1994 was also the year that Grouse Mountain opened their first terrain park.
We got the story direct from the people who lived it.
The first park at Grouse was 1994.
They had a little budget for some events and a little budget for cat-time.
Back in the 90s, the early days of snowboarding at Grouse.
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Then came industry-wide insurance issues.
It was 1999 when they started back up at Grouse.
We even held a snowboard contest on July 1st, Canada Day.
Everything, grew from operations to park support, everything just kept snowballing.
More and more people started riding up there and got more terrain and just evolving designs.
How things have changed!
They approached the management and told them what the idea was and how much snow-making it would take.
To their surprise at the time, they got the go ahead.
The goal was to create a facility that we would attract local people.
At the time there was definitely a lack of high-end jumps in the area, a proper jump-line.
The only place you could go was Whistler.
We thought this was a good opportunity and it has turned out quite well for us.
Some of them follow the competition circuit and its really good that we created that facility for them.
On a good day, its packed!
Since then there have always been skiers in the park.
He was a local kid who started volunteering in the park and eventually ended up working on the media-side.
He did a lot of filming and he was that voice on the ground of the ski-community at Grouse.
Charlie has since moved on to become a cinematographer at PoorBoyz, amongst other things.
Theres a large skiing-crew here, which is great.
Its just good vibes and everyones there for the same reason.
Everyone likes each other so its perfect.
Mac Jones and his crew have been known to stop by as well.
Pre-season and end-of-season are when we get a huge fluctuation of people coming from outside of the area.
We definitely get some big names coming through here at that time.
The view at night…
But no matter how you ride, a variety of features is key for any park.
It may be unique but it is a harder work for the crew.
Its definitely worth the effort though, on a pow day its probably our strongest offering.
and the view by day.
Both hit the spot.
Shaw thinks its the jib offering that really sets Grouse apart.
He should know, hes worked on parks as far afield as Japan, Italy, and New Zealand.
One thing about Grouse is that their rail inventory is definitely one the most innovative in the world.
Theyve got chain rails, theyve got capped rails, cement features, and wood features.
Its stuff that youre seeing popping up elsewhere now but definitely didnt see before.
Im always excited to see what those guys cook up.
I know that in the next few years theyll come up with some new crazy rail ideas.
And its been going on for 25 years now.
Were talking about since 1994, I was 5 years old!
The Grouse crew hard at work
The growth of the parks at Grouse show no sign of slowing down.
