Happy Landings for Freestylers

Getting high is safer than ever for skiers and boarders. When adrenaline-seeking boarders and skiers head up Cypress Mountain this season they’ll be pushing the boundaries on the insane aerial tricks they’re already known for performing. At Cypress, the big risk that comes with big air has been greatly reduced for these daredevils, now that their landings will be on Vancouver-based Katal Innovations Inc.’s Mini LP, an inflated 10x14-metre air bag positioned at the end of a jump.

Getting high is safer than ever for skiers and boarders.

When adrenaline-seeking boarders and skiers head up Cypress Mountain this season they’ll be pushing the boundaries on the insane aerial tricks they’re already known for performing. At Cypress, the big risk that comes with big air has been greatly reduced for these daredevils, now that their landings will be on Vancouver-based Katal Innovations Inc.’s Mini LP, an inflated 10×14-metre air bag positioned at the end of a jump.

“There’s a lot of risk involved with learning freestyle [snowboarding]. The consequences to any small mistake – as I know very well – can be pretty taxing,” says Katal co-founder Aaron Coret.

That’s an understatement. In 2005, a routine trick for the aspiring pro boarder – a switch backside 540 off a 15-metre jump at Blackcomb – went bad, leaving Coret, now 28 years old, a quadriplegic. “Snowboarding was really my life,” he says. “And then one day it was gone forever. That really inspired me to find something else to do to continue my passion.”

While still in rehab, Coret started working with best friend and fellow UBC engineering student Stephen Slen to develop a landing pad that would let freestylers keep pushing their limits, while reducing the risk of injury. The pair stitched together their first prototype for a project in their integrated engineering program in 2007 and started testing various configurations with the help of big-name pro boarders like Travis Rice and Kevin Sansalone.

Unlike the Hollywood-style stunt air bags, which some hills were using and collapse upon the jumper when they land, Katal’s solution provides a sloped landing surface, designed to mimic the actual slope jumpers land on. “By adding that critical element of the down slope we give people that realistic learning experience. So the second they master that first trick and they’ve done it perfectly, they can take it back to the identical jump in the terrain park,” says Coret.

“I think it’s a superior product,” says Joffrey Koeman, director of sales and marketing at Cypress. The mountain plans to charge a nominal fee for access to the pad and is counting on selling more lift tickets as the pad lures customers from its North Shore competitors. “It’s definitely a marketing play, as well,” says Koeman.

If aerial tricks aren’t easy, neither is launching a small business. Coret and Slen have relied on their parents to fund some of the $200,000 in development costs. Modest revenue has trickled in from two pad sales (both – for reasons Coret can’t fathom – to ski hills in Russia) and a few special events – including engineering the landing bag for the boarder who jumped through the Olympic rings at the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

The current Katal models come in two sizes: the Mini LP (that Cypress bought) and a larger pad designed for more ambitious jumps. Each vinyl bag is manufactured by a Chinese company that specializes in building bouncy castles (the kind oft spotted at children’s birthday parties), and sell for between $20,000 and $40,000.

The pad’s location in Cypress’s high-visibility Patio Park terrain area, right beside the chalet’s bar and patio, should provide as much entertainment for the après-ski crowd as it will for the daredevils. Coret is hoping the spectacle will also draw the attention of other potential ski-area operators.

“Getting a bag in North America is going to make other ski resorts here take notice and show them how we can offer a superior product to our competitors,” he says. “So Cypress taking one of our new products is a big milestone for us.”