THUNDER BAY - They may be dummies, but this year, there was some real science flying down one local ski hill to the thrill and cheers of onlookers.
Loch Lomond Ski Area held it’s annual Dummy Downhill on Sunday, and joining in on the fun and mayhem were students from Nor’Wester View School.
“There were a lot of good rivalries going on with the groups,” said Grade 8 teacher, Scott Gordon. “I’m sure there will be lots of friendly ribbing when the event starts and you start seeing some of the carnage and the big crashes that are bound to happen.”
Students in the Nor’Wester View Academies program entered 22 dummies in the event, the first time a school has participated.
While it was a lot of fun seeing the dummies fly down the hill, or tumble, Gordon said there are a lot of good lessons when it comes to design and construction.
“The kids are researching in terms of building materials, what is going to work with tension and torque and compression and try to put together their plan accordingly so they can withstand the forces of the hill and all the bumps on the way down, and with some style,” he said.
Grade 8 student, Rachel Perzan, said working on the project was a lot of fun and even as exciting as it was to be out of the classroom and seeing the different dummies getting ready for their moment in the spotlight, she and her classmates put in a lot of work.
“It was a lot of finding out what would work as opposed to other materials and finding out what would be easier to work with, what would be harder, what angles would work together to help the structure stand and stabilize,” she said.
But science lessons aside, the Dummy Downhill, which began in the early 1980’s has been one of the highlight events at the local ski hill.
“Today we’ve actually had the best turn out we’ve had in the last four years,” said Loch Lomond Ski Area general manager, Jason Gerry. “We have approximately 40 entries and that is at least 15 more we’ve seen in the previous four seasons. It’s a good spectator event, people enjoy it, and it’s something that has a history in the community.”
This year’s event was also in honour of skiing filmmaker, Warren Miller, who passed away early this year.
“One of the things that made a big deal out of the Dummy Downhill is he came here and filmed it in the 1990s and it went into one of his movies and it went around the world,” Gerry said. “And Dummy Downhill became a thing because of this Warren Miller movie that was made here.”
And there is no slowing down Dummy Downhill as it continues to draw huge crowds, and whether it was part of a classroom assignment, or just people having some fun, there was nothing better than seeing those dummies fly down the hill and cheering them on to the bottom. And even if they don’t make it, a little destruction is always fun, too.
“Hopefully it makes it to the bottom,” Rachel said. “But we are all pretty excited to be out here.”
