Shawn sent me an email with an image of the original article. It was all text, so I just converted it out of the image and pasted it in here. He also added this:
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Shawn: "This column, written in march 1973, is about the "hot dog" (so called at the time) contest in Sun valley Idaho and was the beginning of really serious competition in the three events at that time; free style, ballet and ariel. The mobius flip was practiced at the competition and featured as a side show but was banned from official competition. "
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The Sports Line
By Shawn Rohrbach
Perhaps you read my colwnn a few weeks back about Stephan
Heinzch, ski racer at large. Well, Stephan placed in the Junioli Nationals. I believe I told you about the Junior Nationals, or how if he placed high, he had a very good chance to make the U.S.A. ski team. I believe that he is on his way up.
However, the Valley not only has one skier about to make his debut into the arena of national skiing. One Fall Cityite, Mark Rohrbach, just recently took a trip to Sun Valley where he entered in a National Hot Dog contest.
I believe a little explaining is necessary here. Contrary to much belief, a Hot Dog contest is not an event where a person tries to eat more hot dogs than the other contestants. This is a commonly misunderstood term, and to think that they all are involved in eating contests, is in every respect, wrong.
The contest involves three events. Ballet. Ballet on skis is
almost exactly like ballet on ice. The same things are done; 360's, pirouette, and all the rest. The only difference is that the person usually has about 4foot skis on, and is going down hill. Much more difficult than a flat surface with thin blades for support.
The free style event involves skiing through moguls, sometimes
mountain size piles of snow. The object is to ski down through the moguls as fast and as far out of control as possible, while
maintaining balance. It may seem idiotic to think of going so fast, but it tends to be fun.
The aerobatics is the specalty sport. A good Nordic jump is fun, but that doesn't draw any oohs and ahhs. A Mobius flip, when there is danger of breaking your neck and live with permanent paralysis, draws the crowds and the ambulances. At the contest, flips were outlawed for a good reason. A week before the contest, someone did a flip, or just about, broke his neck, and now has to live with permanent paralysis. There are other styles of jumps that can be done, such as a Daffy, or walking in the air, and a Jamie, or just kicking your skis out to your side.
This kind of contest has really caught in the U.S. Two years ago, Sun Valley held the same event, and the number of contestants were downwards of 75. This year the number was upwards from 250. A remarkable change, for the better.
The Valley also produced two other contestants for the contest,
though whose names and results I was not able to obtain before
the deadline of this paper. However, in national competition,
Mark Rohrbach placed 14th overall.
I hate to advertise local businesses, because if they want
advertisement they can pay for it, but the fact that Alpental is putting on a Hot Dog Contest this month is something not to be overlooked. The whole affair should be rather nice. Along with the hot dog contest there are scads of other things to do. If you don't like skiing, there is free beer, and if you don't like either, well, don't go. I believe that the events are as follows. April 7 and 8 are the eliminations, and the following weekend, the 14th and 15th are the finals. Anyone could probably enter, but as to whether you'll win anything is rather doubtful. Even if you don't ski, go take a look at the skiing. It'll either make you want to ski so bad you
can't wait, or you'll never want to see snow again in your life.
