Some Pre-World Cup Talk With Waterville Valley President, Tim Smith

All right here we go i can do this wake up man we can do this all right as i've said before i've made the joke i'm gonna make it again two tims don't make a right i tim from skirex medium joined once again by tim from waterville valley brother how you doing i'm great all right so if you don't know tim tim is like the head boss guy in charge here he's the commander in chief we can make president jokes right do you make president jokes i wish i could i was hoping el presidente Presidente.

You should definitely have that on your jacket. It'd be awesome. So yeah, Tim's the president here. I think your title's actually longer than that. I can't remember what it is. President, general manager. That's what it is. See, there's so many different ones. John is executive director, and then Lindsay Deloria is something else, and I can't keep it all straight. Always take notes, kids. So we're talking to Tim today because he has the second World Cup event in New England.

Now, we were at Killington. we saw all that fun stuff and it was great you know Schifrin won on slalom day so the crowd could be heard all the way down to Rutland and beyond I think it was ridiculous but this is a different animal man so why don't you explain what we got going on here yeah so what we're doing we're hosting the world cup of moguls we've hosted 11 world cups here all alpine events but we are the birthplace of freestyle

skiing we've never hosted a world cup freestyle event sure we've been trying Brian, for years, we started with the Mogul National Event, and that happened three times here now. So a lot of our athletes from the U.S. have had six competitive days on this

course, so it kind of gives them an advantage. But the U.S. ski team saw that we really had a legit course here. It's 28 degrees. We have pitches at 34. We have a long course, 242 meters, And it's all natural. It's off of Bobby's, which is named after Bobby Kennedy. It's an amazing run. It's a challenge for sure. And dealing with the East Coast weather, you know, that's one of those ones that the competitors are getting used to.

I can imagine. I didn't come down yesterday because of our wonderful East Coast weather, and that happens. I don't like driving in ice as much as anybody else does. So, you know, safety first, though. That's what it is. You know, it's not that I didn't want to come down. But I am excited because we have an event that is not only a different discipline or a different set of disciplines, but it is a completely different logistics thing, you know, going on here versus the Killington.

And I don't mean to reference that like I'm trying to put them above anybody. I'm not. It's just that's my frame of reference. friends. That's a bigger event. I mean, it goes without question. Well, and actually that's something I think I'll ask you first. Like, you know, that event is, you know, women's GS and slalom and the United States has the greatest gear in history. She's there. Michaela Schifrin, she, she destroyed, she took third on GS day,

took first on slalom day. She's a standout superstar everywhere she goes, not even the U S do you have, does the, does the freestyle team have a, have a standout like that. We have Jalen, Jalen Cox. She's a silver medalist and she is definitely a standout. But the whole thing is that the female team for the U.S. is all standouts. If you look at super finals that happened yesterday, out of the six competitors in the super final, five were U.S. There you go.

So it's not just one person, it's an entire team. Sure. And then you look at the the men's side and the men's side is really coming up. You got, you got a couple of competitors, Nick Page and Cole that are coming up through the ranks right now. And they're, you know, they're right there on the edge of the podium, getting some podiums. And so we've got some really good athletes there. And I think the best part about these athletes though, is they are just.

They're just really mellow. We had a signing last night and all of the competitors from the U.S. Team came there and they signed all these autographs and talked to all these children who wanted to get the autographs and really made just an amazing event for the young people that are in this community that aspire to be top-level athletes someday. That's a really cool team. That's awesome.

That's what I like to hear. One of the things that I noticed being media at the other event, at the Killington event, was there was the athlete and team area, then there was us media folks, and then there was the crowd maybe five feet behind us.

So you got kids screaming it's like there's an interaction displacement there i like that it feels here you've put more emphasis or at least this team has put more emphasis on that crowd interaction now yeah i don't know what you i don't think you were at killington did you come back damn i wish i'd have known that i'd come said hi then too because i knew abby was there she told me that down at 603 but i didn't know you were there and we

were all running around it's very busy weekend so damn i wish i would have known that i would have come and said hi i feel awful when i miss people i don't know what it is i i just feel rude but so you saw it so you know like do you think do you did you see that kind of disconnect yeah i don't know it's just a different world you know the freestyle and alpine are two different worlds the alpine world is you know it's big it's huge i mean

you look at these events that they have in europe and you're talking 50,000 people you're it's huge huge moguls and and aerials and and you know so slope styles and things like like that. It's a little bit more niche. The athletes are really adventure sports. So they're really just a different type of athlete.

