Newschool skiing

Freestyle skiing involves tricks while skiing, including mogul runs or aerials. However, many Newschool skiers believe that traditional mogul and (aerials) do not accurately represent the true progression of "Freestyle skiing". These same "newschoolers" can often be found inside terrain parks skiing and proving to new skiers that skiing is more than just going down the mountain.

History

In recent years, many ski resorts have introduced terrain parks and halfpipes where snowboarders and newschool skiers can perform tricks on various kinds of man-made features, including rails, boxes, jumps, hips, and quarterpipes, and halfpipes. Many of these skiers use twin-tip skis. Twin-tip skis come in all shapes and sizes, but all are made specifically for newschool or freeride skiing, and are turned up at both ends to allow for both regular and switch (backwards) skiing.

"Newschool" skiing originated in the late 1990s when freestyle skiers discouraged by constrictive laws placed on the sport by FIS, competitive skiing's governing body, 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 adapted these for their own sport. The Newschool Skier is more closely related to the snowboarder in his/her style than to the traditional skier.

The term "Newschool" first started to be used after the FIS took the former term for the sport, "freestyle skiing", and applied a set of rules and boundaries to it. The FIS incorporated several rules that were unpopular in the growing ski community, and slowed down the progression of the sport. Such rules include no inverted tricks in mogul runs, limited the number of flips in aerial competitions, and did not offer ski park or pipe competitions. The "Newschool" movement was a breakaway faction of the freeskiers who were unhappy with the FIS.

Newschool companies

There are several companies that have supported and greatly added to the progression of Newschool Skiing. These companies, Line, Armada, Liberty, and 4FRNT, and other freestyle skiing companies, 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, and moved to the ownership of K2 Ski company. Contrary to popular belief, the K2 Poacher was the first mass produced twin tip ski to hit the market. Within the last few years, traditional ski brands such as Salomon and Rossignol heve embraced the newschool revolution and are producing twin tips of their own.

These companies each produce basically three kinds of newschool skis, Powder, All-Mountain, and Park. The Powder ski is fat and sometimes has a higher tail in order to support switch powder landings. 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, and groomed terrain.

Newschool terrain

Throughout the sport of newschool skiing there are many different kinds of terrain.

Jibs: Rails, walls, and boxes that can be grinded, buttered, or tricked off of.

Step-up Jumps: A jump in which the landing is higher than the takeoff.

Step-down Jumps: A jump in which the landing is lower than the takeoff.

Table-top Jumps: A jump that looks somewhat like a table or trapezoid in which you take off of a lip, clear a flat part in the air, and then land on a downslope.

Gap: A jump that has a large gap in between the take off and landing. One of the most famous gaps in newschool skiing is the Chads Gap in Utah.

Hip Jump: A jump in which the landing is on the side of the take off.

Spine: A jump, similar to a Hip Jump, in which the landing is on either side of the take off.

Backcountry

Any skiing off 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 to (unfortunately very occasionally) preserve wildlife and (usually) since people there can not take responsibility for their own actions.

Urban

Any skiing in urban areas, including handrails, wallrides and drops off of stairs, is referred to as urban skiing. This is regarded as one of the most dangerous and 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 authority, as some people consider it vandalism to slide down handrails on a pair of planks. 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.

East versus West

Everyone in the newschool skiing world knows one fact: East is park, West is powder. This is because in the east the snow is very wet and rainy and the mountains are very small such as Ski Sundown, Ski Martock and other eastern "mountains". Therefore, medium-sized to large jumps with icy landings and rails setup in the park tend to dominate a newschool skiers day.

In the west, big mountains and huge amounts of snow make it possible to have tons of backcountry fun or ski steep glades, like in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Of course the West also has many incredible parks as well. With large jumps and nice soft landings.

It should be noted that newschool skiing is by no means restricted to North America. This form of skiing is growing fast all around the world, particularly in the Alps and in Scandanavia

The rivalry

Over the years many people have grown to believe there is a rivalry between skiing and snowboarding. While this may have been true in the past, it certainly is not true today. The main rivalry present in modern day snowsports resides between newschool and traditional. The snowboarders mostly stand by while there is a fierce rivalry between the two classes of skiers. The general assumption here is that newschoolers are "bad-ass mother fuckers", and that their brand of skiing is destroying the sport. A level-headed newschooler might argue that skiing is a soul-sport, much in the way that surfing is, and that its enjoyment lies in its freedom and excitement, as well as its connection to the great outdoors. Newschool skiing has simply revitalized a sport that had taken a backseat to snowboarding for nearly a decade.

Another rivalry is the ever-present battle between newschool skiing and skiboarding. Skiboards are skis which are generally under 100 centimeters, symmetrical, twin tipped, and very wide. In addition, they generally have non-release bindings very similar to snowboard hard-boot bindings. The main issue is that there is a lack of respect from newschoolers toward skiboarders because they typically feel skiboards are inferior. Skiboarders typically feel that newschoolers don't understand their sport and that the lack of respect is not deserved. Skiboading and skiing are completley different, but are also very similar, so it is hard to say skiboards are inferior.

The culture

Throughout newschool skiing a special culture has developed, one that has united the skiing community. The language, style, and people are unique to the newschool community. A good example of this community is Newschoolers.com which is the online skiing community with news, pictures, and forums for skiers.

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

Much of this culture and style was assimilated from snowboarding.

Skiers

Notable newschool style skiers are:

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