New School Skiing

New school skiing makes the best out of the “free” in freestyle skiing. It does away with the conventional ideas about the need for aerials and moguls. It is mostly about doing a variety of tricks and stunts while careening down a slope. New School skiing started out as some skiers’ response to all the rules and regulations that restricted freestyle skiers from doing what they wanted. Back then, the Federation International of Skiing (FIS) had set rules and boundaries to freestyle skiing as a sport. It declared that the competitor should not perform tricks during mogul runs and only allowed a limited number of flips in aerial competitions. Some skiers were unhappy with these regulations and wanted more avenues where they can show their creativity and freedom. Thus, one can say that the new school movement in skiing was a breakaway group of freestyle skiers who did not want to abide by FIS regulations. The first new school skiers discovered that they can do a lot more stunts and tricks if they use the terrain parks previously dedicated to the snowboarders. During that time, the ski resorts’ snowboard-only terrains were equipped with all kinds of devices for stunts – halfpipes, rails, jumps, fun moxes and hips.

The skis used for new school skiing is called the twin-tip skis. They are turned up not just at the front but also at the back so that you can ski forward and backwards. The terrain used for new school skiing includes step up jumps (jumps where there are higher landings than takeoffs), stepdown jumps (jumps where there are lower landings than takeoffs), gaps (a big gap exists between the take off point and the landing) and other devices such as boxes, rails, walls and jibs. In addition, new school skiing makes use of hip jumps (where the landing is on the take off side), tabletop jumps (which is a trapezoid shape device that allows you to take up at the starting point, soar through the air and then land on a downward slope), and the spine, where the landing is on both sides of the take off. Again, it must be emphasized that this skiing discipline can only be indulged in by the more expert skiers. The risk of injury by making all those jumps and aerial maneuvers is, of course, substantial, when compared to skiing on a normal slope. Proper equipment should also be used. Aside from the twin-tip skis, you should have all the equipment that will ensure you safety even as you have, we dare say, the greatest fun of your life.