They're very strong personalities and creative because part of the entire process of moguls is being creative while you're in the air. That's what you're getting judged on. So it really makes for a dynamic person to be very good at this, which is great. Sorry, my kid just walked into the office. This is a family resort. So hey.

That's awesome like i was telling you before we started recording i was talking to steve harding up there to to commu to commu pog the camp and he i said it's a family thing and now more proof that skiing really is especially for smaller independent places which waterville well i can't really say smaller independent i think i feel like waterville's a big independent it is largest acreage wise yeah in the east yeah yeah and it's it's wonderful for that because

you get and all the room in the world to play. But it's still everybody knows everybody. It's really cool. We're owned by the Sununu family, and there are other investors that are invested into this corporation. But it is really a family deal. My wife and I, my wife runs the accounting and finance department here, and I obviously run the resort. And kids are always all over the place. But that's part of this entire event.

And the whole idea is that we're bringing the family of freestyle back home to where freestyle first started. You know, the first freestyle training happened here in 1969. That's one of the reasons we claim it. And then, of course, in 1971, we had the exhibition of freestyle skiing, which is the first competition. And so we are the birthplace of freestyle skiing. And bringing the family back home and bringing the families together, it really does make this feel a little different.

It's got that feel of really kind of an intimate feel, which is great. I think that's awesome. That's one of the reasons I was looking forward to this event, because it is not different, but it is different. I know that sounds stupid, but, you know, when you see these events on television, you see almost, I don't want to say cookie cutter, but it kind of feels like it is, you know, unless you really know courses and really know mountains.

Waterville's different. And because you have that birthplace, you have that long running, it's a tradition.

Tradition and now you've got you've brought the tradition full circle brought it home which is awesome so what does it take this is why i want to talk to you about it because what is it especially because you also have the background in ops and everything what does it take to get here like you don't necessarily have to get into how it's chose how the mountain's chosen but you know i guess i mean the biggest thing is you have to have you

have to have that history piece to it i I mean, that was a huge part of it.

It's not just like we couldn't, we went for this without having this great mountain, with this great history, with this great run. Physically, you have to have the goods to be able to do the event. That's number one, first and foremost. Second is you have to build the relationships. It's not something that you just walk into lightly. You have this relationship that you're building through time with the U.S. ski team, with the mogul community to prove that you can host a really good event.

So we got the opportunity to do that with nationals. We did that for a number of years. And now with the World Cup, they brought it to us. And it's like a relationship. You build up that relationship over time with all the different entities. And now we've mixed in TV, you know, with NBC being here and having the big TV trailer right down here outside my office and making sure that we're ready to go. And that's just another dynamic that we're mixing into this.

And the more you do that, the better the relationships form, the better relationships get, and they all become part of the family. Absolutely. And it all looks great. I love being behind the scenes because you get to see the stuff. Like, I'm looking out the window and there's just a satellite dish that isn't there normally. It's just not there. It's on the back of a trailer of all things. It's so cool to see this. I mean, you... Beyond the work of it because you're all working hard isn't it's

fun it's got to be fun a little bit oh it's totally funny you kidding me absolutely i mean all the planning in the world goes into this and that stuff it kind of gets down to the the you know the details and you're trying to get all the details buttoned up but then the action starts you know it was about what two week and a half ago we still had piles of snow giant piles of snow on lower bobbies we hadn't pushed anything anything out. We just got done making snow. Oh, wow.

And Ben Finn from Prenoth, who's their lead operator in Prenoth Snow Grooming. Big shout out there. Totally, man. They brought in an operator, brought an extra demo cat for us to use. And Ben worked the wench cat up on top. I worked the free groomer down below doing the spectator area. First day, we made quite a bit of impact. And then second day, we got up there and he worked top jump and start.

