Newschool skiing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newschool skiing is a type of alpine skiing which involves advanced tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails. 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 those who specifically ski in this style (as opposed to traditional freestylers, big mountain skiers, racers, etc.) are often found in terrain parks, which are designed specifically for tricks.

Contents

[edit] History

"Newschool" skiing originated in the late 1990s when freestyle skiers, discouraged by constrictive 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 and JP Auclair. 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. 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 Twin-tip skis come in all shapes and sizes, and were originally made specifically for newschool skiing.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 fakie (backwards) skiing (see http://www.freezeonline.com/freeze/how_to/article/0,13122,330959,00.html).

[edit] Newschool companies

There are several relatively small companies that have supported and greatly added to the progression of Newschool Skiing. These companies, including Line, Armada, Liberty, Ninthward, and 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. 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.

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.

[edit] Types of Skis

There are basically 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 an average width and is equally good on both groomed and powder. The park ski is specially 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, he was not given much credit because the invader was a cheaply built ski and the anthem seemed to fat for a park ski and two heavy, it only was good for big jumps and only that.

[edit] Newschool terrain

[edit] 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 non-newschool skiers.

[edit] Park

Skiing on man made features provided by the ski area such as jumps, rails, boxes, halfpipes, etc... According to Freeskier's 2008 Travel Guide the top ten resorts in North America for park are 1)Breckenridge, CO 2)Mammoth Mountain, CA 3)Keystone, Co 4)Aspen/Snowmass, CO 5)Park City, UT 6)Big Bear, CA 7)Whistler Blackcomb, BC 8)Copper Mountain, CO 9)Northstar-at-Tahoe, CA 10)Vail, CO

[edit] Urban

Any skiing in urban areas, including handrails, wallrides and drops off stairs or buildings is referred to as urban skiing or "jibbing". This is regarded as one of the most technically difficult areas of newschool skiing, since it involves skiing things that weren't meant to be skied. It also creates a lot of trouble with authorities, as some people consider it vandalism to slide down handrails on a pair of skis. Most skiers, however, see it as an artform, using everyday objects such as handrails and houses creatively, and seeing your surroundings in a different perspective.

Nowadays, New School Skiing had its name changed to Freestyle, freeride, or park Skiing

[edit] NewSchool Culture

[edit] Terminology

Jibs
Rails, walls, and boxes that can be jibbed.
Step-down Jumps
A jump in which the landing is lower than the launch ramp. Often 100 plus feet.
Step-up Jumps
A jump in which the landing is higher than the airtime.
True Table Jumps
A jump that looks somewhat like a trapezoid in which you take off from the lip, clear a flat part in the air, and then land on AP.
Urban Rail Jibber
a rail that isnt in a ski area. usually a handrail in the city or a park, ect.
Hip Jump
A jump in which the airtime is on the side of the take off.
Spine
A jump, similar to a Hip Jump, in which the 7 is on either side of the horse bump. This jump has G-dubs rather than AP landings. AP is only used to describe landings running in a parallel direction to the slope of the hill.
AP (ice baby)
The terminology often used by professionals for the down-part of a tabletop.
G-dub Balla
The terminology often used by professionals for the description of the sides of a horse bump, or spine.
Lovelled
A verb used to describe the action of landing on a rail incorrectly, and thus possibly "nutting it" or "clipping the rail". ex. "Dude I totally lovelled that rail, but thankfully I had my cup on so I'm fine."
The Palm (Also commonly referred to as "The Knuckle")
The area in which the landing meets the flat. It's not good to land on.
For example: "To Knuckle" a jump means to land on the Palm/Knuckle area of the jump. This is generally considered painful.
The Knoll
The area on the jump where the flat part of the jump meets the landing

[edit] Specific culture

Throughout newschool skiing a special culture has developed, one that has united the skiing community[citation needed]. The language, style, and people are unique to the newschool community[dubious – discuss].

Some words used in the newschool community are abbreviated spins (saying 7 instead of 720) as well as butter, jib, hit, session, lap, crown, etc.

The Newschool community has a strong online base in Newschoolers.com

[edit] Notable Skiers

This is a partial list of some of the more notable Newschool skiers throughout the years:

[edit] References

Salomon Freeski Video 3 - Twin Tips.

[edit] External links

  • Doglotion.com - Whistler based freeskiing webmagazine, with big mountain, new skool, and hot doggin' content
  • Freeskier Magazine - Magazine dedicated to newschool skiing
  • Newschoolers.com - Community-based website with pictures, videos, blogs, and forums by and about the newschool community
  • HookedOnWinter.com - Community-based website with a skiing and snowboarding specific wiki
  • BackyardSkiing.com - Free video sharing and blog site dedicated to backyard jibbing
  • Newschool Video Portal - Community based Newschool Video Portal (multilanguage)