Freestyle skiing is an acrobatic form of technical and aerial skiing Skiing is a group of sports using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding. It is organized into a number of different disciplines, although there are no impartial authorities for managing the sport internationally.
Freestyle skiing first began to be taken seriously in the 1960s and early 1970s, when it was often known as "hot-dogging." Bob Burns pioneered this style in Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is an affluent resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427 at the 2000 census. Few of its residents stay year-round, and most come from major beginning in 1965.[1] In the late 1960s other followers of the style included Wayne Wong, John Clendenin, Bob Salerno, and Tom LeRoy. Some people thought that this style of skiing was too dangerous and did not want it to be an Olympic sport. The free-form sport had few rules and wasn't without danger; knee injuries became a common phenomenon for professional freestylers.
The International Ski Federation An exception from the ski sports organised by FIS is the rising-popularity discipline of Biathlon , which has its own organisation, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) (FIS) recognized freestyle as a sport in 1979 and brought in new regulations regarding certification of athletes and jump techniques in an effort to curb the dangerous elements of the competitions. The first World Cup series was staged in 1980 and the first World Championships The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for Freestyle Skiing. It was first organized in 1986 and is now held every odd year. Currently, the events included in the world championships are Moguls, Dual Moguls, Aerials, Skicross and Half-Pipe. Formally, Acroski and a combined event where held took place in 1986 in Tignes Tignes is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ , French pronunciation (help·info) or /ˈfrɑːns/; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends. Freestyle skiing was a demonstration event Demonstration sports were officially introduced in 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden decided to include glima, traditional Scandinavian wrestling, in the Olympic program, but with its medals not counting as official. Most organizing committees then decided to include at least one demonstration sport at each edition of the Games, usually some at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary Calgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. The Calgary census metropolitan area (CMA) is the third most diverse in Canada in terms of visible minorities after Toronto and Vancouver when considering only CMAs with population greater than 200,000. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and high. Mogul skiing was added as an official medal event at the 1992 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiing was an official sport discipline for the first time at the 1992 Winter Olympics, with medals awarded in the moguls event. Aerials was still a demonstration event at these games. The venue was Tignes, about 85 km from host city Albertville in Albertville Albertville is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, and the aerials event was added for the 1994 Winter Olympics Categories: Freestyle skiing at the Olympics | 1994 Winter Olympics events in Lillehammer Lillehammer is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer.
A pioneering group of skiers in the early 1990s started taking skiing to the snowboard parks. They became known as the "New Canadian Airforce" and helped not only to develop aerial and rail based tricks, but also approached companies with ski designs featuring a twin tip system. The twin tip works much like a snowboard in allowing the user to ski normally or ski backwards (switch).
Currently there are two main branches of freestyle skiing: one encompassing the more traditional events of moguls and aerials, and a newer branch often called new school Newschool skiing is a type of alpine skiing or telemark skiing which involves advanced tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from a combination of the growth in popularity of snowboarding as well as the progression of Freestyle skiing. "Newschoolers", or, comprising events such as halfpipe A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX and inline skating. The structure is usually wood, although sometimes the surface is made of another material such as concrete, metal, dirt or snow. In appearance, it resembles a cross section of a swimming-pool, and in its most, big air, slopestyle, and big mountain or free-skiing. New school skiing has grown so much that new ski companies were created, companies that strictly make twin-tip skis — skis that are designed for taking off and landing "fakie", or "switch" (backwards) on jumps and rails.
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History
Trick skiing was first seen in Norway in the 1700s.
Freestyle skiing began in the 1930s, when Norwegian Norway (pronounced /ˈnɔrweɪ/ ; Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål), Noreg (Nynorsk) or Norga (North Sami)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty. The majority of the country skiers began performing acrobatics during alpine Alpine skiing is a recreational activity and sport involving sliding down snow-covered hills with long skis attached to each foot. Alpine skiing takes place at specially developed ski resorts where trees are cut, slopes are manipulated, snow is groomed and avalanches are controlled to facilitate the activity. Additionally, alpine skiing resorts and cross-country Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles. It is popular in many countries with large snowfields, primarily Northern Europe, Canada, Alaska and the upper midwest United States. Skiing can also be done indoor in ski tunnels training. Later, non-competitive professional skiing exhibitions in the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the featured performances of what would later be called freestyle. Aerial skiing was developed in about 1950 by Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen Stein Eriksen is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist.
