heres my paper in college writing: The progression of the sport of skiing has created a completely new approach to a sport that hadn’t changed in ages. Skiing, which is traditionally viewed as a non-extreme activity, shifted into a sport that would allow people to spin 900 degrees 30 feet above the snow and manage to land forward or even backwards. Skis were being slid sideways on metal rails, something that skiers in the past still can’t even fathom to this day. These feats are all the result of the terrain park, an area filled with half-pipes, rails, jumps, and jibs. These institutions were the result of snowboarding, a sport heavily influenced by skateboarding and surfing. And with use from both snowboarders and skiers, these newly found terrain parks began to spring up at mountains worldwide. These parks not only brought on a unique skill set, but also a hugely different mindset of the athletes participating. Days no longer were counted in amount of runs, but rather amount of degrees spun in the air. These parks also made skiing fun and available to people in areas with minimal elevation, where a park can entertain skiers in a flat place like Michigan, where the traditional style did not cut it. Thus, terrain parks are responsible for the progression of the skiing within the last decade.
From the first days of skiing until the mid nineties, skiing was a relatively basic sport. A day of skiing consisted of taking the chairlift up and cruising down the runs, making turns back and forth, and often times, the natural terrain was sufficient enough for skiers to find cliffs and natural jumps for adrenaline. The sanctified activities for skiing were only two items, alpine racing and freestyle moguls. Racing consisted of a course filled with red and blue gates, where the skiers would wind their way through the course, racing against the clock. Moguls consisted of a course filled with Volkswagen size bumps down a run with 2 sets of jumps in the middle. Both had heavy restrictions and didn’t allow the skier much room to breath. Yet in the late nineties, the sport began to shift in a direction that would entirely change the sport and the freedom produced from this was immense.
The terrain park was not the first of its kind. For years, skateboarders could visit local skate parks, areas full of cement jumps, rails, and bowls. Half-pipes could also be found, which are virtually a pipe with a 20-foot radius, simply cut in half. It was in these skate parks that provided a large influence on the terrain parks found in the snow. Using the same snowcats, large trucks with tank-like tread features that shape and smooth the snow, ski resorts could construct jumps. With a simple attachment to the rear of the snowcat, and with an ample amount of snow, a half-pipe could be cut into a hill. And with basic metal fabrication skills, rails could be created and installed in the hill. With these in place, skiing had many more variables added. A skier could air out of the half-pipe, and by doing so in a proper fashion, could air out about six to ten times in one run. Usually accompanying a half-pipe would be tabletop jumps. These jumps usually had a launch ramp, a flat top, and a nice downhill landing. Riders could go off at their own rate, and coming up short only resulted in landing on the ‘table,’ with low consequences. Better riders would and certainly still flip and spin off the jumps, yet that takes practice and skill that is not found anywhere else on the mountain. The most unique features are the rails. Rails, which consisted of a solid metal pipe, bar or double pipe mounted to metal supports would be installed in the snow. Skiers have to jump and land perpendicular to the rail to ‘grind,’ or slide down it. Falling on rails was high in consequences, resulting in broken wrists and concussions. All of these stunts involve greater skill than anything skiing had ever been before, including racing and mogul skiing. Yet with that, there are consequences. In the past ten years, ski related injuries actually decreased due to technology, yet since 1985, the death rate has tripled. It just goes to show that there is a toll for these newly founded stunts. Progression of the sport is a direct result of these parks, with only themselves and the skiers in them to thank.
