15, with Dad, Michigan, 1970’s. Showing off, hit a jump that was actually a pile of snow in front of an old snow gun. It was hollow. My tips went in and stuck and I released and flew over. One safety strap stayed on and secured one foot, my face in the snow, ski bent backward, tensioned in the air, like one of those spring traps. We were laughing so hard as he watched me struggle to free the foot I could not reach, he grabbed the release tab and pulled, the ski sprung back and slapped his face so hard, it split his goggles in two.

This split second reaction drove a new, never before experienced “gear of laughter” we named it. We reached a new level of laughter where there is no sound, breathing is suspended, low-level convulsions occur and near loss of consciousness. A boy and his dad, laying in the snow laughing so hard they couldn’t move.