And I worked bottom jump with the free pre-cat at 34 degree pitch that was wild shout out to c-dog for pushing me to do that one i was gonna say like that's that that's balls man oh it was cool that was very cool um one one recommendation if anybody ever tries to do that go backwards okay when you slide you have your blade in front of you there you go good safety tip good little pointer there i would never try And I've actually never done a steep in a groomer, wincher, otherwise.

Sounds interesting. But man, you got it within a week. You just had it buttoned up. That's where it all starts. I mean, we did a CAD design of the whole base area. We ran fiber optic up there. We ran power up there last summer. So what we're trying to really do this year is set... The groundwork. Get our foundation laid.

Make sure that everyone's in a good spot so this event continues year over year and it becomes seamless. So we wanted to have that fiber optic connection up there. We didn't want to have generators running up there. So we ran all the power up there. We also were able to utilize fan gun technology to be able to make the snow. So we were able to make a lot more snow up there.

That groundwork that we laid into the facility this summer really paid off and allowed us to pull this event off more seamlessly that's awesome and that's so much work because we all know like everybody who sees it knows it's not just putting snow making moguls or whatever course you may happen to be running and that's it then we all go home for dinner and we just show up the next day and run a run an event it's just not how it works but man to know that it's

more than just running extension cords it's getting the electricians up the mountain. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's Tim's in a snow cat, which is where he's going to be anyway. I don't know him well, but I'm getting to know him. And he's, he's, he's in, he's, he's an operations guy. You know, it's, it's, it's a lot of work. It's very interesting. Like that's, that's part of it for me.

Like I said, you know, the fun of seeing all the, you know, the trucks and the athletes behind the scenes, all that, but gosh, the logistics end of it, the production end of it, just everything going in.

I don't know. I just like seeing people people work and build things. The amount of stuff, general stuff that goes up there is absolutely crazy. We put a hospitality tent up there and inside the hospitality tent, we have TVs, we have a full bar, we have breakfast served, we have lunch served. Then you've got the judging platform where it's judged remotely. It has cameras up there, all the timing equipment, all those wires.

We put conduit from one side of the run to the other so that we can run wires back and forth without getting in the way. The fencing that goes in, the U.S. team that puts all that up, the fencing just has to be perfect and laid out perfectly and tight. So, yeah, a week and a half ago, we just started pushing piles. And then the next thing you know, it's just day after day that it gets closer and closer and closer.

And then it all came together last sunday when we started to push the final piles and and and push the started to push the moguls in with the jumps and and the mogul so you put your moguls in you put your jumps in you get your groundwork done and then you put your jumps in and your jumps you you just kind of shape the back of the jump with the with snowcat sure and then you you put in your bumps and your and the bumps for this

level you actually start out with a snowcat so the snowcat cat goes and makes these tiny little pot. Oh, wow. That's cool. And then you take skiers and you shape the bumps with the skis and kind of round them out and then you ski them and you ski them in and then they shape up really fast and really big. First time I've actually done it that way for the national events. We ski them in with flags and they, but these skiers are so powerful and so strong.

We need the jumps to develop faster. Sure. So we ended up pushing them with snow cat. Interesting. Who knew? I had no idea. So did you get, did you just groom The groomer-runner, did you try and ski some in yourself? I actually did not ski them in this year. My back started getting really sore about four days into the push-out, and I've been kind of mending my back a little bit. Fair enough. Normally I do, though. Normally I do ski in the bumps. No, that's awesome,

and that's got to be a heck of a course. I haven't seen the course yet. I do know that part of the mountain. I have skied over there. I have skied True Grit, which is right next door.

That's that one actually made me nervous even though it was groomed off i was here you know shout out to rob dresser he was there with the kids working out he's like dude you want to come photograph a little bit and we did that and i i gotta say i i was not prepared for that pitch and it made me a little nervous but that i get this this this this event is built on a steep like it has to be steep so if that run is any testament to it again only because i haven't seen the course,

It's got to be something now to get to the course that's interesting to me. And again, I will, I will compare it to Killington only because that's the one I've done before. Killington, the finish line's right outside. You could practically park on it. In fact, you could park on it. The road is right there. This event is not like that. You have to actually put in work. You got to earn it. Killington's extremely special. To have Superstar right there.

