On November 23, from 7 p.m. to midnight, you are invited to join the MonoBillies Monoski Club for MonoBillie Boogie, a fundraising party to honour the life and legacy of local legend Bill Henriksen and celebrate Kimberley's thriving monoskiing culture.
Henriksen was an easily recognizable character in Kimberley. A founding member of Centre 64, a talented weaver and obviously a trailblazing monoskier, Henriksen's bearded face graced postcards and trail maps and he was a staple in Kimberley culture on and off the ski hill.
In a video made around 14 years ago, which you can see here: vimeo.com/15797288, Henriksen, who was 74 at the time, said he started skiing in Kimberley back in 1974.
"I'm still skiing, I'm still doing everything the skier does," he said in the video. "I ski from the waist down, the upper body stays still and everything happens below the waist. So I always tell everybody, 'I'm not mixed up', because I use the right leg to turn right and the left leg to turn left.
"In fact I think there was a time that people didn't like riding up the chair with me, because I would tell them how good the monoski was. Kimberley is a great place to monoski."
Local musician, of Alderbash fame, and monoski enthusiast Ryan Peterson first tried monoskiing around 15 years ago, and while it wasn’t with Henriksen, it turned out that it was in fact on one of his boards.
Peterson first met Henriksen, where else, but on the chairlift.
“Basically I came up behind him in line and we were both on skis and I snuck on the chair with him and he said ‘You’re on one of my boards’ and ‘Follow me if you can!’" Peterson said.
If you happen not to already know, a monoski is, just as it sounds, one wide, single ski a skier straps both boots into. But why do that instead of just regular old skiing, you may be asking yourself. Peterson extolled the many virtues of the monoski as follows:
"It’s definitely a new challenge for seasons skiers or snowboarders who want to try something new, but it’s also a great way to get down the mountain and work through variable snow conditions, because they really plow through things smoothly and you can get through uglier snow conditions.
"And it's just a really good way to get down the hill quickly and it also preserves your knees. A lot of people do it because their knees are sore from skiing, because you don’t have that opportunity for your legs to go in every which direction."
The MonoBillies club was inspired by the life of Henriksen. After he passed away a few years ago, Peterson, who already had bought one ski off a friend, was then able to acquire Henriksen's entire collection of monoskis.
"I bought them all and established this club last year in his honour," he said. "I got about 10. Instantly there’s at least 10 people in the club, but I also invited any other downhill skiers to the club and really anyone. You don’t even have to have mono-ski and you can be in the club, all you need is a T-shirt.
"We had our first kind of club event last year and there was 13 of us out on mono-skis, which is probably the highest per capita you’d find anywhere in the world almost."
Peterson added he wanted to have an event to celebrate Kimberley's monoski culture, and to officially announce Kimberley as the monoskiing capital of Canada. He planned it for mid-November to raise the stoke levels for the upcoming ski season.
In addition to being a rocking party, which features the music of Oliver McQuaid and Alderbash — who have written several songs about monoskiing — the club partnered up with Original Goat Production and expand the event into a fundraising opportunity.
They will be raising funds and food items for the Kimberley Food Bank and also working with the folks from Black Dog Cycle and Ski to have it serve as a warm winter clothing and non-perishable food item drive and drop-off location as well.
"It’s super awesome," Peterson said. "We wanted to have a party, now we’re able to have an awesome party and raise money for some great causes."
The event was made possible through the support of sponsors: Original Goat Production, the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies Summit Fund, and Black Dog Cycle and Ski.
Tickets are available at this link: tickettailor.com/events/onelightconcerts/1445468?
