Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/112497
THE BOBSLEIGH RUN Chute to Thrill HERE���S AN ALTERNATIVE to dusting off the family toboggan for three-second plunges on tiny city-park slopes. But be warned: this option delivers Olympian-scale thrills with serious, waiver-warning risks, including nosebleeds, ice rashes and broken bones. In return, the Whistler Sliding Centre���s bobsleigh and skeleton rides guarantee a 1,450-metre, 16cornered, 152-metre vertical-drop track. NOTE: Bobsleigh is for adrenaline junkies who wish to share a sleek cof���n with two other speed freaks and a professional pilot, then bomb down Blackcomb at 125-km/hour. Skeleton is for soloists who fancy a head-first, 100-km/hour descent with no brakes. Choose your weapon. THE GIFT Tickets run $159 per session; skeleton jockeys get two runs per booking. whistlerslidingcentre.com THE INTERVIEW Landing Pad IT WAS THE LAST RUN of the day, the last jump of the run, the last moment on a snowboard for the rest of his life. That was the day ��� at Whistler in 2005 ��� when AARON CORET ���ew into the air out of control and crashed, breaking his neck. >> Now a paraplegic, Coret (above right) could easily have descended into depression. Instead, he created ��� with fellow UBC engineer grad Stephen Slen (above left) ��� the Landing Pad, a portable in���atable that softens terrain-park jumps gone bad. The timing couldn���t have been better. The original prototype was named Invention of the Year by Popular Science magazine in 2007 and used during the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. It also launched the duo on 2011 TEDx talk, popular online ideas and inspiration seminars, in Vancouver. Copied by others but never duplicated (its unique design follows the curves of terrain-park jumps), the Landing Pad is now hitting the market, with Cypress Bowl one of the ���rst resorts to line up. We spoke with Coret in Vancouver. WW What did snowboarding mean to you before the accident? AC: It���s what I thought about when I woke up. It���s what I thought about during the day. It���s what I thought about all the time. It���s still very much a part of my life. WW You���ve hit the slopes since? AC: I���ve been on snow, but that���s it. I have no interest in getting in a sit ski. It���s not the same and I don���t have the mobility to manoeuvre one properly. WW Where did the idea for the Landing Pad come from? AC: From when I was still in the hospital, freaking out about never being able to snowboard again. I was very much a park rat: I lived for taking air, and would have loved the Landing Pad. Now I can build it for everyone else. WW How does it work? AC: Basically, it���s an air bag that creates the safest and most realistic training experience possible, by covering the transition and landing of a jump. If you land properly, it���s a lot like landing on snow. If you mess up, (bobsleigh) Mike Crane/ACP, (camping) Darryl Leniuk, (landing pad) Andrew Strain p14-17_Frshtrx.indd 15 it���s like landing on a pillow. WW What was the biggest design challenge? AC: Not knowing anything about in���atables. Going from the idea to the snow took a long time to ���gure out. WW What did you learn from the whole experience? AC: To take chances. We had an idea we were passionate about and we took a chance. Now it���s leading us to great places. WW How do folks react when they try the Landing Pad? AC: They love the thing. Everyone is super stoked. One of my favourite stories is about my friend Eric Poulin. He really wanted to do a ���ip on his snowboard, but he was always afraid to try. After one day on the Pad, he was doing back ���ips on snow; now he���s doing all kinds of inverted tricks. That was our whole vision. ���Ryan Stuart THE GIFT A Cypress Bowl landing pad blowout: $60 for adult day pass; $40 for night pass. cypress mountain.com WESTWORLD >> W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 15 12-10-26 8:27 AM