The collision of art and sport.
Words :: bronwyn preece
The intersection of athletics and the arts in the Sea to Sky corridor has long been established. The area boasts snowboarding painters, music-making mountain bikers, skiers who draw, climbers who craft with kilns and writers who wander outside the margins. Art, sport and life are inextricable for some, while for others artistic expression and sport may serve as a counterbalance. But what happens when the mix—the balance—is thrown off? What happens in the case of injury?
Often known as “the backcountry poet,” I am a solo hiker who was rescued off the Great Divide Trail in 2023 with acute tendinitis in both feet. Unable to walk, dangling from the long line of a helicopter, my hike-and-write dream was vanishing into thin air. Committed to a signed book contract chronicling the trek, I devised a plan to salvage both the athletic and artistic endeavour by taking a creative approach to my rehab. I “completed” the hike by bike, driving a stationary exercise cycle to power through my planned daily kilometres at some of the more scenic and popular spots of the aborted route. From bipedal to by pedal—now surrounded by flocks of tourists—my remote, solo venture suddenly turned into a piece of very public performance art.
Following the project’s lemons-to-lemonade approach, I became curious about Coast Mountain-connected artist/athletes and how their art may have refocused, redeveloped or responded to an injury. What role does creativity play in the rehabilitative process?
Spearheaded by Squamish physiotherapist Emma Clark, the Skill Shift Collective hosts monthly workshops to provide “low-barrier, inclusive spaces to teach non-active skills to injured athletes [and outdoor recreationalists] with the goal of creating community and social connections.”
Emma has been facilitating these gatherings, partially funded by the Squamish Arts Council, for more than a year. Each meetup is led by a different guest expert representing a range of artistic genres. Interested in sports psychology, Emma attests to the inherently therapeutic benefits of these sessions yet insists they are not therapy.
Instead, participants relax into neighbourly chitchat as they learn new creative skills or hone existing techniques. “Social isolation is one of the biggest things I see in my patients post-injury, particularly if they are adventure athletes,” she says. “The Skill Shift Collective allows people to connect and tell their stories through another creative medium that, while less physical in nature, can be just as powerful.” Tales are shared of resilience and recoveries—connectivity being drawn out and opened up through artistic expression.
Downtime can plow our deepest depths. Sidelined by injuries, professional skier, surfer, climber, photographer and guide Chad Sayers began working on his book Overexposure: A Story about a Skier. Chad reflects on recovery by saying it can be a time when you’re “more sensitive and emotional as you start working on yourself. It’s finding a way to stay connected with your passion and career while healing.”
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For Chad, one of the most photographed skiers in history, “Writing my book is an example of my healing journey and how I was processing/dealing with it.” He notes this space can be productive, authentic and artistic, saying, “Spending time with what makes you happy” is an integral part of the process.
Spending time with what makes him happy is exactly what celebrated local DJ Mat the Alien did to keep his spirits up following a devastating mountain biking accident in 2020 that rendered him a quadriplegic. Mat’s friends outfitted his room at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre with music-making gear, and the iconic DJ tasked himself with creating new tracks without the otherworldly hand dexterity and scratching skills he was known for.
“Often, I’d be spinning a record with one arm and pushing forward with the other to stop from falling onto the tables,” he says. In 2023 Mat received a grant to produce and release This Sound, a four-song vinyl record recorded from his Squamish home on his 270-degree adaptive Alien music control panel. He’s also returned to the stage but, limited by accessibility and logistical considerations, now only plays annual gigs at the Bass Coast and Shambhala festivals.
Mat views music and his love of biking (which he’s been able to return to) and snowboarding (which he has hopes for) as meditations or puzzles that invite him to find creative ways to navigate through the many “dodgy places” of a life-changing injury. DJing provides Mat a way to stay connected with community—his creative backbone and a necessary means of support through the continued challenges.
Facing challenge is equally familiar to acclaimed two-time Olympic snowboarder and visual/music artist Trevor “Trouble” Andrew, who is also the designer behind the GucciGhost line of street fashion.
Forced sedentary by a torn ACL, Trevor found an artistic antidote to the boredom. He recorded an album and his “lo-fi, grimy, darker” sound got him signed to the Virgin record label. Once able to return to his board, he began to ride a continuum of creativity between sport and art. Painting and illustration soon, too, began to emerge as outlets, earmarked by his gritty, bright and fun graffiti style. For Trevor, “It’s a way of life…being creative with your environment.”
Broken ribs followed by a fractured back eventually forced his retirement from professional competition, but Trevor says, “Snowboarding is still very much a part of my art.” In 2016, his renegade GucciGhost artwork caught the eye of the famed fashion house it was based on, and his designs spurred a sudden haute couture culture jam, from halfpipe to catwalk. Recently, Trevor detailed the jacket for Mat the Alien’s summer Bass Coast appearance and spray-painted trench coats for Usher on his latest tour. His art is featured in international galleries, and he continues to produce new music. Trevor also returns routinely to the Sea to Sky slopes, reminding us, “It’s about following your drive and passion.”
Olympic ski cross racer India Sherret reflects, “Being in the mountains is a spiritual experience” and says painting is a contemplative mechanism for self-discovery. For India, visual art is also an intentional outlet to alleviate the high stress of World Cup competition. The skier’s interest in painting was encouraged when, as a teenager, she underwent residential treatment for bulimia—art therapies were integral to the rehabilitation program. India found herself painting again while healing a broken back in 2018, a torn ACL a few years later, and as a way of processing the loss of her 2022 Olympic dream, which was foiled by a crash. “It’s about connection… creating stuff helped me go through it.”
Refocused, India recently acquired a studio space and took the gold medal at the first FIS Ski Cross World Cup of the season in December 2024. She now has her sights set on the 2026 Olympics.
And all-around shredder/painter Vanessa “Nes” Stark says of her journey: “After 33 years of snowboarding, I’ve had to deal with a few handfuls of injuries and ten surgeries.” She adds that immersing herself in art helped her with the mental challenges and tolls recuperation can take. Injury can be a place of extreme vulnerability and being hurt can be a lonely place. “Art thrives on melancholy,” she says. “It can be like a warm hug on a cold day that will listen wordlessly as the painting appears.”
Injury can thwart dreams, create setbacks and force us to interrogate our sense of self. But in the same breath, those difficult downtimes may offer up invitations for inspiration. For some, injury (though unwelcome) has not been met as a dead end, but as an opportunity—opening the doors of art-making, of rejuvenation, of expression… of creative rehabilitation.
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