Penobscot company makes unique trailer for skiers

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Jack Fleming felt like he was at the end of his rope. He needed this thing. A thing that was hard to describe and apparently harder to build.

The thing was a trailer. A trailer with three aluminum boxes that would hold equipment. And when empty, the boxes needed to serve as jumping ramps for Fleming’s All-Star Aerial Show, a group of former Olympic and World Cup skiers and snowboarders who perform around the country.

“I had just about given up when Chrys gave as a call. As soon as I talked with him I knew we had our guy,” Fleming said from his home in Hampton Falls, N.H.

Chrys Staples runs ATL Enterprises in Penobscot. The company manufactures light to medium duty equipment trailers. They also do some occasional custom work. But they had never done anything like this.

“I guess they went to a few places in the states and Canada but they couldn’t do the work,” Staples said. “They found us through one of our trailer dealers in New Hampshire.”

The problem with the job was that it required too many parts to be assembled into something that looked like it was one piece when the trailer was on the road.

“There wasn’t any one place that could do all the work,” Staples said.

ATL could and did in 31/2 weeks.

“It probably should have taken three months but they had a deadline when they had to be on the road,” Staples said.

Fleming said ATL’s work and design was perfect.

“It’s completely custom. The boxes are winched off the flat bed and a snow cat drags them on the snow up to the jump site,” Fleming explained.

The empty boxes open up into the shape of the jumps and snow is packed inside the boxes.

“It used to take us four days to go in and build a site up. Now we can do it in one day,” Fleming said.

Fleming said the show is in its sixth year and has gone from one show per year in the beginning to 31 this season.

“We couldn’t do this without the guys at ATL,” Fleming said. “I was able to spend a few nights up there with them while they were building it. It was a hard thing to explain to them but they pulled it off.”

Clark elected to martial arts board

Michael Clark has been involved in karate for 32 years. His work in the sport was recently recognized when he was elected to the board of directors of the World Congress of Martial Arts.

“It’s quite an honor. I’m very excited about where this is going,” Clark said.

Clark currently teaches Tae Kwon Do through the Bangor Parks and Recreation Department. He has been in the area teaching since 1980. Last summer, he left Maine and successfully pursued his professorship in the sport. He also was promoted the seventh-degree black belt.

“In different systems, there are different titles. I earned my professorship. I was promoted by one of the highest ranked non-Korean black belts in the world, Grandmaster Llamas Guadalupe,” Clark said.

Guadalupe is a ninth-degree black belt in the International Tae Kwon Do Federation.

The World Congress of Martial Arts holds yearly competitions a various places around the world. Every four years it sponsors its World Cup. A competition Clark likens to a “mini-Olympics.”

Clark recently conducted a regional qualifier for the U.S. team at Brewer High School.

“The kids get to go and compete with the best from around the world. Every January there’s a major event,” Clark said.

The Massachusetts native arrived in Bangor in 1980 and taught martial arts part time at the Bangor YMCA for six years before going to work full time as a letter carrier for the post office. While there he continued to teach part time until 1990 went he opened up his own school.

Now, at age 50, Clark is a carpentry contractor but his heart is in teaching martial arts.

“This is really an exciting time for me personally and for the kids. Next [January] I’ll go to the [world] tournament as an assistant coach and possibly as a competitor,” Clark said.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net