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How did rails come about in skiing?

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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
To all the people who ski on them and enjoy them, how did sliding these long pieces of metal come about in skiing or snowboarding?
Dec 6 2007 7:45PM
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jason...
Posts: 9006 - Karma: 780
call me a noob but i also dont know
Dec 6 2007 7:48PM
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SkierX
Posts: 16253 - Karma: 538
My guess is the idea came from the influence from skateboarding...

That's just a complete guess though.
Dec 6 2007 7:49PM
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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
yeah but for skaters it was a way to get around without having to walk down stairs, just slide the rail down...it's not like we ski around town.
Dec 6 2007 7:50PM
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skiP.E.I.
Posts: 7605 - Karma: 20,103

My thought is, urban rails have their origin in skateboarding, so sometime or another, snowboarders realized they could have fun on urban rails with their snowboards. They liked Urban rails so much, they wanted to bring them onto the mountain, so they could hit them up on a regular day as well as urban missions. Of course, many skiers are also skateboarders and would also have realized teh potential of rails to be a good time sliding on skis. When rails started showing up in 'snowboard parks' of course skiers would hit them too.

Dec 6 2007 7:51PM
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-Kieran-
Posts: 1009 - Karma: 12
i heard that snowboards stared seeing scateboarders always doing it so they decided it looked cool so before freestyle skiing became into the picture it was just snowboarder in the park doing rails and when newschooling started getting popular then they started doing rails too 
Dec 6 2007 8:06PM
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snarky
Posts: 498 - Karma: 13
I kinda feel that it was snowboard influenced, when it became popular they were trying to ride everything. log rides probably progressed to the more durable, less edge-catching metal rails.
Dec 6 2007 8:15PM
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TheQuailman
Posts: 7381 - Karma: 144
I always awesomed that skateboarders did it, then snowboarders put rails on snow and did it, then skiers took it from snowboarders.

But the idea that snowboarders rode on logs, then made less-catching metal rails, then skiers took it is very likely too
Dec 6 2007 8:19PM
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*DrewT*
Posts: 7768 - Karma: 480
I'm sorry but that was one of the stupider things I've heard all day
Dec 6 2007 8:20PM
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MadSteezin
Posts: 4572 - Karma: 936
Think about it, freestyle skiing came into place after Mike Douglas and others decided to mess around in the snowboard park after training for moguls or w/e they did. So basically we got it from the snowboarders. Watch Salomon TV episode 2 or 3 and you'll understand.
Dec 6 2007 8:20PM
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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
Originally, it was. After the ollie was invented all sorts of ways of transportation on a board were available.
Dec 6 2007 8:30PM
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P3TER
Posts: 972 - Karma: 438
After the ollie was invented, new tricks started popping up everywhere, like flip tricks, and jumping(ollieing) onto anything skaters could find . then skaters realized they could land on an obstacle and slide/grind on it just like the way they slid on coping of ramps and pools. Eventually this progressed into sliding bigger and bigger rails and ledges, then someone realized they could jump onto a handrail and grind it. Many years later when freestyle snowboarding came around skateboarding had  a big influence on it. So the snowboarders started grinding and sliding rails too, and then the salomon team kinda invented freestyle skiing and we were influenced by the snowboarders to start sliding rails with mad steez yo... the end
Dec 6 2007 9:41PM
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pfutz
Posts: 174 - Karma: 10
This isnt true. 

Skateboarders rode pools, hit the coping. 

