A Three-part audio-podcast celebration of the people and events that shaped the birth of freestyle skiing. © Anamaki Chronicles & InDepthNH.org.
By Wayne D. King, Part 2 Tuesday, March 18, 2025: The Mentors & Protectors
Click below for Part 2 of WAYNE D. KING’s podcast
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The excitement and joy of freestyle also had its downside. It was not all rainbows and unicorns.
For those who remember those early days of Freestyle, you may recall that a less-than-healthy competition developed between skiers, racers, hot doggers, and only a few years later snowboarders as well.
A well-known cartoon shows each of the groups disdainfully pointing at the next and uttering, “They suck.”
In fact, many ski resorts were slow to welcome Freestyle skiing to the mountain. At some ski areas, skiers were having their tickets “pulled” or “ripped” if they were caught doing stunts, even the tamer ballet moves. Yet, today, nearly every mountain has a ski park, especially for Freestyle skiers and boarders.
The early aversion to Freestyle may have been an overreaction but that never happened at Waterville Valley.
Tom Corcoran – a racer and Olympian himself – was determined to be the peacemaker, the bridge from the traditional skiers to the hot doggers.
So too was Paul Pfosi, recruited as the first Director of Waterville Valley’s Ski School.
Paul was a member of the Swiss National Ski Team in the late 1950s, so racing was in his blood, but internecine rivalry within the skiing family was bad for the sport. Paul saw the skiing community as a family and he was determined to make sure there was room at the table for everyone. A ruggedly handsome fellow who made friends easily, who fit right into the Waterville Vibe, and who had a sense of humor that was second to none.
Jerry Dunfey tells a funny story about his relationship with Paul Pfosi. Every season while Paul was at Waterville, Jerry and Paul would begin and end the season with a “run” together. Each run would end with Paul telling Jerry, good-humoredly: “Jerry, you will never be a good skier.”
Jerry laughs at the tradition and then says: “He was right, I never became a good skier.”
Paul was at Waterville for 10 years and then moved on to Mammoth Mountain in California. Shortly after the move, he was lost in a plane crash but his memory lingers on among the many friends who so appreciated Paul’s efforts to encourage everyone to continue moving ahead together.
The rivalry between racers and hot doggers was, at least in part, ameliorated by the fact that Waterville’s Freestyle superstars were also members of the Waterville Family. Teaching for the Ski School or covering the Mountain as a member of the Ski Patrol. Wayne Wong, who had moved to Waterville in the year following his success in 1971 was hired by Paul and Tom to coach Freestyle and skiing. Though not a local boy, he was quickly adopted as one.
So the superstars of Freestyle at Waterville were either adopted favorite sons like Wayne Wong or George Askevold or were homegrown like Floyd Wilkie.
George, who came to Waterville as a traditional instructor, had been a medic in Vietnam. He switched from Ski School to Ski Patrol in a seamless transition. After he switched to Ski Patrol George found himself increasingly drawn to the Hotdogging life.
Floyd Wilkie, who had a raft of cousins in the local school systems practically had his own fan club among the kids. He was a much-beloved ski instructor and a renowned mogul skier, who inspired local kids with his “mad skills.” Floyd was a first-rate Freestyler but he did not particularly like the aerial competitions giving him a bit of a reputation as a “reluctant warrior.”
Nick Preston observed that these complicating factors within the Freestyle movement ultimately made the movement stronger, coming back stronger with each setback.
Nick and Suzi Preston, played a role as both competitors and mentors in this evolving sport, Nick and Suzi’s optimism in the face of all these challenges contributed to Freestyle’s resurgence.
Like any rapid social change the breakthrough of Freestyle came with complications, in part related to the “wild west’ nature of the entire Freestyle adventure.
There were also those who sought to protect the domain of ski racing as the preeminent form of the sport.
So too, like the “wild west” there were the folks who were looking for ways to capture the wave to their own particular advantage. Most of the Freestylers were young and naive to the ways of the world and it put them in a position where those who had less charitable intentions could take advantage of them.
Further complicating the emergence of Freestyle was a growing concern about the dangers and liabilities associated with the most thrilling and popular event: Aerials.
The changes were happening at a dizzying pace. Ski areas were concerned Freestylers were being taken advantage of, standards were slow to develop, and this put everyone in a precarious position.
The accident at Stratton Mountain that left Dirk Douglass paralyzed was one of several accidents and it had sponsors, insurers, and the ski areas themselves deeply concerned about liability and safety.
Tom Corcoran, however, wasn’t missing a step. After all he had the responsibility of developing the ski resort from all angles.
Tom hired a young ski instructor from Mt Snow, Frank DeBoise as an instructor for the ski racing program. Frank, now 90, was the very first Certified African American ski instructor in America.
Frank and his son Tony came to Waterville Valley as something of a package deal. Frank as an instructor in the Racing program, and Tony was a promising young racer. In fact, while Frank would return to work in his auto workshop (DeBoise Auto) at the end of each weekend, returning the next weekend to Waterville, Tony lived with Tom Corcoran so that he could ski every day and attend the Waterville Academy.
Meanwhile, four other notable families began to make their journey onto the pages of the Freestyle Skiing Story: The Sanders Family, headed by NH’s iconic attorney Jack Sanders from the NH Seacoast; the Dunfey Family, the Nelson brothers of Boston and the Preston family, youngest of them all and most recently graduates of Colby College and ski instructors at Sugarloaf Mountain. Together they would serve as the vanguard of the Mentors and Protectors of the Freestyle Dream.
