John & Donni Hughes: The Wind beneath the Wings of Freestyle

Whenever we try to tell a big story like the birth of freestyle skiing we tend to start out with the superstars that inhabit the rarified air of the legend. However, much of the story is hidden within the layers of what might be considered “average folks” who stepped up in a multitude of ways, to provide the wind beneath the wings of the athletes, the dreamers, and the mentors who would catapult “Hotdogging” to the more urbane “Freestyle” in only a few years. Often it was these folks who drove the public enthusiasm that would make Freestyle skiing the hottest new trend in skiing. Beginning in their days at Plymouth State College when Donni was a student at PSC and a cocktail waitress at “Fourways Restaurant” and John was stapling tickets at the mountain as he put himself through college. This podcast, ahead of our three-part series on “The Birth of Freestyle at Waterville Valley: The Dreamers & Doers; The Mentors and Protectors; and, The Athletes” celebrates the folks who worked tirelessly, day after day, to support the work of the names that the history books will recall. But in a larger sense, their work was the real foundation of the revolution that became Freestyle Skiing and propelled Waterville Valley into the hierarchy of ski resorts in the US. I may be wrong, but I’m betting that many of those who benefitted the most from the Freestyle Revolution would agree that people like John and Donni Hughes were the wind beneath their wings. Here’s my conversation with Donnella Hughes and John Hughes, iconoclasts and worker bees, at the cutting edge of a skiing revolution. © Anamaki Chronicles for InDepthNH.org Produced at Winter Warrior Studios