That translated to rails

skaters started being snowboarders

started hitting rails in their backyards or wherever  on their boards

Rails finally showed up in the park

Skiers started riding the park, 

Skiers started hitting the rails. 
Dec 6 2007 9:44PM
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solitaryman
Posts: 3578 - Karma: 123
what?
Dec 6 2007 9:49PM
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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
well I feel retarded now haha I thought for sure...maybe I'm the only one who skated for transport purposes and since I couldn't ollie high, I just slid a rail down to the bottom of the steps. But I've quit. So yeah.
Dec 6 2007 10:08PM
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artfullydodged
Posts: 8358 - Karma: 1,674
BOREDOM
Dec 6 2007 10:23PM
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Roussel
Posts: 686 - Karma: 41
it traces back to skateboarding.

people would slide on the edge of the pools and bowls they would ride. then they started translating this onto other objects like curbs and ledges,. when the ollie was invented the possibilities became endless (hence hand rails).

a few years later, but around the same time, BMX and inline skating started to replicated that as well.

with snowboarding having a big skateboard influence they started doing it on snow, and when the newschooler movement started skiers started doing slides as well.
Dec 6 2007 11:40PM
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Gnarshred
Posts: 5670 - Karma: 18
Perhaps the better question is, Which came first, urban grinding or park grinding or log grinding

On snowboards I mean,

Then skiers stole it and we don't appreciate the rails as much or have as much fun on them.
Dec 6 2007 11:54PM
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ride-rider
Posts: 1761 - Karma: 20
snowboarders stole the idea from skaters than skiers joined in.
Dec 7 2007 12:06AM
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joly.sp
Posts: 2305 - Karma: 585
I think that snowboarding was influenced by skating and then when rails/boxes showed up in parks skiers said "why not" and thats why we do them now?
Dec 7 2007 12:07AM
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*DrewT*
Posts: 7768 - Karma: 480
I would have to say grinding rails is quite possibly the worst mode of transportation I've ever heard of
Dec 7 2007 12:13AM
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Maximumsushi
Posts: 7837 - Karma: 3,347
The first park to have rails and jibs was Bear Mountain, California, way back in 91 or 92. At first, it was essentially just junk setup that was jibable. Things like fridges and pipes. It took a few years before it began catching on and rails started popping up in the Bear junkyard for people to jib. From there, it spread to other hills in the area. I think that log jibs would have started showing up in Colorado around that period of time, maybe a season or so afterwards.

The first time people started sliding rails on skis would have been around the time the PBP movie Degenerates was being filmed. The first guy I think that I saw sliding rails was JF Cusson, this would have been a few years before I had my first pair of twins.
Dec 7 2007 11:10AM
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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
well as you see I have been successfully dominated.
Dec 7 2007 11:31AM
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holyDINOSAURS
Posts: 7038 - Karma: 639
Mike D does an urban rail as late as Happy Dayz in his segment. Skogen was doing urban early on skis, mike nick was doing it on snowblades...this is back in like 2000
Dec 7 2007 11:59AM
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lepp0012
Posts: 482 - Karma: 39
The first ever handrail on a skateboard was done by Natas Kaupus in a comp in 1986. I don't think he landed it, but it nevertheless gave people a whole new idea of what was possible.
Dec 7 2007 12:44PM
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eheath
Posts: 61110 - Karma: 118,307
Snooowwbooaardding.
Dec 7 2007 12:51PM
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sdfjklioeur
Posts: 2082 - Karma: 114
skateboarding...
this is kinda a stupid question...
Dec 7 2007 1:39PM
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treejib_pow
Posts: 67 - Karma: 10
your a genius
Dec 7 2007 1:57PM
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Max-Steeze
Posts: 448 - Karma: 171
yup this guy is right about that
Dec 7 2007 8:42PM
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gfanuckaa
Posts: 536 - Karma: 314
skiers ripped snowbladers, in particular sled doggers
Dec 7 2007 9:29PM
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spwrozek
Posts: 184 - Karma: 10
Craig Kelly started what we all know as jibbing, he coined the word too.  He took it all from skating though.  That was the influence. 
Dec 8 2007 12:00AM
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Roussel
Posts: 686 - Karma: 41
dude, peopel were doind slides and grind on skiboard way before JF cusson.

newschoolers need to stop denying their skiboard roots. skiboarding had a big part in the evolution of freeskiing.
Dec 8 2007 12:36AM
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Peach.
Posts: 3879 - Karma: 933
DUDE HOLD MY BEER I HAVE AN IDEA...
Dec 9 2007 12:05AM
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