A skating trainer with a championship pedigree was back in the Jasper Arena recently, 25 years after he first got on the ice here. 

Gaston Schaeffer, a former Swiss junior champion figure skater who toured with the Ice Capades, Holiday on Ice and who coached in the 1988 Olympics, first came to Jasper in the 1990s on a ski holiday. 

The connections he made in town culminated into hosting a week-long summer skating camp in Jasper, which, until the COVID-19 pandemic, Schaeffer ran for almost three decades.

“Being from Davos (Switzerland), I really enjoyed being in the mountains, so when we came to Jasper my son and I both fell in love with the community,” he said.

That love has stood the test of time. Not long after Schaeffer heard about the devastating wildfires that ravaged the community this past summer, the 71-year-old said if he was asked, he would run another camp for Jasper Minor Sports, free of charge.

“I felt it would help the children and their parents feel some sort of return to normalcy,” Schaeffer said. “It would be our small contribution.”

In late December, Schaeffer and retired hockey coach and author Tom Molloy were put up in a local hotel thanks to Jasper Minor Sports and the two hosted a three-day camp. Schaeffer said the way he likes to teach basic skating is to introduce games and challenges so that the students hardly realize they’re building their skills.  

“We have a tendency to teach too much,” he said. “My philosophy is ‘let them learn.’ Once they have the movement, it’s theirs.”

The proof is in the prospects: many of Schaeffer’s former students have gone on to compete in high level hockey and figure skating—players like Kenton Helgesen, from Grande Prairie, who was drafted by the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks in 2012.  

Many of the Jasper hockey parents who brought their kids out to learn from Schaeffer are themselves former students of the skating guru.

“That was really wonderful to see,” Schaeffer said. “Jasper will always be a second home for me.”

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com