A Quiet Drive Behind the End Line
Alas, too quickly, U.S. Snowboarding has misplaced one of many nice domestiques of our sport. Look it up, and also you’ll discover that every one the adjectives apply: devoted, selfless, passionate, tireless, regular, sacrificing, working behind the scenes, shaping the guts of the staff . . . You may not have observed him at first, however as soon as you probably did, you notice he’d been there all alongside.
Roots on the Slopes
Trevor Wagner was born in Burien, Wash., in 1969, the son of Cindy Millman and Ron Wagner. In 1971, Trevor and Cindy moved to Jackson, Wyo. A couple of years later, it was right here that Trevor’s snowboarding and ski racing profession bought its begin, strolling day by day from grade faculty to coaching on the slopes of Snow King. In 1981, Cindy and Trevor moved to Whitefish, Mont., and the eagerness for snowboarding was additional nurtured at Massive Mountain. Following commencement from Whitefish Excessive Faculty in 1987, Trevor joined Cindy and Tim Hinderman in Sandpoint, Idaho, and the snowboarding odyssey continued at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.
The Teaching Years Start
In 1990, Trevor launched into a four-year interval of collegiate ski racing starting with two years at Central Oregon Group School (COCC) in Bend, Ore., adopted by two years at Sierra Nevada School in Incline Village, Nev. Following this, Trevor started his teaching profession when he joined the Squaw Valley Race Group employees below the famend Mark “Sully” Sullivan. It was throughout this time that Trevor was launched to working with future U.S. Ski Teamers and Olympians together with Julia Mancuso and Marco Sullivan.
Shaping Champions
In 1998, Trevor started his profession with the U.S. Ski Group when he joined the employees teaching the Ladies’s Europa Cup tech group. Three years later, he moved as much as Ladies’s Europa Cup Head Coach for the 2002 season. The next yr, Trevor moved as much as the Ladies’s World Cup employees to work with Patrick Riml, and in 2005 Jesse Hunt introduced that Trevor was named head coach for the Ladies’s World Cup tech staff. Later that season, Julia Mancuso stunned everybody on this planet besides herself and Trevor when she received the gold medal within the big slalom on the 2006 Winter Olympics in Sestriere, Italy.
From Norway to the West
Searching for a break after 9 steady years with the U.S. Group, Trevor accepted a proposal to work with the Norwegian Ladies’s tech staff for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. Later in 2008, Trevor returned to the U.S. Ski Group as head Ladies’s World Cup tech coach. Trevor continued as head Ladies’s Tech Coach by way of 2011. At that time, Trevor’s focus shifted again towards athlete improvement, and he opted to teach on the Europa Cup stage by way of the 2014 season.
Constructing the Stage
By now, Trevor had logged 16 years teaching on the worldwide World Cup and Europa Cup ranges. It was time for a change, however not time to go away aggressive snowboarding. Using his years of expertise on the highest ranges of aggressive snowboarding, Trevor teamed up with Tom (Cowboy) Johnson to help with venue preparation for all main nationwide and worldwide alpine competitors occasions hosted by U.S. Snowboarding. Between them, they offered numerous hours of technical help and hands-on help—starting with summer time terrain modification and clearing, after which around-the-clock seasonal help: snowmaking, snow base preparation, on-snow terrain modification, racing floor preparation, all security netting and padding design and set up, and extra. Cowboy’s and Trevor’s most up-to-date challenge, the World Cup Finals at Solar Valley, Idaho, is greatest described on this tribute, used right here with because of Will Brandenburg of the Solar Valley Ski Training Basis:
“Alongside Tom ‘Cowboy’ Johnson and our neighborhood leaders, he (Trevor) helped design the downhill and super-G tracks, making a world-class venue worthy of the game’s largest stage. In a area with a deep however fading historical past in pace occasions, Trevor helped reignite that legacy—abandoning a blueprint for future generations.”
A Imaginative and prescient for the West
One factor Trevor appreciated about his winter-long work schedule for venue preparation is that he nonetheless had time to spend teaching the up-and-coming junior skiers from the Solar Valley Ski Training Basis. Additional feedback from Will Brandenburg:
“Trevor didn’t simply coach right here; he reshaped the way forward for ski racing within the West. He was instrumental in bringing pace snowboarding again to the forefront in each the Pacific Northwest and the Western Area. His imaginative and prescient and management through the years have been key to bringing the World Cup Finals to Solar Valley this previous season—marking the return of World Cup pace occasions to the Western U.S. for the primary time for the reason that 2002 Winter Olympics . . . Trevor helped reignite a legacy.”
A Life Past the Hill
However all earlier content material, don’t let the extent of Trevor’s ski résumé compel you to assume his life was monochromatic!
In 2008, when Trevor returned from Norway, he settled in Truckee, Calif. In 2009, he met his fiancée, Gladys Weidt, and commenced a relationship that spanned the subsequent 16 years. They navigated by way of job and profession modifications collectively, and in 2019 their transfer from Truckee to Solar Valley made it official.
In the course of the childhood of his ski profession, Trevor was additionally coming into into the sector of bicycle racing. This may transition right into a lifelong ardour for high-level mountain and street biking. It was an annual ritual to roll out the bikes when ski season wound down and the skis have been hung within the storage.
The Surfer’s Soul
Someday within the mid-Nineties, Trevor found browsing. True to type, he was instantly “all in.” As his proficiency improved, his browsing travels ranged from the tip of Baja, by way of Southern California and all the best way to Washington state. He even tried browsing on Lake Tahoe when the wind would kick up sufficiently big waves. All through their years collectively, a post-season journey to Baja with Gladys was their annual recharge.
A Presence That Endures
Trevor’s infectious enthusiasm fueled conversations and debates every time he was current. He was seldom missing for an opinion and all the time prepared to share it—but tactfully by no means past the zone of pleasant banter.
As the brand new child on the staff, the brand new coach on the hill, the brand new dude on the seashore or the man that is aware of no one on the occasion, Trevor’s outgoing nature and assured but likable demeanor powered his uncanny potential to forge new friendships at each flip. His absence will depart a void within the hearts of relations and numerous buddies and cohorts from ski slopes, seashores and bike trails all through North America and Europe. Nevertheless, the reminiscences of the nice occasions, the camaraderie, the inspiration and the unbreakable bond of friendship won’t ever fade.
In Loving Reminiscence
Trevor handed away with household by his aspect on April 22, 2025, after a short, intense and stubbornly non-public battle with most cancers. Trevor is survived by his mom, Cindy; stepfather, Tim; fiancée, Gladys; and youthful brother Alex.
We’re at present planning a celebration of Trevor’s life and can share particulars quickly.