Yeah, that's ridiculous. To be able to come right down in the base area with that kind of pitch, that's a really special area. Most ski resorts that do these types of events, you got to go up a little bit. Yeah. And you think of Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek. I used to work on that course quite a bit as a snowmaker. Sure. And you have to get up on Dally and there's buses that run people up the ski run.

See? And you doze off the ski run and half of the run is skiing down and half of the run are these buses going up and down and transporting people to the base. Which, cool. To the base area of the Birds of Prey course. Yeah. So this isn't that uncommon, especially with moguls. I mean, to come into a facility where you really have 28 degrees or better with, you know, 250 meters long or so, that's a really special area, any place on the mountain.

So, yeah, there's logistical challenges with getting not only the equipment there, but also getting the people there. So we're going to ride the Valley Run Lift, and then you walk down.

It's about 200 yards down to the actual course. And then from there, you have the choice at the end of the day. If you want to walk down the rest of Valley, we have a foot passing or foot path down from the course down all the way down to the base area. Or you can walk back up and walk that, you know, couple hundred yards back up to the top of the chairlift and ride the chairlift down. So you don't have to download if you don't want to. Okay.

I did not realize that because we just made a joke outside about walking all the way. I was like, I'm taking the foot path up to which we laughed about because I wasn't going to walk all the way up.

I was going to take the lift because I think that's cool. it's different than what i've done and like you said out there they got buses running them now you can upload how many people actually get to go on foot on a lift not in the summer yeah it's it's different and i think it's kind of cool it's one of the reasons i didn't ski it in just just because i wanted to see how different it was yeah absolutely and it's very cool but i did not realize

that i i assume never assume because you know what that does you and me yep that you had had to download but you don't you can have a nice because it's not it that's not a steep run.

Like really that's an easy walk that's an easy mellow walk yeah i actually just walked it the other night there you go yeah that's that's worth the walk man like i i might do that then that's cool that's nice i like that that's awesome man so you get everybody up there you had a friday crowd you were telling me friday did well yeah no it did good we were we're probably you know a little lower in spectators than we would have

liked but just due to the weather the weather was is definitely a premature snow and a little bit of sleet and then.

Fat snowflakes and then back to premature snow and then back to sleep it was just all day athletes were kind of funny because they said every run was something different i said yeah we're kind of like a box of chocolates around here yeah but never know it was it was a challenging weather day and so and it's a friday but you know in the grand scheme of things we were just talking about this you know holding the event on friday you know building it up to saturday and then and then taking

it from Saturday into Sunday when we get broadcast on CNBC. So now we have three-day event, you know, and Friday really becomes the warm-up to the duels. And if you watch mogul skiing at all, duels is where it's at. That's, I mean, to watch two competitors go down head-to-head doing tricks in the air, and you can really see the differential between the two competitors when you watch that duel event.

So having that on Saturday, which is always the busiest day, always the easiest day for for spectators to come. That's really something special. And then Sunday is kind of like the day that we can all celebrate our victory and watch the final product. It's really cool. It's wicked cool. And it definitely already looks like you're going to do better. I'm looking out the window here and it's just lines of people. Some have skis on their shoulders. Others are obviously here for the foot traffic

to go up. They have no equipment.

