Monday, September 19, 2011

Laurentian Ski Museum Hall of Fame Inductee - Ron Booth of The Trading Post

When I think back of my youth in Montreal and my days of a young skier, one of the  highlights was my time working as a ski technician at the Trading Post, one of Montreal's greatest ski shops in the 70's. This October 22, 2011 the Laurentian Ski Museum, http://www.museeduski.com/ will be having their fund raiser for Ski Hall of Fame entrants into the Laurentian Ski Museum Hall of Fame. How fantastic that the entire Booth family of St. Saveur are to be inducted. I rememeber with great pride working for Ron Booth, the owner of the Trading Post.

When I was a young ski enthusiast,  I desperately wanted to be in the ski industry. I remember, approaching the head of the ski repair shop and suggesting that I would work for free in order  to learn the ropes of being a ski binding technician. He hired me at a low wage, and I made it behind the bench to work with Pickle, a young ski tech from the Okanagan Valley of B.C. I would arrive at 5 am excited to work for my minimum wage. However, I was working with the products I loved, was learning about the latest in ski technology, and was in complete working bliss.
We would often see Ron walking through the shop, asking for certain setups to be done on various packages the sales people would sell. He was always well mannered, positive and thoughtful towards all of his staff. In those days we had quite a large shop of staff, who were trendy and great skiers. One day, while I was trying to set up skis and drill the binding holes as fast as my professional colleagues, I drilled a pair of brand new skis in the wrong place, basically destroying them. I was so embarrassed. However, Ron was polite and even tempered, and just put them on the rack to be sold at a discount. An honest mistake was made, and he treated it like a gentleman.
What a great choice to induct Ron Booth of the Trading Post. That was the greatest part of Montreal ski history, which should be acknowledged for his contribution to making the city, one of the greatest ski locations in Canada. I believe they went to Vancouver and then opened other shops there such as Canski, but none were as successful and trendy as the Post.

Well done on the inductees.

Keep on promoting our ski legacy, museeduski.com


The Adventure Guy

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