Lane Clegg Honored with Educational Excellence Award
Lane Clegg, a former coach and longtime member of the AASI Snowboard Team, has been honored with the Educational Excellence Award. The award recognizes those exceptional few members who authored PSIA-AASI educational materials over the years, and who have significantly added to the educational direction of PSIA-AASI.
Lane has exhibited dedication, devotion, and self-sacrifice contributing to the PSIA-AASI educational system. He joins a list of legendary snowsports educators whose work has been instrumental in the association’s development.
See a list of past Educational Excellence Award recipients.
Listen to this podcast that features Lane discussing the meaning of this award.
In his nomination letter for Lane former PSIA-AASI Board Chairman and AASI Snowboard Team member Eric Sheckleton noted Lane’s role in helping create AASI, the first AASI Snowboard Manual, as well as two subsequent updated versions of the manual, and content for several Interski Congresses.
“There are few people who have contributed so much to the development of snowboard instruction as Lane Clegg,” Sheckleton said. “His impact on the sport has been tremendous. I have had the pleasure of working closely with him and am proud to call him my friend.”
Other individuals who nominated Lane included former Snowboard Team Coach Scott Anfang, former team member Shaun Cattanach, and current Snowboard Team Coach Eric Rolls. Rolls said, “Not only was Lane part of the inception of AASI, he has served as a PSIA-AASI National Team member, multi-term snowboard national team coach, AASI-I divisional chair, examiner/clinic leader, manual author, USSA coach/examiner, and an international liaison for the United States.”
Lane, who was working as a ski instructor at Snowbird when snowboarding was first allowed at ski areas, said he quickly switched to boarding and realized it was calling all along. As he navigated the rapid improvements in snowboard technology, as an instructor he was also integral in the evolution of instruction.
“It was the Wild West at the start, with a lot of riding powder boards and trying to make them work on groomed terrain,” Lane said. “There weren’t really educational materials, and I remember working with people like Jane Mauser and Randy Price on how to create manuals.”
He added that as coach of the team, “The thing I really wanted to change was to create a set of national standards. It took a long time, but we created a National Standard, and I am really happy with that.”