The new mindset that accompanied the terrain parks was highly beneficial. You may think, skiing is skiing, whether it is in a terrain park, racecourse, or groomed runs. Yet the terrain park brought another completely different attitude towards skiing. Racing had a mindset of time. How fast one could get down the hill was the only think racers think while skiing. People skiing groomers would count their runs, and that is what measured their skiing quality. Yet in the park, the mindset is much more laid back. Skiers would clump together and ski in ‘crews,’ with many gang like qualities. Skiers that were in other crews often would compete with rival crews on the mountain. This was another form of progression, as one crew would do tricks that would result in the other crew trying to learn them and catch up. As well, the culture was of the hip-hop style, with baggy pants sagging down, oversize jackets, extremely large headphones, doo-rags, and basketball jerseys. On any given day in the park at Mammoth Mountain, skiers without jerseys are in the minority. Yet skiing in these crews was the best thing to hit skiing. Members within crews encourage other members to learn new tricks, try new lines, and other items. The support was there. For example, when I was trying to learn 0 spins, a trick that involves taking off the jump backwards and landing backwards, without facing forward throughout the air, I was very intimidated. Yet my boy KC, a fellow member of the D Crew, gave me some pointers, then did the trick over the jump I was going to attempt. I followed, and after visual and audio instruction, landed the trick perfectly. If I was alone, without any coaching, there is no way I would attempt anything of that sort. Another item that is nice it that a crew sticks together in the park. One person will hit a stunt, stop at the bottom, and the crew will follow. Therefore, everyone can watch everyone else’s trick, and sometimes their wipeouts. As well, most well equipped crews have video cameras. This allowed for personal progression at its finest, where you can be assured that your crash or trick can be watched over and over again. This park mindset applied to the whole mountain. On powders days, when the park is un-ride able, the crew moves to the rest of the mountain. Off of cliffs and natural booters, the skills applied here are nearly the same from the park, as well as the crew mindset. Kicker jumps are usually built out of the powder in select locations. It is the terrain park skiing attitude in a different landscape. It is unbelievable that the way a powder run skied before the induction of the terrain park is so much different in the days of the park, where skiers will go backwards through the freshly fallen snow, spin off of natural crests in the snow, and drop cliffs. The mindset that came with the park is nearly as progressive as terrain park itself.
With terrain parks popping up at select resorts, the popularity of these areas increased. Resorts like Mammoth Mountain, Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Aspen, and many other large resorts began to install these terrain parks. They already had the demand of people to ski there, since they had awesome terrain naturally. Yet resorts like Snow Summit, located in southern California, didn’t have much to offer before the terrain park. Initially designed as a novelty resort to allow people in the Los Angeles region to try snow sports, they introduced a terrain park in the mid nineties. Immediately, people could overlook their minimal snowfall by spending their time working on tricks, or grinding technical rails. Ever since ’97, Big Bear has been the in the top 10 of terrain parks worldwide. If a mountain or a hill had a terrain park, it was legitimate. Thus, small ski hills in the Midwest could offer terrain parks if they invested the money. There was a demand that had to be met. Resorts around the east coast that were previously shut down opened with a terrain park and the resorts boomed. By the year 2003, nearly 90 percent of resorts had terrain parks. And with all of these resorts offering unique jumps and stunts, the actual items the resorts were building progressed. Rails soon started kinking and turning in all directions. Jumps would launch riders up to 90 feet across the tabletops. Jibs, items similar to rails, are wider and have a lexan top sheet usually 6 inches to 3 feet wide, became common fare in parks. The park manager at my home resort was paid $100,000 for the winter to maintain the park and design it. They are now the most valuable assets to most resorts, where people come from ends of the earth to see what manmade stunts the mountain produce. This last year, I was thankful enough to ski at Alpine Meadows, a mountain located in the Lake Tahoe region of California. The jumps were all designed on the computer before they were made to ensure the angles of takeoff and landing were feasible to the machinery producing it and the skiers riding them. The mountain was known for its jumps, and at one point, the 90-foot tabletop jump was the largest public jump in the nation last year. People came from around the nation to ride there, and with that, the overall skill level increased with these new skiers seeking the biggest air. It is progression that simply leads to more progression, and in all cases the skiers benefit. The parks were evolving just as fast as the riders in them.
In total, these parks changed skiing completely. The skis, skiers, and resorts changed more in a decade than ever before. Kids in Ohio could gain nationwide attention with their park riding skills. In fact, with the terrain parks and rails, new ideas were formed on where and what could be ridden. People began to collect snow from areas and bring it to urban handrails over stairs. Disobeying the law, these rails began to get slid, making skiing anywhere a possibility with just a limited amount of snow, and by doing so gaining the street credibility the sport needs to keep progressing. The sport has upped the ante, and the skiers have progressed accordingly.
