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The 2006 Action Hero of the Year |
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Written by Tahoe World staff
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Friday, 05 January 2007 |
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ACTION HERO OF THE YEAR
 Bud Davis
Who becomes a Tahoe World Action Hero?
The answer is simple … someone who accomplishes great things by taking on the unknown, by facing fears, doing the remarkable or the extraordinary, challenging one’s limits.
In 2006, no personified this more than Bud Davis, 80-year-old restaurateur and cancer survivor.
In the late summer and fall, Davis challenged himself to ride his bicycle across America starting in Bodega Bay, Calif., and ending in Ocean City, Md., just to prove that “cancer doesn’t always kill ya.”
Cancer in one form or another has dogged Davis for the past 40 years. He survived melanoma first. Then it was his first bout with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, then prostate cancer, and during his trek across the U.S. it was his second go-round with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
He started the ride with his 19-year-old son Randy.
“I didn’t know he was that tenacious,” Randy said in September when he and his dad finished riding through four states, returning to Tahoe for a four-week chemo treatment when Bud’s arm didn’t stop swelling.
 Randy returned to school at UC Davis, and after the chemo, Bud went back to Colorado to finish what he started.
On Oct. 21, 2006, Bud Davis dipped his bike’s wheels in the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean City, Md. He rode 3,128 miles to get there, rolled through the staggering heat of California’s Sacramento Valley, traversed the daunting 11,312-foot Monarch Summit in Colorado, climbed the mountains of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and at the end, enjoyed a beer with friends Art Adams and Bruce Krevey.
Bud Davis’s feat is extraordinary. He surprised his own son with his tenacity, faced the daunting ascent on Monarch Summit, went through a round of chemo treatments, and at 80 years old proved that cancer doesn’t always kill ya.
Congratulations Bud. You are the 2006 Tahoe World Action Hero.
2006 Action Hero Candidates
 Julia Mancuso: During a time when the U.S. Ski Team was rapidly becoming the whipping post of the international media at the end of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Julia Mancuso, 21, stunned the world with a victory in the giant slalom. Mancuso’s Olympic Alpine gold was the first for American women since Picabo Street’s gold in the super-G at the 1998 Winter Olmpiad at Nagano.
The super-G was the last chance for Mancuso to bring home a medal. The Olympic Valley native grew up on Squaw Valley USA’s challenging terrain, and early on proved herself a talented skier.
“One of the things about Julia, she never skied with her age group,” said Mark “Sully” Sullivan, Mancuso’s former head coach at her home mountain, Squaw Valley.
 Daron Rahlves: This 12-time World Cup victor “retired” from World Cup racing at the end of the 2005-06 season, capping off a remarkable career is regarded as the most successful American speed racer in history.
“I’m using a new word — transition,” Rahlves says when questioned as to his plans for retirement.
Starting in January, Rahlves, 33, will take part in a festival in an effort to revive the ski world by bringing together music, entertainment, racing, freeskiing and an all-around good time. The event will tour Sun Valley, Breckenridge, Aspen and Tahoe’s very own Squaw Valley USA.
 Ingrid Backstrom: This queen of big mountain free skiing is a ski movie superstar, rallies Subarus, skydives, backflips, you name it. The 28-year-old Squaw Valley resident and Seattle, Wash., native skied in Alaska, Norway and Switzerland last year. Despite her world travel taking her to far flung locales where she gets to bag first descents, this ripper she still reveres Squaw Valley as a special place.
At the same time, she’s an inspiration to young girls across the country who want to be the next Ingrid Backstrom.
 Michelle Parker: This 19-year-old Tahoe ripper maybe a rookie on the professional circuit, but she’s good enough to ski with the big boys. Check out the current K2 ad campaign. She’s the only woman in the campaign appearing with the likes of Shane McConkey and Glen Plake. In 2006, she globe trotted to Japan, ended her Europe trip in Sweden, spent the summer in Whistler and the Northwest, spent a month in New Zealand returned to Tahoe for a brief stay in the fall, and expects to rip it up for the cameras around Tahoe this winter.
That’s a heck of a lot of accomplishment for a former North Tahoe girls soccer standout.
 Jason Dobbs: Dobbs earned himself an action hero title for his skiing. While his eighth place finish at last year’s North American and World Freeskiing Championships at Kirkwood was impressive, Dobbs status as an action hero might be more well known and further solidified by his willingness to huck a cliff at Squaw with no clothes on for our cameras and agree to have the resulting photo on the cover of the Action magazine.
 David Gibbs: Another hero recognized for his freeskiing. Gibbs was 34 when he was named an action hero, and he is one of the rippers featured in local ski movie “Hustle and Snow.” While Gibbs is slightly older than most skiers trying to break into the professional world of freeskiing, that doesn’t bother him. He’s out there getting it done — both on screen and off. (photo by Greg Martin)
 Conrad Snover: Snover is an action hero candidate for his top finish at the Nissan XTerra World Championship in Makena, Maui, Hawaii. After finishing fourth twice and sixth once in the previous five years of competing in the XTerra, the 31-year-old Truckee resident took first place in the 30–34 age group this last year.
 Rick Bowling: Bowling gained his hero status for speed, pure speed. Bowling is the owner of “Gone Again,” a 37–foot super catamaran with twin 557 cubic inch big block engines capable of speeds over 160 mph. In 2000, Bowling raced “Gone Again” to a world speed record of 138.04 mph. While Bowling raced professionally for 20 years, after barell rolling at 120 mph he gave up the sport and primarily uses his speed demon to travel from his home in Carnelian Bay to Tahoe City, the West Shore, and he says he can get to South Lake in under 10 minutes.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 05 January 2007 )
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