Again, of course, it could be renters what do i know but you know i'm saying these people here to see the event that come out and you're not wrong dual events are you know head-to-heads are sick a lot of fun to watch and it's like i've always said if you can see one in person it's a whole other element it's all opens your eyes right i mean that's the whole thing is we're trying to open people's eyes to to the sport and give them that exposure to what mogul skiing is and hopefully aspire you know

get some of these kids to aspire to be the next olympians though that our country will produce i mean we produce some of the best skiers in the world and i believe that this is the way that we make the the next level of skiers is because they need to see it with their own eyes it's one thing to watch it on youtube you don't get the real depth perception no when you get up there you'll see we have a lot of people here from the west right now that were expecting

a fast speed air course and they got here and realized this is not a fast air speed course this is actually very very technical, very non-forgiving course. It's just because they assume because we're on the East coast that we didn't have the steeps and they were wrong. You never assume that there's so many steeps here. I mean, like, like I was saying before, Waterville Valley has that whole section. Actually, it's kind of awesome because if you ride up the chair over here, Valley Green Peak.

And you're lined up and you're looking off to your right and you see these runs they actually look steep like some runs that are steep don't look that way until you get to the top i've seen that it's it's an optical illusion of some kind i would i would figure i don't know i don't know because there were times when i worked at mount snow in the 90s from the bottom of ripcord didn't look so bad from the top of the ripcord it looked like ripcord yeah here when

you look at it it's that whole like three or. Four runs right there is just they and they look great yeah and one of the things about those runs too is they don't you know a lot of the runs on the east. That are steep start steep you know you kind of put your tips over the edge and they sit there in. The air and then you drop in yeah our runs roll yeah they.

Naturally roll into the steep so you don't realize it until you're already there yeah and then you're like whoa this got steep really quick oh yeah really steep and it's very long and that's what i love about the sunny side and the other part i mean obviously the sunny side is named because it's a sunny side of the mountain so not only do you have it steep but you also get a lot of sun a lot of sun and they're wide big open runs so it's it's a really special spot it is really cool

it's beautiful like it's it's set perfect for an event like this like i'm actually kind of surprised that event hasn't been here or a similar event hasn't been here a lot more often because it just it looks the part it looks it looks great birthplace of freestyle skiing i mean you think about the the 1972 or 71 exhibition of freestyle skiing that was held on true grit sure you know we're now on lower bobbies lower bobbies is steeper but true grit is where they first developed the exhibition

of freestyle skiing which started with you know this jump off the top and then moguls in the middle and a ballet at the bottom yeah and it all three disciplines that eventually become the olympic sport uh were all displayed on true grit which is really kind of cool like obviously that was a very good venue for this sure it has to do with the sun and the the you know just the wide open terrain and the steep and the flat at the bottom it all worked out well yeah

so to bring the event back here is really something special and seeing the evolution i mean they back then that was all. Pushed up by people skiing it, it was, there was no manicuring the run.

It was purely use the run, show us your artistic ability in your skiing, and then, you know, we'll judge you. Sure. Nowadays, it's, nope, well, it has to be this size, has to be in this line, the jump has to be this angle, the landing has to be at that angle. And that's what happens, you know, as you get to an Olympic sport and you take something that's a little more freestyle towards an Olympic sport. Sure. So it is a different sport, but now they're doing backflips with three spins.

Oh, God, yeah. That's insane. It's totally insane. Think about that. And they're huge, big airs. One cool thing about this course, too, that you don't normally get on a mobile course is you can actually ski to the side of the course. Because Bobby's has a work road that's about three quarters of the way up. Sure. And you can ski in on the work road and then ski to the first air. So a spectator can actually watch the profile.

Oh, no way. So when you watch it from the profile, instead of watching it head on, the speed is just phenomenal. Because you can see how fast they're going by you. You get the feeling of the pitch that they're on because you're standing on that pitch. You get the feeling of the air that they're getting because you can watch them air out.

It's really cool. cool. And that's going to become bigger and bigger as this event goes on over the years, because it's just something special that this course offers that most courses don't. Oh yeah. You're definitely going to have lines up there, lines of people. And that's fantastic, man. It sounds great. Again, the, the, the, the venue, I haven't even seen it yet, but I have been up there and you're not wrong. You got that nice roll into it. That's how I found that area.

The first time I did it, I'm just meandering along. I'm not looking at signs and all of a sudden I'm bombing straight down. I'm like, Oh, all right, this is cool.

