Spoon Talks STE Freeride Tour

By: Tim Fater

Ski The East Writer

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John Witherspoon is one of the most respected skiers in the East Coast. Coming from humble beginnings in the small town of Montgomery Center, Venter – a few miles from Jay Peak, Spoon, as he’s known, rose to earn the respect of skiers across the country and world. In 2001, he was ranked the #2 freeskier in North America. In 2007, he was ranked #10 in the World. “It was a lot of fun”, he chuckled, “now I want to spread the word to the kids out there around the East Coast”.
 
That’s why he’s been hard at work tapping connections from his days on the International Free Skiers Association (IFSA) Freeskiing World Tour, prepping his Jay Peak Freeskiing Team and rallying the troops for the upcoming Ski The East Freeride Tour. With the help of an old buddy and IFSA President Jim Jack, he’s sealed the deal that the winners of the Ski The East Freeride Tour will automatically pre-qualify for next year’s World Tour. Think he’s joking? Read on.

You grew up skiing Jay Peak?
Yup. My mom was a waitress at the Hotel Jay when I was young. I started skiing kind of randomly. I got free rental gear and tickets because my mom worked at the mountain; I just picked it up one day. It wasn’t until I was in high school that my eyes opened about skiing. I was teaching at the mountain and having a lot of fun. I kept planning to go to college, but it was one of those “I’ll do it next year kind of things”. I ended up getting my degree in ski instructing. When you’re skiing 120-130 days a year, things just start to come together.

How did you transition out West?
I had a friend at the University of Colorado Boulder. I had this beat up old Saab which hadn’t run that whole winter. I resurrected it in the Spring and it made it out West – I had about $20 in my pocket. The night I pulled into town a bunch of guys said they were going to Arapahoe Basin the next day – I remember jumping in: “I’ll go!”. It was May 17, 1989. I searched some mountains and ski towns in Colorado that summer and ended up finding Winter Park. I spent two years ski instructing and getting fully certified. I was just getting my foot in the door.

What did you think of the mountains out there coming from Jay Peak?
I remember it being a lot easier to ski out there. No ice? No shoulder-width trees? Alright!

You were skiing bumps for a few years, right?
Yup. I started on the mogul circuit. I was on the USSA Tour and the Pro Tour for a few years. I was a bit behind the game age-wise, being around 24 or 25. I was competing against high school kids and teenagers – Jeremy Bloom and all those guys. I was chasing a spot on the US Olympic Team spot pretty hard – it was my illusive ‘carrot’. I got close a few times but never got there.

Then I blew my knee out. I was still living in Colorado but was home at Jay Peak for a few weeks trying to get a mogul team going. I was on Liftine under the Bonnie Quad and hit a bump; it wasn’t that hard of a smack, but, “pop!”.

How’d you do getting back into skiing after the surgery and rehab?
I did really well – it turns out that I ended up having my best years of skiing after that surgery. At the time, fat skis were starting to hit the scene. Big mountain skiing was really taking off. I was skiing Berthoud Pass a lot in the early and late season – it was a ‘mom and pop’ type mountain on the way from Denver to Winter Park; but it had great terrain. In 1999 I entered my first free skiing competition – the Berthoud Badass Series. I won it my first few years competing. The mountain is actually closed now – it’s pretty wild; they came in and removed all the lift towers and bases, the lodge, everything. I think that makes me the reigning Berthoud Badass.


So tell me about the IFSA Freeskiing World Tour.
Well, the IFSA is the World Tour. A number of other tours have crept in over the last few years; other North American stops and some smaller series and that sort of thing. There are usually 6 World Tour stops each year. This winter they started in Chile then went to British Columbia and will end up with stops in California, Colorado and Utah, for instance.

A few of the stops have qualifiers that you can try your luck at; but it’s pretty tough competition. If you make it through two days of qualifying events, you are eligible to compete in the main event. The top 15 at the main event get World Tour points; having points puts you in the world rankings and prequalifies you for the next World Tour stop.

Where was your first World Tour event?
It was at Whistler in 2001. I didn’t know a damn thing. The light was super flat and it was foggy. I couldn’t see anything and didn’t know the mountain. I remember scoping a line where I would hit this soft ledge of snow to set up for the cliff beneath it. I hit it, just as planned - but it was hard as a rock. I popped out of my ski but somehow managed to catch it before it got away, snapped it back in and dropped the cliff. I got to the bottom and was asking everybody, “did you see that!”. No one even noticed. I ended up skiing to 12th place in that event.


