Shane McConkey

My hero is Shane McConkey a revolutionary in action sports history and a legend and pioneer in the skiing community. Shane was born on December 30th 1969 in Vancouver British Columbia and died March 26th 2009 in the Italian Dolomite Mountains. He was 39 years old with a daughter and a loving wife of five years. Shane grew up near Squaw Valley, Colorado, with his mom. Being surrounded by the mountain culture his whole life and both his parents being involved in the ski community, it was Shane's destiny to become who he was. Shane grew up ski racing, attending Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont pursuing his dream of making the U.S National Ski Team.

Burke Mountain Academy has a storied history of pushing the biggest, strongest, and fastest athletes to the highest level of the sport. Being a highly competitive establishment with extremely competitive athletes it was hard for younger students to fit in. In spite of that Shane found his own way to become recognized and that was by way of doing extreme, outrageous, and ridiculous acts. After his five years at Burke Shane had evolved into a charismatic individual whom the ski community adored. When he was told he did not make the US Ski Team he was lost and did not know what to do. Through Burke, he was able to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder where he was a huge player in the ski community. Just like many other young students his academics began to slip and he was expelled from the school by ski season and that's when his journey to stardom began. He describes himself perfectly with one quote, "I don't read books, I ski, I don't do anything, but ski." The one constant in his life that he could always go back to was his skills on the slopes. Although his ski racing career was over his life as a skier had just began. He was a regular in Vail in his twenties and was the best skier on the mountain. When he started skiing out of Squaw Valley was when he had his big break because Squaw was the hub of the freeskiing world. Shane went on to win world freeskiing opens, world mogul championships, and the worlds heart. Although Shane had a rough go of it after being expelled he was becoming the man he had always dreamed he'd be. Although Shane was nuts - he would do triple flips, ski naked, jump a waterfall in a kayak, and send the biggest cliffs in ski history - he had a completely sane side to him as well, a side that only a select few could see, a benevolent agenda so to speak. Shane became the man that all other extreme sport athletes wanted to be. Travis Pastrana is widely regarded as the greatest extreme sport athlete of all time and when asked about Shane he said "Shane was someone who inspired the impossible. He was never limited by what other people had done, he was only limited by his imagination and he had a wild imagination." Travis goes on to explain that the lifestyle Shane led was honorable and even though he is gone will continue to be a great example for his daughter and the world.

Shane was always looking for new ways to push himself and his sport. He met a man by the name of Frank Gambali who was an avid base jumper. In a way Frank was Shane's mentor early in his base jumping career and as Shane became more experienced Frank moved on. Death was always in the back of Shane's mind and was always going to be a part of his life because of his career choice. When Frank drowned in the upcoming years Shane became fully aware of the true danger of his lifestyle. Shortly after Frank's death, Shane got married to his wife Sherry McConkey whom he had his daughter Ayla with. Even with the imminent threat of death at every move he made the fact that he now had a family would not stop his drive to pioneer his sport. Shane invented Ski Base, an action sport that involved skiing off of thousand foot high cliffs and then pulling a chute and floating down. When he was in the Italian Dolomite Mountains in 2009 he had a fatal accident. His skis would not release when he skied off the edge and he hit terminal velocity in a matter of seconds. He began to spin out of control and could not pull his chute. He fell to his death and the sounds of him hitting the ground could be heard for miles.

Being 15 and a ski racer I see the same insecurity of chasing a dream that Shane had and I feel the same anxiety that I am sure many other adolescents feel, the fear of the unknown, the fear of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Shane's way of life has had a crucial impact on my life and has made me alter my state of mind for the better. He has taught me to take everything in stride and never think too far ahead, and that if you love something you will learn to always make it a part of your life in one way or another, and to keep pushing boundaries and aspire to be different because nobody ever became great by being normal and doing what everyone else is doing. Shane's wife Sherry has always said that "Shane's biggest fear in life was to have an office job, or a real job. It wasn't base jumping or anything like that, his biggest fear was to work nine to five." Shane's mission in life was to evolve skiing for the better and leave a legacy that would stick around long after he was gone. Shane wasn't one for letting the world change him, he set out to change the world.