenient to come all the way into the village for a quart of milk. Besides, it might give some of the other places more competition.

Laurel Gibbard – Front Desk Clerk – Brio

I think it’s a good idea. I think it would be helpful for those people who live there who wouldn’t have to come into town for every little thing. I would not want to see it open all night, though. 11 in the evening would be fine.

Roger Moxley – Construction Worker – Chaplainville

Yes. It would service Emerald, Alpine and probably even a token number from the West Side Road. But you have to ask: is it for the residents or for the tourists? Obviously a local convenient store would be for the local residents.

Museum News & Events

Valley GlidesValley Glides

January 24, 2024 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

The Whistler Museum has teamed up with Whistler Nordics to present our first Speaker Series event of 2024 and to learn more about the history of the sport in Whistler! We’ll be joined by Tom Barratt, Keith Bennett, and Stephanie Sloan to find out more about early trails, the role of the municipality , the founding of the Whistler Nordic Ski Club and more.

Valley Glides will b presented at the Lost Lake PassivHaus on Monday, February 5. Doors open at 6:30pm; talk begins at 7pm. Tickets are $10 ($5 for Museum or Whistler Nordics members) and are available at the Whistler Museum in-person or by phone.

Ski before you come! Trail passes for Lost Lake will be $6.50 after 3pm.

Shopping on a SundayShopping on a Sunday

January 23, 2024 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

As a resort town, we’re pretty used to finding shops, restaurants, and recreation facilities open most days, including weekends and most holidays. In the 1980s, the idea of shopping on Sunday was debated in municipalities across British Columbia and, in some places, could be quite divisive. When the Grocery Store was getting ready to open in January 1981, it was even unclear whether it could technically be open seven days a week.

The first federal legislation governing Sunday operations, the Lord’s Day Act, was introduced in 1907 and prohibited “commercial activity” on Sundays with few exceptions. Because of jurisdictional debate, provinces also created their own versions of this type of legislation, often called “blue laws.” These laws were becoming less popular by the 1950s and by the 1960s some municipalities were petitioning the provincial government to amend their charters to allow certain commercial activities on Sundays. In Vancouver, for example, people voted to allow sports such as baseball games in 1958 and later entertainment such as movies in 1962.

When the Whistler Grocery Store was getting ready to open in January 1981, it was unclear whether they could be open on Sundays. By the time they opened later in the month, they had hours seven days a week. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.

In late 1980, the provincial government under premier Bill Bennet and the Social Credit Party passed the Holiday Shopping Regulations Act (HSRA), which banned shopping on Sundays and on holidays with some exceptions but allowed municipalities to hold referendums to approve a local bylaw to allow Sunday shopping.

At first, the Whistler council felt that a referendum would not be necessary due to the exclusions included in the Act, though it was unclear whether resorts were in fact excluded. Many businesses in Whistler had been operating on Sundays for years without issue, often with Sunday as their busiest day of the week, and most continued to do so. Following protests by businesses in Vancouver’s Gastown who wanted to continue opening on Sundays and with the threat of a $10,000 (adjusted for inflation, over $30,000 today), council held a special meeting on January 12, 1981 and gave the first three readings to Bylaw 197, which would allow for the operation of retail businesses on holidays and Sundays. Once approved by the provincial government, a referendum would be held to determine the fate of Sunday shopping in the resort.

Ski shops in particular had busy Sundays, but the legislation brought into question whether they could sell equipment or only rent it out. Whistler Question Collection, 1983

The Whistler Question dedicated multiple editorials to the issue of Sunday shopping and the HSRA. On January 15, they stated “Businesses continue to operate seven days a week as they always have and while we are not an historic site (yet), we are a recreational one and should therefore also be exempted from the asinine regulations.” They also pointed out that some of the exceptions from HSRA were unclear, depending on whether you defined a number of employees as those working at one given time or all who were on the payroll. In one example, the exclusion of businesses offering rentals of sports and recreation equipment and goods did not mention what would happen if the businesses also sold such items, leading the Question to ask, “Does this mean you can rent skis but you can’t buy goggles on a Sunday?”

“Open Daily” signs did not have to come down after Whistler voters decided to support Sunday and holiday shopping. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.

After the referendum was announced for February, the Question encouraged eligible voters to get out and support the proposed bylaw. According to their editorial, “it is obvious to us that the future of Whistler as a ski area, never mind a full-fledged destination resort, hinges on the continual operation fo all stores on Sundays and holidays… Just remember that when you are on vacation, you expect every day to be the same, and this is true for Sundays also.”

It turned out that Sunday shopping was not a very divisive issue in Whistler, though it would take years and hotly debated votes to approve similar bylaws in other municipalities. 404 voters (about 30% of eligible voters) voted in the referendum: 393 for; 7 spoiled (they were all in favour but marked a tick instead of an “x”); 4 against. The result was a 99% majority and by the end of February Bylaw 197 had been officially adopted, making Sunday shopping unequivocally legal in Whistler. In 1985, the Lord’s Day Act was ruled to contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in the late 1980s a court made a similar decision to end BC’s provincial laws that still banned Sunday and holiday opening hours.