History of Freestyle skiing

I'm writing a similar paper too. The evolution of skiing really goes back to the 80s and 90s when guys like Scott Schmidt, Robb Gaffney, Glenn plake, Tom Jungst and Shane McConkey began progressing the sport by skiing big lines and starting to get some serious air time. These were the first dudes to start doing tricks and skiing big lines that would eventually progress to what it is now.

Skateboarding influenced snowboarding, and skate parks influence terrain parks for snowboarders, eventually skiing caught on that train and started doing what the snowboarders were doing in the park.

^more like skiers started doing spins, flips, grabs, flatground, etc. in the 70s, then FIS took a big dump on it, then throughout the 80s and 90s people started to bring freeskiing back but the ski industry didnt give a shit about them until snowboarding made it cool again in the late 90s

a_burger^more like skiers started doing spins, flips, grabs, flatground, etc. in the 70s, then FIS took a big dump on it, then throughout the 80s and 90s people started to bring freeskiing back but the ski industry didnt give a shit about them until snowboarding made it cool again in the late 90s

Yes that's true, but the rails and park features first started with snowboarders. Im talking about park it's self. Your right ski jumping in BC and mogal flips came way before snowboarding.

Ski boards and ski blades

csdavidson18I'm writing a similar paper too. The evolution of skiing really goes back to the 80s and 90s when guys like Scott Schmidt, Robb Gaffney, Glenn plake, Tom Jungst and Shane McConkey began progressing the sport by skiing big lines and starting to get some serious air time. These were the first dudes to start doing tricks and skiing big lines that would eventually progress to what it is now.

ya'll need to read up on people like Wayne Wong and hot dog skiing

found it again. mandatory watching for people writing papers on freeskiing. Skiing isn't the height of what they were doing, but listen to what they say. Freestyle skiing is nothing new and what it represents is nothing new either.

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/hot-dog-skiers-let-it-all-hang-out

Thank you guys for all the responses!

csdavidson18I'm writing a similar paper too. The evolution of skiing really goes back to the 80s and 90s when guys like Scott Schmidt, Robb Gaffney, Glenn plake, Tom Jungst and Shane McConkey began progressing the sport by skiing big lines and starting to get some serious air time. These were the first dudes to start doing tricks and skiing big lines that would eventually progress to what it is now.

The true pioneers of Extream Skiing are the Europeans – Sylvain Saudan, Jean-Marc Boivin, Anselme Baud, Toni Valeruz, Patrick Vallencant and Stefano De Benedetti.

And

Bill Briggs pioneered Extream Skiing in North America.

By the early 90s, Plake and Scott Schmidt were on their way out as snowboarding took shape and became associated with the youth movement.

So it wasn't until later in the decade that two strains of freeskiing started forming. The first, big-mountain skiing, started in the mid-90s with Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Kent Kreitler, Jimbo Morgan, Dave Swanwick, Jeremy Nobis, The Gaffneys, Wendy Fisher, etc. They were skiing the extreme comps in Crested Butte and AK, and slowly getting around to shaped skis and fat skis (late 90s). Aside from Warren Miller who was far and away the biggest film company, TGR, MSP and Scott Gaffney were really the only dudes making movies for the most part. It was mostly all big-mountain, powder and cliff-hucking. Sprinkle in a few backflips from Shane here and there.

Coming out of the mogul scene around 1997, skiers started spinning, flipping and grabbing. Watch Scott Gaffney's movie that came out in 1997 (it may be called BREATHE), and you'll see Jonny Moseley doing 1080 mute grabs, backflips and McTwists in the halfpipe at Squaw Valley. Squaw was USA's ground zero for modern newschool skiing. Shane Anderson, Evan Raps, CR Johnson and Skogen Sprang were the Americans pushing modern twintip skiing at Squaw around 1998 and 1999.

At the same, 97/98-ish, up in Canada, JF Cusson, JP Auclair, Vincent Dorion, Mike Douglas, and Shane Szocs started filming with Johnny Decesare's Poor Boyz Productions, and all those dudes were on the Canadian Ski Team and skiing world cup moguls. (Frenchman and World Cup mogul skier, Julien Regnier-Laffourge, was also spinning and grabbing - he also did a 360 w/mute grab at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.) It wasn't until 1998 that Salomon put out the first true twin-tip, full-length ski, the TenEighty.

Even though Jonny Moseley essentially blew the ski world's mind by throwing the 360 mute during his gold-medal run in the '98 Olympics - it was the shot heard round the world - JP, JF and Vinnie ushered in the true newschool ski movement with their punk attitude, style ad Salomon 1080, which allowed them to take off and land backwards. Despite Moseley's talent, which was undeniable, his image was really cleancut - The New Canadian Air Force pretty much had the monopoly on the youth movement: they were young and fucking cool.

