# Life of Shane McConkey > A timeline of Shane McConkey's life — the legendary skier's story, milestones, achievements, and key moments. - Source: https://www.linecept.com/p/life-of-shane-mcconkey-0kyppz - Published: Jul 21, 2026 - Time span: Dec 30, 1969 – Mar 2, 2026 - Timezone: UTC - Timelines: 11 - Events: 52 - Contributors: David Kutas, Máté Melcher ## Timelines - Ski Racing (Sep 1, 1985 – Jun 1, 1992): The disciplined racing years that made McConkey technically flawless — from Burke Mountain Academy through college gates — before his size closed the door on a… - Freeskiing & Competition (Jan 1, 1993 – Jun 1, 2001): Set free from the racecourse, McConkey became one of the founders of competitive freeskiing — winning big-mountain titles and building the circuit itself. - Ski Films & Saucer Boy (Nov 1, 1995 – Mar 26, 2009): The move from competitor to star: 26 ski films, a genius for the camera, and a beer-swilling alter ego who made the whole industry laugh at itself. - The Rocker Revolution (Jan 1, 1996 – Mar 26, 2009): McConkey's least visible and most lasting revolution: with Volant engineer Peter Turner he turned ski design upside down, inventing the shapes nearly every… - Ski-BASE & Wingsuit Flying (Jan 1, 2003 – Mar 26, 2009): His final obsession: adding a parachute, then a wingsuit, to skiing — leaving the mountain behind and turning descents into flight. - Shane McConkey — Life (Dec 30, 1969 – Mar 26, 2009): The central lifeline: son of a skiing legend, restless prankster, husband and father, and the pioneer who died doing the very thing he had invented. - Legacy & Recognition (Apr 1, 2009 – Dec 31, 2013): What he left behind: an industry reshaped, a sport he had all but invented, and a Red Bull film that made him known far beyond skiing. - Saucer Boy (Jan 1, 1997): The beer-in-hand alter ego McConkey dreamed up while injured, who punctured the machismo of extreme skiing. - The Spatula Ships (Dec 1, 2002): The absurd-looking, reverse-camber powder ski McConkey and Peter Turner built at Volant that quietly rewrote how skis are shaped. - Opening Peak 2 Peak (Dec 12, 2008): McConkey's outrageous ribbon-cutting for Whistler Blackcomb's record-setting gondola. - The Red Bull Film (Apr 20, 2013): The 2013 documentary that told McConkey's whole story — the pranks, the inventions, the flight, and the fatal jump. ## Events (chronological) - Dec 30, 1969: Born in Vancouver — Shane McConkey born December 30, 1969, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His father Jim McConkey was also a legendary skier, giving Shane an early immersion in ski culture… - Dec 30, 1969: Born to Ski — Shane McConkey was born on 30 December 1969 in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, Jim, was a celebrated big-mountain skier and a member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame —… - Jan 1, 1973: Raised by His Mother — His parents separated when he was young, and from around age three his mother, Glenn, a ski instructor, raised him largely on her own, for a time in Santa Cruz, California. - Sep 1, 1985: Burke Mountain Academy — As a teenager McConkey went east to Burke Mountain Academy, the storied Vermont ski-racing school, finishing high school there while chasing a spot in the U.S. racing pipeline. By… - Jan 1, 1988: Too Small for the Podium — His hero was the Swedish slalom master Ingemar Stenmark, and coaches praised McConkey's technique as close to perfect. But at his smaller size the raw power the top ranks demanded… - Sep 1, 1988: Burke Mountain Academy — Shane attended Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, an elite ski racing school. The experience sharpened his technical skills and exposed him to elite-level competition, laying the… - Sep 1, 1989: Racing at Colorado — McConkey skied for the University of Colorado in Boulder, still on the racing track that had defined his youth. The gates that once felt like freedom were starting to feel like a… - Jan 1, 1991: The Wilderness Years — After racing, McConkey drifted through Colorado — skiing at Boulder, then delivering pizza in Vail and competing on the fringes. For a while he had talent and no clear place to… - Jun 1, 1991: CU Boulder & Dropping Out — Shane enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder but ultimately dropped out, choosing the mountains over academia. He packed up and moved to Squaw Valley, California, to… - Jan 1, 1992: Moves to Squaw Valley — Shane relocated to Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe), CA, which became his home base for life. The resort's steep terrain and big-mountain lines perfectly suited his aggressive,… - Jan 1, 1992: Walking Away from