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Safety
#RideAnotherDay If you’d like to invite Chauncy and Kelli Johnson to speak about

A Year in Review the #RideAnotherDay safety campaign at your area, please contact
Earl Saline at esaline@nsaa.org. For more information on the
Johnson’s experience, visit the safety-collisions page at nsaa.org.

BY CHAUNCY JOHNSON

AS I WRITE THIS ARTICLE, I can’t help but reflect on the impact want to have anything to do with us or our desire to bring
that snowboarding has had on my life. greater awareness to speed and collisions on the mountain.
Growing up I worked in the summers keeping grounds After all, talking about a tragic event in the sport might not
and mowing lawns between baseball practice and games so be good for business or growing the sport.
I could buy the latest snowboard gear and afford lift tickets Thankfully, they were very receptive, and we’ve built
during the winter months. I couldn’t wait for the fall issue of a lasting relationship around our shared desire to promote
Transworld Snowboarding Magazine that showcased the latest safety within the industry. As a result of this collaboration,
boards and gear. Regular visits to the local ski/board shop was the #RideAnotherDay safety campaign emerged, and we have
a ritual with my friends, each of us eager for the day that the been inspired by the response from ski areas and resorts all
new stock would be displayed. The first dusting of snow on the over the country. We have spent the past two years traveling
mountains that would come a month or so later was all it took and speaking at various events to the extent possible to
to keep me dreaming about the day that the local mountain promote the campaign, hoping to inspire greater awareness
would open for the season. Then, watching the annual Warren from an impactful, face-to-face experience with areas—
Miller film was the icing on the preseason cake. sharing, and sadly reliving, that day in 2010.
This anticipation for winter stuck with me through the The 2017–18 ski season will go down in my mind
years and persisted after I got married and joined my pas- as the inauguration of the public awareness campaign,
sion for riding snow with my wife Kelli’s passion for skiing. #RideAnotherDay. The now iconic snow angel campaign
Eventually kids would come into the picture and my excite- posters were seen at several resorts in highly visible areas on
ment to share the snowsports my wife and I love so dearly the mountain, in transit buses, and at other conspicuous
would take on new meaning for our family. I had that same mountain locations. As we visited multiple resorts, I was in
excitement and anticipation on Christmas Eve Day 2010, awe of the efforts to make the campaign highly visible to
the day I lost my daughter Elise, nearly lost my wife, and a mountain patrons, bringing attention to speed and collisions.
young snowboarder lost his life in a tragic ski collision at a Since we first announced the campaign in partnership
Wyoming ski area. with NSAA at the 2016 Western Conference in Steamboat
The trauma that ensued in the aftermath of that day Springs Colo., we have spoken to ski patrol, mountain safety,
changed my life forever. My excitement for winter turned to mountain operations teams, and executives at multiple areas
dread and fear, with new anxieties and painful memories to and resorts. Starting in November 2017 through the winter
deal with that I had never before experienced. An article is of 2018, we presented at Colorado’s Beaver Creek Resort
too short to cover all of the details of my personal struggle and Copper Mountain Resort; Utah’s Park City Mountain
with post-traumatic stress disorder and grief as well as the Resort/The Canyons; and Montana’s Big Sky Resort. In
injuries that my wife had to overcome, but suffice it to say addition, we were able to promote the campaign at the 2018
that with time, several miracles, and a desire to turn tragedy NSAA Western Conference at Snowbird, Utah, and at the
into triumph, the same eagerness for winter has found its NSAA National Convention in Marco Island, Fla., on the
way back into my soul. A key factor in this transformation tradeshow floor. At the Convention, we presented the first
has been promoting the #RideAnotherDay (#RAD) safety #RideAnotherDay safety award to Copper Mountain for its
campaign in partnership with NSAA. inspiring efforts in promoting the campaign. Presenting the
I still remember the first phone call that Kelli and I had award was exhilarating, surreal, and emotional. We invite
with Earl Saline, NSAA’s director of education programming, all areas and resorts to compete for the 2019 award. (Find
and Dave Byrd, NSAA’s director or risk and regulatory affairs, details on the process at nsaa.org/safety-programs/collisions/.)
to inquire about the organization’s level of interest in working The face-to-face opportunities we’ve had with staff
with us on a safety initiative in honor of our daughter. I was who work at resorts have been particularly rewarding.
beyond nervous and fully anticipating that they might not While the experience can be emotional at times not only

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