Snowsports

Skiing

Skiing is a group of recreational activities using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding.

Skiing can be grouped into two general categories. The older of the two disciplines originated in Scandinavia and uses free-heel bindings that attach at the toes of the skier's boots but not at the heels. Types of Nordic skiing include cross-country, ski jumping and Telemark. Alpine skiing (more often called "downhill skiing"), originated in the European Alps, and is characterized by fixed-heel bindings that attach at both the toe and the heel of the skier's boot.

Types of skiing
Many different types of skiing are popular, especially in colder climates, and many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Ski Federation (FIS), and other sporting organizations, such as the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association in America. Skiing is most visible to the public during the Winter Olympic Games where it is a major sport.

In skiing's traditional core regions in the snowy parts of Scandinavia, as well as in places such as Alaska, both recreational and competitive skiing is as likely to refer to the cross-country variants as to the internationally downhill variants.

Skiing techniques are difficult to master, and accordingly there are ski schools that teach everything from the basics of turning and stopping safely to more advanced carving, racing, mogul or "bump" skiing and newer freestyle techniques. There are two primary types of downhill skiing – "telemark"(is a term used for skiing using the Telemark turn)and "alpine."

For beginning skiers learning under a trained instructor, skiing speeds are low, the terrain is not steep and is often well-manicured, and the risks are relatively low. For extreme skiers, testing their expert abilities against ever more challenging terrain, the risks may be much higher.



Alpine skier running a downhill course

 Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is also called downhill skiing. Typically downhill skiing takes place at a ski resort with specified ski pistes or ski runs. Ski resorts that offer downhill skiing exist all over the world in cold climate areas. Non-competitive alpine skiing is recreational skiing. Also in the category of Alpine skiing are the Alpine competitions known as slalom, giant-slalom, and down-hill. Recently a new category, called super-giant-slalom was added.

Aerial freestyle

Alpine Freestyle: This kind of skiing employs the use of aerial acrobatics and balance, balance being necessary for rails. The use of rails is known as grinding or jibbing. Alpine freestyle was pioneered by Stein Eriksen in 1962. It developed in the 1970s into a style called Hotdogging. In this type of skiing, skiers use jumps (also called kickers or launches) or rails to do aerial tricks. These tricks are reinvented and progressed in technique and style every day.

Freestyle/Newschool: Freestyle skiing is the type of skiing with which tricks are usually associated. The skis used are generally of a twin tip design, made to land switch tricks (backwards) as easily as forwards. Tricks are generally spins and flips, that can be conjoined with a grabbing of the ski to improve the image of the trick. Freestyle skiing generally takes place in terrain parks at ski resorts, with a wide variety of jumps, rails, jibs and other features to session. Mogul skiing is also considered as freestyle skiing.

Freeskiing/Freeride: Related to freestyle skiing in nature is freeriding, which involves taking the tricks done in the park to the rest of the mountain and the backcountry. Thus, fatter skis may be used to float on top of the powder. Freeriding often involves steeps, cliffs, powder, glades, and other epic runs. In part due to the growing popularity of freestyle skiing in recent years and the obvious limitations in that aspect of the sport, freeride skiing has also been growing in popularity in recent years as more and more skiers have access to good backcountry gear and skis.

A ski jumper using the V-style near
Calgary, Canada.

Nordic Skiing: Also called Cross-country skiing or Cross-country racing. Takes its name from a type of ski race that is one third up, one third down, and one third flat. The name distinguishes it from other types of ski races and competition such as downhill racing, slalom racing, and Nordic jumping. Cross-country races can be either freestyle or classic. In freestyle racing, any technique is allowed as long as it is human powered and on skis. In a classic race, skating techniques are prohibited. World wide, Nordic skiing may be the most popular form of skiing since it does not require a specialty ski area. Typically after donning appropriate clothing, the skier goes outside and skis in a local park or even on a snowy street. Nordic skiing is the oldest form of skiing and was developed in Scandinavia as a way of travelling in the winter.

Nordic Jumping: Also called ski-flying and ski jumping. A competition in which skiers slide down a ramp called a jump and attempt to go the furthest before landing on the ground. This is done with Nordic style skis, meaning that the heels of boot and binding are detached from the ski. The skis are much longer and wider than other types of skis and jumping is typically done without ski-poles. Telemark skiing.

Military skiing
Military Skiing: In addition to its role in recreation and sport, skiing is also used as a means of transport by the military, and many armies train troops for ski warfare. Ski troops played a key role in retaining Finnish independence from Russia during the Winter War, and from Germany during the Lapland War, although the use of ski troops was recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century. The sport of Biathlon was developed from military skiing patrols.

