Freestyle Skiing

Flying with skis.

This is the basic concept of freestyle skiing.  People who do freestyle skiing try their best to be on the air for the longest time and during that time, they try to do as much stunts or tricks as they can.

The rush of adrenalin you get from doing the stunts as you are whizzing through the air is fair exchange for all the efforts you will have to exert in order to indulge in this skiing disciple.  Not only should you know how to ski, you should also know how to do stunts such as 180 to 360-degree spins, off-axis fronts and back flips.  Other tricks include the backwards landing switch, helicopters, extensions and grabs.

Freestyle skiing started around the 1930s, and took inception in Norway, where the skiers tried doing stunts while completing their cross-country and alpine training.  The enthusiasts who made this discipline more popular include Seth Morison, Trevor Peterson, Kristen Ulmer and Wendy Fisher.  These are known to zip down slopes that have an incline of some 50 degrees.

Freestyle skiing events are as follows:

1.    Aerials: This is simple an awesome sight.  Imagine skiers doing flips with as many as four twists, a variety of aerial stunts as well as a well-executed landing.  It is sure to elicit a wow!  A word of warning, though.  Do not try this at home!

2.    Acro: With this, skiers are made to perform a routine as they ski down the trail.  The routine is comprised of acrobatic moves such as somersaults and spins.

3.    Big Air: This is a further development to the aerials.  Adding to the excitement is the fact that the two forms of aerials – the inverted and the uprights – are required in this event.  Jumps and maneuvers include misty flips, quarter pipes, twists and spins, table tops, floaters and rodeos.  This is so fascinating to watch.

4.    Moguls:  In a nutshell, this is about speed and style. On a steep trail, skiers are judged according to the speed and grace by which they negotiate the slope, as well as two upright jumps (basically inverted jumps and off axis jumps).  The moguls are actually bumps that the skiers have to deal with.  The mogul is the first event in freestyle skiing that is awarded an Olympic medal.  Skiers’ scores are based on how they performed their takeoffs, jumps and landings.

5.    Dual moguls: this is the moguls times two.  Two skiers go head to head as they simultaneously compete on parallel mogul courses.

Other freestyling events and forms also make use of the skercross, halfpipe and slopestyle, which are primarily maneuvers used in snowboarding.