How long were you on the World Tour for?
Spoon: I skied on the World Tour for the next 6 or 7 years. I ended up #2 in North America in 2001 and I finished #10 on the World Tour in 2007. I turned 40 that year; that didn’t really give me much incentive to stop competing. I remember there was always one guy who was older than me. When I didn’t see him around anymore, I figured maybe it was time to wrap it up. I have to admit, though, it wasn’t until later in my career that I was really working at it. When I was younger I was always active, but I wasn’t in ‘gym shape’ - which is definitely needed when competing in those events.

The competitors at the World Tour also aren’t necessarily the youngest crowd. There is definitely some wisdom and knowledge that needs to be acquired first. Most competitors are in their late 20’s.

How big would you go during these competitions?
I was what I’d call a ‘medium huckster’. In competitions I would be dropping 30 to 40 footers; a handful of 50 and 55 footers. I relied on technique and control for most of my points.

When I tagged along with you and some kids from your Jay Peak Freeskiing Team, I heard you say, ‘control and turns’ about ten times. That was really interesting to see the kids react. Where is your team heading?
We are pretty grass roots right now. We have a lot of kids in the 10 to 14 year old range. They are from all over – local kids as well as kids from other areas of Vermont, Montreal, Boston; guys and girls, too. It is really important to start them young; Raise ‘Em Jay.

I’ve been telling them about the Ski The East Freeride Tour – Mad River Glen, Sugarbush, Magic Mountain and here at Jay Peak. They all excitedly reply, “you are going to take me where??”. Everyone is strong, but we have two kids who are really ripping: Andreya Zvonar and John Jody Haig. Andreya is 11 and JJ is 14. They are both great all-around skiers. They have been competing the last few years at Jay Peak’s moguls, slope style and extreme contests, but this tour is a big opportunity for them and the rest of my team. Not only to be in a contest atmosphere, but to be competing on new terrain and against other mountain’s teams. I know Mad River Glen, Sugarbush and a few others have great young teams, too. It will be fun to see how they stack up against each other.


So give me a quick rundown of the Ski The East Freeride Tour.
Spoon: Sure. The Ski The East Freeride Tour is going to bring together four existing events under one umbrella with IFSA World Tour stakes. The stops are: Mad River Glen, Febuary 6; Magic Mountain, February 27; Sugarbush, March 6; Jay Peak, March 20-21. The competitions will take place on each mountain’s unconventional terrain – steeps, cliffs, jumps and rocks – for example, the Face Chutes at Jay Peak, Castlerock at Sugarbush and Mad River Glen’s Liftline.

For the last few years, we’ve had an IFSA sanctioned event here at Jay Peak. In other words, if you won the event, you prequalified for the IFSA World Tour. When you show up at the next World Tour event - your name is on the list; you don’t need to compete in the prequalifiers to get into the contest. Last year’s winner, Colin Boyd, went and competed in Alaska at a World Tour stop.

There is no doubt the terrain at most of these World Tour stops are bigger and heavier than what you will find here on the East Coast. That is one of the reasons behind the Ski The East Freeride Tour. We want to ensure the person (or persons) are qualified. By establishing a tour with four stops, we will inevitably find more worthy competitors. A lot of people currently compete at their home mountain’s event but don’t participate in, or even know about, the others. All of these mountain’s competitions are great and have been in existence for quite a while now – and we don’t intend to change much of what is already there. What we do hope for is that by making these events one cohesive tour, the level of competition will rise and some camaraderie will develop among the competitors, teams and mountains.

As a side note, I’m currently working with IFSA President Jim Jack deciding how many spots from the Ski The East Freeride Tour will be given prequalified status on the World Tour. It may be just the top guy and girl, or maybe the top few guys and girls. We’ll have that ironed out shortly. At that point, those contestants can do what they need to do to commit to the World Tour stops: get some money together, really start pushing towards getting in shape, approaching sponsors; all that good stuff.

Where can people get more information about the Tour?
The presenting sponsors for the tour are SkiTheEast.net, Meathead Films and JayPeakVideo.com. There will be a devoted section of the SkiTheEast.net website for the Tour, including an official press release coming soon, a wrap-up News article, pictures and video edits after each tour stop and a final wrap-up feature video produced by Meathead Films covering the whole tour. There will also be more specifics about each stop’s registration, rules and all that good stuff. A lot more details coming shortly on that, too. In the meantime, check each mountain’s website for more details on each event.