Skiing for people with disabilities

Skiing for people with disabilities became popular after World War II with the return of injured
veterans. It is both a recreational pastime and a competitive sport open to those with any manner of cognitive and/or physical disabilities. Adaptations include the use of outriggers, ski tip retention devices, sit-skis like monoskis and bi-skis, brightly colored guide bibs, ski guides, and inter-skier communication systems or audible clues for blind skiers. A guide skier can assist the sit-skier from behind, this is known as "bucketing".
Recreational skiing programs for people with disabilities exist at mountains across the globe.

Currently the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Ski Federation (FIS) sanction a number of regional, national, and international disabled skiing events, most notably a World Cup circuit, a Disabled Alpine Skiing World Championships, and the Paralympic Winter Games. One of the strongest disabled programs is the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, organized by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the U.S. Ski Team.

Snowboard

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A. in the 1960s and the 1970s and became a Winter Olympic Sport in 1998.

Free-riding

The free-ride style is the most common and easily accessible style of snowboarding. It consists of riding down any terrain available, but most often consists of groomed runs. Free-riding may include aerial tricks and jib (any type of fixture which can be ridden with the board that is not snow) tricks borrowed from freestyle, or deep carve turns more common in alpine snowboarding, utilizing whatever natural terrain the rider may encounter. Free-ride aptitude is the first step to accessing other, more difficult forms of snowboarding terrain such as freestyle (tricks), alpine, back country, and gladed terrain.
Free-riding equipment is usually a stiffer boot with a directional snowboard: since the free-ride style may encounter many different types of snow conditions, such as ice and deep powder, a medium-stiffness setup is recommended to maintain stability in deeper snow or at higher speeds.

Freestyles

In freestyle, the rider uses man-made terrain features such as rails, jumps, boxes, and innumerable other innovative features to perform tricks on. The term "box" refers to an object with a slick top, usually of polyethylene(HDPE), that the rider can slide on with the base of their board. Like all freestyle features, boxes come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and difficulty levels. The intent of freestyle is to use these terrain features to perform a number of aerial or jib tricks. The term "jib" refers to the rider doing a slide or press on an object not made of snow. This most commonly refers to tricks done on boxes, rails, or even trees.

The equipment used in freestyle is usually a soft boot with a twin tipped board for better balance while riding regular or switch, though free-ride equipment is often used successfully. The most common binding stance used in freestyle is called "duck foot", in which the trailing foot has a negative degree of arc setup while the leading foot is in the positive range i.e. +12°/-9°. Freestyle riders who specialize in jibbing often use boards that are shorter than usual, with softer flex and filed down edges. Shorter length enables the board to be rotated faster, and a softer flex requires less energy for a rider to press a feature. Reverse camber boards, or better known as rocker boards, are most often used as freestyle boards due to their softer flex and inverted 'camber' design. Pressing refers to a type of jib where the rider leans heavily toward the nose or tail of their board- causing the opposite end of their board to lift off of the feature they are sliding on. This trick is typically done for added style. Freestyle also includes halfpipe tricks. A halfpipe (or "pipe") is a trench-like half-tube made of snow. Tricks performed may be rotations such as a 360° (a full turn) in the air, or an off-axis spin like a "McTwist". Tricks can be modified while hitting different features.

Free-carve

Similar to skiing, this race and slalom focused style is still practiced, though infrequently. Sometimes called alpine snowboarding, or the 'euro-carve', free-carving takes place on hard packed snow or groomed runs and focuses on the ultimate carving turn, much like traditional skiing. Little or no jumping takes place in this discipline. Free-carve equipment is a ski-like hardshell boot and plate binding system with a true directional snowboard that is usually very stiff and narrow to facilitate fast and responsive turns. Shaped-skis can thank these "free-carve" snowboards for the cutting-edge technology leading to their creation.

Stance and balance

How to maintain body balance is the key point of this skill. It is critical for any snowboarder to keep his or her body on the center of the board. After the rider is well aware of his or her body balance, he or she can perform various tricks by moving the balance. Riders can improve this skill by doing exercises like hopping between each turn, or switch riding.

When first starting out, it is important to determine a rider's stance. The two types are "regular" (left foot forward), or "goofy" (right foot forward). Once a rider is more advanced, they may learn to ride "switch". This is done by riding with the opposite stance than they learned from. A regular rider switches to goofy, while a goofy rider switches to regular. This is done mostly in terrain park in preparing and/or landing spins.

Stance width is the distance between the center of the front and back binding. To ride comfortably, a rider must get the width correct. It is almost entirely reliant on the rider's height, but can easily be altered for different terrains.

A forward stance is used mostly for beginners and all-mountain riders. The common degrees are +20˚/+6˚. Duck stance is used mostly for freestyle riders. The common degrees are at +15˚/-15˚ (mirrored).