MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter Spring 2019

That mass—Tippie stands six feet tall and weighs between 210-220 pounds— and his drive to excel made him fast on a snowboard. Really fast. After a chance meeting with shred legend Craig Kelly at Red Mountain, he began racing professionally in 1991. “Craig told me I should race and sold me the speed suit he won the US open with for 150 bucks. But he didn’t have it on him so he told me meet him at the next race.” The next race was in Breckenridge, Colorado. It was a big event with a cash purse and all the top dogs of the day competing. Tippie hobo’ed (see sidebar) his way down, met Craig, got the suit, and finished 11 th . “I always seemed to get 11 th ,” Tippie says of his race career. “I have more 11 th s than any other result on the World Cup. It isn’t bad—11 th in the world—but the top ten get in the magazines. That was my first pro competition and I beat Craig on the first run; the best snowboarder ever and one of my heroes. I got a few top tens on the pro tour and then in 1994 I got a Burton sponsorship, they were THE team to ride for.” “You must have got all the ladies,” SarahTippie, now home, chimes in with a smirk. “I did,” Tippie laughs. “I was killing it. I was going back and forth between Whistler and Kamloops, I had a 4x4 truck and I was cracking the top ten against the best guys in the world.” ABOVE 2018. Dropping into Moab at age 49. ALE DI LULLO. BELOW Catskiing at Keefer Lake Lodge, BC. 2019. ANDREW LAWRENCE