Freeskiing

Freeskiing, or Newschool skiing is a specific type of alpine skiing. It is generally considered to be a subset of Freestyle skiing. The sport does not require participants to compete, but there are competitive events available at every level of the sport. There are currently two Olympic freeskiing events, Ski Superpipe and Ski Slopestlye. These events make up two of the four Olympic freestyle skiing events.

There is currently a growing number of professional freeskiers. Most are highly competitive skiers, usually specializing in a certain freeskiing discipline. There are however professional skiers who do not compete, and rather produce and star in videos.

History

In the 1990's freestyle skiers, discouraged by restrictive laws placed on the sport by the International Ski Federation (competitive skiing's governing body, known by the acronym "FIS"), began trying their tricks in what were at the time snowboard-only terrain parks. Early newschool skiers were very aware of the developing style and attitude of snowboarding, and adopted these for their own sport. The Newschool Skier is related more to the snowboarder in his/her style than to the traditional skier's style.

The FIS freestyle skiing events were governed by restrictive rules that were unpopular in the growing ski community, and slowed down the progression of the sport. Such rules included a ban on inverted tricks in mogul runs, a limit on the number of flips in aerial competitions, and a lack of ski park or pipe competitions. The "Newschool" movement was a breakaway faction of the freeskiers who were unhappy with the FIS.

The breakaway faction was led by the New Canadian Air Force, which included the "Godfather of freeskiing", Mike Douglas, and others such as JF Cusson, Vincent Dorion, JP Auclair and Shane Szocs. Also contributing significantly in these early days were Julien Regnier and "the Three Phils", namely, Phil Larose, Phil Belanger and Phil Dion, all of whom were teammates at Dynastar. After helping Salomon develop their first twin-tip ski, the "1080", the New Canadian Air Force began jumping and filming in traditionally snowboarder dominated terrain parks.

In recent years, many ski resorts have introduced terrain parks where skiers and snowboarders can attempt tricks. These parks include many features like rails, boxes, jumps, hips, quarterpipes, and halfpipes. It is now quite common for 'Newschool' skiers to use urban features in towns and cities to perform tricks also done in the snowpark. A popular choice of equipment for this terrain is the twin-tip ski. Twin-tip skis come in all shapes and sizes, and were originally made specifically for newschool skiing. The varieties of twin-tip skis are now more versatile, being marketed towards skiers of all styles and abilities. Twin-tip skis are turned up at both ends to allow for both regular (forwards) and switch (backwards) skiing.

On April 6, 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the addition of the men's and women's ski halfpipe and slopestyle events to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.Olympic status for ski halfpipe is expected to have a direct impact on the training, funding, and resources available to athletes. In January 2011, the United States Ski and Snowboard Association launched U.S. Freeskiing in partnership with The North Face, which would presumably supply Olympic uniforms.

Equipment

Freeskiing requires at least three pieces of gear. Skis, Ski Boots and Ski Bindings. In addition to this, many skiers choose to use poles, goggles, ski clothing and saftey gear such as helmets and avalanche gear. Almost everything used by freeskiers is designed specifically for use in freeskiing rather than ordinarry ski gear.

Types of skis

There are three kinds of newschool skis: Powder, All-Mountain and Park. The Powder ski is wide (also known as fat within the ski industry) and sometimes has a higher tail in order to support switch powder landings. Eric Pollard is the innovator of new school skis, especially Fat Powder skis. The All-Mountain ski is of average width and is equally good on both groomed and powder. The park ski is specifically built for "jibbing" (i.e. skiing on anything other than snow such as rails, boxes, barrels, walls, etc...) and jumps. Park skis are often designed with a more symmetrical shape to make switch (backwards) skiing much easier and reinforced edges to withstand rails. Eric Pollard designed the first two symmetrical skis, the Anthem and the Invader, although he was not given much credit because the Invader was of poor build quality. Pollard now has his own pro model skis from Line skis called the EP Pro (Mr. Pollard's Opus - 2012), The Elizabeth and The Sir Francis Bacon. Some new powder and all-mountain skis are created with 'reverse camber' (aka 'rocker') meaning that the tips and tails are bent up slightly to make powder landings easier.

Apparel

There is a heavy emphasis on fashion in the freeskiing industry. Stand alone brands such as Saga, or Lethal Descent are very popular among skiers as are offerings from large brands such as Oakley, Orage or The North Face which have lines geared specifically to newschool skiing.