And boom - there you go - fucking freeskiing. Newschool skiing. In 1999 Philou Poirier won the US Open Big Air with a switch backlfip. In 2000 Candide Thovex spun a D-Spin over Chad's Gap. In 2001 Tanner Hall set the world on fire and dominated every single competition out there with switch rodeo 720. I think it was 2003 that CR Johnson and Candide fucking boosted out of the pipe and finally showed the world that skiers could actually go huge. Around that same time, Dave Crichton was slaying the urban jib scene with Level 1 Productions. Then by the mid-2000s, Jon Olsson and Mike Wilson started doing double corks, and there ya go.

I forgot to mention Brad Holmes - he was apart of that mid/late 90s Squaw Valley ski scene.

https://vimeo.com/14951104

You should really watch this if you have 45 minutes. I don't see this ever mentioned on this site, but this is really a great flick. Lots of references to the earlier days of freeskiing, and I think that you'll really respect Simon Dumont and all that he did after watching.

Tanner hall, jonny moseley, T.J. Schiller, tom wallisch, jon olsson J.P auclair, henrik haurlet, and warren Miller. Just to name a few

Park_Rangerhttps://vimeo.com/14951104

You should really watch this if you have 45 minutes. I don't see this ever mentioned on this site, but this is really a great flick. Lots of references to the earlier days of freeskiing, and I think that you'll really respect Simon Dumont and all that he did after watching.

Quoting for emphasis. Be sure to watch OP

codizzleBy the early 90s, Plake and Scott Schmidt were on their way out as snowboarding took shape and became associated with the youth movement.

So it wasn't until later in the decade that two strains of freeskiing started forming. The first, big-mountain skiing, started in the mid-90s with Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Kent Kreitler, Jimbo Morgan, Dave Swanwick, Jeremy Nobis, The Gaffneys, Wendy Fisher, etc. They were skiing the extreme comps in Crested Butte and AK, and slowly getting around to shaped skis and fat skis (late 90s). Aside from Warren Miller who was far and away the biggest film company, TGR, MSP and Scott Gaffney were really the only dudes making movies for the most part. It was mostly all big-mountain, powder and cliff-hucking. Sprinkle in a few backflips from Shane here and there.

Coming out of the mogul scene around 1997, skiers started spinning, flipping and grabbing. Watch Scott Gaffney's movie that came out in 1997 (it may be called BREATHE), and you'll see Jonny Moseley doing 1080 mute grabs, backflips and McTwists in the halfpipe at Squaw Valley. Squaw was USA's ground zero for modern newschool skiing. Shane Anderson, Evan Raps, CR Johnson and Skogen Sprang were the Americans pushing modern twintip skiing at Squaw around 1998 and 1999.

At the same, 97/98-ish, up in Canada, JF Cusson, JP Auclair, Vincent Dorion, Mike Douglas, and Shane Szocs started filming with Johnny Decesare's Poor Boyz Productions, and all those dudes were on the Canadian Ski Team and skiing world cup moguls. (Frenchman and World Cup mogul skier, Julien Regnier-Laffourge, was also spinning and grabbing - he also did a 360 w/mute grab at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.) It wasn't until 1998 that Salomon put out the first true twin-tip, full-length ski, the TenEighty.

Even though Jonny Moseley essentially blew the ski world's mind by throwing the 360 mute during his gold-medal run in the '98 Olympics - it was the shot heard round the world - JP, JF and Vinnie ushered in the true newschool ski movement with their punk attitude, style ad Salomon 1080, which allowed them to take off and land backwards. Despite Moseley's talent, which was undeniable, his image was really cleancut - The New Canadian Air Force pretty much had the monopoly on the youth movement: they were young and fucking cool.

And boom - there you go - fucking freeskiing. Newschool skiing. In 1999 Philou Poirier won the US Open Big Air with a switch backlfip. In 2000 Candide Thovex spun a D-Spin over Chad's Gap. In 2001 Tanner Hall set the world on fire and dominated every single competition out there with switch rodeo 720. I think it was 2003 that CR Johnson and Candide fucking boosted out of the pipe and finally showed the world that skiers could actually go huge. Around that same time, Dave Crichton was slaying the urban jib scene with Level 1 Productions. Then by the mid-2000s, Jon Olsson and Mike Wilson started doing double corks, and there ya go.

Great post

And I forgot to mention some OG mid-90s big-mountain skiers like Doug Coombs, Dean Cumming and The Deslauriers Bros. They were all certainly apart of that first wave, mos def.

codizzleSo it wasn't until later in the decade that two strains of freeskiing started forming. The first, big-mountain skiing, started in the mid-90s with Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Kent Kreitler, Jimbo Morgan, Dave Swanwick, Jeremy Nobis, The Gaffneys, Wendy Fisher, etc.

Doug Coombs, David Craft, Scot Schmidt, Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey and Glen Plake (the extreme-6) popularized big mountain skiing in North America in the 1990s.

But it was the Europeans who further developed big mountain skiing and brought notoriety to the sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Sylvain Saudan, Jean-Marc Boivin, Anselme Baud, Toni Valeruz, Patrick Vallencant and Stefano De Benedetti they were the ones that opened the doors to the impossible.