Tag: Dave Murray

The Great 2×4 Race: Part IIIThe Great 2×4 Race: Part III

December 31, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Whistler Mountain has seen quite a few races over the past six decades, but only one (as far as we’re aware) involved pitting a Crazy Canuck on 2×4 planks against a novice skier who had first skied around a gate just the month before. On Monday, April 22, 1985, however, crowds gathered to watch Dave Murray and Doug Sack go head to head, or, at least ski to plank. (Find Part I and Part II of this story)

After issuing the challenge in December, Sack used his column in the Whistler Question to build up interest in the race and keep the readers updated on his progress as he learned to ski. Various rumours were in circulation by the day of the race, including one that Murray could complete the race course on the 2x4s in only thirty seconds, and as the fateful date approached Sack was head to say “As far as I’m concerned, there are presently seven wonders in the world. If I beat Murray Monday, you can make that eight.”

Doug Sack’s approach to training, as reported in the Whistler Question on April 18, 1985. Whistler Question, 1985

The day of the race, Sack headed up Whistler Mountain at opening, describing the journey as “the longest, loneliest ride of [his] brief skiing career.” After a couple of runs down to the Orange Chair to calm his nerves, Sack ran into Murray on his way up and the two decided to take a run together. Murray hadn’t skied much on his “Crazy Canuck Demos” but the run proved that a Crazy Canuck on 2x4s was equal to a rookie racer, promising an interesting race. According to Sack, “We knew the race was a toss up and we also knew that we were doing something totally hilarious because everyone was laughing when we got back up the Orange to the race start.”

Dave Murray’s “Crazy Canuck Demos” made their debut at Whistler Mountain’s Media Appreciation Day at the end of the 1984 ski season but did not become a regularly used piece of equipment. Whistler Question 1984, photo courtesy of Rob McQuade

The race consisted of three runs. As the pair waited at the starting gates, Sack heard Murray say, “Have a goof run, Doug,” just before the countdown and then they were off. In his recounting of the race, Sack wrote “It doesn’t matter what level skier you are, when you go for it, you go for it. So I went for it… and fell down trying to make the third gate.” Not disqualified, Sack got back up and managed to catch up with Murray, who tried to gain speed ahead of the flats and wiped out. The first run went to Sack.

Riding up the chair together before the second run, Murray and Sack discussed the pressures of the second run and what it felt like on an international stage with much higher stakes. Feeling more confident having completed a run, Sack made an aggressive start to the second run, made it through the first two gates, and lost a ski in the third, somersaulted, and passed the fourth gate on his back. The second run went to Murray.

Tied heading into the third run, Murray and Sack spent their ride up discussing their ambivalence about winning and their determination to have a clean run where both made it to the finish line. Following Cate Webster’s advice not to worry about speed until after the third gate, Sack was in front as the skiers approached the first waterfall. Assured by the crowd that Murray was right behind him, Sack managed to maintain the lead. He was officially proclaimed the winner of The Great 2×4 Race and was presented with a pair of national ski team racing gloves and a gold ski pin from Murray, though Sack still have Murray a gold nugget because “there were no losers in the race.”

Doug Sack and Dave Murray shake hands following the race. Whistler Question, 1985

While reporting on the dedication of Dave Murray Downhill in April 1991, Sack looked back on the race and credited Murray with the development of his alpine race reporting. Following the race, Sack spent a couple of years covering local and Nor-Am races with the support of Murray and then in 1987 Murray set Sack up with national team coach Glenn Wurtele who arranged for him to go to Europe and cover the World Cup circuit. According to Sack, the 2×4 race remained “the funniest thing I’ve seen on skis” and a feat that only Dave Murray would have attempted.

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The Great 2×4 Race: Part IIThe Great 2×4 Race: Part II

December 24, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Last week we introduced “The Great 2×4 Race,” a ski challenge to Dave Murray from Whistler Question sports columnist Doug Sack in 1984. As a very new skier, Sack’s challenge to the Crazy Canuck was ambitious, even if Murray would be strapped to two 2×4 planks.

On December 13, 1984, Sack used his “Inside Edge” column to report on his first experience on the hill. According to him, his first bash at skiing last week could roughly be called a success in that I got back down alive off Whistler.” It wasn’t all bad and Sack was determined to continue, despite the steep learning curve, adding that “the scenery ain’t bad either.” Sack continued to report on his skiing progress over the next few months, building up interest in the coming race by exaggerating his failures, triumphs, and the developing worrylines of Murray.

