and realized its been almost 25 years since I met Den in high school. It would have been hard not too. If you were from Pickering and had a snowboard or skateboard you might not have known him personally, but you definitely knew of him. He was definitely an influence and the measuring stick for us as kids, so much so that some were even mockingly labelled baby Den. You know who you are. Everyone who's met him has a story and I'm no different so here's a few of thousands.
This is the cover of my second or third TWS. Probably chock full of Yuki Nemaki and Quimbola Man stuff. No big deal, but I probably searched every convenience store and grocery store magazine rack to find it prior to memorizing it cover to cover. Somehow it came into Den's possession, was cut up and plastered over the walls in his room. I was pissed and starting asking him where my magazine was on a daily basis. Till one day I was walking down the hall at school and out of nowhere a size monster Doc Martin planted itself on my chest and knocked my ass to the ground. I quit asking him about the mag after for over a decade, but started again when I was his TM for a few years.
The first real snowboard movie I ever saw (Kemper cold wave doesn't count) was Snowboarders in Exile. Everything about it blew my mind! Standout's were Chris Roach's word's of wisdom, All and Big Drill Car. After preaching about skateboard influenced snowboarding all summer, Critical Condition (the follow up to Exile) showed up at my house in October of 1991. Dennis and another buddy were leaving the next day for Lake Louise and stopped by my house when the shrink wrap came off and we witnessed Roach(bummer about the fatal femoral artery)and Ranquet's (cab the Blackcomb QP!) parts and the flying rubber frog incident in Japan with Palmer. It wasn't really that big a deal but for some reason its always stood out. Maybe its because both the FLF flicks and Bannock played such a role in progressing snowboarding. Or maybe I was (and still am) just a dumb kid.
Leashes have always been stupid. Period. Most places have quit asking if you have one, but it used to be a reason for patroller's and hick lifties to hassle you. Maybe we provoked it because we used to just attach both ends to our bindings or just tied a shoe lace around our bindings and made the whole concept pointless. Stupid things. The biggest mockery was when Dennis was back from the Lake in the spring of 92 or 93 and showed up at Lakeridge with a leash made up of 2 inch chain links. It was noisy, heavy, obnoxious and amazing.....everything that snowboarding should be.
There's tonnes more stories, some true, some false and most falling somewhere in between but if you've met Dennis then you have your own and your better off because of it.
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