Skiing for the people we've lost

[RichardDoane]

I was going to make this thread specific for @Razorskier1 aka Jim Ross, but feel it needs to be more inclusive in order to remain current. It's sad to lose loved ones, friends, and even more importantly - ski buddies. Please add any pictures in memory of whoever, and name your site location, plus anecdotes. Thanks in advance.

 

[RichardDoane]

 

 

 

[RichardDoane]

Today we skied for Jim Ross, aka @Razorskier1

 

@Mike Gile and @AdamCord and I were at the Hilltop Lake in Arlington, Washington.

 

The boat had enough gas to pull Jim for a number of marathon sets, and I wish he and @RazorRoss3 @6balls and @Sasquatch could have been able to join us.

 

As always, it was a beautiful day at the lake.

[75Tique]

My interest in skiing goes back to when I was a kid. It was always a part of my life, but the year I really became a fanatic was 1972. I met a friend through swimming, he lived about 60 miles away, so we only saw each other occasionally. But that summer, I was 17, he and I got together almost every weekend to ski. We taught ourselves to barefoot by stepping off, and of course the harder the fall, the bigger the laughs. We didnt have a spotter, so a little handy work with a life vest, a ball for a head and a baseball cap and we had "Rog" our spotter. We were the only ones around that could barefoot and were almost celebrities on the lake. We must have put a thousand hours on the old Mustang that year skiing, footin, and trying just about every goofy stunt we could think of. It was definitely the most fun and most memorable summer of my youth. Tom and I went in and out of touch over the next 30 years, but hooked up once or twice and did some skiing together. I reconnected with him back around 2007, to find out he had moved to Atlanta. Shortly after reconnecting, I got word that he had passed away.

 

I went to his memorial service. At a table of memorabilia (pictures, articles, awards...) were four pictures of him footin' that he had saved from the same day as the picture I posted below. I got up and spoke a few words about the great times we used to have and how that first summer we skied together was one of the best ever.

 

Afterward, a woman came up to me and said "you dont know me but I feel like I know you. A few months ago, Tom sent me a copy of the video of you two barefooting together that you had recently sent to him and he said how that first summer "was one of the best ever". It was something to just hear you use the same words to describe that time you had together."

 

I was glad and flattered that he remembered those times and shared them just as I have here.

 

Here is a brief video of the first time we reconnected, in 1991 after about a 15 year break.

https://youtu.be/UIkSQdqGrXI

 

 

[blakeyates]

@75Tique , I love that story.......... and the video. Thanks for sharing.

[6balls]

@75Tique love that! We learned to foot the same way!

 

Jim was injured so Joe and I were taking a beating and he was trying to tell us how to do it. We were like--c'mon you don't even know what you are talking about. Off injured reserve Jim was like ok--goes out and simply steps out of the ski and barefoots away. Joe and I were like--wait a minute...what just happened? We were footers before we were ballers...and I dare say it showed in the course.

 

@RichardDoane thanks to you and the fella's for ripping one for Jim.

[Slalom.Steve]

Got my new ski handle in today. My brother @Nautique99 and I (Jim's nephews) get our handles engraved with "Team Jim Ross" - he's a huge part of the reason we both ski. Thank you, love you, miss you Jim.

[Horton]

I do not know how many times I have started to comment on this thread. I just do not have the words for all the skiers we have lost one way or another. I still have many of their phone numbers in my phone.  Fuck Cancer and be careful out there people. Love your kids. Shit happens.