Brother Inject Life Into Pro Mogul Tour

Some skiers view a mogul field with the same trepidation as a soldier surveying a mine field.

But not a trio of brothers from Tacoma. After a decade of equating bumps with thrills and glory, now they look at thigh-high moguls and see dollar signs.

Kirk, Scott and Mike Rawles dominated the pro mogul tour in the 1980s as the Mahre brothers ruled the World Cup.

Now they own it.

Two years ago, the Curtis High School graduates, who took up ski bumming at Breckenridge, Colo., bought operating rights to the World Pro Mogul Tour. Saturday, the tour visits Crystal Mountain.

In April 1989, at a gas station not far from Vail,

Colo., Mike Rawles lamented the tour's future with another pro, Bryce Veller.

Faster than it takes to fill up a tank, the pair was gassed about pumping up the financially troubled tour. They figured they had the perfect match: Veller knew marketing, having helped promote another pro tour years earlier; and the Rawles' name carries thrice the punch in the eyes of promoters.

With another partner, Mike Rodgers, and the other Rawleses, the tour has flourished.

The Rawles brothers have hustled to revive the sport, swapping jobs as readily as they take verbal swipes at each other, as siblings bunched a year apart often do.

They hang posters, deal with weather problems and poor snow conditions, help organize the weekly television show on Prime Sports Network, handle deals such as persuading a manufactuer to start a tour line of clothing and give direction to the women's tour, still half the size of the men's.

Said Mike, 29: ``We do it all.''

Agreed Kirk, 30: ``Until we get it off the ground, (we wear) whatever hat it takes.''

Echoed Scott, 31: ``We do everything from doing our own cutting of TV tapes to setting up signs. A lot of sweat equity goes into this thing.''

The Rawleses are used to sweat. They've always challenged themselves, on the slopes and off.

``They were always competitive,'' said their mother, Suzie Rawles. ``It was always, `He can do it, but maybe I can do it better.' ''

When Scott got his driver's license, Suzie and her husband, Jerry, had a hard time keeping track of their only children. ``They really just had the ski fever,'' Suzie said.

As pros, Mike, with his powerful skiing style, was tour champion in 1985 and finished each season in the top five; Scott, who sports a smooth technique, was runner-up in the point standings in 1988 and '89; and Kirk, who synthesizes his brothers' styles, had his best season in 1987, when he finished 10th overall.

Perhaps logically, Kirk, who in high school started a company that played taped music at dances, has become the most desk-bound executive.

Like his siblings, Mike worked hard behind the lines last summer at their corporate headquarters in Denver, pushing paper through the fax machine, dialing promoters around the world and hammering out agreements.

When the late-summer sun began to lose its intensity and skiers' thoughts turned to snow, Mike couldn't shake the desire to return to competition.

Scott, a proud papa who wanted to spend time with his toddler son Zachary, became assistant freestyle director at Breckenridge.

That left Kirk as the sole in-office Rawles. For a while.

After getting off to a hot start on the tour, Mike suffered a serious knee injury and now, during rehabilitation, is serving as race crew director.

Unable to ignore the competitive itch, Scott entered the tour's events in Colorado, winning at Vail and placing third at Keystone. He enters this weekend's competition at Crystal, the eighth of 10 stops, in eighth place overall.

Cameron Boyle of Squaw Valley, Calif., who won the event at Crystal last year, is firmly atop the standings. Kirk, meanwhile, bears that tilt of the head of successful businessmen who spend 16-hour days on the phone.

``It was a lot easier to put the skis on and compete,'' Kirk said. ``But you sure learn a lot about yourself, the business world and sponsorships.''

Despite the hard work and setbacks, the Rawleses are confident the only real bumps in their future are those carved out of snow by skiers.

``A lot of people are interested in this,'' Kirk said. ``We're going from zero to 60 real quick. We're going to be close (in size) to the U.S. Pro Tour.''

That alpine skiing circuit has flourished in recent years when big names such as the Mahres began competing.

The Rawleses said they believe that with mogul skiing being a medal sport in the Olympics next year, their tour will gain more credibility when more Olympians turn pro.

They also believe their racing format is more dynamic than Olympic competition.

In the pro head-to-head concept, competitors are judged on speed, turns, jump and overall performance.

``It's different visually,'' Kirk said, referring to the wowing speed of mogul masters busting down a slope, performing tricks in the air and showcasing powerful turns down the hill. The Rawleses say mogul skiing can attract more loyal fans than ski racing, simply because the typical skier knows more about moguls than race courses.

``If you are a skier, everybody gets in the bumps sometimes,'' Scott said, ``but you don't always get in the gates.''

``I think the Tour is bigger an better than ever, due a lot to the sponsors (the Rawleses) have drawn in,'' said Scott Kauf, 30, a five-time tour champion from Kirkland who now resides in Tahoe City, Calif. ``More people are making money at it, and the depth of competition is getting deeper . . . and that makes the skiing much stronger.''

This season, the tour's total purse more than doubled, to $300,000. The competition at Crystal will divvy up $10,000.

``The business side is real exciting, but we do it for the love of the sport, too,'' Kirk said.