Gates — By the early 1990s McConkey had let the racing dream go, drifting to Vail and the fringes of the sport. It looked like failure at the time. It was really the moment that set the… - Feb 1, 1993: A Bet on the Mogul Tour — In 1993, mostly for fun, McConkey entered the Pro Mogul Tour — and won just the second event he started, at Copper Mountain. It was the first sign that his future lay off the… - Jan 1, 1994: Home at Squaw Valley — McConkey found his true home at Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe) in California — a freewheeling mountain that fit his skiing and his personality perfectly, and where he became a… - Aug 1, 1994: South American Champion — In 1994 he won the South American Freeskiing Championships and took second at the World Extreme Skiing Championships in Valdez, Alaska — announcing himself as one of the best… - Mar 1, 1995: U.S. National Title — He repeated as South American champion in 1995 and claimed the U.S. National Freeskiing title, dominating a discipline judged not on times but on the lines skiers chose down real,… - Nov 1, 1995: Life in Front of the Lens — As competition wound down, McConkey became the biggest draw in ski cinema, eventually appearing in 26 films for producers including Matchstick Productions, Teton Gravity Research,… - Jan 1, 1996: Co-Founding the IFSA — In 1996 McConkey co-founded the International Freeskiers Association alongside Lhotse Hawk, Brant Moles, and a handful of other competitors — giving the young sport real rules,… - Jan 1, 1996: Bindings on Water Skis — Frustrated that shaped skis dug and dove in deep snow, McConkey bolted bindings onto a pair of water skis and rode them in Alaska. They floated. The stunt planted an idea that… - Mar 1, 1996: Founds Freeskiing World Tour — In 1996, Shane co-founded the Freeskiing World Tour (freeride association) alongside Lhotse Miriam Hawk, helping legitimize and organize competitive freeskiing as a sport globally. - Jan 1, 1997: Enter Saucer Boy — Sidelined by a knee injury in 1997, McConkey created Saucer Boy — a caped, beer-toting goofball who rode a plastic saucer down the mountain. The bit skewered the machismo of… - Jan 1, 1997: Saucer Boy — In 1997, sidelined by a knee injury, McConkey invented 'Saucer Boy' — a caped, beer-toting buffoon who rode a plastic saucer and mocked the self-serious world of extreme skiing.… - Feb 1, 1998: Volant and Peter Turner — As a sponsored Volant rider, McConkey teamed with the company's engineer, Peter Turner. Around a 1998 storm at Squaw Valley he took Volant's fat Chubb powder ski and decambered… - Jan 30, 1999: Into the X Games — Through the late 1990s he kept winning — big-mountain and skiercross titles, extreme events, even the X Games — until around 2001, when the camera, not the scoreboard, became his… - Jun 1, 2000: Saucer Boy & Film Stardom — Shane became a cult figure in ski films, pioneering the 'Saucer Boy' persona — skiing on oversized saucer-shaped skis with outrageous humor. His appearances in Warren Miller and… - Dec 1, 2002: Throw Out Everything You Know — When the Volant Spatula — the ski McConkey developed with engineer Peter Turner — shipped in December 2002, it looked ridiculous: tips and tails curled up like a water ski, camber… - Dec 1, 2002: The Spatula — The work with Turner became the Volant Spatula, released in December 2002 — arguably the first full reverse-camber, reverse-sidecut powder ski. It looked absurd and shipped with a… - Jan 1, 2003: Rocker Concept with Peter Turner — Shane worked closely with Peter Turner to develop rocker (reverse-camber) ski technology at Squaw Valley. The design mimicked the shape of water skis, dramatically improving float… - Jan 1, 2003: The Straight-Line Showman — On film he made the outrageous look joyful — huge cliff drops, high-speed straight-lines, and a gag in the same segment. He understood that skiing was entertainment, and that… - Jun 1, 2003: Learning to Fly — In the early 2000s McConkey took up BASE jumping and began fusing it with skiing — riding off a cliff and deploying a parachute in the fall. It let him ski lines that simply had… - Jul 1, 2003: The Stawamus Chief — In 2003 he launched off the Stawamus Chief, the 700-meter granite wall above Squamish, British Columbia — one of the vivid early feats that helped define the new sport of ski-BASE. - Jun 1, 2004: Volant & Spatula Ski — Shane's 'Spatula' ski — a rockered, reverse-sidecut design — was a radical departure from convention. It proved that skis shaped for powder could outperform traditional designs… - Jan 1, 2005: Turner Founds DPS — In 2005 Peter Turner left Volant and co-founded DPS Skis with skier Stephan