My longtime friend, Alex Cohn, died late Sunday night/early Monday morning. He was a senior in high school outside of Boston, MA.
I have been skiing with this kid since 2000 at Bromley, VT. Every time I went home for Xmas vacations, I would get the chance to hang out with him and his brother Zack. We'd ski hard, talk about the state of the ski industry, all the low-down on magazines and movies, pro athletes, equipment, tricks and style.
Alex was as hardcore about freeskiing as anyone out there. He became a subscriber to Freeze and Freeskier magazines during both of their first years out. He had seen Poor Boyz movies long before I ever saw them - think back to Decesare's 'State of Mind' and 'Fade to Black.' He had attended SMS summer camp at Whistler and I think another one at Hood, too.
I was lucky enough to talk to him on the telephone last week. He was telling me how sick the comp was up at Loon Mountain recently. He was super-psyched on how big the jumps were up there.
He attended Mount Snow Academy last year, and he had been accepted to Connecticut College for next year.
His parents Rick and Carol are great parents. They got him hooked on skiing every weekend. They both shred super-hard. His dad teles, while his mom downhills. His brother Zach is a damn good skier, too.
I'm going to miss Alex a lot. My Xmas vacations back at Bromley will never be the same. He always was opinionated about what was going on in the ski world, and that's one thing I appreciated most about him.
Last week he emailed me links to two different videos he and his friends made this winter. One is of his crew sliding the Lake Reponda rail near Mount Snow. The other video is of him and his crew shredding at the Loon competition a couple of weekends ago. Check them out. Everyone is skiing hard and having a great time together - the way skiing should be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGHJP8ECkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izuf9aGak-k
My deepest sympathy to the Kaplan-Cohn family and anyone who got a chance to hang out and ski with Alex.
Alex, we'll miss you.
--Cody Raisig
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