Mike Douglas and his wife were having lunch at Sushi Village last Friday (March 27) when the phone call came in. A friend from Lake Tahoe, Calif., was calling to say that Shane McConkey — Douglas’ friend and fellow extreme skier, a man who this week was described as being about as close to Superman as a mere mortal can get — had died while filming a BASE jumping stunt for a movie in Italy.

Even though Douglas had long known that McConkey’s exploits were a risky proposition, the news still came as “a shock. My just head hit the table. I was devastated,” Douglas, the Whistler-based extreme skier, said on Monday (March 30).

Tributes have been pouring in from across the skiing world since the accident in which McConkey, the son of Whistler ski legend Jim McConkey and half-brother of local business owner George McConkey, perished at the age of 39.

Revered as much for his love of life as for his innovative, death-defying feats of skiing and BASE (an acronym derived from Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) jumping, McConkey is also known as one of the originators of the reverse-sidecut skis — a.k.a. the Spatula — that have become a standard in the industry.

Douglas, who first met McConkey about 12 years ago when Douglas was first breaking into the extreme freeskiing world, said the idea of the reverse-sidecut first occurred to McConkey when he was trying out a pair of waterskis with that shape.

“Pretty much everything you see on the hill probably started with one of his wacky ideas,” said Douglas, adding that a couple of years after first trying out “the Spatula” on the mountains, McConkey was using them in extreme ski films.

In a posting on his company Matchstick Productions’ (MSP) website, McConkey’s close friend and filmmaker Scott Gaffney described it this way: “He proceeded to convince his ski sponsor, Volant, to produce a reverse-sidecut, reverse-camber ski he dubbed the Spatula that flew in the face of decades of ski design.

“Knowing the ski would be scoffed at by the industry establishment, McConkey illustrated his point by mounting a pair of 1970s waterskis and shredding a massive British Columbia peak with ease in MSP’s film ‘Focused,’ and inadvertently gave rise to a functional sliding turn now fondly referred to as a ‘McConkey’s Turn.’ Today, virtually every reputable ski manufacturer produces a reverse-sidecut, reserve-cambered ski born from the Spatula.”

Born in Vancouver to a skiing family headed by his father, who ran a Whistler ski school, Shane McConkey took up racing at an early age, but made his mark in big-mountain freeskiing. Later, he added BASE jumping — essentially performing tricks after hucking oneself off a cliff, then using a parachute or flying-squirrel-like wingsuit to float safely to the ground — to his repertoire.

McConkey, who lived in Olympic Valley, Calif., near Squaw Valley, won several national and international ski competitions, including the X Games and World Extreme Skiing Championships. He also performed feats of extreme skiing and BASE jumping and acted in a number of extreme skiing films including There’s Something About McConkey (2000), Warren Miller’s Higher Ground (2005) and Pull (2006).

McConkey was one of two BASE jumpers who jumped off the Peak 2 Peak Gondola at mid-span during its launch festivities in December, the other being Miles Dasher.

A video clip posted on the weekend on the Whistler Blackcomb website, showing McConkey’s and Dasher’s stunt, included the caption, “Rest in peace, Shane, you’ll be missed. 1969-2009.”

The accident occurred while McConkey was filming a sequence along with friend and filmmaker J.T. Holmes. McConkey was to execute a double-backflip off of the 600-metre-high Sass Pardoi cliff in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains, release his skis, and then fly in his wingsuit, a stunt he had performed a number of times, Gaffney said in his statement.

“But when both skis failed to release upon tugging on straps leashed to his legs, McConkey went into an upside-down position as he manually attempted to release his bindings.

“Because throwing a chute while inverted poses the likelihood of the canopy and lines becoming entangled in the skis, McConkey used valuable seconds to focus on removing both skis and succeeded. He quickly turned into a classic face-down BASE jumping position to throw his pilot chute… but after 12 seconds of freefall he struck snow before there was time to react.”

McConkey is survived by his wife Sherry and daughter Ayla, 3.

Gaffney’s web tribute to McConkey concluded with, “His loss will be felt the world over as he leaves a void that can never be filled. As one fan put it, ‘It feels like Superman died.’ He basically did.”

Douglas, who was headed off to do a ski film shoot in Alaska just moments after he spoke to The Question, said he’s extremely saddened for McConkey’s family. He added, though, that in retrospect, McConkey was a daredevil who — in spite of all his meticulous preparation and safety precautions — faced down the odds once too often.

“He was very thorough and very calculated in everything he did, but it’s a dangerous sport,” Douglas said. “You just have to look at the statistics on BASE jumping, and the odds are not good as you inch up toward the 1,000 mark. I think he was near 700, and there’s no question, it’s a risky sport.

“I think the one thing that keeps cropping up in my mind, though, is that Shane loved life and lived life to the fullest, and anyone in the world would be fortunate to have lived the life that he did. I’m so sad for his family, but I just know that he lived every day as though it was Christmas, and he was loving every minute of it.

“I’d say around four years ago we became quite a bit closer, mainly because we became the two old boys in the sport,” Douglas added. “A couple of years ago we bet each other a dollar which one of us would have the longest career, basically. But it was never scripted to end this way.”

A memorial service for McConkey is tentatively scheduled for Sunday (April 5) in Squaw Valley. Details on a possible local memorial were unavailable by press time. A memorial website, www.shanemcconkey.org, has been set up. There, friends can offer their condolences and best wishes to McConkey’s family and make donations.