Organized freestyle skiing started in the mogul fields, the bumpy natural terrain that allowed skiers to show off with tricks, jumps and incredible turning abilities - freestyle mogul skiers were "hot-doggers" in the day. In 1971 Heavenly Valley, CA hosted a small mogul competition on the legendary Gunbarrel, one of the most challenging mogul runs in the country. As the sport quickly evolved, hot-shot mogul skiers like John Clendenin, Scott Brooksbank, Bill O'Leary and "Airborne" Eddie Ferguson gave rise to the sport and in 1975, Heavenly hosted the first U.S. Freestyle Championships which John Clendenin went on to win. That year, gave way to two competing freestyle organizations, Professional Freestyle Associates (PFA) run by Curtis Oberhansly and the International Freestyle Skiers Association (IFSA) run by Bernie Weichsel. Under PFA and IFSA, the world's best freestyle skiers competed for prize money in three disciplines - moguls, aerials and ballet in competitions in the United States, Canada and Europe.
In 1976 Snowbird, UT hosted the World Freestyle Championships, and ABC Wide World of Sports televised event. The event to date, attracted the most spectators in the sport's short history. It also represented a turning point, as young talent emerged from around the world, the likes of Ferguson, Clendenin and Wayne Wong, had given way to an new field of talent like "[Little]]" Jack Taylor, Peter Johnson in Moguls, Eddie Lincoln and Frank Bare in Aerials and Scott Willingham and Mark Stigemeyer in Ballet. And women's freestyle was now a full fledged sport with pioneers like Gina Fuller, Karen Huntoon, Mariane and Ellen Post and Penny Street redefining the sport for women.
The International Ski Federation An exception from the ski sports organised by FIS is the rising-popularity discipline of Biathlon , which has its own organisation, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) (FIS) recognized freestyle as a sport in 1979 and brought in new regulations regarding certification of athletes and jump techniques in an effort to curb the dangerous elements of the competitions. The first World Cup series was staged in 1980 and the first World Championships The FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships is the world championship organized by the FIS for Freestyle Skiing. It was first organized in 1986 and is now held every odd year. Currently, the events included in the world championships are Moguls, Dual Moguls, Aerials, Skicross and Half-Pipe. Formally, Acroski and a combined event where held took place in 1986 in Tignes Tignes is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, France France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ , French pronunciation (help·info) or /ˈfrɑːns/; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends. Freestyle skiing was a demonstration event Demonstration sports were officially introduced in 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden decided to include glima, traditional Scandinavian wrestling, in the Olympic program, but with its medals not counting as official. Most organizing committees then decided to include at least one demonstration sport at each edition of the Games, usually some at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary Calgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. The Calgary census metropolitan area (CMA) is the third most diverse in Canada in terms of visible minorities after Toronto and Vancouver when considering only CMAs with population greater than 200,000. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and high. Mogul skiing was added as an official medal event at the 1992 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiing was an official sport discipline for the first time at the 1992 Winter Olympics, with medals awarded in the moguls event. Aerials was still a demonstration event at these games. The venue was Tignes, about 85 km from host city Albertville in Albertville Albertville is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, and the aerials event was added for the 1994 Winter Olympics Categories: Freestyle skiing at the Olympics | 1994 Winter Olympics events in Lillehammer Lillehammer is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer.
Development of the "new school"
Main article: Newschool skiing Newschool skiing is a type of alpine skiing or telemark skiing which involves advanced tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from a combination of the growth in popularity of snowboarding as well as the progression of Freestyle skiing. "Newschoolers", orIn the late 1990's a new style of freestyle skiing began to grow in popularity. This style of skiing was created out of frustration with the highly competitive nature of other freestyle disciplines. Many skiers began performing tricks in the terrain parks, which were at the time reserved for snowboarders. The sport was originally referred to as new school skiing, but today is more commonly called "Freeskiing" . Freeskiing is much more open ended than Aerials or Moguls and is more accessible to the general public. The sport is also more appealing to younger generations and is similar in nature to snowboarding and skateboarding.
