Bernie first strapped on skis at the age of four, barreling down the slopes of Belleayre Mountain in the Catskills of New York. The son of immigrant parents, Weichsel was born, raised, and educated in New York City. Although Bernie’s first love is skiing, his second has always been organizing and producing activities, events, and promotions. While attending college, he started working ski shows on weekends – selling T-shirts and posters at the nationwide International Ski and Winter Sports Shows, produced by the Godfather of Ski Promotion, Harry Leonard. Such experience has proved invaluable, as Bernie’s company, BEWI Productions, Inc., currently owns and produces nationally renowned Ski & Snowboard Expos held in Denver, Boston each fall.
Aside from organizing BEWI's successful Ski & Snowboard Expos, Bernie has involved himself in all aspects of winter sports marketing, including fundraising activities for the U.S. Ski Team, The International Skiing History Association, Youth Enrichment Services and organizing urban winter Festivals, cross-country ski and snowshoe events in New York's Central Park and on the Boston Common.
Bernie is also the founder and president of SKIUSA. Created in 1979, SKIUSA’s goal was to bring the American mountain experience to skiers and snowboarders around the world, representing the United States’ premier ski resorts in more than eighteen foreign countries. The success of SKIUSA is evident, yearly, as more and more visitors from overseas take their Ski & Snowboard Holidays at a U.S. Mountain Resort, which now accounts for over 20% of some resort business.
Bernie’s passion for outdoor sports and folk music also saw him create the Active Sports and Adventure Travel Expos, the New England Festival of Folk Music, and the New England Youth Sports Festival all events that BEWI has produced in years past.
More recently he has found himself immersed in his passion – Ski History, this has included sitting on the Boards of the New England. Ski Museum along with the International Ski History Association and most important, serving as Chairman from 2009 to 2014, of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. In that role Bernie oversaw the expansion of Skiing History Week and the celebration of its annual Induction Ceremony to an event that now attracts over 500 people each year.
A talented skier, but also an avid “rail trail” biker, Bernie gets on his bike most summer weekends exploring the area around his home in Wayland, Massachusetts. But the accomplishment of which he is most proud is annually getting on the slopes, minimally, the same number of days as his age—a goal he encourages all to emulate!
Bernie was inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2017.
