Here is a true story about how a chimp named Louie learned to snowboard for the Disney movie MXP (Most Xtreme Primate).
Boarding Gone Ape
I consider myself pretty darn lucky being able to ski and snowboard at home anytime of the year. Having my own revolving ski deck in a converted garage that is now a ski and snowboard academy called “SnoZone” makes my school quite unique from other traditional snow ski and snowboard schools.
But this was an unusual day as far as student’s goes. A large van pulled along the curb in front of my house and what looked like a young boy hopped down wearing baggy pants and a T-shirt under a light blue jacket. With arms hung low and knuckles almost dragging on the ground, one arm reached up to a tall slender man’s hand. As they walked up the driveway together I could see that the little fellow had a bow-legged walk as he lightly bounced with each step, shoulders see-sawing back and forth. The baseball cap shaded his face as they approached but already the long fingers of the youth became obvious with the black matted hair on the back of his hand. The long disproportionate arms (by a child’s standard) reminded me of Curious George without a tail.
The beady, but child like eyes stared up at me and right then I knew this was going to be a pretty outrageous day. The man named Greg was the surrogate father and trainer of Louie the Chimpanzee. Louie was already famous as a movie star having been a hockey player and then a skateboarder in two previous movies (MVP standing for Most Valuable Primate and MVP2 standing for Most Vertical Primate 2.) In his next movie he was to star as a snowboarding chimpanzee.
With a friendly greeting, Greg introduced me to Louie - but was professional in being safety minded - and wanted to make sure that Louie was very comfortable with me before I stepped any closer. Greg told me that chimpanzees grow to become seven times stronger than a human being and if startled might without meaning to - accidentally harm someone. Yes, the little guy could ruin the rest of my day if I made the wrong gesture.
Louie being six- years - old was only a youngster not even a teenager as far as Chimps go so was considered to be four times as strong as a man. That didn’t make me feel any better having a little Hercules to deal with. Reminding myself that animals have a keen sense of detecting fear, I buried any thought of being scared deep as possible in my mind. I later experienced that Louie was quite the lovable chimp and greeted me each day with a kiss. But the thought that he had the strength to turn me into a pretzel anytime made me grateful and respectful of him. Hey, he's the man or should I say Chimp!
Greg and his wife Carol mentioned that they had little over a month to turn Louie into a snowboarder. The problem was that chimps are not familiar with the cold white stuff, not having snow as any part of their natural habitat.
They actually hate the cold - getting pneumonia easily if exposed for any lengths of time – and they do not like holding ice cubes or snow.
The question both Greg and Carol asked was if we could teach the basics of snowboarding to a chimpanzee prior to getting him onto the snow. I reassured them by saying “sure if I can teach a little boy of 3, then why not a 6 year-old chimp.” The real issue was did we have enough time?
So here begins my journey teaching a Chimpanzee on the art of snowboarding. Chimps, I found are physically excellent athletes and maybe more so when it comes to sports dexterity.
Our plan was a three-phase approach. Phase 1 was to develop the critical skills of snowboarding on the Endless Slope. Phase two was to purchase a 40-foot long by 20 foot wide carpet and lay it on a hill slope creating a snowboard run. The third was to take Louie up to the snow and try his newfound skills on the real stuff.
Each phase had its unique problems to over come? Though Chimpanzees are naturally built to perform like athletes, they are literally solid muscles the problem was they have an attention span of a 2 – year - old. Keeping their interest with food as a reward kept Louie fairly focused during our lesson sessions. Jelly fruit loops, a favorite reward staple of Louie’s were used often so we always carried them around with us. In fact I occasionally find packets of the gummy candies hidden in my jackets and other training gear to this very day.
Fresh lettuce leafs was another reward item, which he devoured when he got his hands on them, but the occasional soft drink was a real treat. I smile every time I imagine Louie’s excitement when the soft drink can was introduced to him. This guy would do just about anything for a drink of the fizzy stuff. The stuff however made him hyper so it was kept to a minimum as a reward item.
Although the can was always pre-opened for him, Louie’s head would quickly nod in acceptance and after the lesson he would run to the holder of the drink and push out his bottom lip accepting the flow of the upturned can in his hand. I am sure he could pull open the soft drink can tab by himself. I learned quickly that he loves to pull on things (he tore off all my stomp pad grip tape on all my boards.) But to avoid possible chimp frustration and turning the un-open can into a flying projectile, the can was always opened for him. Always thought he would make a great commercial for the Dew.
It was Louie’s fear of mechanical machines, however, that became our first real hurtle. The first time I turned on the Endless Slope ski deck with it’s whining pitch sound it made Louie scream and jump in panic hysteria. We had to coax him down from the overhead safety bars surrounding the machine. He swung on them as if a herd of elephants were after him. After calming Louie down we had him sit and play on the deck in the stationary mode. We then had him jog with Greg as the machine ran slowly.
In time, Louie got use to the moving deck. Next was fitting Louie for boots. Having a prehensile foot with finger like toes required modifying the snowboard boots to fit Louie. Basically it required removing the inner lining so the wide foot with the prehensile toes could fit comfortably in it.
We discovered a step in bindings would work the best for a couple reasons. Such a binding would allow easy and quick attachment of the boot to the board and second the bindings did not have a back heel plate, which allowed the chimp to slip in and out of his boot fairly easily.
The easy slip in and out was critical because like a fox caught in a bear trap, animals instinctively fight to pull their foot out of anything that tries to hold them. It was especially true with Louie who did not understand at first the concept of having his feet attached to the snowboard. Feeling trapped he would struggle to pull his foot out of the attached boot on the board. Instant panic would set in and he would scream and try to yank free of the boot and once free would throw the board and shimmy up the safety bars. Then we were back again to square one trying to get him down from the bars and worst yet he now hated the enclosed boots attached to the board.
To solve this constant problem of struggling to free himself: we made it easy and obvious for his foot to be removed from the boot. We cut away over half of the back of the boot making it a slip in boot.
Because of the chimp’s strength and dexterity he could still use the remaining stiff boot back as leverage to perform a heel edge. We had invented the first slip in snowboard boot! We figure it would be a great hit if more chimpanzees took up snowboarding. Hey that reminds me I have a couple of friends that it may work for!
For those interested in Louie’s boarding specifications, we trained Louie on a 100 cm board. During the making of the movies he graduated to a 150 cm board. Louie, from his skate boarding background, is regular foot and we placed his bindings in a duck feet position with a + 15 degree in the front and a –10 degrees in the back.
Louie was now ready to further his snowboard lessons both on the Endless Slope and later on the snow where he moved onto movie stardom as a snowboarding chimp. For more stories and pictures about Louie the Xtreme Snowboarding Chimp see www.endlesslope.com