- Mike Douglas, JF Cusson, JP Auclair, Vincent Dorion
- Now considered a second branch of freestyle
Competitive freestyle
Professional freestyle skiing is organized into a number of different disciplines.
Aerial skiing
Somersault jump in freestyle skiingAerialists ski off jumps, usually built of wood, sometimes metal and then covered with snow, that propel them up to 40-50 feet in the air. Once in the air, professional aerialists perform multiple flips and twists before landing on a 34- to 39-degree inclined landing hill about 100 feet in length. The top male aerialists can currently perform triple back flips with up to four or five twists. Quadruple back flips have been performed on snow (purposely) by four men: Frank Bare, Matt Chojnaki, Eric Bergoust Eric Bergoust is an American freestyle skier. In 1998 Bergoust participated at the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan where he won a gold medal in the freestyle ski jump (aerials) and Nicholas Fontaine. Currently quad flips are not legal in competition.
There are two varieties of aerial skiing competitions: upright and inverted. In upright aerials, movements in which a skier's feet come higher than his or her head are illegal. This is the most common type of aerials competition for junior competitors. In inverted aerials, skiers execute elaborate flips and somersaults.
Scoring
Aerial skiing is a judged sport, and competitors are judged on jump takeoff (20%), jump form (50%) and landing (30%). A degree of difficulty (DD) is then factored in for a total score.
Mogul skiing
Main article: Mogul skiing Moguls are a series of bumps on a trail formed when skiers push the snow into mounds or piles as they execute short-radius turns. They can also be constructed on a slope for freestyle skiing competitions or practice runs. Once formed, a naturally-occurring mogul tends to grow as skiers follow similar paths around it, further deepening theSki ballet
No longer a part of competitive freestyle skiing, ski ballet (later renamed acroski) was a third freestyle discipline. Competitions were conducted from the late-1960s until the mid-1990s. Ballet involved a choreographed routine of flips, rolls, leg crossings, jumps, and spins performed on a smooth slope. After the mid-1970s the routine was performed to music for 90 seconds. A panel of judges scored the performance. It was a demonstration sport Demonstration sports were officially introduced in 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden decided to include glima, traditional Scandinavian wrestling, in the Olympic program, but with its medals not counting as official. Most organizing committees then decided to include at least one demonstration sport at each edition of the Games, usually some in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiing was an official sport discipline for the first time at the 1992 Winter Olympics, with medals awarded in the moguls event. Aerials was still a demonstration event at these games. The venue was Tignes, about 85 km from host city Albertville.
Skiercross
Main article: Skiercross Ski Cross is a relatively new type of skiing competition. It is based on the Motorbike discipline of Moto Cross. Despite it being a timed racing event, it is often considered part of freestyle skiing because it incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyleSkiercross is a new Olympic event and is currently under the banner of Freestyle skiing even though it is a race without a judged component.
New school freestyle
Main article: Newschool skiing Newschool skiing is a type of alpine skiing or telemark skiing which involves advanced tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from a combination of the growth in popularity of snowboarding as well as the progression of Freestyle skiing. "Newschoolers", orThe first company to market twin tip skis was Salomon The Salomon Group is a sports equipment manufacturing company that originated in Annecy, France. The company was started in 1947 by François Salomon and his wife and child. In 1997 it became part of the Adidas group. On 2 May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon Group for €485 million to Amer Sports of Finland in 1997-1998. Freestyle began to gain more popularity and companies started making backcountry style twin tips for skiers to push the limits of freestyle and take it away from the snowparks. Salomon celebrated the 10th year anniversary of the 1080 during Media:IF3 International Freeski Film Festival in 2008.
