BROMLEY BASEBOARDING
Picture this: Canadian Philippe LeBlanc is lining up against Italian Marco Rossi for the men’s goldmedal final in Bromley Baseboarding at the 2026 Winter Olympics. All of the athletes’ hard work has come down to this. The athletes hunker down in the starting gate as the announcer revs up the screaming fans lining the course. A crescendo of sound rises and the snowsports world waits in anticipation as the electronic beeps count down to the start and then … It’s a scene Roger Soane can well imagine, even though Bromley Baseboarding (Bromley Boarding for short) is just in its infancy. Whistler Olympic Park ( WOP), run by Whistler Sport Legacies ( WSL), is the first venue in North America to offer the activity — a marriage of old-school tobogganing and high-tech, aerodynamic sled design — to guests. Soane, WSL president and CEO, is among those who were disappointed when the planned launch of WOP’s Bromley Boarding Park in 2014-’15 didn’t materialize, a victim of a challenging snow year at the facility, which hosted the Nordic events during the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. But having experienced the thrill of what its promoters are calling “the ultimate sliding experience” first-hand, Soane believes Bromley Boarding is destined to catch on and is inviting those looking for a thrilling new experience to give it a try. “The course that we have at Olympic Park is challenging and a lot of fun,” Soane says. “I’ve been down the course about 10 times, and I can tell you that by the second time down, you’ve got most of the skills you need. “These are a lot easier to steer than a toboggan. You can go slowly or fast, and the way you steer is just like a real skeleton, which is with your feet, and the way you stop is essentially the hockey stop — you just throw it sideways and skid to a stop.” The Bromley Baseboard is the brainchild of Prof. Kristan Bromley, a four-time Olympic skeleton racer from the United Kingdom. With a PhD and engineering degrees in mechanical design, materials and manufacture, he’s known as “Dr. Ice” in the U.K. for his expertise in the dynamics of skeleton sleds.
The baseboard is designed for optimal performance on groomed snow. The design, according to U.K.-based Bromley Sports, “creates a low centre of gravity, with anti-flip characteristics that allow the board to be highly maneuverable and extremely stable … the combination of front handle bar control point, carefully designed 3D curved base, an elevated head-first prone ride posture and parallel runners create an agile board that provides an intuitive and natural ride experience and unparalleled fun.” The Bromley Boarding Park at WOP features a 1,500-metre (5,000-foot) run that starts just above the top of the ski jumps. After their run, participants slide gracefully down to the base of the jumps and ride WOP’s double chairlift back to the start. Having witnessed the rapid rise of the likes of ski cross and snowboard cross to Olympic status, Soane believes Bromley Boarding has the potential to do the same. “Their whole idea is to build this into a competitive sport, whether it would be racing side-by-side like ski cross or something else,” he says. “It sort of lends itself to side-by-side racing. Like ski cross, you don’t really need a track.” Weather permitting, WOP plans to have the park open daily during the Christmas season and also offer Bromley Boarding on weekends after that.
For more information, visit whistlersportlegacies.com or baseboardingwhistler.com.