Newschool terrain

Backcountry

Any skiing outside the prepared or marked trails is referred to as backcountry or off-piste skiing. This form of skiing is probably the most mortally dangerous (depending on where and how you do it) because of the high speeds, large drops (sometimes with hidden rocks in the landing), and avalanches. This type of skiing has been banned in certain areas of the world because of chances of injury and/or death. Backcountry skiers consist of both newschool skiers who perform tricks off various terrain features, and oldschoolers as well.

Park

Park is skiing on man-made features provided by the ski area such as jumps, rails, boxes, and halfpipes. According to Freeskier's 2010 Travel Guide the top resorts in North America for park are Breckenridge, Mammoth, Aspen/Snowmass, Park City, Poley Mountain, Whistler Blackcomb and Avila.

Urban

Urban skiing consists of sliding or grinding your skis on rails, ledges, etc. outside of ski resorts/areas. Urban has much more of a risk factor than regular park skiing due to harder terrain. You can spot urban features in such ski movies as Level 1's "Eye Trip" and Poor Boyz Production's "Revolver".

Industry

"Core" Ski Manufacturers

There are many relatively small companies that have supported and greatly added to the progression of Newschool Skiing. These companies, including Line, Stanston, Armada, Liberty, ON3P, Amplid, 4FRNT, as well as others, make skis specific for Newschool Skiing. Line is believed to be the first newschool skiing company, and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2005. In 2006, Line was bought by K2 Sports.

Involvement of global ski manufacturers

Within the last decade, traditional ski brands such as Salomon, Rossignol, Völkl, Fischer and Head have embraced the newschool revolution and are producing twin tips of their own. Now, most of the popular and larger ski companies produce many twin-tipped newschool skis. Contrary to popular belief, the K2 Poacher was the first mass produced twin tip ski to hit the market. Dynastar's Concept, Salomon's 1080, and Rossignol's Pow Air were not far behind. The Salomon 1080 was the first mass-produced twin tip ski.

Media production companies

Video production studios Teton Gravity Research, Matchstick Productions Level 1 productions and Poor Boyz Productions have been popular since the sport evolved in the 1990s. There is also a growing number of smaller independent media groups which have found great success by using social media outlets.

Social Media

The freeskiing community has a strong online presence. The two major outlets for the community are Newschoolers.com and the Teton Gravity Research online forums.

Terminology

Rail Tricks

Spin on

When a skier spins around before landing on a rail, generally done in increments of 180 degrees starting at 270. (eg. 270,450 630)

Spin out

When a skier spins at the end of a rail, done in generally done increments of 180 degrees starting at 270. (eg. 270, 450, 630)

Switch up

while sliding a rail the skier jumps and turns 180 degrees so they end up sliding the rail in the opposite direction. Also called "swap" or "sex change". Can be done "frontside" or "backside/blindside"

K-Fed

A front switch up blind 270 out. Higher increments of spin are called "Super-Fed", "Super-Duper-Fed", "Future-Fed" and "Super-Future Fed" for spins out of 450,630,810 and 990 respectively.

Britney

A blind switch up front 270 out

Disaster

Gap over one kink on a kinked rail

50/50

Both skis on the rail feature, parallel to the feature

Jumps

Spin

The most basic of jump tricks, a skier spins upright while airborn in incriments of 180degrees. Often abbreviated as just the first number for spins below 1000degrees and the first two numbers for spins above 1000 degrees (e.g. two full spins, or 720 degrees of rotation is abbreviated to "7" while a 1080 is abbreviated to "10").

Rodeo

A flip thrown backwards with a spin

Misty

A flip thrown forwards with a spin

Lincoln Loop

A flip thrown directly over ones shoulder, like a cartwheel in the air

Future Spin

A trick done with many spins in such a short amount of time. Appears they are "spinning into the future"

Flat Spin

A spin done flat as if you were spinning on your side or back on the ground with no flip.

Cork

Backwards thrown off-axis spin, at no point should your feet be over your head

Bio

Forwards thrown off-axis spin, at no point should your feet be over your head

Slang

Steeze

Used to say something such as a skiers style, or a particular trick, were visually appealing or "steezy"

Spin-to-win

A common complaint in the ski community when a competition is won by performing more difficult tricks, with less emphasis on style or perfection

Solid Seven

A derogatory term used to say something was not visually appealing

"Can you tell me how to get to chad's gap?"

A phrase used by newschool skiers to identify each other on or off the ski hill

Notable skiers

• Shane McConkey
• Tanner Hall
• Sarah Burke
• Tom Wallisch
• Bobby Brown
• Simon Dumont
• Phillip Casablanca
• Stan Lee
• Jon Olsson
• JP Auclair

Further information: Category:Freeskiers

External links

• www.Newschoolers.com