Revolution Ski & Blade’s unique team, coach, athletes, and ask

Photo: courtesy of Tessa Stinsmen

PARK CITY, Utah — Revolution Ski and Blade is a unique team with a unique coach, unique athletes, a unique trajectory, and a unique ask.

The age range of skiers is 7-21, with a current team roster of 40 skiers.

Unique Team

Unlike some other teams in Park City, which have massive rosters and require both hands to count the number of ski and snowboard disciplines, Revolution is proud to think small and act on a personal basis to connect with its athletes. They do big air, slope style, half pipe, and soon-to-be rail jam, and that’s all they do.

Unique Coach

Jason Stinsmen, a skier since the age of three, is a level 300 certified coach who has actually coached for larger local ski and snowboard teams, is the founder and head coach of Revolution Ski and Blade. Twenty-five years ago, when Stinsmen was a student at the University of Utah, he was hosting a New Year’s Eve Party with his parents at his childhood home in Pennsylvania when tragedy struck. Jumping on the backyard trampoline with friends, he had an accident and broke his neck.

Partially paralyzed instantaneously, he spent the next period of time in his life striving to regain his mobility and keep his spirits up. With the love and support of his community, he not only achieved that goal, but after Stinsmen relearned how to walk, feed himself, and later how to ski, he eventually re-found his “happy place.” 

He was also able to graduate from the U, and people who are old or new in Jason’s life can believe the awe-inspiring stuff he’s still able to do on skis. 

He views nearly 90% of his regained feeling and function as a blessing, which gives him a unique perspective when it comes to coaching. He knows firsthand what it’s like to learn the maneuvers required for the sport of free skiing and can perfectly communicate the step-by-step process to his athletes.

He wasn’t alone in his healing journey, and he isn’t alone in coaching his team. His mom joined him this past summer in a glorious full-circle moment as they attended the Salt Lake City X Games. In this event, he had competed the summer before his accident, and in a world where he had famously set a Guinness World Record for landing a double backflip on his roller skis. “I owe her so much,” he told TownLift about his mom. “She helped me through it all.”

His wife, Tessa, is the Revolution Team Manager and a Board member. “Without Tessa, this Team couldn’t continue; she’s got the golden touch in wonderfully working with all our fabulous families,” he said. She told TownLift, “It’s amazing to see Jason out there on the mountain matching all the skills that he teaches his athletes; his comeback story is truly inspiring.”

His assistant coaching staff, all licensed by the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, have just as impressive resumes as he does.

Unique athletes

The skiers — who compete in Argentina, Austria, Chile, and around the United States — live in Park City, Heber City, Kamas, and Orem. They attend school at the Park City High School, Ecker Hill Middle School, the Winter Sports School, and the Picabo Street Academy. They train at Woodward, Park City Mountain, and the Utah Olympic Park, where Stinsmen specifically gave a shout-out for all his time and energy to Programs Director Matt Terwillegar.

Unique Sport Trajectory

Unlike some other traditional Winter Olympic sport disciplines that are experiencing a downward trajectory in terms of spectatorship and sponsorship, free skiing is on the rise on the global ski stage. The International Ski Federation (FIS) is adding higher-level competitions and increasing the number of them every year, with the community’s goal being to be included in the Olympic Games soon, specifically in the rail jam arena.

FIS’s decades-old Continental Cup circuit is poised to introduce a new free ski style of competition this year called the rail jam. It’s been an FIS event for the last few years; however, the dedicated disciplines have been halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air, and now the additional one will be rail jam.

Unique Ask

When donors use this link on Nov. 7 for LivePC Give PC to give to Revolution Ski & Blade, just like they have for the past few years of this team’s existence, the money will go towards the usual things like travel costs, coaching costs, equipment costs, competition registration costs, and venue usage costs. However, it’s that last one, venue usage costs, wherein their unique ask comes into play.

Stinsmen wishes he had his own venue on which to train summer dry land for rail riding on skis. “If anyone out there has a patch of land to donate for our usage, we’d be so, so, so appreciative. Anyone’s yard anywhere within an hour’s drive of Park City, we could easily transform into a legitimate training venue; it doesn’t even need to be on a slope or a hill, as we are proficient in building out and building up modern apparatuses to meet our logistical needs.”

It’s a proven part of their business model, as they had a space previously; however, the athlete whose parents donated the land recently went off to college, so they dismantled all the plastic pieces and simply hope for a new place to set up the ready-made course.