Early in the new year, Sack got some professional help with his endeavour, beginning with a lesson on Skidder on Blackcomb Mountain from Nancy Greene and leading to his announcement on January 17 that we “the weekday King of Lower Gandy Dancer!” (Sack also, in the same article, addressed Greene to ask “What are the poles for?”) Continuing to practice on Blackcomb (specifically on Skidder for two weeks), Sack progressed to longer runs and longer skis, trying out blue runs and 190s in February and likening the experience to “driving a load of timber downhill with no brakes.”

Doug Sack shows off his “ski look.” Whistler Question Collection, 1985

In March, Sack finally got his own brand new pair of skis instead of the rentals he had been using. While attending the Volvo Ski Show, Sack got talking to Casey Niewerth, owner of Skyline Sports stores in Vancouver, Whistler’s Mountain’s original Jolly Green Giant, and, luckily for Sack, then the Canadian sales rep for RD (Research Dynamic) Skis’ new Coyote skis out of Sun Valley, Idaho. Niewerth arranged for a pair of 200 Coyotes for Sack as he set about learning the art of gates from Blackcomb Ski Club coach Dave Kerwynn.

Gate training began with a run down the GS course with no instruction, letting Kerwynn get an idea of what he was working with. From there, the pair worked to correct mistakes and improve Sack’s time. His first runs and wipe outs down a race course gave Sack a new perspective on ski racing, a sport that he had not previously spent much time following. On March 28, Sack wrote: “Ski racing very well could be the ultimate pinnacle of athletic challenge and satisfaction. The thin razor’s edge is so clearly defined: if you go too fast, you wipe out; if you don’t go fast enough, you struck out.”

Casey Niewerth holds a ski as Dave Murray “cuts the ribbon” at the opening of the Kerrisdale Skyline Sports in 1979, six years before he arranged skis for Doug Sack. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

Over the early months of 1985, plans for the race solidified. A date was chosen (April 22, 1985) and a format decided on. Though Murray nixed the anvil and anchor that Sack had originally proposed, he did consent to race on the two 2×4 planks that had been dubbed “Crazy Canuck Demos.”

Despite challenging a former national ski team member and current Director of Skiing to a race, Sack did not expect to become a highly proficient or technical skier in his first season, calling that goal “hopeless.” Instead, he reportedly wanted to claim bragging rights by being able to “ski gates fast enough to make Murray wipeout on his 2×4’s” and become a good enough skier to “cover the national championships on mountain and get back down to the bottom alive,” a reasonable goal for a sports reporter in a town that hosted World Cup races and took skiing and ski racing quite seriously.

We’ll be back next week with race results and a conclusion to the unique race on Whistler Mountain.

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The Great 2×4 Race: Part OneThe Great 2×4 Race: Part One

December 17, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

On November 29, 1984, the Whistler Question published the first “Inside Edge” column by Doug Sack, a new addition to the local paper. Doug Sack came to Whistler from the Yukon where he had been working as a catskinner in the mines. His first job in Whistler was working as a catskinner for Art Den Duyf in gravel pits, which Sack once described as “gold mines without the pipelines and sluice boxes.”

Sack, who also had some experience in sportswriting, was taken on by Question editor Kevin Griffin and owner/publisher Glenda Bartosh to provide dedicated and comprehensive sports coverage for the paper for the winter of 1984/85. Perhaps unexpectedly for a town that had by then successfully hosted two FIS World Cup downhill races, Sack was not a skier.

Dave Murray racing down a course. Murray Collection

In his first column, Sack wrote that he intended to “open lines of communication that will facilitate the flow of sports news into the office.” According to Sack, this line of communication also brought him an offer of ski instruction from none other than Nancy Greene. Sack had declared his intent to take up skiing “in a personal quest to bring Skidder and Ego Bowl to their knees.” Greene’s offer was fortuitous as in his next column Sack issued a unique ski race challenge to Dave Murray, at the time the Director of Skiing for Whistler Mountain.

During a meeting in Murray’s office, Sack had reportedly noticed two 2×4 planks with bindings mounted and a hand-painted label that read “Crazy Canuck Demos” that had been given to Murray when he retired from ski racing. According to Sack, the planks “looked skiable.” On December 6, 1984, Sack used his column to issue this challenge for a spring race: “I get to do whatever I want (or can) and you [Dave Murray] have to wear 2×4’s for skis, carry an anvil and drag an anchor down the course.”