When freeskiing began in the late 1990's only a select few resorts were home to a terrain park. Over the past decade most mountains have adopted the idea of have a terrain park, if not two or more. Most parks include features such as: step-up jumps, step-down jumps, tabletop jumps, boxes, and rails. Terrain park crews have been taking concepts even further recently though adding miscellaneous features like cars, empty propane tanks, barrels, and even small cabins that can be ridden or used as a place to warm up to the landscape of the park. In the western US the park features tend to be larger than those in the east, in relation to the size of mountains. Burton, a popular snowboard company has constructed all natural terrain parks with rails made from planed out trees. Freeskiing has become more and more progressive in correspondence to the advancements in terrain parks.
A huge growth in the popularity of freeskiing has also led to an increase of traditional freestyle disciplines, especially in moguls.
Summer training
Aerialists train for their jumping maneuvers during the summer months by skiing on specially constructed Water Ramps for Freestyle Skiing & Snowboarding and landing in a large swimming pool. A water ramp consists of a wooden ramp covered with a special plastic mat that when lubricated with sprinklers allows an athlete to ski down the ramp towards a jump. The skier then skis off the wooden jump and lands safely in a large swimming pool. A burst of air is sent up from the bottom of the pool just before landing to break up the surface area of the water, thus softening the impact of the landing. Skiers sometimes reinforce the skis that they use for water-ramping with 1/4 inch of fiberglass.
Summer training also includes training on trampolines, diving boards, and other acrobatic or gymnastic training apparatuses.
Equipment
Such companies as 4FRNT As a rider-owned and managed company, 4FRNT has grown significantly since it was founded by professional skier Matt Sterbenz in 2002 and, today, is a recognized leader in the ski industry. 4FRNT is distributed in over 30 countries worldwide and has one of the most recognized and talented team of rider/owners in the freeskiing world. Started in one, Liberty, Ninthward, Line, Armada skis, High Society, and Faction skis all specialize in twin-tip skis, although more "mainstream" companies such as ATOMIC,Salomon The Salomon Group is a sports equipment manufacturing company that originated in Annecy, France. The company was started in 1947 by François Salomon and his wife and child. In 1997 it became part of the Adidas group. On 2 May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon Group for €485 million to Amer Sports of Finland, Rossignol Skis Rossignol S.A., or simply Rossignol, is a French manufacturer of alpine, snowboard, and nordic equipment as well as related outerwear and accessories, located in Isère, France. Rossignol was one of the first companies to produce plastic skis. The company also owns the brand Dynastar as well as LOOK. In 2005, Rossignol was bought by the, Volkl, K2 K2 Inc. was founded in 1961 by brothers Bill and Don Kirschner on Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington. K2 is known for pioneering fiberglass ski technology, which made skis significantly lighter and more lively than their wood and metal contemporaries. Famous users of K2 skis included pro champion Spider Sabich, World Cup and Olympic champion, and Dynastar also make many models of twin-tip skis.
See also
References
- ^ Barrymore, Dick (1997). Breaking Even. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. ISBN 1-5751-0037-1. http://www.dickbarrymore.com/book4.asp.
External links
- JibCrib.com - Home for mad skiers & snowboarders
- Alberta Freestyle Ski Association - Provincial sport association for freestyle skiing in Alberta, Canada
- BC Freestyle Ski Association - Provincial sport association for freestyle skiing in British Columbia
- U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association - The National Governing Body for Freestyle Competition
- U.S. Ski Team - Bio information and stories on U.S. Freestyle Ski Team athletes
- 2006 U.S. Olympic Ski Team bios ... includes freestyle
- Skiing Slang and Tricks
- Canadian Freestyle Ski Association
- Kooter Brown Snow Inspired Fashions
- Freestyle skis
- K2 Performers - The original K2 ski company freestyle demonstration team
- Digital Freestyle Skiing Digital Media Thesis project for Masters, multiple Freestyle Skiing videos of competitions from 1980's-2000's - Moguls, Aerials, Ballet
Categories: Freestyle skiing | Types of skiing | Olympic sports For details of Olympic results by sport see Summer Olympic events and Winter Olympic events | Individual sports The sports in this category usually have individuals, rather than teams, as participants, although it is possible to create a team competition in any sport by combining the results of several individual competitors or by having team members take turns to play
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