Landon Wendler still remembers the terror he felt as a young athlete attempting a backflip on a trampoline. 

During a training session with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club roughly a decade ago, Wendler was working on flips with moguls coach Mike Amato. 

Amato insisted Wendler and the other athletes were ready to try their hand at flips off the water ramps, even offering to take flight himself after each SSWSC athlete gave an attempt. The incentive was plenty for Wendler to overcome his fears and get his first-ever flip over with. Coach Amato followed shortly after. 

“I remember crashing for probably a week or so with some success here and there,” Wendler said of his first attempted inversions. 

Since then, the 24-year-old moguls skier has joined the U.S. Ski Team; won NorAm Cup events; earned medals at the 2023 National Championships; and finished as high as third in dual moguls on the World Cup circuit. He is currently one of just three men on the U.S. Moguls A Team.

This week, Wendler returned home to help train the next generation of Steamboat’s freestyle skiers. 

It goes undetected daily by passerbyers, but nestled just west of U.S. Highway 40 south of downtown is Bald Eagle Lake, home to the state’s only water ramp facility. 

SSWSC skiers and snowboarders take to the water ramps every summer to practice their aerial maneuvers by launching off the ramps and landing safely in the lake below. It is a way to keep repetitions high in the months that would otherwise make it difficult.

The ramps have existed for roughly 25 years thanks to property owner Ed MacArthur, whose son was in the SSWSC moguls program at the start of the century. MacArthur runs Native Excavating and used his expertise to construct the water ramps for SSWSC athletes. He continues to let them train on his property today.

This early in the offseason, training revolves around the takeoff. 

“The later in the year you get, hopefully the takeoff is where you want it and you’re working more on stuff in the air,” Wendler explained. “By end of summer and fall, everything is combined with a landing like you would on snow.”

Wendler keyed in on specific moments of each athlete’s jump on Thursday, keeping mental notes on their performance.

“A lot of what I look for is what their positioning looks like coming up and off the jump, so being in front of their boots and stacked,” Wendler said. “Off the end of the jump, we are looking for them to get fully extended and squeeze like a plank of wood up into the air for a backflip.” 

Backflips were a heavy focus during Thursday’s session. Some athletes were building up to the point of attempting their first flip while others were challenging themselves with huge aerials for competition season. The rest, like U17 skier Max Marrs, were in the process of working toward their certification. 

It takes roughly 100 flips off the water ramps to get tested by SSWSC coaches for a certification. Acquiring a freestyle certification means the athlete can perform a flip on snow and in competitions. 

By the end of training Thursday, Marrs had just over 60 flips completed. He is hopeful to reach 100 by the middle of next week and pass his test before the team travels to Oregon for a two-week training camp on Mount Hood in July. 

“If I can get certified before then, I can practice on snow at Mount Hood for the comp season,” Marrs said. 

SSWSC athletes have the luxury of working on the water ramps roughly four times per week throughout the summer.

Beginning freestyle athletes start on mats and wedges, working on rolls and body tension related workouts. 

After mastering the gymnastics side of things, athletes are promoted to the trampolines where they have a chance to learn the acrobatics part of their sport. It is not plausible to start a new trick on the water ramps right away, so they use the trampolines to learn the takeoff and rotations before taking things to the next level.

Once the athlete and coach feel confident and comfortable in their abilities, they hop on the ramp and slide down the wet plastic surface before being launched into Bald Eagle Lake.  

Being the only water ramp facility in Colorado, Bald Eagle Lake is the training grounds for athletes from Vail, Winter Park, Summit County and more throughout the summer, but SSWSC athletes have the clear advantage. 

“It’s really useful because you can practice your tricks every day,” Marrs said. “For other teams, they have to go to either us or Park City and don’t have it at their doorstep.”

Wendler, who tore his ACL in December, is actively working on rehabbing the injury. He hopes to be back on ramps in mid-August en route to a return to the World Cup stage this winter. 

Despite the global success, Wendler has never forgotten where his journey began. 

“I love coming back home, I don’t get to enough with training,” Wendler said. “It’s been super fun supporting people who grew up and went through all the same stuff that I did here. It’s the same training at Howelsen Hill and out here at the water ramps. All the memories come back of doing the same thing or learning like they are.”