Dave Murray instructing on Whistler Mountain as the Director of Skiing. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

The odds might seem to have been stacked in Sack’s favour, but he wasn’t proposing to race against just any skier. Born in Abbotsford, Dave Murray grew up skiing on Whistler Mountain and started racing as a teenager, even attending the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp. He joined the national ski team in 1971 and through the 1970s became known as one of the Crazy Canucks, alongside teammates Ken Read, Dave Irwin and Steve Podborski. Murray represented Canada at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games and in 1979 was ranked third in downhill by the FIS and named British Columbia’s Athlete of the Year. Even though Murray retired from ski racing in 1982, he didn’t exactly stop skiing or racing.

The Crazy Canucks: head coach John Ritchie, Ken Read, Dave Murray, Dave Irwin, Steve Podborski, assistant coach Heinz Kapler. Murray Collection

When he was hired as Whistler Mountain’s Director of Skiing, Murray already had a vision of using race training techniques to help improve the abilities of recreational skiers, in part through organized recreational races. Murray became the National Chair of the Canadian Masters Alpine Series (an adult recreational racing series) and took over the summer ski camps on Whistler Mountain. Two years into retirement, even skiing on wooden planks (the anvil and anchor were dropped as race details were nailed down), Murray was a formidable opponent for a skier who had only just begun learning the sport.

Next week we’ll take a look at how Doug Sack prepared for “The Great 2×4 Race” as he ventured into the world of skiing.

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Skiing by the Book with Toni SailerSkiing by the Book with Toni Sailer

March 19, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Book learning may not be the first method that comes to mind when teaching someone to ski, but looking through the museum’s reference shelf you’ll find multiple examples of publications aiming to improve skiers’ technique and ability, often attached to at least one notable name. One such book is Ski with Toni Sailer in Flip Vision Photographs from 1964, though the copy at the museum is a reprint from 1967.

The front cover of Ski with Toni Sailer in Flip Vision Photographs.

Toni Sailer, born in Austria in 1935, became the first ski racer to sweep all three disciplines at the Olympic Winter Games in 1956 when we won the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom in Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) at the age of 19. Sailer acted (and skied) in films, recorded albums, developed business interests in ski equipment and clothing, worked for the Austrian Skiing Association, was named “Austrian Sportspersonality of the Year” from 1956 to 1958 and “Austrian Sportspersonality of the Century.” He also won four gold medals in world competitions before retiring from ski racing in 1959 and was awarded the Olympic Order in 1985. Around Whistler, however, he might be best known for his work with the summer ski camps on Whistler Mountain beginning in 1967.

Whistler Mountain hosted its first summer ski camp in 1966, the summer after the mountain had opened to skiers. The camp offered coaching to intermediate and advanced skiers, as well as junior racers. From 1967, the Racing Camp was run under the personal direction of Toni Sailer, described by Garibaldi’s Whistler News as “one of the greatest Alpine racers of all time.” Skiers from 9 to 20 came to Whistler Mountain to train with Sailer and the camp became known as the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp (the camp’s wooden sign is currently on display at the Whistler Museum). Over the years, other notable names came to coach on Whistler Mountain as well, including Nancy Greene, Wayne Wong, and Crazy Canuck Dave Murray, who took over direction of the camp in 1984.

Toni Sailer and Nancy Green on the 1979 Molson World Cup Downhill course on Whistler Mountain. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

While not as hands-on as coaching at the summer ski camps, Ski with Toni Sailer is an interesting (and often entertaining) look at Sailer’s approach to skiing. Costing only $1 in 1967 (adjusted for today, that would be just under $9), the book is meant to supplement rather than replace formal instruction and readers are encouraged also to visit a “reputable certified ski school.”

Ski with Toni Sailer opens with the statement “Skiing is the superlative of all sports” and goes on to say the “Skiing is more than just a sport. It is a way of life, an addiction that becomes a part of you.” After making it clear that there is no minimum or maximum age required to ski (Sailer describes his father introducing him to the sport at the age of two), the book moves to practical matters such as picking the right equipment and clothing. Though much of this advice has changed over the past sixty years as skis have gotten shorter and clothing designs have evolved, some advice, such as how to grip your ski pole, appears to be timeless.

Flipping through the book shows Toni Sailer move through four different techniques at once.

After stretching and strengthening exercises, the skier is led onto the hill and instructed on how to walk and turn on their skis. This is followed by chapters dedicated to specific techniques such as snow-plow turns, sideslipping, and slalom. Perhaps the best part of the book are the Flip Vision photographs that accompany these chapters. Skiers can watch Toni Sailer demonstrate twelve different techniques “as you would view a motion picture” simply by flipping the pages before trying them out themselves.

While this is not the only flip book produced to teach skiing, today the ease of making, viewing, and sharing videos means that books are an uncommon method of teaching the sport. If, however, you’re interested in perfecting your technique be seeing how Toni Sailer did it, come by and check out the museum’s reference section.

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