Whatever. whatever i'll do it takes a little more work but that's okay it's it's it's a lot of fun and you know you don't do such a good job here maintaining your trails and everything gosh the day the first day we come i came down i don't remember which one i come down it wasn't true grit the first time i think it was just to the right probably and it was effortless anyway like steep sure.

But effortless because i think it was groomed it was nice it was effortless you all do such such a great job here. It's a wonderful place. I'm glad to see it. I'm glad to see a second World Cup here in New England. New England, I think you would agree that New England has quite the... Well, every region has its own like ski culture, ski community. And I think New England can speak to this. I think New England, I think people love, people love New England.

Absolutely. I mean, it has their home mountain in New England. I always talk about the fact that skiing is not just competitive. It's not just about how well you can ski. It's not just about the athletic ability of the skier. It's mainly about the socialization. Absolutely. And being social. And that's what we offer here. You know, we're New Hampshire's family resort. or we want the entire family to be social, feel like this is their home mountain.

And then we want to show them that we have the goods and we can host the largest events in the world like we're doing today. 100%. And it is a huge social thing. That's another part. I don't know if you guys really have, I don't know. Well, let's find out what you had for the party aspect of it. Again, I know the Killington Race, that's the one I've done. It's a party. Is it a party here? So we did some pretty cool stuff this year and this is the first year.

So we're just kind of tap dancing. Totally. But last night, we had the U.S. team come down.

We did an introduction of the U.S. team in Town Square. And then they did an autograph signing. And all the kids in the community were just totally into it. We had lines and lines to try to get autographs from these athletes. It was awesome. And then we did the Bib Draw. Sure. And the Bib Draw happened. We had a DJ down there pumping some tunes out. DJ Brett, good job. Nice. And then after we did that, then we had the Bib Draw where all the athletes

from the different teams, all the top athletes came down. We got photo ops for that. And then we ended the night with fireworks. And it was really awesome. Waterville Valley, of course, we have to do fireworks. We always like to end with a bang. So then tonight we actually Freestyle Lounge, our big bar that we built a few years ago. It's all themed after our history of freestyle. So what's the better place to

have the ending party at? So we've got a band playing up there, and we actually have a bunch of the guys who are here for the first event. Oh, nice. And they put a slideshow together of that first event, and all of the slideshow goes over the people that were here during those first events, and that slideshow is going to be really cool. And then we're going to have people talk. Wayne Wong's here. He's going to be talking up. He was here last night. He's up in the tents. He's all around.

We've got Bertie Britton, who was Bertie Corcoran at the time, and she was also competitive in that. We've got Bernie Weitzel. We've got all sorts of people here that are doing, that have been here forever. And really, you know, showcase the fact we're the birthplace of freestyle skiing, but also at the same time celebrate how great the event is. That's awesome, man. It really is.

It's a party, man. It's a lot of fun. People are here. Come check it out. If you didn't get to come this year, you definitely are having next year, if I remember correctly. It's already been confirmed. contract already confirmed. Cool. And those contracts that, you know, different things at different times, you know, but yours is confirmed. So that's great. Come up here next year. It's awesome. Come here anyway. Come skiing here. It's a lot of fun to come

here. I've skied here several times, IndyPass user. So I'm here at least twice, if not more. So it's just a great mountain. A lot of fun. Tucked back here, you know, and you wouldn't even know it was here. We're only two hours outside of Boston. There's one stoplight. That's true. There's only one stoplight on your way in. Yeah. And then you get this six miles of National Forest that you drive through six miles, nothing.

And then you arrive in Waterville Valley and right when you get in, you turn left and you head up to the ski hill and then, or you can go into the valley and go into your hotel. And we have 540 private acres, mac dab in the middle of the White Mountain National Forest. I'd like to say it's an island in the National Forest. It is. It's a beautiful place. Great for an event like this. We could go on for, I have more logistics questions to ask.

The stuff that no one else is interested in but me of course you know but that's fine and we can talk about that stuff later awesome dude well it's nine o'clock yeah so we're gonna go i'm sure tim has work to do i'm sure i should be working air quotes and i'm gonna go check this out and uh we'll check in with you at some point sounds good man awesome thank you up there yeah man.