"He makes those around him shine": Close friends remembers Kyle Smaine after fatal avalanche
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - Kyle Smaine has been one of Brian Walker's closest friends.
"He truly was and truly is the best human I've ever met," says Walker.
And the hours they spent filming and taking photos feel all the more important now.
"That's certainly a big goal of mine is to keep telling his amazing story and showcase it," Walker explained.
Smaine, who died in an avalanche while skiing in Japan earlier this week, was much more than a skier, although he was pretty good at it in all facets.
"To me, he was the best skier in the world, actually," says Walter Wood, who competed with Smaine.
His talent as a racer, big mountain or halfpipe skier made him unparalleled. But you'd never know it if you had just met him.
"He was so humble," said Dane Shannon. "So down to Earth. The first couple of months I knew him I had no idea he was a world champion skier. I went over to his house one day and I was like 'what is that trophy right there?' and he was like 'that's just some competition I won in Europe.' And I'm like 'this says world champion on it.' "
Becca Gardner will remember his ability to cheer anyone on.
"He makes them have fun. He makes them feel a part of it," she said. "He makes them feel like they're supposed to be there."
"It doesn't matter if you knew the guy for five minutes," said Maddie Bowman, another friend of Smaine's. "It was fun and it was warm and it was kind."
Those are qualities members of the U.S. ski team remember.
"He'd be under the lights after skiing all day exhausted and he'd be the loudest guy in the corral cheering those guys on," said Andrew Gauthier, who worked with Smaine for many years on the U.S. team. "In many ways, I looked up to him in that regard and I learned a lot from him. He's younger than me but in that way, he served as a role model."
Bowman, who won an Olympic gold medal in Sochi in 2014, can attest to that as well. She and Smaine came up together skiing in South Lake Tahoe.
"Kyle loved the people around him even though we were all flawed," Bowman said. "He was like a brother to me. [He] loved everyone around him for who they were and he showed that through his demeanor and his smile and his kindness. He took care of you. He made sure everyone was included and he just made everyone around him feel so loved."
Smaine was a man of many talents — an accomplished skier and mountain biker, and he also knew how to dance.
"He very much shines on a dance floor and makes those around him shine," Gardner joked.
He even excelled out on the lake where he used to join the Gardners' on their boat. When Becca Gardner was old enough to get one of her own, she remembers Smaine's support as she tried to learn some new tricks herself.
"He stood by me and cheered me on all summer long," she said. "Every time I'd come back to the boat, he'd be like 'Barb, you were so close!'"
But he was best as a husband to his wife, Jenna.
"I know and I saw how much he loved [her]", said Bowman. "They were the best dancers and she would let me dance with him sometimes and that was my favorite thing in the world."
Smaine's passing earlier this week has left a hole in many.
"Everyone that got to know him knows how much of a loss it is," said Shannon. "We also know how grateful we are to have had him in our lives."
But the loss has also reminded Smaine's friends of the lessons he taught them through the course of his own life.
For Wood, it was a call to go surfing after he took a break from skiing that affirmed to him the type of person Smaine was in his life.
"That ability for him to have perspective on life and that larger view...that's what I'm always going to take away with him," he said. "I want him to be remembered as someone people should look up to and how to treat sports."
For Gardner, she'll remember those times on the boat and the dances, his love for his wife, his friends and his desire to be a good time everywhere he went.
"He didn't take any of his time for granted and was never ever spiteful," she added. "He just wanted to shed light on the world and spread the stoke."
That's something Shannon agreed with as well.
"Seek what makes you feel alive," he said. "Just go after it. Do it and bring as many people along as you can with you."
It's also something Walker knows to be true and knows will be an ethos by which one can honor the way Kyle Smaine lived.
"Do more of what makes you happy" is pretty much the motto he lived by," Walker concluded. "And I think that's the same thing going forward, is do more of what makes you happy."
