Ehrler ’ s bike accompanies him on the Bass Pro Tour , and he hits the trails when opportunity arises . Photo by Morgan Sandler
sport that he engineered a deal with his parents and his school district to homeschool himself his junior year at Loma Linda Academy High School while he worked at a ski resort in Taos , New Mexico .
Ehrler , who worked as the assistant manager at a condo complex at the resort , would get up early every morning to tackle maintenance at the complex , bug out to the slopes from midmorning to early afternoon , and then return to the condos to finish up any odd jobs in the evening before going to bed , getting up the next morning and doing all over again .
“ I skied from 9 a . m . to 4 p . m . almost every day my junior year – man , that was a good job ,” Ehrler jokes .
Ehrler , a natural athlete , was good enough at Alpine skiing that he entertained ideas of freeskiing being his fulltime occupation . He skied like a madman his first two years in college in Riverside , making full use of a buddy ’ s family vacation home at Mammoth Mountain while also balancing a burgeoning interest in tournament bass fishing .
“ I thought I was going to ski for a living ,” Ehrler confirms . “ I really wanted to get into the Freeskiing National Championships . They called it ‘ extreme skiing ’ back then . You pick a mountain range , start at the top and just go down the mountain . There ’ s no course . You ’ re timed from top to bottom , and you get judged on your speed , line and air .
“ It ’ s the steep stuff . The cliffs and all . I wasn ’ t into racing gates ( downhill and slalom ). I thought I was a pretty good skier until I saw some of the World Cup guys and thought to myself ‘ These guys are way too good ; I can ’ t compete with them racing gates ,’ but that wasn ’ t what I liked anyway . I liked the kind of skiing where you ’ re going fast , throwing yourself off a cliff .”
The price for ‘ extreme ’
There ’ s an age-old saying about most sports where you go fast : “ It ’ s not if you ’ re going to crash , it ’ s when you ’ re going to crash , and how bad .” In Ehrler ’ s case , the “ when ” came in the early fall of 2021 ( roughly a month after
“ Who out there wants to ride with me ?”
his Knoxville rides ) and the “ how bad ” was pretty bad . While riding a track in the woods on the outskirts of Dallas on an off day at the 2022 Patriot Cup , Ehrler landed a jump on his front wheel , went over the handlebars and smashed headlong into a berm .
He cracked his helmet in half (“ I ’ m pretty sure I had a concussion ,” Ehrler says ) and broke two ribs on the right side of his body .
“ I landed on my front wheel , went over the bars and it kind of whiplashed me into this berm of solid dirt ,” Ehrler says . “ However fast I was going , all that momentum stopped instantly . The pain level was 10 out of 10 and I couldn ’ t breathe . I knew I had broken some ribs .”
Ehrler hobbled back to the hotel , leaned on Skeet Reese ’ s shoulder to make it from his truck to his room – “ I basically had to carry Brent to his
44 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023