The Dunfey family, originally from Lowell but by now spread through New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts as they grew the family business from a clam shack on Hampton Beach to one of the nation’s most successful hotel chains, “Dunfey Hotels,” were getting into the action, adopting Waterville Valley as their family’s winter resort.
The Dunfeys, who were friends with both Tom Corcoran and the Kennedy Family, had recently added the Parker House historic hotel in Boston – the nation’s oldest continually operating hotel to its rapidly growing inventory of hotels.
Above, JD Nelson is pictured. Photo courtesy of Hali Beckman
The relationship between the Dunfeys and the Nelson brothers, David and JD, was no accident.
In the 50s and early 60s, the Dunfey clan began their entrepreneurial adventure when they leap-frogged from a family lunch counter in Lowell to a clam shack on Hampton Beach, but by the late 60s they had expanded into hotels and then insurance as well. In early 1968 when Dunfey Hotels and Insurance purchased the Parker House, Jerry came on as General Manager.
The Dunfeys, who would later go on to play a critical role in the fight to end apartheid and elect Nelson Mandela President of South Africa. They were also at the center of the actions in the crafting and negotiations around the Good Friday Accords and Peace in Northern Ireland.
Dunfey Hotels made it their first order of business to open the Parker House to everyone, irrespective of race, color or creed. Parker House became the first hotel in Boston to break the stranglehold of segregation.
The Parker House became ground zero for breaking the color barrier in Boston. Bud, Jack, Jerry, Bob, and Walter Dunfey were supporting a young African-American candidate for Congress, David Nelson. Though David did not win his congressional race, he built a very credible reputation in the process of his run and a few years later would be named to the Federal Bench by President Carter. David was ably supported by his brilliant brother John “JD” an investment Banker at State Street Bank who would create a reputation within the business community to rival his brother’s standing in the political community.
JD would go on to be the Treasurer of the National Democratic Party as well as starting a highly successful finance business, “Rumbline” in Boston. He was a brilliant and genuine businessman and made friends easily. In fact, he was often seen at Waterville with his friends Chip Carter, son of President Carter as well as Jamie Bush, nephew of President George H.W. Bush.
The Dunfeys may have made a yeoman’s contribution to civil rights in Boston and nationally, but that did not mean that JD and David were free from the slings and arrows of racial animus. JD’s life partner Hali Beckman related an incident when JD was stopped driving north to Waterville for no apparent reason. The state police officer asked him how he could afford his car and where he was going. He then called Jerry Dunfey to check out JD’s response. There were plenty of these moments for these two African American men over the years, but the grace and humor with which they faced these challenges gave their newfound friends at Waterville Valley a confidence in them that helped everyone to rise together.
The Dunfeys introduced the Nelsons to Waterville and it was love from the start. JD would become one of the most important mentors to the young freestyle skiers, stepping in to manage many of them when they were feeling short-changed by early business operators in the Freestyle community.
Above, Jack Sanders – Legal Eagle of Freestyle Courtesy Jack Sanders
Wayne Wong approached JD, whom he considered a good friend by this time, and asked if he would be willing to manage Wayne’s career, particularly the financial aspects. JD enthusiastically accepted the offer, soon he was representing George and Floyd and other men and women who believed they were getting a raw deal from their early handlers.
After the accident at Stratton, Freestyle was on the ropes, JD would join together with Jack Sanders to ensure that the legal backs of these freestylers were covered. The two of them worked with Jerry Dunfey, Bernie Weischel and later with Nick and Suzi Preston to craft, and update regularly, protocols for the safe operation of competitions and to convince a highly skeptical insurance industry to come back to providing coverage for events.
Just in the nick of time to save the sport in its most desperate hour of need. . .
JD and Jerry Dunfey became fast friends in those early years and along with Frank Deboise, were known as the Three Musketeers because they were often seen together in Waterville.
So JD Nelson, Jerry Dunfey, Jack Sanders with a lot of help from Bernie Weichel would play a critical role in saving the nascent Freestyle skiing Industry when they first developed standards and protocols for the safe conduct of Freestyle competitions and then engineered a deal that brought the ski industry, event sponsors and insurance companies back together after a period of panic set off by the accidents that had send them into a tailspin that threatened the Freestyle genre. Together they crafted protocols that convinced the skittish business community that Freestyle could be made both fun and reasonably safe.
The final piece of the puzzle came a few years later when Nick and Suzi Preston began working with young aspiring freestylers, making sure that the next generation of Freestyle skiers would be trained and equipped to carry the sport forward in a way that minimized the risks and maximized the fun. The result has been an explosion of both the number of new and interesting Freestyle events as well as huge public interest in the sport, both on the competition side as well as the public side.
Freestyle competitions are now the most popular events in the Winter Olympics.
In the final installment of our Birth of Freestyle Skiing series on Wednesday, March 19 we’ll focus on the athletes.
About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, “New Hampshire – a Love Story”. His novel “Sacred Trust” – a vicarious, high-voltage adventure to stop a private powerline – as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags, attesting to both his ancestry and his spiritual ties. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com. Anamaki is a derivative of an Algonquin word meaning “abiding hope”.
Contact Wayne D. King: 603-530-4460
waynedking9278@gmail.com
Part 1: Monday March 17, 2025. The Dreamers & the Doers; The Early Days of Waterville Valley
The Untold Story of the Birth of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley Hotdog Skiing Was a Purely American Innovation and a Celebration of Diversity