Remembering George Dobis from the Mt. Baker snowboard shop

A  couple of seasons back  Mikel Witlox, Glenn Johnsen, my brother Thom and I took a trip to Mt. Baker in Washington. It was a great road trip for a lot of reasons. We saw the famous Baker road gap, but couldn’t hit due to some lousy weather. We watch the baker banked slalom and got some awesome cameos for our film Cold lampin’, drove over night to Snoqualamie to link up with our buddy Jeff Arnold and help shoot a Volcom rail jam. But the real highlight for me was meeting a man named George. His last name I didn’t know at the time. It wasn’t until the sad news of George’s death in the spring that I learned his full name. It was George Dobis.

We were introduced to George by a Baker local who was working at the Mt. Baker snowboard shop. We were warned ahead of time that George was quite a character. Well within three days of being in the little town of Glacier at the bottom of Mt. Baker I realized that George was more then a character, he was a living legend that had helped shape the snowboard world as we know it.

We drank beers and talked into the early morning with George and the Baker locals one night and for the remainder of  our trip George let us plug our van into his work shop and we slept in it ever night we were in Glacier. We were lucky to be around for  George’s annual waxing/drinking session in his workshop. It turned out George had been hosting this night of free wax, free laughs and great times every year during the Baker Banked Slalom. The people that turned up for it were the people you’d expect to see at some kind of “Legends of Snowboarding” event, which I guess in a lot of ways the Baker Banked Slalom is.

Anyway, all the greats, past and present were there and they all knew George in a very personal way. It was easy to see his impact on the sport and its fore fathers. We later learned from George himself that he had mentored Craig Kelly and been like a father to Craig, during Kelly’s early days when he and his band of crazy brothers started shredding at Mt. Baker and revolutionizing snowboarding. George showed us a pair of custom made snowboard bindings, built from old stop signs. He had made a pair for Craig Kelly’s daughter he told us. George’s own daughter was also an champion racer during her prime.

Just before my trip to Baker I found out that my girlfriend at the time ( now my wife ) Miyuki was pregnant. I dropped the news on my brother and the other boys one day at the mountain. George was probably the 4th person I told. I announced it later that evening as the waxing session was getting started and I’ll never forget his words of encouragement, the ‘toast” and the ensuing great night that followed.

Anyway, the following link is a to an article in Frequency – The snowboarders journal. It’s written by someone a lot more qualified then I when it comes to talking about George Dobis. All I can say is that after my time around him I felt had really met someone special.

Please read.

Requiem for George Nobis from Frequency – The snowboarders journal – click here