The Backstory

BUMPS FOR BOOMERS ® is an Aspen ski lesson program that was designed from the ground up to quickly teach intermediate-level Baby Boomers how to ski moguls and how to ski powder. We are a specialty program of the Ski and Snowboards Schools of Aspen and have been infusing our clients with a passion for mogul skiing since 2004.

That’s the official version of the story but Aspen being Aspen, there’s always another story.

It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was a dark and stormy night sometime in the late 1980’s when Joe Nevin was driving through Las Vegas listening to the local radio (remember those days?) when a song by Mark Knopfler caught his ear. He couldn’t stop thinking about the lyrics and called the radio station to ask the name of the song. The lyrics told a story about a man who had found his ‘state of grace’ and Joe asked himself, “When am I in a state of grace?” He wasn’t thinking about it from a religious point of view but of that euphoric state of being: aware of your surroundings, senses filled to the brim, calm belly, completely immersed in the present moment. The answer came to him in a nano-second. “When I’m on a ski slope.” From that moment on, his next career took shape.

It took awhile for the MIT Sloan grad and senior Apple executive to retire and relocate to Aspen, pass his PSIA exams and craft the program that Bumps for Boomers is today. But thirty years later, all that strategic corporate thinking helped to create a unique ski program that is returning the joy of skiing to Baby Boomers.

When Joe started teaching skiing in Aspen, ski magazine covers showed Jonny Mosley with his head between his knees banging down mogul runs or young kids jumping off cliffs. But that is not what Joe’s ski clients wanted to do. They wanted to make sure they returned home from their ski trip uninjured and still able to walk without too much pain. Many of them expressed their boredom of skiing the same groomed runs year after year but they lacked the confidence and skills to competently ski moguls. Somehow skiing had lost its joy and freedom and turned into an exercise of fear and danger. And then there was the problem of the children and grandchildren out skiing their Boomer parents and grandparents. Talk about a wake up call! Clearly there was a need that was not being met in the typical ski lesson.

Just as Apple makes complex things elegant in their simplicity, Joe and his experienced team of ski instructors have been working to winnow down mogul skiing to the key techniques that make it safe, fun and do-able for any intermediate skier. Does it work? Some clients have said the program changed their life.

Oh, and the name of that Mark Knopfler song? You’ll have to come to Aspen and ask Joe.

Just like Joe’s story, each of our incredibly talented and experienced ski pros has an equally interesting story to tell. One of them has a PhD in Exercise Physiology, one was a Doctoral candidate in Physics, another ran a ski school at Purgatory and the other guides cycling trips around the world. But within their stories is a similar chapter. Each is wildly passionate about skiing and eager to share their knowledge and skills to bring the passion back into your skiing.