Personal Story...
I hope I get the dates correct. In 1969 I got a skibob as a Christmas gift from my boyfriend, John O’Neil. As a long time skier, I was skeptical but we took it up to Snoqualmie Pass, outside of Seattle, and it was so much fun that we fought over it the whole day. The next day John bought his own and we put our skis away and started to skibob exclusively. In those days, it was truly a fledgling sport, so our skibobs had wooden skis and were not built for anything but fun. We met some other skibobbers from the Northwest Skibob Association and started competing against each other. Luckily one skibob friend, Neil Sherod, owned an auto repair shop in Seattle, so we regularly spent time there fixing and trading equipment with the other skibobbers.
As time went on, we found out about the ASBA -
Unfortunately, in 1971, the decision was made to only have a Men’s U.S. Team, so
I would not be racing in the World Championships. Gene Zenger, our coach, brought
over Corrado Gyer (Konnie) from Europe to train the U.S. men’s team for the Third
World Championships in Reno, NV., March 22, 1971. He was ranked 5th in the world
at that time. It became very clear early on, that many on our team were lacking
in racing-
Once back home, It didn’t take long for the rest of our skibob friends to see how
much better we were skiing and they wanted Hari skibobs too. We were frequently
breaking the aluminum front angle piece that connected the ski to the handlebars
and getting replacement parts was almost impossible. John and I decided to go into
business and started importing the skibobs and parts directly from Hari-
The next Regional for the NWSBA was at Mission Ridge, March 19th, 1972 and I won
the Women’s-
Our 2nd National race, the US National Skibob Championships were held March 10, 1973 in Park City West, Utah. It was snowing hard and we were asked to go onto the course and pack it down with our short skis before the race. (the good ol’ racing days.) Well, that did me in. I got halfway through the GS race and fell. I won silver in the Downhill but I had to give up the big silver bowl. I have no idea where that is now!
John O’Neil continued to race and went to Europe for the next World Championships. Unfortunately, he was in a bad auto accident while he was traveling and had to return home without racing.
In mid 1972, I moved from Seattle to Minnesota for a job with the Airlines. It took me in a different direction and since there wasn’t a challenging place to train near Minneapolis, it became more difficult to keep racing. John and I sold the remaining skibobs and went our separate ways. It was a really fun and dynamic time for skibobbing and I am so glad I was a part of this fledgling sport in the U.S. for this short time.
I do have some memorabilia. A poster of the 1971 World Championship in Reno, the commemorative bottle, an award for winning at Jackson Hole along with the start list and final position lists, my racing bib, medals, some Hari brochures, certificates, etc.
*Joan Mansfield Dean
Joan Mansfield
My Skibobbing Story...