Drake, carrying the rocker idea forward with new materials and shapes. Between McConkey's evangelism… - Mar 1, 2005: Ski BASE & Wingsuit Pioneer — Shane combined skiing with BASE jumping and wingsuit flying, pushing the boundaries of what was possible in mountain sports. He became one of the most recognized ski-BASE athletes… - Jan 1, 2006: Sherry and Ayla — McConkey built a family life in Squaw Valley with his wife, Sherry, and their daughter, Ayla, born in 2006. Friends noticed the pull it created: the same man who leapt off cliffs… - Feb 1, 2006: The K2 Pontoon — From 2004 McConkey worked with K2 on the Pontoon, a torpedo-shaped rocker ski that turned his idea into a mainstream product. Its DNA — raised tips and tails, reversed camber —… - Jan 1, 2007: Adding the Wingsuit — Not content merely to fall, McConkey added a wingsuit — the webbed 'flying squirrel' suit — so he could ski off a peak, release his skis in the air, and actually fly across the… - Jan 1, 2007: Skiing Meets Flying — By the mid-2000s his segments increasingly ended with him leaving the snow entirely — skiing off a cliff and opening a parachute. The films captured the exact moment his sport was… - Feb 1, 2008: The Bond Fantasy, For Real — In one celebrated segment he restaged the ski-BASE cliff jump from the James Bond film 'The Spy Who Loved Me,' casting Sherry as the Bond girl — proof that his biggest stunts were… - Dec 12, 2008: A BASE Jump for a Gondola — To help open Whistler Blackcomb's record-setting Peak 2 Peak gondola in December 2008, McConkey BASE-jumped from a cabin suspended at its highest point — a fittingly outrageous… - Mar 26, 2009: Shane McConkey Dies — On March 26, 2009, Shane McConkey died during a ski-BASE jump in the Dolomites, Italy, after a ski failed to release properly. He was 39. His death sent shockwaves through the… - Mar 26, 2009: The Last Jump — On 26 March 2009 McConkey died in the Italian Dolomites during a ski-BASE jump filmed for a Matchstick Productions and Red Bull project. After a double backflip off the cliff on… - Jan 1, 2010: Shane McConkey Foundation Founded — Sherry McConkey established the Shane McConkey Foundation in Shane's memory, focused on environmental education and youth programs including the annual EcoChallenge, keeping his… - Jan 1, 2010: Rocker Everywhere — In the seasons after his death, rocker became the default shape for powder skis and a standard feature across skis and snowboards alike — the quiet, ubiquitous proof of how right… - Apr 2, 2011: Ski Hall of Fame — McConkey was elected to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in the Class of 2010 and inducted on 2 April 2011, alongside fellow Tahoe standouts Daron Rahlves and Glen Plake. - Apr 20, 2013: McConkey Premieres at Tribeca — Released by Red Bull Media House and Matchstick Productions, 'McConkey' premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 20 April 2013. It wove his own home movies together with the… - Oct 1, 2013: McConkey, the Film — In 2013 Matchstick Productions and Red Bull Media House released 'McConkey,' a feature documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 20 April 2013. Built partly from… - Nov 1, 2013: McConkey (2013) — Red Bull Film — Red Bull Media House released 'McConkey' in 2013, a feature documentary celebrating Shane's life, humor, and legacy. Directed by Steve Winter & Murray Wais, it became one of the… - Dec 1, 2013: The Ripple Effect — A generation of skiers and BASE jumpers name him as their reason for starting. He is remembered less for any single descent than for a way of meeting the mountains — serious about… - Apr 3, 2025: EcoChallenge Launch 2025 — Shane McConkey Foundation announced the 2025 EcoChallenge: $27,250 in cash prizes for students across 4 categories. Projects due April 22, 2025 — Earth Day. A youth environmental… - Oct 13, 2025: Plastic Sorting Milestone — Foundation volunteers sorted 2,840 lbs of plastic from the landfill via a Truckee Elementary community drive. A record amount saved, reflecting Shane's love of wild places and the… - Feb 2, 2026: Pain McShlonkey Classic 2026 — David Kutas registered to crowdfund a spot in the 2026 Pain McShlonkey Classic on March 21 at Palisades Tahoe — an annual fundraiser race honoring Shane's irreverent humor and… - Mar 2, 2026: Saucerboy Skibladezzz Drop — Foundation announced new 'Saucerboy Skibladezzz' — limited ski gear drop celebrating Shane's iconic Saucer Boy persona. David Kutas forwarded the announcement, connecting it to… --- This is an interactive timeline published on Linecept. View it at https://www.linecept.com/p/life-of-shane-mcconkey-0kyppz. Create your own at https://www.linecept.com/.